Casey Steele Heeter Loves Hammock Camping

Casey and I met through the Hammock Forums Facebook group, as I saw him posting content about his many trips to the Red River Gorge.

We struck up a conversation around the gorge and even planned a failed trip or two to backpack some of the areas most popular trails.

I’ve always appreciated how often Casey gets out, and how committed he is to living an outdoor focused lifestyle. He’s been super active in the forum and quick to offer advice to newbies, even if it’s the 1 billionth time we’ve seen…”So I’m new here…where do I start?”

Like me, Casey does most of his backpacking with his dog, Odin a 3 year old Australian Cattle Dog “Blue Heeler”. Odin often sleeps in the hammock with Casey and even has a mini hammock made custom for him by the owner of Trail Headz Hammocks John.

We are both strong supporters of the Cottage Industry and Casey has hammocks and quilts by many of the great producers in the space.

Check out his recommendations:

Trail Headz Hammocks: www.Trailheadzhammocks.com

Autumn Ultralight Hammocks: www.autumnultralight.com.com

We talked quite a bit about backpacking in the Red River Gorge, Casey’s first pack, which weighed somewhere around 75 POUNDS…and the adjustments he’s made since, including selling his TV to buy hammock quilts…which is just awesome.

Casey also loves Kayaking and owns both Sit in, and Sit On styles of crafts. His dog also seems to enjoy the aquatic based camping as he accompanies Casey on many of the trips.

We both utilize RoughWear camping gear for our dogs and we talk through some of the gear we bring, and how we sleep in a hammock with our animals.

I really enjoyed learning how Casey has been able to organize raffle give-always for group trips by donating the proceeds to local non profits, like search and rescue organizations that need funding.

One of those orgs, The Wolf County Search And Rescue, can always use extra support.

Check out this super interesting interview with my new friend Casey Steele Heeter.