MITA Islands
If you are talking about camping on the Maine Trail islands, requires a tent. May be true for other sensitive areas as well.
Where are you located?
I have become a lover of hammocks.
Please note, I said HAMMOCKS. Much kike boats, you start off with one (Hennessey), and then find a reason for a second (Clark, with the integrated weather shield for colder temps) and then a Warbonnet catches your eye (because you like the double-bottom feature to hold your pad).
I will never sleep in a tent if I have the option for a hammock. My back is always happier (I can side-sleep in all three models) and for humid nights there is no substitute for the cooling effect.
True, as CEW pointed out the lack of dual-occupancy can be a downer, but Clark actually has a double model and there are…options…available for single hammocks as long as your tarp is large and offers good…coverage.
As for lacking trees, that is true, and some state parks will not allow hammocks to be attached to trees even if available. It is possible to set a hammock using two bipods and Amsteel line with stake anchors. Been there and done that. Kind of difficult to carry ib a kayak though. If all else fails, going to ground is always an option (but a poor option).
Jim
15 nights camping in 2010, 0 nights in a tent!
Please show me
Please have someone take a picture of you sleeping in your hammock and show me the picture. I would love to see you laying straight in your hammock. I’m not sarcastic. I really want to believe but my own experience is different.
I can pee into a plastic bottle in a
tent, in a rainstorm. Can you describe how you do that in your hammock?
Old guy with prostate.
You know how Jsaults likes to tinker …
– Last Updated: May-18-11 11:05 AM EST –
Five bucks says he's tried laying on his belly with a hole in the center :D
That will cost you a beer Clarion!
Alas, no relief hole. I just stand in the HH bottom slit, or beside the Clark or Warbonnet (both side-zip) and use the pee bottle. Really no more involved than kneeling in a tent as far as I am concerned.
Interestingly this is a subject of much discussion over on HammockForums.net. Some claim to be able to use a bottle lying down, some have engineered a tube, and some have even tried an “exterior-applied catheter”.
Ya gotta do what ya gotta do.
Jim
I have both but…
I have both tents and HH available. I’ll take a hammock with the large fly over a tent anywhere I expect to have trees. I sleep beautifully in the hammock, not so great on the ground. As far as warmth, I have the insulation package available if I’m cold, otherwise a simple sleeping mat works fine.
A decade ago the ground and me were better friends than we are today.
“A decade ago
the ground and me were better friends than we are today”
Ain’t it the truth.
Jim
No zippered fly/screen over hammock
for me–I won’t risk scrotum snag for nutin’.
Just a little bug repellent and sneakers is all I wear when using a hammock–Never know when you’ll have to get up in the middle of the night to have a naked knife fight with a bear!
http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2495967460105552613Xnaqom
And if you’re going to carry along poles to rig up a hammock, then you might as well just carry along a little spare lumber, and git yer tent up off the ground proper! An LL XP 10 should be able to carry a set up like this–
http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2628704790105552613sfizOr
I don’t mess around when camping, ANYTHING ELSE WOULD BE UN-CIVILIZED! (
I have a Tentcot and really enjoy it
but it can be a challenge to haul it around. Here is a picture of it on my SOT at Fargo, GA on the Suwannee River.
https://picasaweb.google.com/kayakken3/SuwanneeRiver#5149964902381294562
an setup on a small island.
https://picasaweb.google.com/kayakken3/SuwanneeRiver#5149965069885019138
http://www.gandermountain.com/modperl/product/details.cgi?i=402125&pdesc=Kamp_Rite_Oversized_Tent_Cot_with_Rainfly&str=tentcot&merchID=4005
I have been giving some serious thought about getting a Kamp-Rite™ Collapsible Combo Tent Cot
http://www.gandermountain.com/modperl/product/details.cgi?i=430318&pdesc=Kamp_Rite_Collapsible_Combo_Tent_Cot&str=tentcot&merchID=4005
Tentcot
Interesting. Have you ever slept through a night in a downpour? Just wondering about the seam sealing and the ability to avoid water pooling on the top?
my daughter lived in a hammock
while with the Peace Corps in Africa.
well, she spent more nights in the hammock than in bed because it was cooler (her thermometer broke at 140+) and kept the bugs off her.
But we spent money and got a top-of-the-line hammock, soaked it with mosquito repellent, modified the ropes with 1" webbing and added zipper pill-lines.
She also found them to be more comfortable if she put her thermarest pad inthe hammock and slept on the pad in the hammock.
I prefer a tent myself.
I have a neice in the Peace Corps
in El Salvador. Everyone in her village (her included) sleeps in hammocks for those reasons. Babies through grandparents.
She has issued me a challenge to install a hammock stand in my apartment and to sleep in a hammock as often as she.
Jim
Problem resolved…
– Last Updated: May-19-11 12:35 PM EST –
Paddle a canoe.
Take a tent larger than necessary for the number of tent occupants.
Carry an an extra thick/extra long Thermarest, and a comfy pillow. Sleeping bags, sheets, or covers of your choice; no problem.
Also carry "anything else" you could "possibly" want, or "need".........like a Cooke Custom Covers rainfly, which I can walk under as I exit my tent. Rain, snow, sleet; no sweat.
Try spending a day trapped in a hammock, cooking in a hammock, sitting in a chair in your hammock, or drying wet clothes inside your hammock.
Not a minimalist anymore.
Been there/done that; my opinion......it sucked.
BOB
I do all that and more…
…in (sorta) my hammock…I use a 10 by 10 tarp, which gives me a 14 foot corner to corner 100 sq foot place out of the rain…I cook, Sit, hang out and all that underneath…the hammock stays velcro’ed to the ridgeline until I want a nap…
Granted, hammocks are not for everyone, but I’m one of the ones they are for!
Two words Bob:
Warbonnet Superfly!
Cavernous, adjustable, private. With the netting of my Warbonnet Blackbird zipped open and reefed I can sit sideways in a lounging position. Cooking possible as well. No need to carry a chair.
Jim
Debating for the sake of debating
Depends on the areas
like other people said. Works in some places and doesn’t work well in others. I prefer a free-standing tent to hammock, easy to set up and more privacy for changing clothes or eating when it’s too cold or rainy outside.
Cooking fly - again, with a proper tent there is a small vestibule in front that can be used for this purpose. For stays longer than 1 night in one place I prefer a silnylon tarp of proper size.
ok ahem, well, gee
I have been one of the loudest proponents of a Hammock for camping but this last weekend, I simply could not get comfortable with my regular positioning in the Hennessy. Maybe I didn’t have the pitch right, or something. It was raining and blowing and I was plenty dry enough as i had brought down the fly prior to the rain.
I have the Alps Mountaineering zephyr 1 and 2 and am looking forward to using them a bit more this year. for some reason the hammock has lost its magic a bit.
Paul
Another good thing about tent
– Last Updated: May-19-11 7:06 PM EST –
...that I forgot to mention - spending time inside during a daytime when it's too buggy outside. If it's a warmer climate, 2-door mesh tent like Hubba Hubba even with fly attached is still mighty bright inside. You can repair something or just have your tea without being bothered by bloodsuckers (and not being covered with stinky repellent either). Even on a dark day it's still bright in there. Not a replacement fir a full-height mesh gazebo, but this is as close as it can be.
I confess I didn't try a hammock, but can't believe it is same bright and roomy inside. There is no flat floor in a hammock, and way less head room (with cover on).
yep
In both the zephyr 1 (which is really a very small solo tent and the 2, I can sit up and the vestibule gives me lots of room to store stuff. With the hammock in weather I had to rig up another tarp to put my gear under etc. Kept everything dry ok but it would have been one tent/vestibule as opposed to having to set up 2 structures (hammock and tarp)
since they are mesh tents, I get lots of ventilation and in good weather I can sleep under the stars.
they really are great tents and for the money cannot be beat.
Paul