It’s much easier to find one good tree than two correctly spaced, especially in the American west. And where there are no trees at all, often a vehicle can support one side of a hammock. We design our hammock stands to exploit these facts to the fullest, offering Tensa Solo and Trekking Treez singly instead of in pairs. This assures better portability and economy than any other stands we know. Even Tensa4, that doesn’t come in a single-side variant, can hang two hammocks from a single tree or similar support.
Earlier this summer my son and I hiked part of Mt. Hood’s Timberline Trail. We brought a pair of Trekking Treez, as the glacial stream crossings are much safer with poles than without, to say nothing of the treacherous scramble below McNeil Point. Using a single pole per person is half the weight and expense of two, while Trekking Treez’s strength, much greater than typical trekking poles, inspires plenty of confidence even under full body weight.
When we reached our overnight destination of Elk Cove late in the day, in the tree-sparse high alpine zone, we made use of a single Whitebark Pine to hang both our hammocks, far more quickly and sociably than if we’d needed to find separate pairs of trees. We could have pitched tarps, but the clear skies gave us unforgettable views of the Milky Way and even the Neowise comet.
Later in the season, we traveled to Crater Lake. Smoke from the wildfires had only begun to dim the views, but we found refuge near the headspring of the Rogue River on the western slope of the volcano. Not wanting to leave our river view or bushwhack too much to find four suitable trees clear of underbrush, we split one Tensa4 stand into two halves to hang us both from one tree.
A single stake under the head end apex secures a V-shaped guyline running along the ground to prevent the feet from sliding treeward. The same stake provides an anchor point to prevent the stand tipping for more security; we just hung our packs from the head ends instead. It was useful to have had two extra ball loop connectors than come with the stand to connect the feet to the ground straps, but otherwise we used no additional parts.
We brought the stand along because we planned later to camp at hot springs in the treeless scrub near the Alvord Desert, where we’d hang from the roof rack of our vehicle in a similar manner. Sadly, the wildfire smoke became too oppressive even that much further east, so we ended our trip without photos of that arrangement.
More detail on the split Tensa4 setup:
Cool! Question: How would you pitch tarps when using the Trekking Treez?
TT can be configured with the hiking tip upward above the hammock and guyline connection point, using a deliberately flexible connector to prevent the extension from imparting bending moment to the main poles. You then guy it out to stay upright under the tarp tension. See the documentation for a visual.
Crew, you should make a YouTube video on one tree, two hammocks. I’m trying to wrap my head around it from the pictures and text lol.
We keep meaning to, but there are other things that get in the way (we are poor at making videos, Cheryl’s day job is absolute chaos with a new owner and spikes in Covid Delta, trying to keep up with current orders, and other such excuses). Email us directly and we can help, Cheryl might even have time to do a zoom call with you.
Several years ago, my son, brother-in-law, and myself, hammock camped on our way to a famly reunion 400 miles away. We spent the first night south of Bend, OR., in a lodgepole pine forest. We tied to three different trees on the head-end and all to a single tree at the foot-end. With the combined weight of three adults, the single tree began to lean towards us–eventually slowly putting us all on the ground. We got up, straightened the tree up and then tied it to a tree a few feet behind it, went back to bed and slept soundly the rest of the night. That lodgepole pine forest was almost all smaller pine trees 6-8 inches in diameter.