Spring, Summer and Fall Shelters

I've been camping and backpacking for over 40 years now, and I've never been completely comfortable sleeping on the ground. For whatever reason, I always manage to get into a position that cuts off the blood flow to an arm or hand, and I wake up with a totally numbed-out appendage that flops around for five minutes like one of those "Wiggle Worm" fishing lures. I figured it was only a matter of time until it happened to my head.

At least until I discovered the Hennessy Hammock. The Hennessy Hammock has got to be one of the great innovations in the history of outdoor shelters, and if I sound a bit over the top it's because I am. My modified "Ultralight Backpacker A-sym" weighs 28 ounces; is quick and easy to set up; can be hung almost anywhere there are two upright supports more than 10 feet apart (I've even set up a Hennessy between a telephone pole and one of it's guy wires); can be easily rigged as a camp chair or on the ground as kind of a tent-bivy; has kept me dry in horizontal rain; and provides me with as comfortable a night's sleep as I can get at home in my waterbed (yes, I'm one of those; I even have a painting of Elvis on black velvet in my doublewide). The only drawback to sleeping in a Hennessy is that it sleeps cold.

When sleeping on the ground most of us use some sort of insulating ground pad. So, we never notice that the part of the sleeping bag that ends up underneath us gets flattened by our weight and has very little insulating value. However, it's one of the first things you notice when sleeping in a hammock without some sort of non-compressible insulation underneath you. Air circulates all around you in a hammock, and it's surprising how chilly you can get even in warm weather. I tried a standard sleeping bag on top of a standard ground pad, but I kept slipping off.

Tom Hennessy is devoting a lot of time to this issue, as are a great many HH owners. I did, too, and I'm convinced that the lightest alternative is to use a sleeping bag that has a pad pocket on the bottom, rather than insulation, and to use a closed cell foam pad in the pocket. I've got two such bags that I use in the A-Sym. My summer hammock bag is a RAB Top Bag that I had Oware and Moonbowgear modify for me. (To read about this bag, click this link .) My winter bag is a Feathered Friends Great Auk that I had Downworks of Santa Cruz modify for me. (To read about this bag, click this link .)

I went a little bit further than most people will want to, however. I had Tom make my A-Sym using a 70 denier ripstop nylon fabric that is laminated to mylar space blanket material. The result is an impermeable, highly reflective hammock body that cuts down on convection and reflects radiated body heat. While I haven't yet been able to do objective tests I'd say that this modification adds at least ten degrees of warmth to whatever sleep system I use. This gain may not be worth it to you because the fabric ain't cheap, but if you want you can ask Tom to make a hammock for you using this stuff. Both Oware and Outdoor Wilderness Fabric can get this fabric.

I've made a couple of other modifications to the A-sym. One cheap and easy one that works is the addition of shock cord "links" between the fly and the ridge line and between the fly and the guy lines. These elastic "links" help keep the fly from flapping. More importantly, they keep the fly taught when it gets wet, and you really don't want to be getting in and out of a Hennessy "womb" to retighten a wet fly. As a matter of fact, I'd also recommend that you sleep with a pee bottle or it's female equivalent. Source (for the hammock, not the pee bottle): www.hennessyhammock.com , although REI carries them, too.

If I know in advance that the majority of a trip is going to be anyplace that lacks standing structures (i.e., above tree line, in the desert, on the beach, etc.), or if I really want to go fast and light, I use my Lorien Rain Cloak as a tarp and a bivy sack over my bag. Actually, the bivy I am using now is more of a bag cover than a bivy, but it has worked for me under most conditions.

Macpac is an New Zealand company that makes excellent gear, and, depending on the exchange rate, their products can usually be had at good prices. Their Overture bivy is constructed completely out of the New Zealand variety of Pertex Microlight, at least it was when I bought mine (current Overtures appear to be made of Epic). The Overture has no-see-um face netting and it works well in all but the most inclement weather. It does need a ground cloth and you don't want to expose it to direct rain or snow, but it weighs only 10 ounces and is fine for most tarping conditions. Source: www.macpac.co.nz .

However, based on an excellent review in Backpackinglight.com, and knowing firsthand the quality of his work, I've asked Dave Olsen of Oware to make me an ultralight version of his Epic/silnylon bivy. This bivy should be a good bit more water repellant than the Macpac, will not require a ground cloth, and still should weigh only 10 ounces or so. Paired up with the Lorien Rain Cloak I expect it to work in virtually any weather. I'll include a picture of it when it arrives.