Anyone use a hammock for camping? Maybe not the best choice in all areas because it won’t do you any good on the beach with no trees but I find them very comfortable and light weight and they pack down small.
I like my ENO DoubleNest hammock
I’ve been sleeping in a hammock for a few years now when kayak-camping, and seldom use a tent anymore.
Where I camp, in the Great Lakes region, it’s often easier to find a suitable pair of trees than a patch of flat, smooth ground.
I’m planning to do a how-to article about hammock-camping, but so far have written only this ENO hammock review:
http://aquadynology.com/Product-Review-ENO-Doublenest-Hammock.html
Good luck!
Delphinus
Hammock camping
I have an ENO single nest that I’ve spent a few nights in. I just ordered a Warbonnet Blackbird hammock and I’m eagerly awaiting its arrival. I’ve heard so many good things about it that I just had to have one.
An advantage of hammock camping is light weight and no need to find a flat place to make camp. Disadvantages are that they are cold to sleep in and you need to find trees of the right size and distance apart.
Also if you are dealing with an extended rainstorm a tent is a nicer place to spend a day than a hammock.
Hammocks
– Last Updated: Mar-27-12 7:28 PM EST –
since 2007 i've been using a hammock. did 100 nights+ on AT with temps below 0 at times. its warm with a good quilt system. i use them kayaking, but i carry a pad if i need to go to ground/beach. use tarp for tent.
a good site http://www.hammockforums.net/?
no kayaking, but our winter NJ Pine Barren hang http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/579661795dJFvSR?vhost=outdoors&start=140
KK&K
Hennesy
I’ve been using a Hennessy Expedition zip entry hammock for the past year. Best sleeps I’ve ever had outdoor. Have only run across one situation where I could’t find suitable trees, so I had to make do sleeping under a tarp.
Don’t always have to hang it…
I’ve been hanging for quite a while. there are places where I don’t have any trees so I just set it up like a tent. I use my paddle halves as poles.
Have a Hennessy Ultralight
Backbacker hammock, with the standard bottom entry. I use a Kelty Noah 9 tarp, or standard Hennessy Hex tarp for heavy rains. Set up takes 2 minutes and it’s the most comfortable nights sleep I’ve ever had. It’s light, and you don’t have to worry about uneven ground, roots, rocks, and water around your tent. Hammocks are little colder to sleep in than a tent but a pad and quilt handle that, or a quilt on the bottom of the hammock can be used for insulation. Like Karl said, try www.hammocksforum.com
Hammocks
Hammock camping is awesome and even if you don’t have trees, almost anything that is above ground can be rigged or chocked for a support system. Although bivouac style does not kill, you can get by occasionally in waiting for the terrain to change with the trip… I love my Hennessy Hammock! 
Warbonnet Blackbird
Received my Warbonnet Blackbird about 2 months ago. What an incredibly comfortable nights sleep.
My wife and I each have one now. Wife has back problems that have made sleeping on the ground a chore for her but she sleeps pain free in the Blackbird. Used them for canoe camping when we first got them, then twice in public camground where we had stayed a couple of weekends. We got some funny looks from the other campers who have popups, trailers or huge tents that they pull from their trunks, and we pitched our two hammocks in minutes and slept quite comfortably.
ENO
I have an eno I toss in the boat for extended outings. I’ve used it to sleep a few times, but I was wondering how people are riging underquilts to ENO’s? It seems like the ENO’s are the recreational kayak of hammock’s. I love mine in camp, but like most have realized that your underside can get cool from compressing the loft in your sleeping bag. I’m guessing more serious hammock sleeping systems have tabs for someway to hang an under quilt.
Thoughts?
Got a Rockhopper on ebay
You can use it as a tent or hammock. As a tent it’s a little hard to get out of. But it works great for flying into an area where your not sure what you’ll have at the campsite. The vented fly is great and two small poles hold the shape for either set up.
SYOTW
Randy
check out these Great Lakes Hammocks
Adding a hammock to my kayak trips, camping trips, and canoeing trips was a total game changer.
https://www.facebook.com/GreatLakesHammock
not where i paddle
swinging from a tree and an arched body at night is not my idea of camping. probably good it you are in a swamp area and no dry land. they have their use but humans sleep on the ground anyway…
i didnt care for it but would take one on a long trip for the token one night its a swamp etc…but then again i can sleep IN my boat which is a design integration
The comment most heard
What most folks who have never tried a real backpacking style modern hammock most often say is something like: “I can’t sleep arched in a curve”. Understandable why they would say that given experience in the backyard style hammock, but it is completely untrue. You are not arched in a curve in a well designed asymmetric hammock. You are practically flat, and many people sleep on their sides or even their stomach exceptionally comfortably, moreso than on any camping mat on the ground. The near flatness of the lay, with every inch of your body evenly supported is what makes the difference. Just try it for a couple of nights. Make sure it is a properly designed hammock, not the curvaceous backyard style.
I have a Hennessy Hammock
and on purpose did NOT take it on the Yukon.
Why? I could not figure how to rig it with no trees other than willows on sandbars.
When I can figure out that small problem ( also applies to black spruce in the taiga), I will gladly take it along.
No its not much of a weight saver especially with the underquilt that is needed most of the time in the north, but it IS comfortable.
Yukon
– Last Updated: Jan-12-14 8:44 PM EST –
I've paddled the Yukon 4 times so far (I'm not done yet), and for the same reasons did not bring my Hennessy. Instead I slept on cold damp uneven uncomfortable gravel bars. Too bad there are no suitable trees.
Switched back to tents
I brought a Hennessy Hammock and a large 2-man tent on a multi-month Inside Passage solo. Although I’d expected to use the hammock more often than the tent, by the second week I had switched to the tent full time.
The tent was warmer, more convenient to set up, easier to get into (especially during times of rain), and more comfortable to lounge around in. Finding level, cleared spots to set up the tent was at times challenging, but so was finding sufficiently brush-free areas in the forest for the hammock.
Alex
I’m sold
Except for winter and vacation camping with my wife,i always prefer my Clark hammock. I sleep better than when in my bed. One advantage of a Clark besides the under insulation is that you can see out both sides while laying in it.
Turtle
Trick for staying warm in a hammock?
So I’ve got a nice hammock, eno brand like a few others use.
What tricks do you use to stay warm in it? Even sleeping in one with a friend in a 60 degree day in sunshine we got cold… I read about using a quilt, any other ideas? Maybe a sleeping bag solves all of these problems?
insulation
If you haven’t already, take a look at the hammock forums for tons of advice and tips.
You will get cold even in warm summer temperatures if you do not have bottom insulation to protect your bottom side from the night air flowing beneath you. There are several options for this, but it can be tricky if you don’t understand how to hold any insulation in place. If you simply try to lay on a foam or inflatable Thermarest type pad, you will be frustrated because it will tend to “squirt” itself out and end up on top of you. An easy way to solve that problem is to use an overbag - which can be as simple as an old bed sheet sewn into a bag. Put both the pad and sleeping bag inside the overbag and everything stays in place. Or… if you have a sleeping bag with a built in pad pocket, such as a Big Agnes, that will be a step up. Lots of other methods and more beginner’s tips are available on the forums.