Testing Out the Hammock Tents

Posted by Beverly Hill Apr 27, 2009

The weather was literally perfect this last weekend of April, so we threw some gear in the back of the truck and drove out to Anderson Pond on the Eglin Reservation this past Saturday night so that we could test out our hammock tents before committing ourselves to a week of hiking on the Appalachian Trail. We tried this with a conventional tent last year and hit a few snags.

The first thing I have to say about the hammock tent is that it's amazingly light and doesn't take up any space at all. I picked out a couple of trees just a few feet from the water's edge and had the tent up in under two minutes. I added an inflatable mattress on the advice of another friend who said that it provided some stability, and laid back to enjoy, and I must say, it was awesome.

After a two minute set-up, we had time to kill doing other things like checking out the local hiking trail and finding wildlife to take pictures of. After an evening around a crackling fire I retired to my hammock tent and was again amazed. As I lay there swaying gently between the trees and gazing out across the pond I saw a shooting star through the mosquito netting. I rocked myself to a very restful sleep feeling as snug as a bug in her own little cocoon.

I can't wait to get out on the trail with this. I'm loving the idea of not having to look for level ground to put the tent on, or having to compete with other hikers for prime tent space. I'm loving my hammock tent.