Hello from north of Boston.

Last month I got it into my head to have my 15 year old twins join me on a hike in the White Mountains of New Hampshire and cap it off with a one night hammock stay. Good plan so far, they are Boy Scouts, they have their own hammocks (though I now know that theirs are too short and too narrow for them), I didn't own a hammock when I hatched the plan. I picked up two cheap Woot specials a couple of weeks ago.

The plan was to do a simple trial run in the woods just beyond my backyard. Temperature was 45 F and we had two layers of camp pads with a reflector in between, sleeping bags as OQ.

We have had a bunch of bear sittings nearby so that was on my mind a bit. Just when we were making final adjustments I heard crunch, crack, crunch, crunch through the brush. This was no raccoon or skunk. The sound grew louder and nearer. And then... I saw flashlights. Whew. My neighbor saw our flashlights behind the house and called the police. "Who are you? I answered. "Where do you live?" I laughed when I told them, "Right here, this is my house." They were relieved to know that we were not up to criminal behavior, hammock hobos, they were amazed that we were planning on hanging from the trees. They were even more relieved when we showed them that they could have walked down our lawn instead of through my neighbor's thorn laden bushes and brush.

Slept great after that. We did a second test down to 20F this past weekend (after I told my neighbor we would be out there again) - stayed plenty warm. My wife even brought us hot chocolates in the morning- nice. Ready for more hammock time.

I have loved learning from the members of this forum, we have been in awe of Shug's videos and where they have led us in knowledge and in spirit.

Cheers!