First night hammocking!

As I said I bought a speer hammock and tonight I set it up down near the local river. How am I getting Internet? My friend has an Iphone
Anyway I set up the hammock in a less than perfect spot. The distance between the trees is about 10 feet. I noticed that I have a spot of hammock material that is fairly tight and forces my legs to one side or the other. This might be normal but I was wondering if there was anything l could do to prevent this? So far that's my only question.
It so dame comfyin here. I am sleeping on a blue foam pad with a 38 degree bag. I am not a fanof the pads, sliding around and stuff, but I'll try and make a pocket to keep the pad in. I could splerg and get an uq, I'll try tinkering with this pad idea first.
The fire is going, smoke rising, good friends around... Life is about hangin loose and relaxing. Any way night night!

Sleep slightly on the diagonal. Find a way to hang the pad or a piece of nylon ground cloth on the outside of the hammock underneath you. Pads inside your hammock will just continue to slip out from underneath you. A pad wider than 20" might work, but in general you do not need a pad with a hammock.

Remember that you can use your hammock as a chair to lounge in around camp.

Try to get trees about 12-15 feet apart, and get the ropes/straps at about a 30 degree angle from the hammock ends.

The taut ridge you describe is common to gathered end hammocks. Putting your feet to one side or the other and your head toward the other on the diagonal, and using a stuff sack as a knee pillow helps, as does getting the "hang" of finding the right amount of sag for your hammock.

Foam pads can be tricky. some like to make a hammock sleeve out of a neat sheet or nylon, and some silicon seam sealer dotted/streaked on the bottom of the pad will help keep it from slipping around. As will finding adequate sag to lay flat on the diagonal.

Check out hammockforums.net for tons more suggestions on this....

Don't do it. The bears will think you're a burrito and snack at will. Arrrrrgh!

Or...have a great time, and know you've been ruined from ever again having a comfortable night on the ground.

Cheers,

Rick

Man it was a cold jump into the river!
Yeah as the night went on and i woke up to adjust the pad I got to thinking of different ways to keep the pad from moving around. The seam sealer sounds like a good jumping off point. The sides of my body got cold from the tops of the shoulders to my hips. Making a pad extender is now on the top of my list.
I also didnt think my head would get cold but ill bring something for a pillow, like an extra shirt into a stuff sack.
The tight fabric wasn't even a problem.
When cash comes around i think an UQ will be nice. Cant decide on what brand.
Only bad new for the night was that my fishing pole was gone!
Ill have to jump on hammock forums too

regarding the pad extender and so forth - have you checked out risk's site? he's got a lot of cold weather hammock experiments on there. one thing he like was taking the cheap target blue closed cell pad, cutting it in half, and then turning the two halves sideways and overlapped. read for details:
http://www.imrisk.com/overlappad/overlap.htm

Yeah that seems like a good idea, kinda what I has in mind. We hung out atthe camp sit all day, only walking back into town to get food and the rifles. Shot a few squirels too, gonna camp out tonight again, got a wool blanket to sleep on top of, food for tonight but not on a hike.

Bushman,
Welcome to the 'darkside'! Ha!
Or as we in the hangin crowd say, the 'enlightened' ones.
I'm just kidding guys, so all tenters don't start throwing stones. HYOH or SIWYP (Sleep in what you prefer).

10ft apart is probably not enough. As Lori said, 12-15ft is better. I try for 5-7 paces (about a 32in stride), so you just have to figure out what works best for you.

I have a double layer hammock so don't have the sliding, pad issue.
One of my other hammocks is single layer and I have a neat sheet sleeve that I can slide a pad into and either suspend under the hammock, attach with safety pins, or place inside the hammock.

T

Tango that sounds what i need to make. Where might I find these neat sheets?
I am up at my dads now at about 4000feet. Tonight it is going to be in the 40's, and i have made the wing parts of thr pad, i duct taped them on ha ha.
Yeah i hung the hammock in a much wider set of trees and it much much better.

Consider a Speer segmented pad extender ( SPE ). It can help extend padding or exra clothes to the sides so your shoulders/arms/hips have insulation also. Or invest in an underquilt. I find it more comfortable than a pad.

Last night I learned a few leasons...
1. Condensation!
2. Not to use a z-lite pad...
3. I need to get an underquilt

I camped down to 40*, but i was using a z-lite and 20*
bag...over kill. Oh yeah i was wearing full smart wool base layers too... To sum it up i was covered in sweat.
No to think which under quilt to get. Has anyone used a Jacks-R-Better on a speer or how about a yeti?
Thanks

Geez, 40 degrees I do without an underquilt all the time. It's rare for my nighttime temps in the mountains to be *above* that.

Some thoughts for you, compared to what I do..

1) I use a 27 inch wide blue foam pad in the hammock - much wider than a standard pad. (segmented pad extenders or the like would also work well)

2) I usually wear a 100 wt fleece into the hammock with me at bedtime, along with a toque (fleece hat)

3) I normally rig my ID silponcho (5x8 silnylon poncho with shockcord on the bottom) as a windblock/insulation taco under my hammock bottom. At 40F, this alone is enough for me with the pad. just the poncho providing some air gap and windblock works. below that I stuff something into it between the poncho and the hammock bottom (rain jacket, folded space blankets, etc) - colder yet I give up and put insulation in it, or even a full blown sleeping bag.

I was down to -14C this weekend (personal hammock record) with a sleeping bag between the poncho and the hammock bottom - yes that's basically an underquilt... (I also had the pad in the hammock)

Do of course bear in mind - try it. Everyone sleeps different, some warmer and colder than others.

Yeah i used a z-lite...not the best in a hammock, i had better luck with the walmart blue foam. The wind block taco sound like a sound idea. I pitched the tarp above very low because i thought it was going to be windy, but it ended up cause the major condensatoin issue. Throwing insulation into the taco sounds like i can get more multi use out of items i have, which is what i try to do. Regardless of what i do a pad of some kinda needs to be in my pack because its the back support.

Man -14C i cant imagine, but if i want to thru hike with a hammock i better be ready. Ill have to do some winter hammocking to prepare.

Did you have condensation on the hammock, or just on the underside of the tarp?



I don't think you would have to go that cold. I seriously doubt you could find anything on the pct (was that your plan?) during the normal thru-hiking season that would hit that cold.

Bear in mind as well, at that -14C I am NOT carrying my usual "backpacking" hammock rig in terms of clothing, and in terms of insulation. I carried an entire second sleeping bag to go in the "taco", and I was wearing a lot more clothing than I normally carry (200wt fleece, extra merino, heavy longjohns). That -14 was also *colder* than I was expecting - although I was fine were I planning for that I'd have had a little more with me.

Ha ha i just put -14 into converter and no, i dont think it will get that low.
Yea the PCT is what i plan on doing this coming summer. It would be wicked to hammock it, but i may just stick to the poncho tarp. Who knows maybe ill work out all the kinks.

Condensation was everywhere, tarp, hammock, sleeping bag, but most was from sweating and such. Drying out my gear now.

Oh yes, is it bad to "stuff" the tarp back into the bag or should i be folding it?

Dry is important, fold or stuff is not.

Was phat speaking Canadian again? All those metrics . . .

Hey Bushman. I received my 1st hammock last week along with a Yeti UQ and gave it a test run last weekend in my yard. I slept a little warm because I used a heavy bag as a TQ. It only got into the 50's but I didn't have any condensation problems. In fact, you don't even know the UQ is there. The Yeti weighs 12.5 oz.

Yeah, sadly my funds have been drained because i needed to buy new snow tires

I have only spent on more night in the hammock and that was only a 55 degree night and instead of using an under quilt i used a wool blanket. It work, just not backpacker friendly.

Plus need to save cash for the ski season, backcountry skiing sometimes isn't gas friendly.

Now that the unbearable summer heat has dissipated, we've gone camping the last two months. September was still quite warm but this past weekend was perfect here in Deep East Texas.

I use a Claytor Jungle hammock and my son uses a no-name top loader. In September, I used a ccf pad in a neat sheet and a Sportsman's Guide 50F bag as a top quilt. My son used just a fleece blanket and got a little cool. Temps were in the mid 60's.

This past weekend, the temps got down into the mid 40's on Friday night and mid 40's with wind on Saturday night.
I used an Exped downmat 7 and a RayWay quilt (alpine upgrade). I also slept in warm-up pants, t-shirt, fleece pullover,socks. I stayed quite warm.

My son used a 3/8in (5mm?) ccf pad slipped inside a neatsheet sleeve (to reduce condensation) and his NF Cats Meow sleeping bag (no warm clothing). He sleeps hot and said he was fine.
(I swear I'm going to use on of those infrared thermometer guns on him and see how much heat he puts off when sleeping.)

Cat cut tarps over both.
Here are some pic's. Enjoy. Questions welcomed.
Looking forward to even cooler night time temps. I will be making an underquilt this winter.

http://tango61.shutterfly.com/185

I some what had the same problem when I first started using a hammock, because I used a closed cell foam pad, but I easily solved it by purchasing a Big Agnes air core insulated pad. It is full length and it is insulated. I had my wife sew a polyester "sleeve" (it weighed around an ounce) into the sleeping portion of my hammock (to avoid the slippage) and it has served me well every since. I just slip the Big Agnes air core pad into the sleeve and "WALLA". Although I do like sleeping in a hammock I do not use it exclusively. The reason for this is that I can get a pretty darn good nights sleep on the ground too with my Big Agnes air core sleeping pad. I do know that it is a little heavier than most pads (around 30 oz.) but I sacrifice weight in other areas than comfort. I guess it just depends on where I am going and how long I intend to stay and what type of terrain I will be trekking on. To each his own, but a hammock is a great way to go...sabre11004...

Just for the record, can you tell everyone what that temp is in Fahrenheit???? Just for every one's information...sabre11004

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=-14+Centigrade+in+fahrenheit

[quote=sabre11004]Just for the record, can you tell everyone what that temp is in Fahrenheit???? /quote]

C° x 1.8 + 32 = F°

Cute site! I love Google Calc, but it failed to produce a meaningful result for "1 bagel in calories". Wolfram Alpha nailed it though.