Hammock vs. Tent ...

[pcrimm]

So, I've been carrying a hennessy hammock in my pillions for 6mos and finally got to test it out at the Blue Ridge Motorcycle Campground last weekend (highly recommend this campground http://www.blueridgemotorcyclecamp.com/ ... Been there 3 times, and will sleep there any time I'm in the area)

Anyway,I was really worried about 2 things:
1) would they let me strap a hammock to "their" trees?
2) how hard/long would it be to setup

Well, turns out the owner knew alot about hammocks and just wanted to make sure I used a "web" to strap to the trees ( which comes standard with Hennessy ), and without even reading the instructions, it only took me 5 minutes to sling my tent!!! Er... I mean Hammock ...

The sleep was fantastic until I got cold, so next time I'm bringing my therma rest ... (heaven knows I have enough room in my "Deauville" ...)

 

[karl]

This may answer some of your questions, enjoy.
[video=youtube_share;1f2Xts3Spsc]http://youtu.be/1f2Xts3Spsc[/video]

[video=youtube_share;jPpndtQKWH4]http://youtu.be/jPpndtQKWH4[/video]

 

[windsinthehills]

My hammock use has mainly been while backpacking. It has been easier for me to find 2 trees the right distance apart than it has been to find ground suitable to pitch a tent. Laying sideways instead of banana-like makes it much more comfortable. An advantage for the older ones among us has been not having to get up and down from ground level. No need to carry a chair when your bed is at the right level for sitting.

 

[pcrimm]

Yep, turns out the hardest choice I had was deciding which of the trees to use. The Hennesy i have has really long draw strings, and I ended up opting to have the river under my butt ... That choice had some trees really far apart, and I was worried, until I threw the straps around the trees.

Now whenever I'm walkRunning through our local Greenway, I can't help but spot all the "spots" ...

 

[karl]

I used a hammock a lot in a past career and always seemed to find something to rig it to and not always a tree. Back packing gear works great for us with the space and weight constraints. The gear has come a long way since the first time I hung my poncho over my sleeping bag with para cord.

 

[Phil Tarman]

The gear has come a long way since the first time I hung my poncho over my sleeping bag with para cord.

LOL! Boy, I'll say! When I was 16, 11 of us went to Philmont Scout Ranch. None of us had tents. Philmont issued us shelter halves and rope to make tents. We had been told that it might rain for 15-20 minutes in the afternoon. The first day on the trail it started raining right after we stopped and got camp set up. It stopped raining six days later. I had an Army surplus mummy bag and was the only person in the whole post whose bag stayed dry for the two weeks. We had ponchos we wore while we were hiking. None of us had dry clothes after the 3rd day. It was miserable. One of those experiences that seems way better in retrospect than it did at the time.

It was made even worse by the fact that one of our guys was a "whiner." Everybody else kept a positve attitude. If he hadn't been whining all the time, we'd have felt better about it while we were doing it.

 

[pcrimm]

(Tarp above the Hammock)
That is why I ended up getting the Hennessy Hammock... It is a fully enclosed camping hammock.

- The Hammock itself is A-Symetrical so your butt to your head is at a higher incline than your legs
- The Top side is mosquito net mesh so you are basically inside a triangle (you enter from a velcro slit in the bottom
- And it also comes with a rain fly than hooks to the main cord on top.

Basically it is a hanging tent ... very Cool!

 

[Phil Tarman]

Sounds like the old Army Surplus Jungle Hammock I had when I was a boy sprout.

 

[RedLdr1]

I can still recall the smell of the old, green canvas.

More like mold, green canvas. Shelter half's, jungle hammocks or GP tents all had that that same smell....just thinking about it brings it back....

 

[Phil Tarman]

Ah, yes. After I slept in the jungle hammock for a couple of years in Florida, I went to Philmont after my sophomore year in High School. There we slept in shelter halves. Plus I had a surplus mummy bag. I don't know if I had the whole "system" or not. I had an itchy-wool inner bag and a nylon outer bag. It was the only sleeping bag in our group that stayed dry the whole time we were at Philmont. It almost kept me warm nearly every night. I was cold a couple of nights when the temperature got down to freezing.

 

[JohnC]

Yep, nothing like the smell of moldy canvas.