My first ever solo overnighter in the woods with hammock and tarp

Small trip report of my first ever overnighter in a hammock and tarp.
Out in the Belgium woods last weekend.
Hiked to my camping spot over some nice trails in sunny warm weather.



Setup my mini camp for the night.
Tarp in a flying A-frame with the center lifted on one side for more view and airflow inside.
Hammock setup with ridgeline for a little sag.




Started preparing some firewood. With all the rain we had here it took longer to find some bone dry pieces of wood than I expected.


My new MKM Normar by Lionsteel helped splitting and making curls to get the fire started later. It performed like a champ


Then put the kettle on for some tea and relax a bit. Enjoy the birds singing and the buzzing of the insects


Sky got cloudier, that made me realize rain was coming later on. Put all my gear and firewoon under the tarp. Started to prepare for dinner earlier than I wanted. But it takes a while so better get started. Kettle on for a quick boil of water for my rice. Cutting veggies (Onions, peppers, garlic) with the Normar, not a kitchen knife but sliced up everything in no time.




Rice is in the mug with the boiled water while I cut up the rest of my veggies


Put the veggies in the bigger pan with a can of kidney beans, the rice boiled further in the mug. Both fitting nicely on the grillplate of my MSR Core 4 stove.




Grilled a beef sausage to complete the meal


When I filled up my bowl it just started to rain... ate it under my tarp. Was kind of glad it started raining when it was still light. gave me some time to see if everything was setup right to start dry. Added driplines to the hammock suspension ropes to be sure that stayed dry too.


The water gathered a bit on the folds I couldn't get any flatter in this setup (hints anyone?), that made the water come down with a little splash every few minutes. So even though everything stayed dry underneath that made me decide to remove the raised center before I went to bed to prevent me waking up from that splashing sound


Rained stopped after and hour or so. A beer with a tiny campfire before I went to bed.


Ready for bed now, put most of my thing in my pack and covered that ... more rain and thunder coming in ...

 

Not my best night sleep ever... I think the hammock could use a little more sag give me a bit more room diagonally. Mosquitoes buzzing around my head didn't help either... a bugnet would have been nice. It rained most of the night, sound of that was nice. Waking up in the woods with the sounds of nature is priceless.


How everything looked in the morning


Time for breakfast. Bannocks, eggs and a sausage
preparing my dough first


Put the kettle on for some coffee


Then my bannocks


And my eggs


Great way to start the day


Had a sausage left from last nights dinner... that completed the breakfast


Broke up camp, everything in my pack again.


And hiked back to the car. A great first time overnighter with the hammock and tarp.


Hope you guys enjoyed reading this and this wasn't too many pics..

 

Looks like good trip and the food looks delicious.

 

EPIC TRIP!

looks like you were very well sustained meal wise ! A cold Reeb is always awesome!

great photos (you can never have too many photos!)

Hope to see more !

 

More info on the MSR Core 4 stove please….

can’t find any info on web or in North America

 

https://shop.mysurvivalpack.com/
I have it for about 9 years now, they're out of stock since a long time now.

They are amazing, can be setup in many different configurations, triangular, swuare, including a gassifier mode that burns very efficient.

 

Looks like a fun outing, thanks for sharing. I like the looks of that knife.

 

That's a lot of belly on a scandi.

 

Thanks for the kind comments guys.
The knife was new for me and use it for the first time.
It does have lots of belly but it performed great.

 

Thanks for posting! I love seeing trip reports! When I have the time I have one to post up from my first solo trip last week (and first real camping trip in a couple years - since we had the kids...)