Camping hammock

I've considered getting one for back country trips. Just not sure if I'd sleep well in one.

I have a Hennessy Hammock. I absolutely love it. 2.5 Pounds and probably the best sleep I ever get.

I bought a cheap one ten or so years ago, and never got around to using it when I was on a hunting trip. Finally took it with me when a friend and I were going down to the Big South Fork Recreation Area in Tennessee a few years ago. We were approaching the area where he wanted to camp, and we saw something strange on the gravel road and stopped to see what it was. It turned out to be some fresh bear scat, indicating that one was eating blackberries in the area.

Then, just around the next corner, we saw the bear crossing the road a hundred yards or so ahead.

And a half mile or so after that, we arrived at the place he wanted to stay, and we parked the truck.

I strung my cheap net style hammock between two trees where I would be about nose high to any bear that happened through,
and we made a small campfire and had a light supper as the daylight was fading. Steve crawled into his truck, and offered me the roof of the camper shell if I wanted it, but I figured falling off the truck would do more damage than a bear would likely do to me, so I just got into my hammock to sleep.

I got pretty near to sleep, then began to feel insects walking around on me. No sounds of buzzing like mosquitoes, just felt them walking. Finally quit just brushing them away, which didn't seem to be working, and turned on my flashlight to see what was going on. Found out I had tied up between what appeared to be tree that was a major travel route for ants, and the ant traffic was lined up bumper to bumper up one tree, across my sleeping bag, and down the other one. Got busy for a few minutes with some bug spray and shaking out the bag, and settled down again.

I really felt comfortable enough, and I kept telling myself here was very little risk that a well-fed bear would come poking through our camp in the middle of the night, as we had cleaned up any food scraps carefully and the blackberries were plentiful in the area and seemed to be the preferred food......but it was still kinda hard trying to sleep with one eye open. Other than the bear on my mind, I think it would have been a good night's sleep, and I did get some sleep and a good rest, with no back ache or other problems.

I looked all over this place trying to find that hammock last summer, as I wanted to try that experiment again here in an area with fewer bears, but it has disappeared. Finally went to MC Sports and bought another hammock of a different style, even more light and compact, but have only tried it in the backyard so far, and just to check it out and make sure it's all there, haven't really tried to sleep in it.

I may be mistaken, but I figured I would prefer the individual components rather than the combo of hammock, bug net, and fly. Seems to me there would be many times when I would want to use it when the chance of rain was slight and the bug season was over, if I enjoyed it enough to use it while hunting.

I even looked up the videos on U-tube showing how to weave my own hammock from paracord, but when I found the lightweight ones on sale at MC I shelved that idea at least until I try the store-bought one. The idea still intrigues me, though.

MC Sports in Bloomington had them marked way down the other night, so I went ahead and got one. If I can't sleep in it I'll just put it up in the yard for the kids to play in.

I am a hammock camper also. I use Hennessy hamock. Now I'm looking into getting a quilt for the mere fact that I can't stand sleeping with a pad. Found some options on productadvisor.com/best-hammock-underquilt/ , but I'm still curious what everyone has been using instead of a pad.