first night in a hammock

[M@rk]

I spent my first night in a hammock on Tuesday and had a great time mooching about the woods. Now this little expedition was to test out this hammock malarkey and to let Kathy (live in lover) know if kipping in the woods was spooky so she could make up her mind if she’ll come and play in the woods or not.
The first thing to become clear was I need a new backpack. When I was sorting what to take and what pack to use I found my day sack to small (35L) so I took every thing out and up it all in a lowe alpine 70+20L now all the stuff went in this with space to spare but when I put it on I decided it was to tall and would snag on branches so I ended up using a lowepro AW camera backpack with the padding removed. This worked reasonably well but I needed to use a lighter sleeping bag than I was intending (snugpak, comfort 7° low 2°). When I hit the sack I found the hammock to be very comfortable compared to a tent and I was very snug on my thermarest with thermals socks t-shirt and a thin pair of trousers on. After a while I notice the side of my arm was getting cold where it touched the side of the hammock that wasn’t protected by the thermarest. I ended up using my coat but this creped apart and made a cold gap but this wasn’t to much of a problem and I had a good nights kip.
What I’m hoping someone can tell me is, can I expect my other sleeping bag (ajungilak 3 season) to keep my side warm or is there something I’m missing and what would be a good backpack that won’t be to tall.

 

[led]

You'll find that you will be cooler because you're compressing the insulation underneath you, and the heat then radiates/convects out from the hammock bottom into the open air. You'll notice that some hammock manufacturers have 'underquilts' that sling underneath the hammock (ie no compression, full insulation). A thermarest can work out OK, but ideally you need something a bit wider. A reindeer skin is rather nice, but I've used a cheapo Ikea quilt quite effectively as well. Not ideal for hiking, but if you don't have to carry your kit too far it works nicely.

 

[andyn]

M@rk, probably without realising you have just answer some of the many questions i was pondering about using a hammock. Thanks.

Hope you had a good time and have convienced the missus to come play in the dark scary woods too.

 

[M@rk]

Don’t get me wrong andyn I was surprisingly snug considering my sleeping bag was thinner than I would have liked, it was just my left are that was cold. If my thermarest was 5 or 6 inches wider it would have been ok.

 

[andyn]

Once my hammock arrives i'll have to get out there and try it out. Looking forward to it.