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.

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.

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.

I met a good chunk of Europeans and Aussies while thru hiking on the AT a few years ago.

All of those folks did not have full accommodations booked in advance, that would have been impossible. They seemed to find that pretty normal and were not turned away.

I’ve seen several so far. I’m surprised I haven’t seen much coverage of previous protests besides just a passing phrase.

…anyone seen national news coverage of this yet?

Local news in MA is covering it.