I’m new to hammock camping. I got mine last summer, camped in the backyard, camped at Lake Conroe and brought it up here to try it in the cold. Because I’m an idiot and I can’t be told anything, I ignored the advice of experienced hammockers, believing my R5 insulated sleeping pad that works fine on the ground would work fine on my hammock. It didn’t. It seems there’s a thing called Cold Butt Syndrome when hammocking. Starting Saturday night, the first night at Dinner Station, the nights got progressively colder. Saturday night in the hammock got down to 33 degrees and I was cold with a 20 degree quilt and R5 pad.

Sunday night, I dragged out Rick’s 15 degree, 4 pound Nemo bag and used that in the hammock, and rigged my 20 degree topquilt as an underquilt. That helped a lot, but I was still a little chilled in the early morning hours at 32 degrees, plus my back was stiff from sleeping wrong in the hammock. Hammock camping has a distinct learning curve!

Monday night I moved it all into the car and at 32 degrees with a 15 degree bag and a 20 degree quilt on top, an R5 pad and a 1 inch memory foam pad beneath, I stayed pretty toasty. Major plus: viewing the Milky Way in all its glory from the comfort of my cozy bed through my car’s second row moon roof!

Fun fact: guess what your favorite memory foam pillow does at 32 degrees? It freezes into a cold, hard rock!

And then came Tuesday night and 28 degrees. I woke up miserable at 4am and couldn’t get back to sleep for anything. While tossing and turning miserably, it suddenly dawned on me that I could leave! Today! And suddenly everything was better again.

So Wednesday morning I was packed up before dawn and heading for Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, where it was in the 50s at night!