Hammock Nesting Tricks From an Old Coot

Site Selection

Remember the first rule in real estate? Location, location, location.

  • First, pick two trees without obstructing branches and without an undergrowth problem.
  • But consider the optimum distance. If two trees 13 feet apart allow you to hang the hammock and your tarp without hindrance pick them over two equally appealing trees 18 feet apart. Why?
  • The closest possible trees will use less hammock rope or strap, which reduces stretch and sag.

What about weather concerns?

  • In winter this Old Coot picks trees with a north-south axis and protects the west side with the tarp low. A high tarp east side often gives a super view of the hillside below and the sunrise.
  • Hot sticky summer night? Get high on a ridge and pick trees with an east-west axis. Hang the head to the west. You will get cool breezes on the head and back and a super sunrise, good Lord willing.
  • Just miserably hot and you need a good night’s sleep and not a sunrise view and the ridge is just too far; pick two east-west trees on the windward side as far up as you are willing to hike. The rising prevailing westerlies will be caught by a well-hung tarp and be deflected over you.
  • Expect wind or a storm? Pick trees on the lee side of the ridge, a boulder, or a shelter.

Hammock Hanging Techniques

Center The Hammock Between The Trees

  • If the ropes on either end are different lengths they will stretch at different rates.
  • Centering eliminates guessing the stretch and having to compensate by guessing how much higher to hang the long rope end to achieve the proper lay.
  • When you have to hang un-centered (to avoid a branch or bush), LNT – do not break off the problem, do elevate the long end. How much is trial and error. Your goal is a level bed.
  • If you have trouble sliding toward the foot end try hanging the head end 1 inch lower on an otherwise optimal hang. You will not slide to the head with this minimal adjustment.
  • The sliding to the foot end, often on what you believed to be a level hang, is because the body shape is essentially a long tapering triangle to the feet; and the reverse is a more stable blunt broad triangle, head to the shoulders.

Plan your head end location before you hang the hammock.

If you use a speed sack, mark the head rope’s end. Some tie an extra knot in the head end but this can get in the way or create work tying and untying (possibly problematic). Some mark the end with nail polish; but alas, it will chip off, ask any woman. Alternatively, an 8” length of colorful thread sewn with two hitches at the end of the rope works, weighs nothing, won’t chip off, and never gets sticky. Dental floss also works, wears even better, and allows you to floss before bed.

Feather Your Nest

If you make more “Midnight Runs” in the woods than at home you invariably have organ discomfort. The two primary causes are uncomfortable ground and cold. The hammock solves the former problem. The underquilt solves the latter problem.

Old coots know that soft plucked down makes the nest warm and cozy. They don’t try to make sticks work and the smart hammock hanger won’t try to make pads work. Get a down hammock underquilt. Nothing beats the weight-to-warmth ratio and the compressibility of a down hammock underquilt. The comfort of sleep without squirming to get on and stay on a pad is beyond compare. Moreover, you can feel the warmth sooner and with more even spread than on a pad. You won’t wake up in a pool of sweat with a breathable under quilt like you will when using a non-breathable pad. And for all who are still using a sleeping bag, and who never noticed the sweat issue, know that the next day your bag weighs 16-32 oz more from the non-sensible sweat of the previous night.

Installing a Hammock Underquilt

The wise coot doesn’t just scatter down around the nest anywhere. They place it and move it if necessary, to maximize their comfort. Here are some nesting tricks that this old coot has learned…some the hard way.

  • First, hang the hammock underquilt gently under the hammock using the JRB underquilt suspension system.
  • The non-fixed suspension cords are made to allow you to adjust the hang to suit you.
  • Hang it as gently as possible.
  • Slide the suspension cords in or out along the hammock end cords until the quilt hangs loosely beneath the hammock.
  • Realize the hammock bottom material will stretch downward under your weight.
  • Learn at home with someone else in the hammock while you adjust and check. Put your hand between the hammock and the underquilt. Be careful, don’t insult your partner.
  • The side loops are a two-step ladder for a reason. When you guy the hammock a-sym corners out to a peg (normal?) in the ground – use the closest loop. If you guy high to a tarp or branch you may need to use the second loop. The objective is a gentle hang side to side also. If the quilt is pulled taut in any direction you will reduce loft. As to the relative thinness of 2 inches, take comfort and realize that gravity works for you on the bottom insulation in a hammock.

Cold Weather Tricks

Expecting weather below 40 degrees?

Fold the hammock underquilt in half-long ways (you can do this while the quilt is hung on the hammock if the sides are not guyed out) and shake the down into the middle area of the quilt.

  • It is easy to get 2.5-3 inches of down in the middle and still have coverage on the sides.
  • The outer edges of the quilt generally are above you and do not much matter.
  • Realize that the outer edges are still contributing two layers of nylon and a small amount of dead air space to the overall micro-climate of the Nested Hammock.

Colder still?

  • Try putting extra clothing, a dry rain suit, an emergency blanket, or even dry leaves between the underquilt and the hammock.
  • Also if you have not given up the pad, or you carry a sit pad, you can put it in this area for more insulation.

If you are using a Hennessy-style hammock

  • Another cool weather trick is to make the area you are heating smaller.
  • This is easily done by not tying out the asymmetric side corners of the Hennessy hammock.
  • The Nested hammock will then snug up around your sides as well. Yes, the bug net will be floppy – but who cares, it’s too cold for the bugs anyway.
  • Cold air leaking air through the entrance slit should not be a problem. But, if it concerns you, and it is so cold you want every trick in the book working for you, close the Nest slit on itself and not the hammock slit. You will have to enter and exit by moving the Nest to the side. This is easily done and the shock cord suspension system will return it in place automatically.

One last trick you all know.

Make sure you hang your shelter on arrival; including the underquilt if you are not wearing it.

This will give it time to fluff out before you get in and start the body furnace.

Wearing the under quilt also helps with the fluffing. I’m sure that you have noticed how much more loft and the increased consistency of loft in the morning, after a night of your body heat. Realize that there is also some increase in the moisture caused by non-sensible sweat that is still evaporating from the breathable underquilt. Yep…you got it. Obviously, pack the hammock last and let this moisture evaporate. Your pack will be lighter and your bed warmer.

Warm Weather Tricks

Let’s talk about warm weather and bugs. This old coot uses his underquilt all year. There are many reasons to do so. One never knows when the temperature will drop in the middle of the night. And remedying the problem is a pain at 3 AM if your underquilt is not already attached. Cold awakenings are unnecessary. But is it too warm? Not if you pick the right site and use these tricks.

First, recall the first paragraphs about sites and trees. There are often breezes. You must select your site to take advantage of them.

Still warm? Open the “windows”. Those cinch cord on the end of JRB quilts are there for several reasons. In summer they are there to be opened, a little, a lot, or all the way. Opening the head window will allow heat from the head and shoulders to escape and/or be cooled and still keep the vital organs warm. This technique still provides a windscreen of sorts that is sufficient for normal temperature drops. If the temperature drops severely, close the window.

But my feet sweat. So do mine. The foot window opens too.

Ever been bit by a mosquito through the hammock bottom?

  • Many have. Some skeeters are reportedly big and mean as woodpeckers. Just ask around. Some have gone so far as to hang false bottoms of no-see-um netting below their hammocks. Summer users of JRB hammock underquilts will not have this problem. The longest reported skeeter needle is only one inch. They can’t get at the wise coot using an underquilt.
  • Yea but… The JRB Nest doesn’t let the Velcro on my Hennessy hammock close and there is an open slit above it. The skeeters can get in this way. This potential problem is real but not necessary. The Hennessy slit is designed to close by weight alone. The original versions didn’t have Velcro on the entrance slit. The Adventure Racer still does not have Velcro. The Velcro is there to keep the hammock sealed while no one is in the hammock. If the two sides of the opening slit do not close flush there may be some Nest between them. Simply push the hindrance outside the slit and it will close fully.
  • Oh, you want to keep the skeeters out before you get inside. Put your top quilt and clothing bag inside. They are normally enough weight to hold the slit shut.

Hot summer nights using an underquilt can often be spent without any (or with minimal) top cover because of the micro-climate created by bottom insulation, side insulation, and rising body heat – quite pleasant.