UPWARD IMMOBILITY: Do you find tents too mundane a lodging for camping adventures? Rise above it all by bedding down (or rather up) in one of Grand Trunk’s new ultra-lightweight, but super roomy (10.6 feet long by 5 feet wide), travel hammocks. What about the bugs? Screen them out, of course, with my favorite new model, the Skeeter Beeter Pro Hammock. A roomy layer of mosquito netting sewn onto the top of the hammock (with a double-sided zipper running the length of one side as an entry point), is kept suspended airily overhead via included guy lines that you can tie to the same two trees, boulders, porch posts — or even cars, if you must — as the hammock itself (only a bit higher for better clearance).
Like all Grand Trunk hammocks, the Skeeter Beeter Pro is made of parachute nylon, weighing in at a mere 35 ounces. The hammock stashes into an integrated stuff-sack, which functions as a small hanging bag when the hammock is strung up. Heavy duty carabineers at each end of the hammock latch onto whatever long strong rope you’ve brought to lash around your supports. Better yet, splurge on one of Grand Trunk’s neon-colored Trunk Straps (sold separately).
The 10-foot-long by1-inch-wide polyurethane-coated polyester straps have reinforced attachment/adjustment points spaced along the length to enhance grippage, or for latching on assorted gear or clothing in a kind of suspended “closet” system. Even if hotels are more your style, no reason you can’t hang this hammock between two strong balcony railings, or two palm trees on the beach.Grand Trunk Skeeter Beeter Pro Hammock in camouflage print, olive/khaki, or forest/navy is $85; Trunk Strap in choice of 6 colors, is about $30; at .
