How Hammocks changed my hiking trips

I was introduced to camping when I was a kid going to the local state parks and spending a weekend there, later on I was introduced to hiking and multi day overnight backpacking in the mountains which started with paying for a place to stay at an established campground near or on the trail.

As I grew more interested in hiking and enjoying time unwinding in the wilderness I got into bush-whacking and finding my own camping spots off the trails in the White Mountains, I did this with a small tent for a few years which was fine but trying to find decent clearing for my tent was occasionally a challenge, it becomes a bigger challenge when the sun is setting before I really got a handle on lighting but it was always able to  made it work. 

Its wasn’t until a backpacking trip to Texas and tagging along to a 3 day music festival was I introduced to hammock camping. I tried it out at a campsite at a camp ground later on and after rocking myself to sleep near a babbling brook I was really sold and really looked forward to getting a great night sleep out in the mountains. In the years since I’ve purchased a few hammocks and learned a thing or two about them. 

There are 3 major parts of the hammock you may or may not need all of them given the conditions you find yourself in, but you’ll definitely want them on hand if your somewhere where The weather changes quickly.

The 3 parts of the Hammock 

~The hammock itself (duh)

~The bug screen 

~The rain guard 

~ Also take into account weight limitations and the size

~ You may want to bring some stakes to tie down different parts of your        

  hammock depending on which one you pick up 

Set up at a local state park enjoying the stillness, Hammocks can be very lightweight making them great for a short day hike or longer hauls.

You’ll definitely want to have all 3 of these components just in case. But if you have the chance to rock away resting or reading a book in the sun without the bug and rain guards it’s a great way to spend an afternoon. 

Getting into Hammock camping was a really game changer for me, they are great for bush-whacking and finding a spot to camp in the woods. I no longer needed to find a good flat spot to camp, I could set up on an incline if I really wanted to. Which is a great way to enjoy a view on a ridgeline.

This was a few years ago at Thompson motor speedway, making the hammock work nearby the race track, ready for a weekend of racing friends and on motorcycles.

 The only real challenge in finding a spot is finding two trees strong enough to hold me that are far enough apart to set up properly and have no real obstructions between them. 

Bringing a hammock instead of my usual tent really opened up some doors to where I could stay from over a relaxing stream in a valley to along a ridge of a mountain and even in a field between a pole and motorcycle handlebar. 

But although there are a lot of Pros to Hammocks there are some down sides. The first being the cold, Hammocks by themselves are  a very poor choice if it is too cold. Your sleeping bag will not help with your underside exposed, However there are insulating accessories available that will stretch your season out a little bit more, but these also have limitations. 

Another thing to consider is, make sure your rain fly is set up properly if you think you are going to catch a little rain, It seems like I get at least a brief shower every night in the mountains so I just plan for it. If you do not set up your fly properly you risk the chance of waking up in a bag of water and having a very unpleasant night's sleep. If you're new to Hammocks you’ll want to make sure to have time to set up before the sun goes down, trust me.  

Taking these limitations in consideration, I still recommend hammock camping, when set up properly and with the right conditions I definitely prefer them to a tent. I get much better sleep and I really enjoy the ability to set up almost anywhere, especially by rivers and streams but they are also great for hanging out on a ridge line with a book on a more relaxed day hike.