View Full Version : Sleeping Pad for inside the shelter
I plan on carrying a pad so if I need to sleep in a shelter in the Smokies I won't be sleeping with nothing insulating me from the ground/floor. After I get through the Smokies will I need it again or can I send it home?
Gambit McCrae
02-09-2016, 10:27
Guessing you are a hammock sleeper and I do not have a lot of experience in that but *I am not condoning this, just stating what I saw*, when I hiked the smokies with about a zillion thru hikers last march I saw hammocks at every shelter...the shelters were full and people need protection so if all you have is a hammock then ya gotta use it.
As far as needing a pad, yes all the wood floors are hard and not completely flat, so having a pad and an empty pack to level yourself out helps a lot.
I have a double layer hammock, and use my pad for insulation along with a light under quilt. Gives me a bit of flexibility with temp range. Anyway, I've found my pad to be useful at rest stops and other times that makes it useful to always have with me.
Gambit McCrae
02-09-2016, 11:49
As well I didn't think about- If you stay in hostels- a lot of them just have bunk style wood bed flats
I have a double layer hammock, and use my pad for insulation along with a light under quilt. Gives me a bit of flexibility with temp range. Anyway, I've found my pad to be useful at rest stops and other times that makes it useful to always have with me.
+1. I carry a 3/4 length pad and sit on it during breaks and in camp, so I use it every day. And although I rarely ever go to the ground, there have been a couple of times that I had to and I sure was glad I had the pad. A cut down z-lite only weighs about half a pound, so it's worth the weight penalty in my opinion.
Thanks! I am a hammock sleeper, but I may need to stay in a shelter occasionally. If possible I rather sleep in my hammock outside the shelter of it is full.
Thanks! I am a hammock sleeper, but I may need to stay in a shelter occasionally. If possible I rather sleep in my hammock outside the shelter of it is full.
In G.S.M.N.P. it shouldn't be too difficult to hang out until the shelter fills. Then hag. You are required to be in or near a shelter in the Park.
UNLESS - the Park Service frowns on hammocks at shelters. Check the Park Service rules for G.S.M.N.P.
Wayne
Gambit McCrae
02-09-2016, 14:46
In G.S.M.N.P. it shouldn't be too difficult to hang out until the shelter fills. Then hag. You are required to be in or near a shelter in the Park.
UNLESS - the Park Service frowns on hammocks at shelters. Check the Park Service rules for G.S.M.N.P.
Wayne
They don't like it...But the rule specifies you can not use the shelter to hang your hammock off of.
Feel like Whiteblaze could hire a full time question answerer on GSMNP specific rules
Agreed. And I am not worthy.
Rule #8 quoted above is ambiguous. If there is another rule that clearly says that shelters are Not backcountry campsites then hanging isn't permitted at shelters. My guess is that the rangers give me hammock folks a break. Ignorance is bliss.
Clear as mud hey.
Wayne
Sent from somewhere around here.
Charlie Oscar
03-03-2016, 11:51
I am going to do a 3-3 1/2 hike from Fontana to the Gap. When I talked to them about permit this morning I said that I understood that if the shelter is full I could hang a hammock (not attached to the shelter). The ladies response was "No you can do that", she said that unless I was thru hiking I had to sleep in the shelter. I started to ask here about if I got there late (I am a slow hiker) and it was full....... She didn't really want to get into it.
So, I am bringing the Hammock and a small pad to cover everything, I am not sure whether I should have my boys to bring a tent or just the pads. But if we get there late and the shelter full, then we have to move some thru hikers out so they can sleep? I am probable making this too complicated.
I am going to do a 3-3 1/2 hike from Fontana to the Gap. When I talked to them about permit this morning I said that I understood that if the shelter is full I could hang a hammock (not attached to the shelter). The ladies response was "No you can do that", she said that unless I was thru hiking I had to sleep in the shelter. I started to ask here about if I got there late (I am a slow hiker) and it was full....... She didn't really want to get into it.
So, I am bringing the Hammock and a small pad to cover everything, I am not sure whether I should have my boys to bring a tent or just the pads. But if we get there late and the shelter full, then we have to move some thru hikers out so they can sleep? I am probable making this too complicated.
Technically, yes, if you have a reservation at that shelter and it is full, someone would have to get out. Whether or not you want to fight that fight is up to you. But I wouldn't take my kids out overnight without a tent/hammock and rely solely on the shelter space being available. You could also have a problem of some sort and not get to the shelter, get caught in a storm, etc...I'd have them take their tent.
HooKooDooKu
03-03-2016, 16:15
Technically, yes, if you have a reservation at that shelter and it is full, someone would have to get out. Whether or not you want to fight that fight is up to you. But I wouldn't take my kids out overnight without a tent/hammock and rely solely on the shelter space being available. You could also have a problem of some sort and not get to the shelter, get caught in a storm, etc...I'd have them take their tent.
Ditto
I'm not going to risk getting into a late night confrontation with a stranger in the back country (especially with kids along) trying to demand my reserved spot at a full shelter. I always have a plan B.
One example I've done before was to bring my tent for "fast fly" mode (ground cloth, poles, and fly). I use the ground cloth in the shelter to protect my gear from possible nails/splinters/etc. If I encounter a full shelter, I can then setup my "fast fly" to camp 'tarp' style.
buoyantbeans
04-19-2016, 16:36
Last October, I showed up at Icewater Springs Shelter in GSMNP at around 3:00 in the afternoon. Since the shelter is close to New Found Gap and it was a cold, rainy day, the shelter already had 22 hikers crammed into a shelter made for 12. It was crazy up there. I had my thru-permit so I set up my hammock, but you have to be prepared, even with a regular reservation. I also encountered a ranger and a ridge runner who checked my permit. Great experience, but be prepared.
I bought a Hennessy Radiant double bubble pad. This thing is huge, lightweight but freaking huge. This is the 2nd sleeping pad i have bought, the first was the self inflating kind, this one works except its width is so narrow that i wake up all the time because i have rolled off a lil to one side and my arm is freezing because no pad under it. So now my second pad from Hennessy comes in and its huge, takes up a ton of backpack space. I haven't used it yet but going to next weekend for a section hike over 3 days. The only reason i bought this is because their hammocks are rock solid and I have had no problems with them. Anyone have a good sleeping pad recommendation or have experience with Hennessy?
Secondmouse
04-22-2016, 14:10
when I hang, I carry a Klymit Static V2 as the lightest/cheapest/comfortablest mattress I could find as a backup. it has 30D top fabric for light weight matched with 75D bottom for durability. it weighs 16.33oz
I see now they have a 13oz Static V Junior which is a 3/4 length (50") mat that uses the 75D fabric top and bottom so it might be more durable as a sit/lounge pad...
Greenlight
04-22-2016, 14:37
The GSMNP personnel were very friendly as I discussed this on the phone with them a few weeks ago. You don't know how much of this stuff just goes "water under the bridge" and I'm sure they don't want a lot of counter-guidance explaining around their posted rules. That said, you have to reserve and use the shelters. Thru-hikers (started at least 50 miles out from GSM) can move on to established camp sites, which I'm sure started out as illegal camp sites, but they are now well known and it is better to use them than have a bunch of people trampling on the flora. Stay here, don't stay there, don't use this, don't put that up right there... Want to know what really happened? I booked our shelter. We used it. It was packed. There were people camping close to the shelter. Never saw a ridge runner the entire weekend. There were no cops with whistles and zip-cuffs carting hammock campers away. Do reverence to the written rules, obey them if you can, and if you can't, be friendly about it if they catch you, and you'll probably get a finger wagging.
I am going to do a 3-3 1/2 hike from Fontana to the Gap. When I talked to them about permit this morning I said that I understood that if the shelter is full I could hang a hammock (not attached to the shelter). The ladies response was "No you can do that", she said that unless I was thru hiking I had to sleep in the shelter. I started to ask here about if I got there late (I am a slow hiker) and it was full....... She didn't really want to get into it.
So, I am bringing the Hammock and a small pad to cover everything, I am not sure whether I should have my boys to bring a tent or just the pads. But if we get there late and the shelter full, then we have to move some thru hikers out so they can sleep? I am probable making this too complicated.
Starchild
04-22-2016, 15:24
... That said, you have to reserve and use the shelters. Thru-hikers (started at least 50 miles out from GSM) can move on to established camp sites, which I'm sure started out as illegal camp sites, but they are now well known and it is better to use them than have a bunch of people trampling on the flora. ...
Not OK to use abandoned or 'stealth' camp sites in the Smokies, but camping for thru's when the shelter is full is within the vicinity of the shelter, a basic 'test' is within sight of the shelter. Some thru's chose to sleep on the dirt floor of the shelter which is also a option.