Hammock Camping in the 'Piney Woods' with Roseville's "Shug" Emery

Minnesota is blessed with an abundance of year-round outdoor recreational opportunities. For most outdoor enthusiasts, camping out in the deep woods during a mid-January deep-freeze isn’t on the list.

But for a group of avid hammock campers who came together on the internet and bonded around the warm, dancing flames of countless winter campfires, exploring the great Minnesota outdoors and ‘hanging out’ is a passion no matter what the calendar says.

“I’ve actually met about 90 percent of the friends I have in Minnesota through the Hammock Forums,” said Trevor Rasmussen of Eagan (aka: Fronkey). “I can’t think of a community on the internet that’s better than the Hammock Forums. There’s a lot of great people on there.”

Rasmussen moved to Minnesota two years ago as a Florida transplant. An avid surfer, Rasmussen says he was accustomed to lounging in a hammock at the beach.

“When I moved to Minnesota I needed a new hobby because surfing wasn’t here,” said Rasmussen. “I was looking up hiking and I came across hammocks for backpacking and said, "that’s for me.' So I got into it about a year and half ago and hit it hard. I quickly fell in love with it.”

Rasmussen says he now gets out to Minnesota’s woods, hammock in tow, at least once a week. He often meets up with fellow Hammock Forum members for organized outings such as the recent 2nd Annual Frozen Butt Hang where temperatures approached twenty-below. He also sometimes helps guide ‘newbies’ to the activity to help them get accustomed to the nuances of hanging from the trees rather than pitching a traditional tent.

Hammock camping is not new. Hammocks have been used for centuries to keep slumbering bodies above the ground. A new breed of hammocks have penetrated the camping and outdoor markets that are lightweight and compact, but they still haven’t reached mainstream status.

“It’s addictive,” said Darin Bjerknes, a Woodbury realtor who also recently got into the activity. “Tent camping might be a little easier, you put a tent up and you’re done, but hammock camping I think is more comfortable. I sleep better in a hammock.”

Bjerknes got into the activity because he was looking for comfort. What he found was the comfort of like-minded individuals that shared his passion for the outdoors.

“I wanted to get off the ground so I was watching some winter camping videos and then I looked into it more,” said Bjerknes. “I joined Hammock Forums and found out there was a lot to learn. But it can be as simple or has hard as you want to make it.”

Shug is the inspiration

Bjerknes, like most other hammock camping researchers, stumbled across a hammock instructional video by “Shug”, aka Sean Emery of Roseville.

Emery is a busy traveling performer known for his entertaining juggling act, but his hammock camping passion has helped him amass more than one million YouTube plays of his outdoor chronicles.

Ask any hammocker about ‘Shug’ and you’re apt to get a “whooo, buddy” salute. His entertaining videos serve as gear reviews, trip reports and instructional advice on different ways to rig up your hang. They also serve as the inspiration for many newcomers to get out and “hang in the piney woods.”

“That was never my intent,” said Emery about gaining icon status for hammock camping. “Now, there’s days when I want to shut the site down because I get so many PMs. So I deal with that sometimes. But then I get a really nice PM from someone thanking me.”

Emery regularly receives requests from product companies looking to get featured in his instructional videos. But that’s not what hammock camping is all about.

“It did take me kind of by surprise,” said Emery of his hammock camping popularity. “I really just try to inspire people to go camping. I never try to talk down tents, if you’re a tent guy, good for you, you’re getting out there. I always intended to video one night in my tent and one night in my hammock, but every time I get out there, I just don’t want to. I like to sleep in the hammock.”

Emery, too, is thankful for the bonds he’s made through hammock camping and said the outings and group hangs provide a comfortable outlet for those involved.

“To me it’s like picking bluegrass,” said Emery who also supplies all of his own music for his videos. “If I hit a bluegrass festival, it’s just a bunch of people with the same interest as you, and when I go to these hammock group hangs, the one thing you know is no one is bored out there. They’re out in the woods, they love it as much as you do. I call it fellowship.

I think all of us agree when we’re out there talking around the campfire that every one of us has friends and family that just don’t understand our enthusiasm for it," Emery continued. "So all of us guys are just out there doing it because we don’t have real good friends and family that like to do it, in a nutshell.”

They all agree that hammock camping provides more freedom to get out and explore areas where tent campers can’t traditionally go.

“You can do it anywhere,” said Rasmussen. “It doesn’t matter if there’s rocks on the ground or water everywhere. All you need is a couple of good trees.”

Emery recants stories of watching lightning storms while strung up on a hillside in the Linville Gorge of North Carolina. Or suddenly coming face to face with a timber wolf drinking from a stream during one of his many jaunts along the Superior Hiking Trail as inspirational moments that keep him going back into the ‘piney woods’.

They are also moments that keep him wanting to inspire others to do the same.

“Those are things I never would have seen had I not been in that spot at that time,” said Emery. “When that happens, I feel like I’m really glad I took the time to come out here. It’s like a little gift from the heavens.”