At some point along my hiking career, I will be attempting more and more back country hikes and the odd overnight in the back country. Over the last three years, I started to transition from the world of tent camping to the new & exciting world of hammock camping.
The advent of newer & cheaper materials have allowed hammock designs to go beyond the traditional image of what we think of when someone mentions the word "hammock". This has allowed for complete sleep & shelter systems to be produced where it takes up 1/4 of the space & weight than a one-person tent. Local retailers such as The Trail Shop in Halifax offers a few models along with other retailers in the city.
The main advantage of hammock camping is of course the comfort of not having to crawl out of your tent on your hands & knees in the morning. But other considerations such as reduced impact to a camp site, flexibility in the back country are what makes this a great alternative to the traditional one-person tent.
But while hammock camping is geared more for the back country, you can still enjoy its advantages while car camping.
Which brings me to my latest adventure - Tent alternatives in Provincial Parks.
I was invited to bring along my hammock camping gear to Amherst Shore Provincial Park to demo in front of park staff from the entire province. It was part of an afternoon workshop where I got to see another alternative to a tent - Yurt.
Amherst Shore Provincial Park (GPS: N 45 57.670 W 63 52.740) has been on my list to visit for a few years now. It is located along the Northumberland Shore, it makes for a perfect home base to visit the various points of interest from Amherst to Tatamagouche.
The park itself has a camping loop and beach access. There are also several trail loops that allows you to log some time walking the mixed forest. It is this type of forest that makes the park a great location to hang my hammock and spend an overnight.
After enjoying a calm night and some breakfast, it was time to explore the trails and to find some geocaches.
The park is also a part of a geocaching challenge. At the park office, I picked up my "passport" On the passport was a list of five geocaches, all located at five different provincial parks. With the iPhone in hand, I took advantage of the WiFi connection at the main office and looked up the details of the geocache at Amherst Shore.
First part was to find & identify a tree located within the park. Once that was done, I had to quickly solve a puzzle in order to decode the final set of coordinates. This brought me to the final location. After finding the geocache, I punched my passport with a orienteering punch that was in the container. This is important because by completing all five geocaches, I will be able to redeem the passport for a reward item. The punches at each geocache is proof that I visited them all.
So I will keep my passport handy so that if I'm visiting one of the four remaining parks that are part of the challenge - I will be able to complete the challenge.
The advent of newer & cheaper materials have allowed hammock designs to go beyond the traditional image of what we think of when someone mentions the word "hammock". This has allowed for complete sleep & shelter systems to be produced where it takes up 1/4 of the space & weight than a one-person tent. Local retailers such as The Trail Shop in Halifax offers a few models along with other retailers in the city.
The main advantage of hammock camping is of course the comfort of not having to crawl out of your tent on your hands & knees in the morning. But other considerations such as reduced impact to a camp site, flexibility in the back country are what makes this a great alternative to the traditional one-person tent.
But while hammock camping is geared more for the back country, you can still enjoy its advantages while car camping.
Which brings me to my latest adventure - Tent alternatives in Provincial Parks.
I was invited to bring along my hammock camping gear to Amherst Shore Provincial Park to demo in front of park staff from the entire province. It was part of an afternoon workshop where I got to see another alternative to a tent - Yurt.
Amherst Shore Provincial Park (GPS: N 45 57.670 W 63 52.740) has been on my list to visit for a few years now. It is located along the Northumberland Shore, it makes for a perfect home base to visit the various points of interest from Amherst to Tatamagouche.
The park itself has a camping loop and beach access. There are also several trail loops that allows you to log some time walking the mixed forest. It is this type of forest that makes the park a great location to hang my hammock and spend an overnight.
After enjoying a calm night and some breakfast, it was time to explore the trails and to find some geocaches.
The park is also a part of a geocaching challenge. At the park office, I picked up my "passport" On the passport was a list of five geocaches, all located at five different provincial parks. With the iPhone in hand, I took advantage of the WiFi connection at the main office and looked up the details of the geocache at Amherst Shore.
First part was to find & identify a tree located within the park. Once that was done, I had to quickly solve a puzzle in order to decode the final set of coordinates. This brought me to the final location. After finding the geocache, I punched my passport with a orienteering punch that was in the container. This is important because by completing all five geocaches, I will be able to redeem the passport for a reward item. The punches at each geocache is proof that I visited them all.
So I will keep my passport handy so that if I'm visiting one of the four remaining parks that are part of the challenge - I will be able to complete the challenge.
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