Several years ago, I took my wife on a
camping trip.
Down the Grand Canyon.
I had hiked the canyon a couple of
years earlier with friends and
afterwards, my wife decided that she
would like to take the trip.
Her decision was a little surprising
(she's not normally a hiking/outdoorsy
type), but she walked all through the
spring to prepare for it and had no
trouble with the hike to the bottom
and back. In fact, she was pretty
impressive. She fell flat on her face
about a mile into the hike down with a
full pack. It was windy, cold, and
raining a little, and I said that we
didn't have to keep going, but she got
up, brushed off her bloody knees, and
trekked on. Not half bad.
Anyways, in his latest phlog, Jynx
alluded to sleeping on a thin mat
while camping in Ashley National
Forest in Utah (a lovely state with
the worst 3% supermarket beer, but I
digress...).
When we hiked the Grand Canyon, we
brought no mats. That was my decision.
I was loaded with about 30 pounds more
than my wife, who insisted on packing
*much* more water, a bit more food,
and a few more items of clothing than
we needed (I might still be bitter)
and so I insisted that we minimize the
pack weight anywhere else possible.
The end result was that we took my
very small supposedly-two-person tent
and no sleeping mats. I also suggested
that we didn't need walking poles (I
don't).
I have heard about those decisions
ever since. It doesn't matter that I
was still packing 55-60 pounds....
Anyways, when we camp with the car, we
take air mattresses. There is nothing
better. They are so comfortable. That
being said, up here in Canada, you
need to have as many blankets below
yourself as above (or you freeze all
night). In my opinion, it's best to
have separate air mattresses, even if
you share blankets, because it
insulates you a bit from the movements
of others...
So I guess that was an overly-long
roundabout way of saying that I think
an air mattress will beat a hammock
any day of the week. You'll be a
banana in a hammock. On an air
mattress you can stretch out. You'll
be floating on a cloud.
