[pct-l] re : Hammocks

[roni_h3000 at yahoo.com (roni h)]

As a hiker who just completed thruhiking the p.c.t. (except for the last 66 miles to the Canadian border which I'll have to do some other time) and who has hamocked all the way from Mexico I would definetly say that it is possible to hike the whole p.c.t. with a hammock without ever having to pitch it on the ground once (I never did so as I felt it would eventualy tear the bottom of the hammock when i put it on the ground). One can hammock even in the southermost 700 miles of trail. The problem is that I quicly realized after I started hiking from Mexico that my hike is determined by my hammock - I planned my day in such a way that I would end it near trees (the superb guidebook of southern California usualy mentions if there are trees near a campsite).  Being a hammock fanatic ment that I had to do some longer days than I would have wanted - like a 23 mile treeless strech from scissors crossing that I had to do in one night. It also meant that I had to improvise  - like tieing my
 hammock from a burnt car when I was under cottonwood bridge in the Mujabe dessert. I discoverd it is also possible to hammock in chaparel, if your lucky enough to find a dry ravin between two big bushes. If you tie your hammock close enough to the ground  the bushes (with their spread out root system) will easly cary your weight, and if the ravine is deep enough, you might avoid hitting the ground when you enter the hammock. Or not...
 
The most important thing to you have to do if your determined to hammock through the dessert is ask people who have already hiked that section before where you could find trees. 
In retrospect I would actualy advice you not to go with this strategy. Insted of being a slave to my hammock, I decided after a couple of weeks that I should be willing to sleep on the ground whenever I felt like. Luckily, the rule is that wherever there are no trees, there is no rain, so pitching my hammock on the ground was unecesery.
All and all I would estimate that I hadn't hammocked on the trail only about 10 nights on the whole p.c.t. and at least half of these nights could have become hammock nights by hiking only a few miles further.
I am still as big a hammock fanatic as I've been, especialy after seeing all the other poor hikers sleeping on the wet ground in rain in Washington...
 
Roni  (now in Tel-Aviv, Israel)
www.trailjournals.com/roni
 


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