Tuesday, January 28, 2025

Hammock Camping

I’m not getting any younger, and the ground isn’t getting any softer. Several of the fellow Dads in my son’s Trail Life Troop are avid backpackers, and they all recommend hammock camping. Some camping hammocks are mini-shelter solutions in themselves, some even with snuggly sleeping bags built in for cold weather... but not the ones I bought at Harbor Freight. I purchased two of these hammocks, one at the full price of $19.99 for my son, and one for myself when it was on sale for $14.99.

https://www.harborfreight.com/parachute-hammock-with-adjustable-tree-straps-57399.html


Bottom Line: It Works
It is a hammock. It is actually a very well-designed hammock for what it is: two nylon straps to wrap around trees, two steel carabiners, and a hammock with its own storage bag sewn in.

What It Lacks
Any sort of built-in coverage or bug screening, or any sort of thermal insulation. This means that when I slept in it for the last few nights of sub-freezing weather (I woke up with frost inside my bivy cover on my outer sleeping bag), I had to adapt my sleeping system a little bit.

To keep from freezing in the freezing weather, I put my close-cell foam sleeping pad inside an Army surplus bivy cover, and used both the winter and summer bags for the modular sleep system and a woobie to fill in the air gaps and Hot Hands brand hand and toe warmers to make me toasty. The Hot Hands warmers weren’t strictly necessary, but they definitely helped me get comfortable faster when the temperature was below freezing.

My Plan to Hammock Camp in the Rain
  1. Bring 550 cord, bungie cords, ground stakes, and a tarp. 
  2. String the 550 Cord over my hammock using the same trees I attached the hammock to, and make a rain cover. 
  3. I wouldn’t recommend any tarp smaller than 8x10 feet, although the “Amazon’s Choice” recommendation for a hammock rain fly looks really tempting.
How to Overcome Bugs 
Other than chemical repellents, there aren’t many options. But for only a few dollars more, why not just buy a hammock with a bug screen built in?

https://amzn.to/4haOtJN


Complete Side Note and War Story
I once served with a bit of a character who had done some bounty hunting prior to his life in the Army. His team used a full-size van as part of their stakeout platform, and had modified the interior with hard points in the front and back to attach a hammock so one member of the team could get some sleep while the others observed, and the hammock could get stuffed away into nearly no space quickly (something an inflatable mattress couldn’t do). Having slept in a Ford Econoline van before, I’m positive the hammock provided an upgrade to the floor. If your preps include a van-sized vehicle, that might be an option for you.

I'm a Hammock Camping Convert
I still have to pack a sleeping pad in the winter time, but between the weight of the hammock and a rain fly, I’m saving weight and space over a tent. 

Is this something you absolutely need in your preps? Probably not, but it did provide me much better sleep than any other option I’ve tried, including some very expensive inflatable sleeping pads.

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