Isle Royale Forums

After recently becoming the owner of a portable hammock (ENO Doublenest) I thought of a question for the members of the Isle Royal forum. How many of you own a portable camping-style hammock (Eagles Nest Outfitters, Hennessy, Blackbird, etc), and second, have you ever used one on the island. When I began thinking back over all my trips, I can’t recall a single time when I saw a hammock at any of the campsites.

It has been talked about before. See the post "Backpacking Hammocks" further down in the "Gear & Supplies" forum.
Link to aforementioned post.... http://www.isleroyaleforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=984

I own and enjoy a Hennessey. The problems with hammocks on I.R. are twofold: First, campsites are very restrictive. It's not like in a wilderness where you can just pick any two trees. You must be camped within the bounds of a particular spot, which may or may not have trees. Second, what do you do in a shelter? There's no good way to hang a hammock in a shelter. So, you still have to carry a sleeping pad.

DonNewcomb wrote:So, you still have to carry a sleeping pad.

Whatever happened to just sleeping on the cozy wooden floor as Option B

A friend and I hiked the Minong last summer with two hammocks and had the best time yet. I've been to the island a couple times before and always did the tent/shelter thing, but this time we decided to take our hammocks, and they worked very well. I have a Warbonnet Blackbird and he has a Hennessy and both were well received and extremely comfortable. The nice thing about the hammocks is that there is actually a ton of sites to set up, despite what you might think about finding two good trees. You dont have to worry about the roots, rocks, or sloping ground of the Island. And as for "having" to carry a pad in case you get a shelter, with a good hammock set-up in my bag you couldn't pay me to stay in the shelters. I never liked them anyway so that might have some bearing on my decision, the idea for me to travel 2000 miles from South Florida only to get put into shelters that are ten feet from the next and sleeping on a wood floor seems counter productive. I'm on the island to get away from the crowded city, not go stay in a rustic one. If you have a good hammock set-up it will be the most comfortable trip on the island for you yet! Sleeping set-up: Warbonnet BB 1.1 dbl, Hammock Gear 40F Burrow, TeWa 3 Season Under quilt, OES MacCat Deluxe in Spinn, GG Thinlite pad for the legs, and whoopie slings and toggles for the suspension. Hope this helps, let me know if you have any questions.

leeblue5, thanks for the info. I was just curious if many people used hammocks here because I don't recall ever seeing them on the island. My buddy and I have always used a tent or a shelter. Did you buy your whoopie slings or did you make them?

I have a WBBB as well and have a trip planned to IR for early August. Really looking forward to it

I ended up buying my slings from another forum member over in the for sale section of hammockforums.net. I find a lot of my gear over there, and sell my stuff I'm not using also. If your wondering about a suspension for your hammock, slings and toggles are it. I can hang my hammock in just about 1 minute not counting the tarp.

I came across the hammockforums a couple weeks ago and I was astonished that there were so many topics on the forum and that there are over 15,000 members all talking about hammocks. There is definitely a lot of information over there.

Rafiki wrote:

DonNewcomb wrote:So, you still have to carry a sleeping pad.

Whatever happened to just sleeping on the cozy wooden floor as Option B

I hit 40 a long time ago and that option vanished.

I have a Doublenest. I have used it in the Boundary Waters. Way better than the Ground. I hope to use it on IR.