Boom!

[Doug Wolfe]

After reading everyones post about how hammock is the way to go. Im in!

Went with a Black Bird double 1.1 with Woopie slings

Mamajamba tarp

Jack r Better greylock 4 under quilt

EE apex revolt 40* short im thinking if its not too late i may cancel this. I was thinking synthetic for above freezing this way moisture wont be a issue for the quilt. Opened to thoughts from anyone with experience in this department.

Already owned a EE revelation X 0* and a EE 40* apex

Cant wait for all this stuff to show up at the door! An if the wife gets home before i do ill get a fireworks show added to put the icing on the cake. Ive noticed that the older i get the harder it is to get a good nights sleep on the ground. Well unless its snow covered. Only down fall i see in the hammock is having to cart a extra quilt. Im thinking i may need to upgrade from my 40L pack to something a bit bigger for multi day trips..

 

[Ken Thompson]

Enjoy the best sleep ever. All my insulation is down. No issue for me to keep it dry. But I am in the West.

[DAN-Y]

The older you get, the harder it is to get out of a hammock in the middle of the night to take a leak, multiple times due to prostate issues :-) something for you to look forward to. :-)

[Doug Wolfe]

So im guessing that the good ole piss bottle(vitamin water) doesnt quite work with a hammock…. that was always my one had to have item. Guess i may need to get creative now that im moving into a hammock.. lol

 

[Kevin Babione]

You’ll be quite happy – If you’ve never slept in a hammock before remember that you need to lay diagonally and all of a sudden you’ll be flat.  Some people like the “banana” position.  My spine did not.

As for a pee bottle…I’d be miserable without one in my hammock.  I use a plastic peanut butter jar (I think it might have held 32 ounces of PB).  I wake up, unscrew the lid and set it “upright” on my chest, pee into the bottle, dump it out the right side of my hammock (my boots are on the left side), screw the lid back on, and go back to sleep.  You can probably use your existing piss bottle as long as you remember to dump it each time.

My first piss bottle was a Gatorade bottle.  All was great until “Mr. Happy” decided he was happy being inserted anywhere and sealed the bottle shut!  Trying to piss into a “closed” system doesn’t work and there was piss flying everywhere.  I don’t have that problem with my peanut butter jar.

[Ken Thompson]

TMI ^

[Doug Wolfe]

If it matters any i thought it was quite comical.

Ive never had the opertunity to sleep in a hammock, but i haven’t heard of anyone complaining. Everything should be here friday and leaving for a short overnight Saturday morning. So i may put it to use if it comes early enough that i can do a test run before my trip.. if not the good ole tarptent rainbow will get one more go. Weather is predicted to be upper 20s overnight light winds 5-10.

[Kevin Babione]

Apologies to Ken…

Doug – You should be fine in your Mamajamba tarp, but wind is definitely an enemy of those of us who hammock in colder temperatures.  I don’t know if you got the “Door Kit” so you’ll want to pay attention to which way the wind is blowing.  You may need a buddy to help with this, but you don’t want your hammock (while you’re in it) hanging much below the lower edge of the tarp in the winter.  Cold Butt Syndrome (CBS) is not a pleasant thing – especially on your first time out.

[Jeffs Eleven]

Wait, so you like put the jar on your sternum and pee “uphill” towards your face, but into the jar??

 

[David Thomas]

“the good ole piss bottle doesn’t quite work with a hammock”

Cutting a slit in the hammock and sealing the edges – like an over-grown button hole and functioning like the fly on your jeans – would add no weight and allow an unlimited discharge volume.

Better, lighter, more compact.  We are BPL!  Hear us pee!

[David Thomas]

Oh, and take delivery of new gear at your work address.  Duh.

[Doug Wolfe]

Damn i should of asked if they could of add that special feature. I used to ship to my brothers house but now he lives way too far away.

[Doug Wolfe]

I hope so, everything could potentially arrive on Wednesday. Id love to get it out this weekend. Just need to figure out the fiddle factor first

[Matthew / BPL]

This is the most action I’ve seen in a hammock thread here in a long time.

[Matthew / BPL]

I’m assuming all you hangers have seen Dutch’s pee bag video. I love that he sells them with pop rocks in the bag for an extra buck.

[Doug Wolfe]

If you it they will come

[Doug Wolfe]

Anyways with all joking aside. Whats the best route to get optimal tarp coverage for my hammock. For say its pouring so were going tarp first. Any method work better over others? Ive looked on YouTube and found one video and it looked like the guy hd everything set up prior. It went way too fast with zero adjustments

[Ken Thompson]

Well the bottom entry on the Hennessy Hammock does enable one relief with a bit of creative kneeling. Remember where your stuff is.

[Matthew / BPL]

Doug, I’m not 100% sure what you are asking but I think you are interested in tarp coverage and fast deployment. Here’s my routine:

I use Dutch Stingerz and Zing It at each end of my Superfly tarp using this method.

I’ve used mini-linelocs on my guyout points with shockcord tensioners and Zing-It but I decided that it the shockcord is not needed and the Zing-It is stupid light in this application. I’ve moved on to MLD cord which is much less prone to tangling. I’ve got about 6 or 7 feet on each guyout point and I use a McCarthy/Trucker’s Hitch to my stakes. I usually don’t bother figure-eighting these lines, I just throw them in the tarp as I’m rolling it up.

When I put the tarp away I just roll it from the hem to the ridgeline while the tarp is still suspended. I have a couple lengths of gutted cotton sash-cord that I tie around the rolled tarp about 1/3 in from each end. When I’m hanging, the sash cord gets Cow Hitched to my hammock suspension as a dripline. Once rolled up, I unhook the tarp suspension from one side, figure eight the zing-it and stuff the tarp into the stuffsack it came with. Once it’s in the sack I disconnect the other side and stash the line in the same manner. I do disconnect the Stingerz and hang them on the exterior of my pack’s compression cords.

The whole routine is fast and efficient going up or down. That said, I don’t hang much any more. It’s easier for me to sleep on the ground and I’m comfortable on my XLite pad. I like not having to find trees in the desert or above tree line.

The best part of hanging, for me, is the social space under my tarp waiting out a rainstorm. It’s also nice to not have to worry about water on the ground.

Enjoy, HYOH and all that.

[Kevin Babione]

Apologies to Ken in advance…

After a day of hiking I end up peeing 5-6 times per night (my doctor suggests more exercise so that my body gets used to disposing of the lactic acid during the day but that hasn’t happened yet) and getting out of the hammock was a pain.  My first “technique” was to simply roll to the right edge of my hammock and pee over the side.  I would always get in from the left and pee to the right.  All was good until one night I apparently kicked one of my boots from the left to the right when I got in the hammock and (Murphy’s Law) it ended up right in the line of fire.  It was cold (18 degrees) and I think my first “hit” froze and the subsequent ones just puddled in my boot.  It was not pleasant (a number of BPLers were on that trip and had quite the chuckle).

After that I hit the bottle…(and verify where my boots are).

[Doug Green]

I know this is a few weeks old, but Doug (original poster, and great name by the way) have you had a chance to try out your hammock yet?  What do you think?

I’ve never had problems getting in and out of my hammock to pee, although I usually only have to do it once a night.  I have a Warbonnet Traveler with a Fronkey style bug net.  Wondering what the setup is for those who have issues and what in particular makes it difficult.

As far as peeing out of the hammock, I have never been a fan of peeing where I sleep or eat or where someone else might set up camp the next night.

Regardless, the reason I switched to a hammock was that I wasn’t getting any sleep on the ground any more (57 years old), so even if I did struggle to get in and out a few times a night I would still hang anyway.

[chris s]

I usually don’t have to pee in the middle of the night, but if I do, and even if it’s freezing out, I still get up and walk a few steps to go. Getting back in that hammock is so nice too.

I was always partial to a full sized tarp. Driving rain is an issue where I live. I have Hammock Gear’s Palace tarp. It’s the same size as warbonnets superfly, only it’s made of cuben. My superfly with lines and tarp skins weighs 26oz, and when it rains, it turns into a soaked spongethat weighs 3-4 times more. The cuben version weighs 9.5oz alone, 14.5oz with lines and cuben tarp skin, and it never soaks up even a drop of water. I have a couple buddies with HG’s standard with doors, and they wish the got the larger one during some of the heavy rains we’ve been in.

The blackbird is nice, but my netless hammock from dutchware only weighs 8oz, and is smaller than a tennis ball.

Down will be fine year round. Really tough to cram synthetic quilts into a backpack.

 

[Doug Wolfe]

Yeah after realizing the weight and size of the warbonnet i went ahead and ordered one of those light weight jobs from dutch. Tested it last night at a local park. Sleeps nicely and is significantly lighter then the warbonnet. Im going to work on the CF tarp eventually. Its just a big nut to drop ATM. I will say that i have been lurking on hammock gear and Zpacks looking.

One big down fall im seeing is the bulk as of right now. Especially with my 4 season kit.. little by little ill get it dialed in.. Tarp tent is not an option anymore after hanging unless i eventually make it out west

[William Kerber]

I’ve been a hammock convert for the last 3-4 years. If there are trees, I’m going to sleep in my hammock. I have 6 or 7, but lately I’ve been using the dutchware halfwit (winter is a netless DIY). Still haven’t pulled the trigger on a HMG cuben tarp yet, but I’m getting close. The tarp that gets the most use is a DIY silpoly at 13 ozs. If heavy rains or cold winds I use my Superfly. For guyouts and ridgeline I use zing-it with knots and hitches. Quilts are HMG 20 and 40 except that my 40 degree top quilt is DIY climashield.

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