Family Camp

Easton and Hannah in the DIY hammock, San Diego Family Camp










So... I took the weekend to tryout some of the backpacking items I have been working on, namely the hammock that I made using the instructions from this website. I bought the ripstop nylon at Joanns for about 11 dollars and the webbing for the straps - tree huggers- cost $1 at the REI leftover bin. I used the Hennessy lashing system to attach the hammock to the trees. Because I suck at sewing and our sewing machines don't work, I took the nylon (I think it is 70 denier ripstop) to my school, Cypress HS, and asked our Home Economics teacher Mrs. K to help me hem the edges. She did a perfect roll hem in about 15 minutes! I took the fabric and whip stitched the ends with nylon cord to gather the ends of the fabric.

The whip stitch gather at the ends of the hammock

I used some cord from REI to attach the hammock to the trees and some leftover cord as a ridgeline to adjust the sag of the hammock. In all I spent about 20 dollars and it worked out pretty well. It easily held 200 lbs. of weight and the whole system was quite comfortable.















Toby in the hammock testing the comfort and durability.




I used a ground pad underneath me for insulation and my mummy bag (unzipped) as a quilt. Warm and toasty I fell asleep in less than 10 minutes and woke up only once because I shifted down forcing my neck too far forward. I put some slack in the ridgeline and faced the other direction which put me in a more level position. In about 20 minutes I forgot about the crazed maniac lurking around the campground that was going to stab me, and I fell asleep for the rest of the night.

I plan to use the hammock up in Deep creek for the family backpacking trip this summer...Hopefully it will be as comfortable as it was in San Diego (No Ron Burgundy commentary, please).





Me testing out the DIY hammock at Family Camp 2010