Ontario Hang - Bon Echo Trip Report

[mbiraman]

LIke Beep said it sounds like it worked . BTW i buy the walnut oatmeal bars by the box, cheaper, and their always around in my pack or kayaking life jacket etc.
The tarp is one of our most important pieces of gear . Its great how it offers good protection and potentially a great view at the same time.

[Bunk]

Glad the trip went well! I sure would like to make it out to the next one...hopefully I'll have my hammock setup complete before too long...wouldn't be right to show up for a hang and sleep in a tent!

[Bubba]

Sounds like a fun trip. Sorry I could not go. Hopefully next time.

[entropy]

Chardpp was gracious enough to pick me up in Napanee, about 30 minutes away from my home in Kingston. Unfortunately, the interference of life, and road construction foiled our plans to meet up at the trailhead with the others.

We did get a good laugh at the other group who was just hitting the trail when we arrived. There were 7 of them and none of them had ever backpacked or probably even day-hiked before. They had two big rolling coolers full of beer, a big coleman stove, three 6-8 person Canadian Tire tents, a little ghetto blaster and lord knows what else. They were all setting out with backpacks and both hands full of something. They hit the trail about 20 minutes before Chardpp and I were squared away and we caught up with them about 200 meters in looking a little shocked at the condition of the trail. I think they expected a flat, graded path to their site, not 2km of Canadian Shield. After confirming that they knew enough to hang their food, keep their site clean and boil their water, we bid them farewell.

The hike in was very nice. It was a beautiful day and the trail was in good condition, if a little poorly marked in places. Not much for nice lookout points and whatnot, but lots of nice healthy forest and good company. After about 4 hours on the trail (we managed to miss a turn and ended up back at the road...) we arrived at the site around 6:00. We got our hammocks up, had a good chat with everyone. A few of us hung out by the fire until about 11:30. Lots of owls hooting and loons calling overnight, and even a pack of coyotes.

I was up on Saturday at about 6:00am and watched the sunrise. Had breakfast with BrianWillan and chatted until the rest of the crew got up. I've got some pretty conventional equipment so it was neat to see all the alky stoves, and a bona fide BushBuddy in action. (I think I'll stick with my whisperlite . I can confirm that hammocks are just as comfortable between the hours of 11:00 and noon, and 5:00-6:00 as they are overnight. Chatting, eating, sitting and fishing is tiring work!

We toured around a little bit in the afternoon and checked out everyone's setups. Even though we were all in Warbonnets and Hennessey's there was a great variety of tarps, underquilts, suspension on display. I think only vgnbkr had a completely stock setup, but I'm sure that wont last long now.

Even though it was raining off and on all day we still managed to get a nice fire going in the evening, then just sat around and chatted until bedtime.

It started raining about 6:00am Sunday and was pretty steady all morning as we were breaking down camp. Once we'd eaten and stuffed our soggy gear into our soggy packs it was about 10:00 by the time we hit the trail. shawnh, Sk8r and Sk8rs_Dad headed out a little earlier than the rest of us figuring we'd catch up down with them, but BrianWillan's knee slowed us down such that they were gone by the time we reached the vehicles. We stopped for a bit and chatted with the overloaded crew from Friday. They were managing OK and were having a great time in spite of everything, which was good to see. Hopefully they'll do things a little different next time.

After a quick dip in the lake, and a change into dry cloths, BrianWillian, Jefftrex, Kasuko, Chardpp and I headed down the road for a bite to eat then said our goodbyes.

In conclusion, the inaugural Ontario Hang was a smashing success. Couldn't have hoped to meet up with a nicer group of people. If any of you lurkers out there have considered going to a hang, but were discouraged because you didn't know anyone attending, my advice is just go! You'll have a great time.

[Chard]

Thought I'd move my other notes into the trip report and add more...

I had a great time meeting some on the Ontario contingent of the Hammock Forums community. Nice to put faces on some of the names.

Hoping everyone got home safe and sound and had a chance to do one last "hammock hang" at home to dry their soggy gear.

Special thanks go out to BrianWillian for organizing the event, and to Mother Nature for going out of her way to reschedule the beautiful sunny weekend I'm sure she had planned and turn it into overcast rain and drizzle just so a few of us "hammockers" could test out our tarps.

Some of the Bon Echo crew

Some thoughts...

• My relief at being greeted with a smile and not a scowl when picking Entropy up "just a little" late
• A group of car campers in all their overpacked glory, coolers and all, miles from their car... all amazingly still alive and smiling! Thanks for the beer and apple...
• Laughing to myself as half a dozen normally responsible adults joined me in eagerly watching 2 cups of water boil on a cool little wood stove.. What an odd bunch.
• Bushbuddies, amsteel and tarps.. Oh my!!! I see some DIY'ing in the near future.
• Having had a chance to see some of the commercial underquilts and topquilts up close. Having made my own, I could really appreciate the quality of design and workmanship. Nice overquilt Stormcrow!
• Being humbled by base pack weights.
• Pop & Singe and the old flying penny trick!!!
• Steak. Mmm... Curried mutton. Not so mmmm!!!
• Hiking heavy packs in rain. Not so mmm... Canoeing in next time. Mmmm!!!
• Never, never, never again choose to put back the coffee and bring tea instead. NEVER!!!
• and finally, who could forget the truly memorable "lunch" we had on our way out

I didn't really take pictures or video (sorry Shug), so I really look forward to seeing your postings.

Thanks again guys. Looking forward to the next "hang". I think we have enough canoers in the group to consider a canoe trip. Maybe next time we can even include some of our brothers from the lower 48 to join us (or vis-a-versa)!

P.S. SK8RS_DAD - I got the bandage back. Hope it helped.

Cheers,

Chardpp

[shawnh]

Now that all the work-related fires have been put out (a downside of owning your own business), I thought I'd join in and reflect on the weekend trip a bit. I'll skip over lots of stuff that's been covered already.

I was really looking forward to this for several reasons: I'd just discovered hammock forums and all the great techniques, gear, etc. that comes with that; I've backpacked hundreds of miles but hadn't been into the backcountry at all since my son was born (he's 3); my wife got me a BushBuddy for my birthday, so it was a great chance to leave the gas stove at home; and Stormcrow's quilts arrived the day before the trip started!

I caught a ride with sk8rs_dad and sk8r himself. We had an uneventful trip of about 2.5 hours from Ottawa. The trail in to the site was very typical of this part of the country. No big climbs, but lots of little ups and downs combined with lots of very angular rocks. I tried to step carefully to avoid twisting an ankle, and lightly to keep the stress on the knees down. We hiked slowly and steadily and got to the site in about 2.5 hours.

The BushBuddy was fun to use. I knew it required pretty constant attention based on previous tests, but since playing with fire is fun that was fine with me. I used it for all my cooking and was pretty happy with how it worked; it's not so easy to whip up a quick cup of hot water but if you are planning ahead it works great. It was also clear that you are rewarded for paying attention and keeping the fire going strong, and also for gathering some proper wood. It'll burn almost anything but there's a big difference in how well it burns. The water boiling experiment took forever since I was distracted with eating my supper.

Just got Hammock Gear's 3-season Burrow and Crowsnest. Thanks to BrianWillan for giving me some tips on actually setting it up! I was fairly comfortable the first night, and much more so the second. A few more outings and I'll have the perfect night's sleep! I have a couple of issues to work out: one, I'm having a very hard time keeping out drafts if I'm side sleeping, and two, the drawcord of the UQ at the foot end interferes with the lie of the hammock and where I want to put my feet. I probably had it too tight, I'll have to experiment. Neither of these things were a problem sleeping on my back, which was toasty warm and extremely comfortable. I'll have a more thorough review and pictures when I get a little more free time. Thanks Stormcrow for this extremely well-made product!

Other random thoughts:
* Everybody was extremely friendly, was definitely glad I went even though I didn't know anyone
* I've never seen so many alcohol stoves in one place -- I thought they were just a thru-hiker thing
* I've never seen a (self-proclaimed) backcountry noob show up with all-homemade gear before. Very impressive!
* Thanks for organizing this, BrianWillan!
* And thanks for the ride and the company, sk8rs_dad (and sk8r!)

[Kasuko]

* I've never seen a (self-proclaimed) backcountry noob show up with all-homemade gear before. Very impressive!

I am assuming thats me? Thats what you get for discovering hammocks and hiking at the same time. Then spending a year on these forums before you ever actually do anything about it :P

[Bunk]

A canoe trip sounds like a grand idea

[jefftrex]

it was great to meet all of you for the first time except for Brian who i had meet before.

I am not good with words and i am not sure what i could add that the others haven't already said.

I liked checking out everyone's setup and after seeing Brian's new Ogee tarp i am thinking to get one but i would have to sell my WD tarp to offset the cost.

even thought the weather wasn't the greatest it was still a fun trip and I enjoyed it very much.

Looking forward to making the a annual event.

now here is my pictures showing the differant hammock setups

[jefftrex]

here is all of the pictures I created a public web album in Picasa

http://picasaweb.google.com/jefftrex...stOntarioHang#