- Joined
- Jun 23, 1999
- Messages
- 1,209
After reading about jungle hammocks here on this forum (see http://www.bladeforums.com/ubb/Forum18/HTML/001274.html ), I decided to take the plunge and try one out. I chose the Hennessy because of the shape that promissed a "diagonal" in relation to the ridgeline that provided 6' of flat sleeping space. Perhaps I did something wrong, but I never found that much diagonal, and I had a number of other issues with the hammock in general. I'll call Hennessy and talk to them about some of this stuff, but what follows is a more generic report and some generic questions....
I grabbed Hennessy's latest and greatest hi-tech 1.6lb ultra light backpacker hammock. Starting on the outside we have the new Hennessy straps that help protect tree bark from the bite of the taught support line. The tie up instructions tell me to circle the tree two or three times with the strap. I think the folks at Hennessy have not been in a redwood forrest. The tree would have to be no bigger than 8" in diameter to go around even twice. I was camping in a place where the average tree diameter was more like 2 or 2.5 feet! In the future I'm going to have to rig my own tie system on to this puppy.
OK, so I got it hung and pulled out the side lines that give the Hennessy its unusual shape. No problem here, but the lines are made of an elastic that allows some lateral give while stabilizing at the same time, so you can only pull them so tight. With these extensions in place, it looked like I had it set up right, but when I got inside to check it out I couldn't find any diagonal that was really completely flat (and I had the ridge line pretty tight), though I have to admit, there was more bottom room than the other hammocks I've seen pictures of, and I could turn over and sleep on my side.
So I threw my sleeping bag in (a light affair as I knew it would be reasonably warm all night long where I was camping) and discovered the first real problem... The entry into the hammock is from the bottom. That works ok as far as it goes, but you have to push your sleeping bag up out of the way to get in. Once in, everything in the hammock tends to collapse toward the center with the result being that I found it impossible to arrange my sleeping bag so that I could get into it! Lucky for me it really was warm and I managed to sleep with my bag wrapped in various ways around me enough to provide the little bit of insulation I needed in the wee hours of the morning. On the second night, I managed to partly solve this problem by tieing the hood of the sleeping bag with a cord to the ridge line up near the head end. This held the bag back from sliding into the center of the hammock as I got in, but it was nevertheless not easy to get into the bag. Although I could lie on it and flip half of it over me (again enough in the warm weather), I would not have been able to get into the bag and zip it up if I had to do that... I think this is mostly a matter of practice, but it is important to practice this when its light out! After dark its kind of too late, even with a light stick to give me something to see by...
The second problem is where to put my stuff, especially my shoes? Its one thing to hang my pack with all its other contents from some tree branch near bye. Not really a problem, except that I'm used to having my stuff with me. There is a small pouch and a couple of clips to hang small things from the ridgeline inside the hammock, but you can't get a Busse BM in that pouch, or even a 5" blade. If you want a knife inside the thing with you, you're going to have to carry a small one (like a folder) for that purpose.
The worst part though is shoes. Even if you don't get up at night to take a piss (which I almost always have to do), you have to get out of the hammock and put your feet down sometime. I left my shoes right under the hammock's door so I could slide into them, but it occured to me that some creature may well have decided to take up residence there over night. Shaking my shoes out in the morning is something I do pretty religiously when I'm camping, but its not a practical thing to do from the hammock.
On the positive side, it was a comfortable sleep for me. There was enough room to turn over (if I did it carefully) and sleep on my side, and I wasn't bothered by the traditional tenting problems of sliding off my pad, etc. Indeed, not requiring a pad is another positive for the hammock if only I could resolve some of the other issues. I know some of you enjoy these things, and you must also have run into the same limitations (except for those of you who got Clark hammocks and have those storage bins underneath). So what have you done to resolve or mitigate their effects?
I grabbed Hennessy's latest and greatest hi-tech 1.6lb ultra light backpacker hammock. Starting on the outside we have the new Hennessy straps that help protect tree bark from the bite of the taught support line. The tie up instructions tell me to circle the tree two or three times with the strap. I think the folks at Hennessy have not been in a redwood forrest. The tree would have to be no bigger than 8" in diameter to go around even twice. I was camping in a place where the average tree diameter was more like 2 or 2.5 feet! In the future I'm going to have to rig my own tie system on to this puppy.
OK, so I got it hung and pulled out the side lines that give the Hennessy its unusual shape. No problem here, but the lines are made of an elastic that allows some lateral give while stabilizing at the same time, so you can only pull them so tight. With these extensions in place, it looked like I had it set up right, but when I got inside to check it out I couldn't find any diagonal that was really completely flat (and I had the ridge line pretty tight), though I have to admit, there was more bottom room than the other hammocks I've seen pictures of, and I could turn over and sleep on my side.
So I threw my sleeping bag in (a light affair as I knew it would be reasonably warm all night long where I was camping) and discovered the first real problem... The entry into the hammock is from the bottom. That works ok as far as it goes, but you have to push your sleeping bag up out of the way to get in. Once in, everything in the hammock tends to collapse toward the center with the result being that I found it impossible to arrange my sleeping bag so that I could get into it! Lucky for me it really was warm and I managed to sleep with my bag wrapped in various ways around me enough to provide the little bit of insulation I needed in the wee hours of the morning. On the second night, I managed to partly solve this problem by tieing the hood of the sleeping bag with a cord to the ridge line up near the head end. This held the bag back from sliding into the center of the hammock as I got in, but it was nevertheless not easy to get into the bag. Although I could lie on it and flip half of it over me (again enough in the warm weather), I would not have been able to get into the bag and zip it up if I had to do that... I think this is mostly a matter of practice, but it is important to practice this when its light out! After dark its kind of too late, even with a light stick to give me something to see by...
The second problem is where to put my stuff, especially my shoes? Its one thing to hang my pack with all its other contents from some tree branch near bye. Not really a problem, except that I'm used to having my stuff with me. There is a small pouch and a couple of clips to hang small things from the ridgeline inside the hammock, but you can't get a Busse BM in that pouch, or even a 5" blade. If you want a knife inside the thing with you, you're going to have to carry a small one (like a folder) for that purpose.
The worst part though is shoes. Even if you don't get up at night to take a piss (which I almost always have to do), you have to get out of the hammock and put your feet down sometime. I left my shoes right under the hammock's door so I could slide into them, but it occured to me that some creature may well have decided to take up residence there over night. Shaking my shoes out in the morning is something I do pretty religiously when I'm camping, but its not a practical thing to do from the hammock.
On the positive side, it was a comfortable sleep for me. There was enough room to turn over (if I did it carefully) and sleep on my side, and I wasn't bothered by the traditional tenting problems of sliding off my pad, etc. Indeed, not requiring a pad is another positive for the hammock if only I could resolve some of the other issues. I know some of you enjoy these things, and you must also have run into the same limitations (except for those of you who got Clark hammocks and have those storage bins underneath). So what have you done to resolve or mitigate their effects?
,and yes,its the bottom entry model. I'm 5'8, 190.