[at-l] Hammock + pack question

[TrailR at aol.com (TrailR@xxxxxxx)]

In a message dated 10/23/2003 2:00:45 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
kellyswhitman@hotmail.com writes:
Hm... it's not like it's a 40 lb. pack.  Once the hammock and sleeping bag 
are out of it and food is bear bagged and hung, it wouldn't weigh more than 
a couple of pounds and would compress down to not take up much room.  How do 
you leave a pack on the wet ground outside in the rain?  Even if the pack is 
under the rain fly, the ground will still be wet if it was raining prior to 
your setting up camp.  Puddles and little rivers tend to develop during the 
night in places that looked like they wouldn't when you were setting up.

On my whole AT hike this year, I never had a night that the backpad on my 
pack wasn't wet already from sweat. If you really want to keep it from getting 
wetter, put it in a garbage bag, but beware of what it will smell like after a 
night in the bag. I hung my pack from a tree, or put it in my Nomad light (too 
wet to put in my tent usually), or hung it in the shelter. Get a pack cover 
that has drain holes in the bottom of it.


If you secured the pack to one end inside the hammock, the weight would be 
on the ropes and webbing, not on the hammock fabic on which your body is 
laying.  I don't want to have to emerge from a toasty sleeping bag, or open 
the slit in a Hennessy and let in a bunch of hungry mosquitos, just because 
I need things out of my pack in the middle of the night.  Still haven't 
figured out what to do if I need to go to the bathroom in the middle of the 
night.  When I'm drinking 1+ gallons of water per day, this is an 
inevitability!  I don't think a Travelmate will work laying down (apologies 
to the gentlemen of the list).  Can you kneel in a hammock?

I spent 100 or so nights in a shelter, with no bug net.... I used DEET... It 
works... Ya get used to the buzzing noise or  just use earplugs... Peeing is 
not optional at night... It's gonna happen. :-) When I spent nights in a tent, 
I got in and out quickly & zipped it up fast. Usually had no problems 
(mosquitos weren't around much in the middle of the night)
YMMV

hotdog
AT 03

Kelly Whitman
INTP
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