[pct-l] re: Hammocks and searching the archive.

[roni_h3000 at yahoo.com (roni h)]

Tom, as you suspected, I (and other hikers) have already answerd this question in the past. 
 
Unfortunaly I am unaware of any effective search engine to check the PCT-L for past disccusion about this topic.
 Even after using google, which is normaly a very good search engine, I could not find the answer I posted in the past, and only by adding the name roni to the search, was I able to find my previous post.   
This lack of a good search engine is a real problem, which causes the same questions to be posted repeatedly on this forum, even though most of them had been answerd (often better) in the past.   Is anyone aware of a more usefull search engine that can find past topics on the pct-l and cdt-l?
 
 
As for hammocks, here is what I wrote and posted about a year ago. [I am adding a couple of new comments in parentesis regarding the c.d.t. ].
 
"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 c.d.t] and who has hamocked all the way from Mexico I would definetly say that it is possible to hike the whole p.c.t. [c.d.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 [true for c.d.t.]. 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) [finding trees was easier on c.d.t. except in some places near rawlins, wyoming].  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 [30 miles to a possibly hammockable solar well, then another 20 miles to trees]. 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 [old homestead, power-lines in southern Montana]. 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 [no one to ask on the c.d.t. but Leys maps show patches of 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 [I had no such problem on the c.d.t]. Luckily, the rule is that wherever there are no trees, there is no rain, so pitching my hammock on the ground was unecesery [not always true on the c.d.t.].
All and all I would estimate that I hadn't hammocked on the trail only about 10 nights [4 nights, 3 of them around rawlins on c.d.t.] 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 [true even in the red desert in wyoming].
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 [and the layer of thick mud in the bob's]...
 
Roni  (now in Tel-Aviv, Israel)
www.trailjournals.com/roni  "
 


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