What’s the limit of your tolerance for comfort? To some people, their idea of “roughing it” includes air conditioning and room service. To others, camping means bringing the RV and all the comforts of their livingroom out into the woods.
This weekend, we tested our tolerance.
For a year or so now, camping for us has meant hammock camping. We got into the idea after stumbling across it on the net, ordered a couple Hennesy hammocks, and did due research on hammockforums.net to learn as much about it as we could. Basically, you hang in a suspended tent, protected from bugs, in an assymetrical gathered end hammock, so it’s much more comfortable, and not too hard to lay flat. We didn’t get to camp as much as we might have liked last year — just once in Tyler State Park (where the main issue was being too hot and muggy — a couple of small fans helped with that), and a three-day canoe trip down the Brazos River, where we found that insulation beneath you really did matter, even when the night temperatures were still in the 60s.
So, for Christmas we upgraded to the Hennessy Supershelter which is basically a flexible foam pad that hangs suspended beneath your hammock; a bottom cover of the same material as the tarp, so it helps cut the wind and is water protection from ground splash; and a space blanket which you spread out between the foam pad and the hammock. We tried it out this January, but it turned out to be a nice weekend, and the night temperatures barely dropped below 50. The Supershalter worked great — we stayed warm, but we wanted a better test.
We tried again a couple of weeks ago, at Rusk. This was also interesting, because we had recently gotten a cocker spaniel puppy, named Vaquita, and this was the first time to try taking her camping at all. As it turned out, she slept just fine in the hammock, and I was warm and happy, although Brandy got a little chilly, with temperatures in the mid 40s.
And yet, we still hadn’t faced the challenge of rain, and wondered what our limits were for cold. Well, we got to test that out in spades this last weekend, at a HammockForums.net group hang at Ratcliff Lake. While eager to meet other like-minded people, it ended up being the forecast that made us really excited a few days before the event, while for others, it was scaring them away from the idea of camping, much less doing it in a hammock. The weather called for a 90% chance of thunderstorms, a low of 34 degrees, and 25 MPH wind gusts, bringing the wind chill down to 29 or so.
Yeah, that sounded like exactly what we needed to test for our own personal worst case scenario. If we could handle that, we could handle any weather we were likely to get while normally camping. So, we loaded up, including a couple of extra old Coleman sleeping bags, and a couple fleece bag liners in case we needed them, not to mention 3 layers of clothing, and headed for Ratcliff with what I like to call a “Death or Glory” spirit.
We arrived late at the park, and were a bit confused as to how much to put in the fee envelope, since we were part of a group. We put in our last 3 dollars in cash, to at least cover our car, figuring we could run out to an ATM to pay any other cash we owed someone else later. We were met by 4 nice guys from HammockForums — Mike (I forget his handle…somethingMJM), Slinky, Capt’n (or was that Slingo?), and Armijo. Mike pointed out a few options for hangng spots, then left me to it while I set up.
I had said before that I was accustomed to setting up camp in the dark. This is not even remotely the same thing as being accomplished at it — I think it took me a half hour or more to get everything up so we could sleep. By the time we got over to the campfire, there were only 2 people left awake. We chattered for a bit then everyone went to bed around 1 in the morning.
Went to bed, although like Rusk, I had to get up a couple more times to let the puppy use the bathroom. Other than that, a good night’s sleep. Of course, the lows for this night were only in the 50s, so we didn’t expect it to be otherwise.
The next morning, we wandered over to the group campsite, where we were reintroduced, and also met Cindy, TexasLonghorn, and Mtbikernate. Everyone sat around and relaxed, while Mike made an excellent breakfast with potatoes, eggs, cheese, bacon, peppers, and I’m not sure what else. Had a bit of coffee and a tortilla with it, and we were looking forward to the challenge that was coming.
Unfortunately, several people had only committed to camping the one night we arrived late, while others were frightened off by the weather. By the time the rain started, everyone was either gone or on their way out, except for Armijo, Brandy, and me. At least I got to try out Nate’s big axe — it was fun, but I won’t be any good at splitting logs anytime soon. I ran a quick errand to Walmart for a better pillow and a headlamp for Brandy, as well as getting some more cash out, and when I came back, we three pretty much just sat and chattered under the tarp, staying dry and enjoying the company.
For the rest of the day that’s basically what we did. No books or gadgets. Brandy got a blazing fire started in the rain with wet wood, and made a delcious venison stew for us to enjoy. We sat around, under the tarp or around the fire, and talked — swapping stories, comparing gear, deciding aloud how we were going to handle the frigid conditions, and just generally feeling good about the challenge. Turned out Armijo had come for the same reason we did — to test himself and his gear. He was using a Jacks R Better down underquilt (like a sleeping bag that’s suspended under your hammock), and his extra insulation plan was a Thermarest pad. Our plan was to open up those extra sleeping bags, and put them in the bottom cover below the pad, as well as using the extra fleece liners in the sleeping bags above us to insulate us that much more from the top.
We went to bed around 9:30, the puppy having gotten used to hiding under a blanket on my lap while we had been sitting around the campfire. She was moving around and being in the way while I was arranging the blankets in the hammock, but as soon as I had them layed out and settled a bit, she darted under the covers and wedged herself under my legs, then didn’t move for several hours, and that was just to find a new position. Somehow, she didn’t seem to be inclined to drag me out of bed to pee this night. This is good for her, as I would have just hung the leash from the ridgeline and let her out and then back in; I certainly wasn’t coming out from under the covers if I didn’t have to.
I slept good, really good. I tossed the upper covers over my head (I was treating the sleeping bags as a quilt), and tucked them in around me, and enjoyed a nice warm cocoon. When the wind blew, all it did was rock the hammock a little bit; otherwise, I didn’t feel it at all.
The next morning, we woke up to snow! Yeah, okay, so it wasn’t sticking, but it snowed for a few hours, and was still going when we finished breaking camp later and left. We opted to get breakfast before breaking camp. Armijo had gotten a little chilly, and he decided to just toss everything in the back of the truck and head out, raher than joining us for another meal. We searched for a cafe, but ended up settling for doughnuts — and excellent doughnuts at that. Afterward, we broke camp, and made our way on home. On the way, well, that seemed the perfect time to compose and upload this trip report.
Slinky (or was it Mike?), we’ll pay up at the next hang — sorry we didn’t have enough cash.
Nate, thanks for letting me play with your axe – it was fun!
Capt’n, thanks for letting us borrow your lighter a few times.
And Armijo, we had a great time — thanks for sticking around — it wouldn’t have been a group hang if there wasn’t at least one person besides the two of us braving it out.
Thanks to whoever arranged the hang, and we look forward to the next one (hopefully a little warmer) 
