Blanding High Adventure - Hammock Camping

So I had the option to borrow another leader's hammock for the week, and I'm glad I did!  As it turns out, the rains had a good chance of flooding the tents, but my Hennessey Hammock with a rain fly stayed as dry as can be!  The rain fly kept the hammock dry, and it was up off the ground so the monsoonal rainstorms that came didn't fill it up from the bottom like the tents did.  I put a tarp on the ground below the hammock so that I could have something to stand on to get inside the hammock, and after a big rainstorm I did have to dump some of the water off the tarp - but it dried off pretty quickly.


One of the issues with hammock camping is the fact that your body compresses the insulation beneath you it it looses it's insulating properties.  What does that mean?  It means that you get cold from the bottom up.  While sleeping on the ground you have the same problem, but you are usually sleeping on a pad that insulates you from the ground.  So typically you would use a pad of some type in the hammock as well to insulate your backside from the cold.  I didn't have one with me on this trip, but I was using my -15F mummy bag, so I figured I would be ok.  It was interesting as I was laying there to feel my cold back, and warm everywhere else.  But it didn't get cold enough to freeze me, so it was good.

Below are a few pictures of my hammock after a really good rain storm.  You'll notice the wet rain fly, and wet tarp underneath, but everything in my hammock was as dry as could be.

Those that were sleeping in tents also learned a few things.  You know those extra strings and stakes that come with the tent that are supposed to hook onto the rain fly to pull it away from the tent?  They are pretty useful in a big rainstorm!  They make the rain run off the fly further from your tent, giving you a better chance at keeping your stuff inside the tent dry!

I slept about the same in the hammock as I usually do on campouts - tossing and turning all night.  I find that I roll around a lot at night, and when I'm in a sleeping bag, I end up waking up at night as I roll.  But, by the end of the week I slept the entire night without waking up!  (part of that was because I was so tired from all the activities during the day in the 100 degree weather I'm sure).

For more info on Hammock Camping, see my Hammock Camping Post.

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