Even though I doubt that many think of it as a survival skill set, sleeping really is.  At home we don’t put much conscious thought into it because we refine it over time being at the same place every night.  All people knowingly or knowingly have a routine before bed.  Without taking into account any other stressors, changes to this routine, even small ones can have a huge impact on your ability to function.  After just three days without sleep, your thoughts will become disordered, and you may experience hallucinations.  Long before that your mood and effectiveness will be very diminished.

Just imagine if you had no idea where you were going to sleep tonight.  Maybe you are on a road trip and are running out of money.  You are in a car but are not sure of where you can park or just don’t feel safe doing so.  Not long ago I watched a few documentaries about people who are homeless or at least underhoused meaning they are camping or living in their car.  During the day they would go to work or look for work.  At night there were some places, some were even gated where they could pull their vehicle at night after a certain time and then had to be out at certain time.

Whenever you are in preparedness situation that I would define as time of having to find solutions to accomplishing things that are no big deal most of the time, one of the key tenants is avoiding groups of people as much as possible.  This practice lends itself to better personal moral during normal times, but in preparedness situations it could mean life or death.  The more people the greater the chance of disease, violence, and substance abuse.  The situation will be challenging enough without these pitfalls.

Recently I moved my entire family from York PA to Ft Worth TX to be closer to my oldest daughter and her husband.  My primary source of income for the past several years has been working with dogs through my company MCS Dog Training.  Even though I have been very successful in PA, it is taking a while to get off the ground in Texas.  With that in mind my wife and I decided I would go back and forth for a while.  I just got back from three weeks in PA.  I had an idea for a project- Hammock instead of homeless.

The truth was I have way too many Brothers who love me that would not allow me to be homeless, or at least their wives do.  It was also an option to get a hotel, but besides doing this project I felt that forgotten to be grateful for all the small things I am blessed with and take for granted every day. In addition to that I am introverted, love to be alone and value solitude.  So, the Hammock Project began.  For the next three weeks of October in Pennsylvania I would live in the woods…technically speaking, about 50 yards from a parking lot.  My mindset was that Momma had finally discovered what I spend on guns, knives, cigars, gear, and motorcycle parts and after 30 years of marriage without a cross word between us finally had enough and kicked me out.  The truth is that if she kicked me out in Texas I most likely would go back to Pennsylvania where I have the most assets and resources.

When we moved, I left my camping stuff up there because I knew I would be back and hoped to get out in the woods a bit.  A little background, I have been hammocking for about 15 years now.  I am somewhere between a trail hippie and survivalist.  The way I have always explained it is that I teach personal protection and preparedness with the process of mindset, training, tools and in that order.

Whether you need to leave your house for a few days while it is being repaired or you lose your job and find yourself homeless or anything in between it easy to imagine a situation where you would need to find someplace to sleep.  For most it comes down to beds and couches at friends or family.  Keep in mind that most people just cannot take vacations why this is going on and who would want to sit around someone else’s house.  You will still need to keep a daily routine and work.  Only getting few hours of sleep in a recliner, unfamiliar bed, or old couch will take its toll fast, quick, and in a hurry.  The idea of just suffering through it just sucks.

Before we get to all the cool hammock stuff, first you need to have a place to hang your hammock.  There are two types of hang options, permissive and nonpermissive.  Nonpermissive meaning no legal right to dwell upon a property should always be a last resort since detection could lead to legal consequences.  Unless you are a Lepper or something it is not that hard to find a spot to hang with permission, as long as you are alone, but that is another article.  The closest I have ever gotten to nonpermissive was about 10 years ago while working as a contractor for the US Air Forces Expeditionary Command at Joint Base Ft Dix, /AFB McGuire, /NAS Lakehurst as a combat skills instructor.  We would go up about 7 days a month.  One time I waited to the last minute to secure a room at the Air Force Inn, and they had no vacancies.  A bunch of the guys I worked with had rooms, so I decided to hang.  I got to the Air Force Inn Parking lot around 1900 hrs. on a Sunday night.  It was around October/November and cold.  It was of course dark with I got there so I took my Warbonnet Blackbird hammock and Superfly Tarp out into the woods about fifty yards off the parking lot, found two suitable trees and began to make camp.  I had my headlamp set to red.  The Superfly Tarp will allow you to hand year-round.  In order to do so it is big, with lots of line so that it can be configured low to the ground with door to make it windproof.  My hands quickly began to get cold and cramped.  I was so relieved to get it set up and get into it with a sleeping bag.  Remember you need to have something to sleep in, on, and under.  That trip lasted the 7 days.  Early in the morning and after work I would go to a buddy’s room to shower and watch TV.  I may or may have not hit the continental breakfast provided by the hotel.  Low end, that hang saved me about $350 or more.

Back to the Hammock Project.  There are a few key things to keep in mind.  The first is that the less people see you whether you have permission or not, the better off you are.  Plan to enter your hang well after the hours of darkness and leave early in the morning.  Unless you plan to break down your camp every morning you will be leaving your hammock gear there and likely a cashes of food and other gear.  Finding a place within walking distance where cars are left over night is key.  As a retired cop I can tell you that nothing draws more attention to shenanigans than an unoccupied car on the side of the road or being the only one in a parking lot at night.  Add an out of state tag and you might as well put Christmas lights on your car.  For this three week hang I was blessed by a church that I have been active with for several years.  They just also happen to have a shower and microwave that I have access too.  However, upon my arrival the shower was not working, no big deal, assets and resources right.  There is a local gym where at one time I had my Combatives School before starting to train dogs.   The owners are great guys and updated my key card that gave me 24/7 access to the gym and showers.  However, on this trip I did not have to use it after they fixed the shower at the church, but having options always gives you peace of mind.

Doing my best to keep the right mindset for the project I did my best to avoid people as I came and went.  Even though I had permission to be there I did not want to disturb anyone.  Time to talk about the advantages of a hammock for a sleep system.  Probably the best part it that you can pretty much hang it between any two vertical objects, not just trees.  Over the years I have hung under lots of people decks and used to hang between a fence post and the A pillar of my vehicle at my parent’s house close tot the Delaware Water gap. Once again, usually when they were having company to avoid everyone.  People may not have room for you in their house but you may be able to hang somewhere in their house, under their deck, or in their back yard / property.  Depending on your relationship with them you may have access to meals and a shower, maybe even an occasional load of laundry, not to mention a mail drop.  I will however strongly advise you to not take advantage.  Some people totally mean it when they say make yourself at home, but for most it is a sliding scale, especially if their spouse is not your biggest fan.  During this hang I was blessed with several home cooked meals at friends’ houses.  While in PA I attend a weekly Iron Sharpens Meeting at a Brother’s house.  We are there unless its raining because it has a killer fire pit.  When I got to the meeting I would just through in a load of laundry.  When it was done his wife was kind enough to put it in the bag…folded…such a Mom and leave it on the porch in my laundry bag for me.  She is a dear person and when she says she doesn’t mind, it means she does not.  Having a simple wardrobe of the same things allows me to only need to do one load of laundry week.   My suspicion is that most people have more laundry a week than I do.  In another article I will cover personal gear that now makes up my road/hang kit.

For the rest of this article, I am going to cover the gear I actually used during the hang that I plan on going over in detail during upcoming gear reviews.  The first thing to understand about hammocks is that they can be harder to find in subdued collars.  Whether I am hanging off a trail during a hike or doing a suburban permissive hang like this I don’t want a bunch of bright colors screaming look at me and what I got. it can be the same thing with tarps.  My favorite non subdued color is orange though.  You can spend tons of money on hammocks, but just remember one thing, as long as it supports your weight, the price of the hammock will have little to do with your comfort, that will be dictated largely by your structural ridge line.  When say comfort, I am referring to the comfort from your angle/position in the hammock not the temperature.  They are two different things and need to be explained individually.  Unless you are drunk, the chance of getting a restorative/comfortable night’s sleep in a hammock without education/training/and preparation is not going to happen.  The first principle is getting the same “hang” every time you hang your hammock regardless of where you hang it.  Otherwise, it will be like trying to get used to a new bed every night.  Let’s discuss the gear that I chose.

Having a bunch of hammocks from Warbonnet, Grand Trunk, Yukon Outfitters, and Wise Owl Outfitters, I needed to choose one and here were my selection criteria.  Had it been bug weather I would have chosen my Warbonnet Blackbird because it has a sweet nonremovable bug net.  I have an older version and now understand that the new model as a removable but net.  I will save my pennies and get one eventually.  My favorite thing about Warbonnet is their subdued colors.  Knowing that bugs would not be an issue I went with the Wise Owl Outfitters camping hammock that I picked up a while back.  I liked it so much that I have given several as gifts to bring people into the dark side of hammocking, not just thinking it’s something you can only do in your yard on a stand.

HAMMOCK

As with anything related to personal protection or preparedness, one is none and two is one.  Being 6’2 and over 300 lbs has led to may equipment failures over the years that could not necessarily be blamed on quality of construction but more of pushing limits.  Add that to my reputation of being able to break a ball bearing, when I tell you something is solid, its solid.  Having had hammock split over the years after a cigar ash or pocket clip ventilating the fabric, I always take two hammocks.  The orange and gray Wise Owl was backed up by a camouflage one from Yukon Outfitters.

TARP

As for tarps I had picked up one from Wise Owel Outfitters Hammock Tarp for a motorcycle trip back in June that I never had to use because we stayed in Airbnbs, that is what happens when you travel with old guys lol.    Knowing that this type of year weather can be unpredictable in PA, as a sit here in Ft Worth Texas where it was 92 degrees when I flew in on Friday and was 34 degrees this morning.  Just another perfect example of how to need to be prepared to make the adjustment if you want to stay comfortable.  My back up tarp was the Warbonnet Superfly.  If the weather, got spicey or my yet untested Wise Owl tarp failed I had a familiar option.

UNDERQUILT

So, if you have ever fallen asleep in a hammock on a nice cool summer night and woken up freezing and went inside, it was probably due to breeze underneath you while you slept.  The same way a bridge will free faster than a road surface, the ability of the wind to go both over and under your body in a hammock can cause a chill even on an otherwise pleasant night.  Even on a nice night you are not losing anything by using a under quilt.  Now I have made one before with the most awesome piece of Government Issue gear ever the poncho liner AKA the Wooobie, I purchased the OneTigris Hideout Hammock Underquilt model for the trip I picked up the Wise Owl hammock for.  Again, not knowing how cold it could get and having no previous experience with the One Tigris under quilt, I decided to back it up with the Sleepingo Sleeping Pad Backpacking Ultralight Mat.  My theory was that like when using a tourniquet, if it fails add another if you have it, I placed the sleeping pad between the bottom of the hammock and the under quilt for added protection.  One cool thing about the Warbonnet Blackbird is that it has a sleeve for a pad to go into.

HAMMOCK & TARP SUSPENSION and TIEOUTS

Now we get down to a crucial skill set that can mean the difference between a comfortable night and hypothermia, knot work and rigging.  Your ability to tie knots that are easily untied or adjusted are key.  Again, I will talk about their use in a future article.  The first thing you need to do is hang a ridge line that will support your tarp.  There are tons of ways to do this, but from a preparedness point of view where you want to conserve energy, I have found that the Continuous Ridgeline from Dutchware is the cats ass.  Super long, strong, and quickly adjustable, for me there is no reason to use anything else.  However, being a cordage junkie, I always have lots of it to accomplish whatever.  It comes with two Larks head knots that allow you to position your tarp o the line with ease, a Tarp Wasp on one end and a Titanium Dutch Hook on the other.

The six lashing points on the Wise Owl tarp come with an appropriate amount of cordage on them, however I will be changing them out with paracord before my, next trip.  After setting up your ridge line and centering it, you are ready to stake out the other four tieouts.   Weather permitting, I like to keep one side of the tarp up to act as a porch.  This was made possible by using Sutekus Steel tentpoles.  Those and four tent stakes allowed me to quickly create the shelter part of my hang, what I would sleep under.

GROUNDSHEET

The bottom line is that I cannot stand stepping in water with socks on or otherwise having things stuck on the bottom of my naked feet that end up making their way into my socks or sleeping bag.  For this reason, I prefer to put a fixed groundsheet under my tarp.  I use the UST Survival Blanket / Tarp.  I say fixed because I secure it with four gutter nails and four fender washers ensuring that it stays in a place and is easily removed without tearing the grommets.  It also provides an excellent place to sort gear without losing little, expensive things.

SLEEPING BAG

When it’s nice out depending on what your temperature you believe that to be, my ever-present Woobie is used as a blanket to keep warm.  Having my other three bags in TX and not wanting the hassle of flying with them I chose to use my Big Bason Sleeping Bag from Coleman.  This is a huge, warm, sleeping bag, but ungodly heavy for a sleeping bag.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s an awesome bag when it uses, however packing it, and carrying it suck.  Would be perfect for say cabin or car camping use.  It is a mummy bag which I prefer for hammocks for reasons I will explain in a future article.  Overnight emps ranged from about 45-50 degrees during the hangs.  Comfortability was easily maintained by zipping and unzipping and having different amounts of skin outside the bag.  Like I said earlier I do tend to break things and one night during the second week I broke the zipper to the point where it was not easily fixed during night while I was half asleep and blind.  This was easily remedied by grabbing my Woobie and using it like mortar to fill in the cracks.  If you are not familiar with the Woobie or don’t have one, just buy one or ten, everyone should have one…. everyone.  They make great gift ideas.

The day before I left, I stopped in at Army Surplus place and much to my surprise found a Snugpak Basecamp Ops Sleeper Lite in my favorite color olive drab for a good price and picked it up.  I used it the last night but that was not enough experience with it to comment on it.  I do like the feel of it and the stuff sack.

So, when it comes to hammocking, there are the bolts n nuts of what you need.  Something to sleep in, on, and under.  Gear reviews, putting it all together, and thoughts on improvements coming soon.