Switching to hammocking made a huge difference for me!
Eventually I did the AT and hammocked almost every night. Only drawback was leaving my pack outside overnight and picking off the spiders and insects in the am.
Why not hang your pack to keep it off the ground? I’m assuming you have the ability to do so, since you’re already setting up a hanging hammock. Paracord is cheap and easy to stow in your pack, and you can just tie it around a rock to toss over a tree branch.
I did do that a bit. Generally I preferred to just keep it under the rain fly though to grab stuff if needed. And that makes pack up in the am much quicker anyway.
Ended up just not caring about the insects after the first few weeks.
Switching to hammocking made a huge difference for me!
Eventually I did the AT and hammocked almost every night. Only drawback was leaving my pack outside overnight and picking off the spiders and insects in the am.
You mean picking the spiders from you or from your backpack?
I case of the former, there are mosquito nets for hammocks. I use them when I go wild camping with my hammock almost every time.
I’m case of the later, maybe putting on the rain protection might help, as you can pull it off and give it a good shaking in the morning.
Picking them off my pack.
I use a hammock gear hammock, attached bug screen and internal ridge line. So it pops right up as you hang it.
Why not hang your pack to keep it off the ground? I’m assuming you have the ability to do so, since you’re already setting up a hanging hammock. Paracord is cheap and easy to stow in your pack, and you can just tie it around a rock to toss over a tree branch.
I did do that a bit. Generally I preferred to just keep it under the rain fly though to grab stuff if needed. And that makes pack up in the am much quicker anyway.
Ended up just not caring about the insects after the first few weeks.