PSA- Danger When Hammock Camping
Last week I had grabbed a roadside campsite in the Speculator Tree Farm Easement area. Long story short is I rushed my tree selection and focused mostly on the spacing and where it was in proximity to the fire pit. In the middle of the night around 3am, I woke up from a cracking sound.
First I felt myself being pulled to the ground in a real horizontal motion. In that split second I figured my straps had slipped or broken. Next I hit the ground and then at that instant the tree hit me in the shoulder and thankfully bounced off. I was 100% fine (other than not getting back to sleep until the daylight).
Surveying the situation during my site selection, the trunk looked very healthy and was at least 10" in diameter. Had I looked up, before commiting to that spot I'd have seen it was completely bare of all branches and leaves. Completely dead.
The trunk was completely hollow. Not believing how easily the trunk bounced off me, the next morning I lifted it and it easily split under it's own weight- to which there wasn't much of.
Since then, I've read to check for dangerous hanging branches as well. It all seems like common sense now, but if this is something that escaped me, maybe I can help someone else here. Cheers!
First I felt myself being pulled to the ground in a real horizontal motion. In that split second I figured my straps had slipped or broken. Next I hit the ground and then at that instant the tree hit me in the shoulder and thankfully bounced off. I was 100% fine (other than not getting back to sleep until the daylight).
Surveying the situation during my site selection, the trunk looked very healthy and was at least 10" in diameter. Had I looked up, before commiting to that spot I'd have seen it was completely bare of all branches and leaves. Completely dead.
The trunk was completely hollow. Not believing how easily the trunk bounced off me, the next morning I lifted it and it easily split under it's own weight- to which there wasn't much of.
Since then, I've read to check for dangerous hanging branches as well. It all seems like common sense now, but if this is something that escaped me, maybe I can help someone else here. Cheers!
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