Reviewer  information

Name	Marie-Noëlle Augendre	I started backpacking nine years ago, day-hiking in Ile-de-France all year round, and doing several one or two-week trips in more mountainous regions (Corsica, Pyrénées, Cévennes, Lubéron, etc.) each year. In the past three years, I have gradually lightened my pack load as I changed to a hammock, an alcohol stove, a light pack and running shoes instead of boots. Nowadays, I am more and more attracted to the outdoor way of living, to the point I have moved to northern Quebec a couple of months ago, in order to spend as much time as possible not only backpacking, but also kayaking, canoeing, snowshoeing, dog-sledding, etc.
Age	48
Gender	Female
Height	about 5 ft 2 in (1.57 m)
Weight	170 lb (77 kg)
Email address	augendre.bgt@gmail.com
City, Country	Lac-Kenogami (QC), Canada

Product information

Manufacturer	Lawson
URL	http://www.lawsonhammock.com
MSRP	169.99 $ US

	Listed	Actual
Measurements  - length  - width  - height  - pack	90 in (228.6 cm) 36 in (91.4 cm) 22 x 6 in (55.9 x 15.2 cm)	66.9 in (170 cm) inside measurements of the hammock, showing its actual habitability 47.2 in (120cm) 17.7 in (45 cm) 25.6 x  10.2 x 4.5 in (65 x 26 x 11.5 cm) actual size of the stuff bag, with everything inside
Weight  - rain tarp  - stuff bag  - poles  - poles bag	4.25 lbs (1.93 kg)	4.83 lbs (2.19 kg) 15 oz (425 g) 3.25 oz (92 g) 8 oz (226 g) 0.25 oz (7 g)

Product description and assembly

The Blue Ridge Camping Hammock arrived packed in its own stuff bag, with two pages called "Instructions for use" and "Care instructions".

In the stuff bag, I found:

1. the hammock itself, with its two spreader bars collapsed in two pieces each
2. two shock-corded four-piece aluminum poles in their own stuff bag
3. a rainfly

As no hanging ropes or straps are provided by the manufacturer, I took the hanging straps from my "ordinary" hammock in order to hang the Blue Ridge between two trees in my yard as soon I got it out of its bag. For the most part, the assembly instructions are rather instinctive and easy to follow ... at least for the first steps: the two parts of the spreader bars fit into each other the poles are similar to any tent pole, they slide into fabric loops and secure in grommets at each corner of the hammock; additionally, they are tied to the hanging rings by a cord so they stay erected

It got a bit trickier when rigging the rainfly: I still don't know what is the "adjacent rope" I am supposed to attach the corners snap hooks to; and the rainfly remains quite loose, whichever solution I tried in order to shorten the elastic loops. Things didn't get any better when I tried to settle in the hammock: I thought I had hung it high enough, but I promptly found myself ... sitting on the ground! I had to hang the Blue Ridge hammock more than 3 feet (90 cm) over the ground to be able to actually "hang" myself.

First impressions

Due to its elasticity, the hammock is not easy to set up: I had to hang it much higher than the height I expected to sleep, and both the height and the elasticity don't facilitate the "climbing" in/out. As for now, I'm not sure which component is responsible for this, but my own hanging straps are not questionable as I have used them many times with other hammocks without seeing any such phenomenon.

It is hard to get the rainfly tight: I had to hang the hammock almost horizontally to achieve an acceptable result.  Unfortunately, such a flat hammock is not very comfortable, and my back was saying so on the next morning ...

The hammock tends to flip over easily: the wind was blowing rather strongly on the first day I hung it, and it was upside-down in a couple of minutes. And at the end of my first night, I found myself lying on the mosquito net instead of the bottom of the hammock; fortunately, I was so close to the ground that I hadn't fallen out of the hammock, but was more or less lying on the ground.

The sleeping platform is very large and, combined with the elasticity and unsteadiness of the hammock, I find it difficult to move / creep into a good sleeping position. There is nothing (fabric sides, ringing line, etc.) I can hold to, so the only option seems to creep around. That's quite hard with a sleeping bag+pad combo, as I feel like a mummy tied to a board ... The mosquito net seems efficient enough, but it is in the way when getting in / off and I've already stepped on it a couple of times. There are two inside mesh pockets, but they are almost out of reach when I'm not actually lying in the hammock; as previously said, it is large (and I'm not tall), and elastic, and unsteady.

There might be a couple issues about rain protection; what I've already noticed: water does get - and stay - inside the hammock. I'm not sure where it came from, but I definitely ended in a pool of water for two nights in a row! I just didn't realize it before getting up thanks to my mattress thickness ... there is no room under the rainfly to shelter gear from rain, even for a pair of shoes; I've been obliged to put them in a plastic bag so they won't be wet when I get out of the hammock. The rainfly swings with the hammock, so water runs everywhere underneath. when climbing in or getting out of the hammock, I couldn't avoid water running down from the rainfly so I got wet each time. Lastly, I found two points that show the quality check is not as thorough as it should be: of the four "hooks and loops" tabs provided on each side of the hammock to secure the rainfly in heavy winds, two have been sewn more than 3 inches (about 8 cm) away from the place they should be; they can't operate. there are two spots in the rainfly, in the middle of a side panel: at first, I thought is was dirt of some kind; but when I looked to the wrong side of the fabric , I saw that one of them shows lack of coating material.

Testing plan

During the next four months, I intend to use the Blue Ridge Camping Hammock as my main hammock, thus sleeping in it in my yard on a daily basis. Additionally, I will take it with me on every multi-day trip I'll do, either backpacking or kayaking / canoeing. Most of these trips will be done in the Saguenay - Lac St Jean region (province of Quebec, Canada) where I live.

It is a region of woods, lakes and rivers where heights remain mainly under 1475 ft (450 m). I expect night temperatures in the 45°F-68°F (7°C-20°C) range, with plenty of mosquitoes and other biting insects. Weather changes rather often, and it can be fairly dry for some days in a row, and I could get some strong showers too.

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I would like to thank Lawson and BackpackGearTest.org for giving me the opportunity to test the Blue Ridge Camping Hammock.