Everything Went Wrong on My First Solo Hammock Camping Trip

I mean, I'm in it, it just feels wrong. In this video, I'm doing something I have not done in a long time. I am going hammock camping. How hard could it possibly be? There's gotta be a better way to do that. I've definitely done something wrong. Right now, it is gorgeous out, but tonight it looks like the weather could be a problem. This is a mess, I'm not gonna look forward to dealing with later. Oh God, this is amazing. Oh boy, oh, the rain is really, really picking up. Maybe I've made a grave error. This is my show, gosh darn. Okay, so I just parked my car right here. We have actually arrived at the end of the road. See, now the actual trailhead for Lake Dorothy, Dorothy Lake, and the other lakes beyond it where I'm headed is about four miles down this road. So I could walk it, but I've decided to get there in a faster and more fun way. Ta-da! So I decided to bring my e-bike with me so that I can easily bike the four miles to the trailhead. This bike that I have here is actually new to me. And as you saw, when I pulled it out of the car, it is a folding bike, which made it super easy to chuck it in the car and drive it out here. And I'm hoping I can just kind of stash it in the woods, lock it to a small tree or something, cover it with the tarp, and then tomorrow come back and be able to bike back the four miles to my car. All right, let's do this. Woo, goodbye trailhead. You can see why the road is closed. Okay, being able to ride this trail, a really closed road on an e-bike is awesome. I am absolutely loving this bike. And this is fun. Okay, but I got a break now. That feels too expedient. Okay. Oh, fun. We have a little water crossing. I don't really know what the protocol is here. Oh, my feet. Oh no. Okay, well that just got my shoes completely soaked. Duh, Miranda. Now my feet have to dry while I'm riding. Made it to the trailhead. Now, gotta find a spot for the bike. The trail continues over there. I think what I'm gonna do is actually lock my bike up to this picnic table right here. And then I can just cover it with my tarp. It's out of the way. It's locked to something immobile and should be good to go. Now it feels like an appropriate time to mention that this video is actually sponsored by Electric E-Bikes, which is the company that makes this bike that I just rode in. This is the Electric XP4 and it is their newest e-bike. I actually had a chance to try the XP4 in the Grand Canyon. Electric invited me out for a ride. It was amazing. And I just fell in love with the bike. So when they offered to sponsor some content, I was obviously really excited because there's so many things about this bike that I think many of you would really love. First of all, as you saw, this bike folds up super easily, so easily that I could just like tuck it in the back of my car, which was honestly fantastic. Pull it out when I got to the trailhead. It's also one of the smoothest rides on an e-bike I have ever had. What I love about this bike is that it starts at just under $1,000. And right now, Electric is actually offering $350 in free accessories when you buy a bike. Huge thank you to Electric for sponsoring this video. Now that I have the XP4, I can tell that I have some pretty cool bike adventures in my future that I can't wait to share with all of you. All right. With that, let's hike, shall we? Okay. We have a fully covered e-bike. Hopefully it doesn't bother anybody. And also hopefully it doesn't get stolen. Goodbye, trail-headed bike. Time to start a hike. So Dorothy Lake is a mile and a half from the trailhead, but we are going on to Bear and Deer Lake, which is about five miles from the trailhead. So we certainly have a bit of a hike ahead of us. This trail is really beautifully maintained. We are gaining quite a bit of elevation. It's basically just a stair climber all the way up to Dorothy Lake. I think my plan is going to be to get to Lake Dorothy, eat some lunch, and then continue on the remaining three and a half miles to Bear and Deer Lake, which is where I'll be camping for the night. Oh my gosh. These stairs. They just keep going. I have only been hammock camping a handful of times in the past. So this is pretty new for me. On one hand, of course, I'm hoping it doesn't rain. On the other hand, I kind of like the idea of a rainy little adventure, you know? Makes things a bit more interesting. Okay. Woo, the stairs are over. All right, let's get to this lake and get some lunch. Oh, there's a bridge. Oh my gosh. Wow. What a bridge. This bridge is amazing. We go over this huge flowing river. It's just gorgeous in all directions. Woo. Bridge, bridge, bridge. Oh, I love this trail. More stairs. Well, at least if you want to train for this hike, you know all you have to be able to do is a stair stepper for a mile and a half. Flat. Yay. Check this out. This is a huge root ball. See? Big root ball. There's the fallen tree. There's this enormous boulder just embedded in it. It's just like embedded in the tree roots. Look at that. That is a huge heavy rock. Nature's awesome. So far, this trail has had absolutely everything I love about the Pacific Northwest. Ferns, moss, and lichen. Gorgeous flowing water. But this section of trail right here might be my favorite so far for two reasons. One, you can't smell it, but there's skunk cabbage growing here, which has this very odorous skunk-like smell. Not bad. It's just very earthy. As soon as I walked into this section of trail, I was like, skunk cabbage. The second reason that this section of trail is my favorite is because of this enormous tree. This thing is a beauty. Amazing. Oh my God. It's the most beautifully maintained stairs. And I hate them. Ooh. Ooh, hiss. Right on. Okay. Behind me is the trail that I just came up. Over here, we have the trail that continues on to Bear and Deer Lake. And then the small trail here that goes to the Dorothy Lake Day Youth Area. So I think we're gonna go check that out and then continue on up to Bear and Deer Lakes, where I'm camping for the night. Wow. Welcome to beautiful Lake Dorothy. So right now it is one o'clock in the afternoon. I still have three and a half miles until I get to Deer and Bear Lakes. I am doing something that is abnormal for me, which is hammock camping. So I wanna have some time to get all kind of set up and comfortable at camp, but I also don't want to rush getting there. This is my lunch. I have some salami, some Havarti cheese, some salt. And then I also got myself a apple pull apart from a bakery that is very well known in Western Washington called Sultan Bakery. It is right along one of the highways that takes you directly into the mountains and to so many of our trails. So I stopped at Sultan Bakery, got myself a little pastry. Ooh. Yum. Mm, done. I could say some curse words about this. Oh, really, forkly good. All right. I'll make some of my treat. And then we're gonna say goodbye to gorgeous, enormous Lake Dorothy and continue on up to the two small lakes where I'll be setting up camp for the night. Got an extra little pep in my step after lunch, which is good. So we have more stairs to climb. Okay, so I think we have climbed up and away from Lake Dorothy and are now continuing up to Deer and Bear. But I'm honestly not entirely sure. Like, Lake Dorothy might still be kind of back there. It was weird. It was like we were hiking along, I could see the lake through the trees and then made a little turn. And all of a sudden, it now feels like I'm walking away from it, but I never saw any little trail to the side leading to the campsites at Lake Dorothy. So either way, it's fine. I'm on a very clearly marked trail, very obviously going somewhere. I just don't know if I am now beginning the climb towards Deer and Bear, or if we haven't yet reached the Lake Dorothy campsites. All right, mystery solved. We are still hiking along Lake Dorothy. It's really quite a large lake and you can probably see it right now through the trees to the side here. I can actually see the end of the lake. And once we hit those campsites, we'll then have roughly a mile and a half, I think, until we get up to Bear. So yeah, certainly this section that has been all just up high and flat along Lake Dorothy has gone far faster than climbing those stairs was. Oh man, because that was hard. Let's continue along the trail. Let's get to camp for the night so I can get this hammock fully set up, hopefully correctly. Cue hiking montage. That is the trail that I just came down and way over there on the other side is where the trail continues. Let's do it. Let's go for it. Oh, wow. It's not that cold. Oh, the water feels lovely. We made it. That was actually really fun. We're changing back into real shoes. Oh my God, there's so many bugs. All right, onward. Hi, y'all. I think I've done a pretty poor job of filming this climb up from Dorothy Lake. That's mostly because it's really hard. I'm trying to just kind of bust out this last, what is probably half a mile or a mile or something, but man, I'm going really slow for sure. All right, the trail is certainly not as well maintained from Dorothy Lake up to where I am now. Still easy to follow. Still really nice. Oh my God, okay, I have to keep moving. These bugs are crazy. All right, come on. Let's get to Bear Lake. Let's do it. I was just thinking to myself, we must be quite close to Bear Lake. And what do you know? We're here. Oh, oh, campsite. Let's take a look. I could hang my hammock from this tree to that tree, or from this tree to that tree. That might be a bit close. So I could also go from this tree to that tree. So definitely some options. Okay, we're also gonna check over here because I thought I saw another spot that we passed by. Okay, so not as good. We got one tree there, a big tree there. Great for a tent, but not for a hammock. After scoping out all of the campsites around Bear Lake, I've determined that this is the best one. And also maybe the only site suitable for hammock camping. So it's perfect. Oh, these bugs are vicious. All right, first things first, we're going head net. So much better. Now, I was thinking about setting my hammock up here between these trees that I had pointed out before, but I poked my head over here again. I don't know, I'm kind of wondering if maybe I was wrong before, and maybe this actually is a better spot to set up my hammock like between this tree right here and that tree over there. It's wide enough, it's flat, might be easier to stake, and there's a nice breeze coming from the water right here because it's so close, but the bugs aren't as bad. Well, I do believe I've talked myself into it, so we're gonna set up here. So this is my hammock, my underquilt, and my ridgeline. When I set this hammock up yesterday as a test run, I buckled all this stuff together, and then I decided to just leave it like this to bring it out here. Oh, and my top quilt, also. So yeah, I'm gonna see if this works. I'm gonna try and string it up. To be totally honest, that was a lot harder than I thought it was gonna be, but I feel like I got at least this part done pretty well. Feel confident in it. So, rainfly's next. This is so much harder than setting up my tent. So much harder. I've definitely done something wrong. Okay. So I believe this string, I think, is supposed to go around the tree and then double back on itself, but my trees are too far apart, so I looped this around the strap itself to see if that would work. And then on this side, I just hooked it onto these strings. Problem now is that the rainfly is directly on top of the hammock, and I don't think that's right. So right now, I duck under here. It is, oh, man. I mean, I'm in it. It just feels wrong. Maybe I should have set up at those other trees. At least I'm gonna go look at those other trees, see if it'd be better. Yeah, we're gonna move. I'm gonna try and do this as quickly as possible, and then I will show you my new and hopefully better setup. Ideally, before the rain starts. Ta-da! After considerable hubbub, finally got the hammock set up. Oh, Jesus Christ, these bugs. Hammock tour. This is the hammock. This is the front entrance. Oops. Go in here. And under here, I have my underquilt, which is, I think they call it the blaze. It's a 30-degree quilt. Then I have my sub-six hammock, which is a super lightweight hammock from Eno. And then I have my top quilt, which buckles in on the side right here to the underquilt, which is kinda cool. This is the, I believe it's called a ridgeline tensioner. So I can tighten it and make the hammock have more slack or loosen it and make the hammock tighter. It's pretty cool. And then this loop that's connected to the hammock connects to the strap. And that strap is around the tree with my eighth-inch foam protecting the tree. And this up here is the rainfly. Ta-da! That entire setup process took like 45 minutes, which is a really long time. Because even though I set this hammock up, just as is, in a park yesterday, it's extremely different setting it up actually in the wild, especially with an impending storm. There are actually still a few things that I do need to put into this hammock setup, including my pillow, my headlamp, my little lantern, but I'm gonna do all of that right before I go to sleep. For now, I'm super hungry after that hike in, and I really just wanna get some food. For my dinner tonight, I have Pinnacle Foods Creamy Tuscan Chicken. This is one of my favorites, definitely one of Rainer's favorites. As you can tell, Rainer is not here with me on this trip. He's at home. So in honor of him, we're eating some Creamy Tuscan Chicken. I'm attempting to brave the bugs without my head net so I can actually eat. But I'm just ready to deploy it. Oh, God! Oh! Bleh, bleh, bleh, bleh! Can you see all these bugs? I know you can. I can see it in the little screen. And that's just the ones that are on me. There's thousands more around us. Okay, I'm gonna eat my dinner, I'm gonna get some of my stuff cleaned up, and honestly, because of how bad the bugs are, bleh, bleh, bleh, ah! I might be turning into the hammock early just so I can sit in that bug netting and swing in the hammock because these mofos are bad. It is such a beautiful night on the lake. I wish I wasn't so bothered by these bugs. There's gotta be a better way to do that. What am I doing? Oh, boy. The best possible thing that I can say about this moment right now is that I'm in the hammock and I'm away from the bugs. This is not raining. Not yet, at least. Okay. So, I have figured out a system for organizing the hammock and truthfully, it is not nearly as hard or as bad as I thought. I am currently sitting up in the hammock looking out at the opening of the mesh. What I have in here with me is the tripod for the camera, which I could definitely just chuck out there and probably will. I have a waterproof bag with my little drawing book and some colored pencils. I've got this little baggie with my electronics in it, my fanny pack, which has more camera accessories in it, as well as my Garmin and my phone, and then my storage bag for the camera from Hyperlite. I've got my other action cam in here and my waterproof bag for the camera. And then back here at the other side of the hammock, my jacket, which is also where I'll probably chuck the clothes that I'm wearing when I put on my pajamas. That ain't perfect, but it's okay. I was really expecting the hammock part at camp to be the most complicated or take the longest or be the big problem to solve for this trip, but instead it has turned out to be very trying and very challenging in other ways, with expected things like the bike and the climb up to the lake, but also some unexpected challenges. And some of them I've handled really well, I think, such as needing to move the hammock. And some of them I've handled really poorly, I think, such as dealing with the insects. So I'm just gonna hang out here for a little bit, enjoy this view, and then we will close it up and go to bed. Oh my gosh. Okay, I just popped the rain fly on and I was about to get in and go to sleep, but the sunset, the sunset is here. Oh, we have to go see it. Oh my gosh. Oh, the clouds are turning pink. Oh, gosh, it's so funny. I don't have my watch, so I don't even know what time it is, but it must be. Oh, oh, beautiful. Oh my God. Oh my gosh. I'm feeling my face for a second. This is amazing. For a moment there, that mountain, which is kind of faced over there, it was lit up pink. That's called Alpenglow, and it is one of my all-time favorite things, when the light reflects on a cliff face like that and it just glows pink. That honestly made my night. After a ton of finagling, I finally think I figured out the hammock sleeping setup. I don't know if I'm quite at an angle, but I definitely feel flat, which is great. I have my Filolete pillow right here, but it kind of feels nice just to have my head in the hammock, actually. Right now, I have the underquilt up around me like this on both sides. Here it is on this side, underquilt. But I don't actually have my top quilt, which is over me, buckled in. I just have it kind of like cinched around me. I can absolutely tell that being off of the ground is keeping me warmer with this big poofy quilt underneath. All right, it's bedtime. I will see you early tomorrow morning. I'll wake up. Very much hoping that the rain that we are inevitably gonna get, it's just a light drizzle and nothing too challenging to hike in. Fingers crossed for that. All right, with that, I'll see you in the morning. Good night. Good morning. Oh, it's about 6.30 in the morning. It means that I slept for a solid eight and a half hours. I did get a little bit cold, which I'm slightly surprised by. I'm gonna check my thermometer and see what the low temperature got to. But mostly, I just stayed snuggled up like this, with my little blankie on my head like this, and it was so lovely. It definitely rained pretty hard last night. I woke up around like three in the morning and it was just pouring rain. But right now, it's not raining. So I'm going to take this opportunity, where it's not raining, to get up and get my stuff together and maybe think about making some breakfast. I think I finally figured out the rain situation. So I was actually able to adjust my rainfly that's over the hammock, so that I can sit in the hammock and still have a view of the forest. All I basically did is I adjusted the two front corners of this rainfly to be further away. So now, rather than me like sitting up in this hammock and staring at it, it did nothing, basically. You're like having to be fully wrapped up in a blanket. I have this view, which is so much nicer. As you can probably also tell, I started dismantling things just a little bit. I slid my bug net over to one side, and then I did go ahead and pack up my two quilts into the bottom of my pack, so I can kind of like start thinking about getting things organized and packed away. Now that that's all done, I am finally going to make some coffee and some breakfast. I am so glad that I went ahead and adjusted this tarp so I can be in here to cook and eat, because I'm not sure if you can hear, but the rain has been picking up, and intermittently it'll like dump rain, and then it'll kind of stop. So being able to have a dry spot is so nice. Okay, enough yammering, coffee, breakfast, now. So for breakfast this morning, we are making Mountain House biscuits and gravy. And then I also have a packet of Starbucks instant coffee. This is a clean out day for meals. We're using up the Starbucks instant. We're finally eating the Mountain House biscuits and gravy. As of right now, the bugs have really not been bad at all, or even noticeable. So I am hoping that it's just because of the rain, and they're like, I don't know, somewhere else. But I do want to kind of quickly get my food and my breakfast so that I can start thinking about moseying out of here. I think what I've appreciated most about this night of hammock camping is being able to be underneath a rain fly when it's raining out, and off the ground sitting in the hammock. Like that has been so wonderful, and it has made the annoyance of the rain as persistent as it is, honestly feel not that bad at all, and in some ways super cozy. And I think that's a benefit of hammock camping that I didn't really expect. When you're sleeping in a tent in the rain, unless you've brought a big tarp to hang up or have a chair or something that elevates you off the ground, you pretty much have to sit in your tent, covered by your rain fly while it's raining. But with the hammock, I can be elevated off the ground, have these beautiful views out from where I'm sitting, and stay completely dry. You can probably tell that I am hesitating to say that this is something that I will do again or more frequently, because there are certainly some downsides to the hammock. I'm gonna get my breakfast and we'll talk about it. Oh my God, why do I always do that? All right, so cons of hammock camping. Oh, a big one for me is the setup. Walking to one tree, attaching the strap, walking to the other tree, attaching the strap, attaching the hammock, adjusting the hammock, putting on the rain fly, adjusting the rain fly. It's just quite a process. Now, I view that as a con, not necessarily that it's difficult and acknowledging the fact that the more I did it, the better I'd get. It's just that it is a process that is more challenging than just chucking up a tent. I love to just pop my tent up, stuff my sleeping pad and my sleeping bag or quilt in there, and then just be good to go. Another con, finding the right campsite. It took me a little while to find a campsite that had trees that were the right distance apart. And then I also had to move my stuff. But that's a process too, having to just have exactly the right situation for camping. And another con for me was definitely the lack of storage and organizational space in the hammock. Now, I do know that Eno in particular, and I'm sure other hammock companies, have these gear loft things that you can attach to the ridgeline tensioner, I believe, or whatever this thing is called, ridgeline tensioner. Oh yeah, so I know that Eno in particular has this pocket system that you can attach to the hammock. So that would have, I guess, helped, but it's just another thing to set up, which brings us back to the con of the setup. But maybe the most important thing is how is the quality of sleep? I am stunned at how well I slept last night. I went to bed at 10 p.m. and didn't wake up until six in the morning. That's the best. All of the pros and cons aside, I personally would be like, eh, hammock camping's not for me except for the fact that I slept so well and so comfortably, and my body feels amazing. So that is pretty awesome. If you have a hammock that you are truly in love with, that you think that I should try, that will solve all of the cons I just listed, please let me know in the comments below. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, look at that. Oh, I pretty much packed up everything. Took down my hammock, got everything in my pack here. I just have a couple of little things lying on the ground that I still need to deal with. The rain is really, really picking up. This is a mess. I am not gonna look forward to dealing with later, both how wet it is and also the terrible job of folding up the cord that I just did. Release this down and we can hike out of here. Sweet, we're all set, all bundled up. Let's get that final view of the beautiful, rainy lake. Maybe different from yesterday. Okay, goodbye lake. It is very rainy, very damp. I have put away my big camera in this pocket here. That's why I have all this stuff strapped to my front. I think I'm gonna try and bust out this hike up from Bear Lake to Dorothy Lake as quickly as I can. I'm walking past these bushes that have collected all this water. Everything is damp. Look at those pants and those shoes. Oh boy, okay, we made it. My feet and my pants feel no different than they did before the stream crossing. I'm fighting the urge to run because this is bear country and I don't wanna be running along the trail. I'm a black bear, I think I'm a snack. I mean, I am a snack. Cut that, that was embarrassing. We made it back to the trailhead. Okay, now we gotta go see if my bike is still here. It is, hello bike. Boy, am I happy to see you. Okay, made it back to my bike. My bike is dry, it is all in one piece and it has mercifully stopped raining. So I'm going to take this opportunity to head back to my car. If you are a hammock backpacker, I would love to hear from you in the comments below. Tell me what I did right. Tell me what I should do different next time. I'd love to hear it all. I have four miles of biking back to my car. So I'm gonna hop on this bike and say goodbye to all of you now. If you liked this video, as always, please hit the like button and subscribe to my channel and I will see you outside, bye. I've heard it said that this is where the black bears live. And I know that I am visiting your home and I am being pretty stinking loud for a reason so that you know that I am here. ♪ Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do ♪