New from Tucson

[aboyd]

Welcome from central Alabama.....HOT here also...but starting to see a slight temp drop...actually suppose to see some high 60's at night down here....still upper 90's during the day though.

[CrazyZippo]

Welcome from Indiana

[raiffnuke]

Welcome to HF from Mass.

[dukedante]

Welcome from Gilbert. I like to pitch my tarp nice and high to prevent it from trapping heat too close to the hammock, but provide that needed shade. Also, I try to hang in a breezy area unlike winter campers. Don't hang from a cactus, could you imagin pulling that thing over onto you? They weigh about 100 pounds per foot of height. Plus, their roots are only a foot deep and usually in sand- not the best anchor possible.

[hangin around]

Hey, If we keep finding more people from AZ, we should plan some sort of group hang. That could be fun and although we don't have many trees here in Tucson, there are a lot of great hangin spots.

[SilvrSurfr]

I used to live in Tucson and did a lot of hiking, but not much camping. At first I hiked the usual places like Santa Catalinas, Mt. Lemmon, etc. Then I got really interested in riparian areas and started getting permits to hike on BLM land. Riparian areas have trees, and I'll bet the BLM will let you camp out there as long as you pay a small fee, get a permit, and promise not to steal saguaro ribs or start any fires.

Check out http://www.blm.gov for more info. I googled Tucson BLM camping and first thing I came on was http://www.blm.gov/az/st/en/prog/blm.../ironwood.html

I never heard of the Ironwood Forest National Monument, but an ironwood tree, to my knowledge, is one of the strongest trees around. I broke my prized machete trying to chop down an ironwood tree (stupid idea, but I had never heard of ironwood). Surely they would let you hang from an ironwood tree, unlike a saguaro!

[SilvrSurfr]

Here's a stupid thought. When I used to hike around Tucson, I used to find saguaro ribs, sometimes 12 ft. or longer. They made strong sturdy hiking poles. The rangers didn't mind if you used them for hiking but you weren't allowed to take them home or remove them from their natural habitat.

Maybe you could use the saguaro ribs to make a hammock stand? Looking forward to your DIY video on this!