Linclon Woods NH 1-2011

**psyculman** · 01-23-2011, 18:33

TJM and myself enjoyed an evening out near Black Pond, off the Linclon Woods Trail in New Hampshire the evening of 1-22-2011.

We were a little disappointed at the temperature of about 7 degrees, we were hoping for at least bit below zero. Our equipment was perfectly up to the task however, thanks to Hammock Forums. The pictures will tell the story. My HH set up was covered by a Hennessy poly hex, with added DIY closed ends, not shown in pictures. My DIY 5" down UQ worked great. A blue wally pad, w/ 1/4" poly batting/dbl. IX/SB insert, IN the sleeping bag was toasty. Only Carhart poly long johns and wool socks were needed. (with a hot water bottle)

Some of the pictures may have a wrong default date, because I took the batteries out of the camera to keep them warm.

My DIY insulated overcover, which is velcro's to my HH SS undercover was sealed TOO well. Although it held steady at 44 degrees inside all night, it also resulted in a GREAT deal of condensation, and my down bag was soggy in a couple of places. The digital humidity device showed 85% inside the hammock enclosure. Humidity outside the hammock showed 20%. Had we been out for more than that night, it would have been a BIG problem. Lesson here is adequate venting is essential !!! But we were were both warm none the less.

**The Belgian** · 01-23-2011, 18:43

Nice pics...I myself am hoping for some sub zero temps on the trip to Roan Mt. TN in Feburary. Just finished my homemade pulk sled and wanting to get in some snow.

**Rilmoigan** · 01-23-2011, 20:15

Man, I really wish I could 'ave gone...That looked like sooo much fun! It would have given me a chance to try out my Dixon Roller Pack snow skid setup too!

Ah well, there will be other times & other opportunities...

Glad it all went as well as it did!

**RKP** · 01-23-2011, 20:20

Looks like a great time. Some nice snow for pulling your pulks.

**Can't Wait** · 01-23-2011, 20:22

Really nice report and pic's glad trip went well

**OutandBack** · 01-23-2011, 20:25

Enjoyed your report and picts. thanks

**Shug** · 01-23-2011, 20:31

Just terrific when hangers are disappointed that it was ONLY 7º....
That's the spirit. I like that over-cover ...looks warm.
Shug

**psyculman** · 01-24-2011, 05:16

Originally Posted by Rilmoigan

Man, I really wish I could 'ave gone...That looked like sooo much fun! It would have given me a chance to try out my Dixon Roller Pack snow skid setup too!

Ah well, there will be other times & other opportunities...

Glad it all went as well as it did!

Well, if we do it again, maybe you can make it !

Roller pack, hummmmmm. now that is a great idea! I did not know about a 'snow skid' for those. Thanks.

There were some side hill places, and, my DIY plastic storage bin with home made wood runners went off the bank, and took me with it. Got tangled up in tow straps and snow shoes. It was less than glorious. Plus it was way too top heavy, and also did not want to make tight corners. It was just a pulk quickly put together for the event. It's kind of hard to buy a sled now, when all the stores now only have SWIMMING POOL STUFF! But, something like a 'roller pack' would be a much better solution for some of the trails.

**tjm** · 01-24-2011, 09:50

John,

Accuweather says minus 7 deg F for Lincoln NH and we were at least 1000 feet higher in elevation from there so I am pretty sure we hit negative numbers. It was 13 deg F when we got back to the trailhead on Sunday noon.

http://www.accuweather.com/us/nh/lin...cast-month.asp

Trip Report

This was the first hike together for John and I. I was anxious about pushing to a new overnight low temperature & about us being compatible. John was a great partner and meeting another winter camper was very kewl. We are already thinking about the next trip.

We had a lot of different gear so it was interesting to see another way to do things. The three hour drive to the trailhead went by very quickly with lots of gear talk and winter camping talk.

Two examples of who John is:

1. John did all the snow melting chores on Sunday morning which allowed me to catch up to him in packing up the gear

2. After I said I need to get a cozy like his, John gave me his reflex cozy and said he will make himself another one.

Oh, and he was very accomodating of my wanting to gather and prep dead wood in case we needed to make a fire in the middle of the night. Doing that gave me a great deal of peace of mind and the activity really warmed us up prior to burrowing into our hammocks.

Black pond is about 3.5 miles in from the trail head. The first 2.5 miles is on a very popular XC ski/snowshoe trail, Lincoln Woods. The last mile is on the Black Pond Trail.

Fortunately for us, a large group had past through eariler in the day, using the Black Pond trail as part of a bushwhack to Owls Head [one the AMC 48 4K peaks].

I had two last minute gear repairs the night before. Frayed rope on my pulk and popped rivets on my snowshoes. I had enough slack on the rope to cut the frayed end and re-run the rope through the pulk. The electrical tie wrap repair to the snowshoe was only partially successful. I had to replace popped tie wraps about 6 times during the trip.

I learned that my snowshoes [Yukon Charlie 825's circa 2007] are not really adequate for multiple nights. The binding is plastic snap buckles, similar to backpack buckles, and nylon webbing. The nylon stretches as it gets wets and I typically just re-tighten the straps as the day goes on and then redo them in the morning when they are too tight due to stinkage.

They had always worked well before, but on this trip, while off-trail looking for trees to hang from, both John and I put a foot/boot/snowshoe into creeks. Believe me, we were thankful for our gaiters.

My snowshoe buckles and straps froze and I had a tough time getting them off later in the day because ice had froze inside the buckles. The next day the straps were impreganted with ice which made tightening them extremely diffifcult. On the way out, I ended up barebooting the last 2 miles which would have been a real challenge on a unpacked trail.

Another lesson for me was paying more attention how I put on my fleece pants. Just before hitting the hammock, I sat down on a log to put my fleece pants on. When I was all snuggled in my two nested sleeping bags my butt was very cold and I knew I had adequate UQ insulation. Realized I had caused this by my poor choice of sitting on cold snowy log. After trying isometric muscle contractions and and hand warming I finally used two chemical heaters and no more cold butt.

One other story, at about 6:30pm in the pitch dark, we saw a group of about 12 hikers go past. These were the people who had broken out the trail that morning. They still had over 3 miles back to the trail head !

The lead hiker stoppped to make sure we were ok and then I watched the long line of bobbing headlamps disappear into the night.

http://www.viewsfromthetop.com/forum...ad.php?t=39199

Tom Murphy

**BillyBob58** · 01-24-2011, 10:29

Originally Posted by psyculman

TJM and myself enjoyed an evening out near Black Pond, off the Linclon Woods Trail in New Hampshire the evening of 1-22-2011.

We were a little disappointed at the temperature of about 7 degrees, we were hoping for at least bit below zero. Our equipment was perfectly up to the task however, thanks to Hammock Forums. The pictures will tell the story. My HH set up was covered by a Hennessy poly hex, with added DIY closed ends, not shown in pictures. My DIY 5" down UQ worked great. A blue wally pad, w/ 1/4" poly batting/dbl. IX/SB insert, IN the sleeping bag was toasty. Only Carhart poly long johns and wool socks were needed. (with a hot water bottle)

Some of the pictures may have a wrong default date, because I took the batteries out of the camera to keep them warm.

My DIY insulated overcover, which is velcro's to my HH SS undercover was sealed TOO well. Although it held steady at 44 degrees inside all night, it also resulted in a GREAT deal of condensation, and my down bag was soggy in a couple of places. The digital humidity device showed 85% inside the hammock enclosure. Humidity outside the hammock showed 20%. Had we been out for more than that night, it would have been a BIG problem. Lesson here is adequate venting is essential !!! But we were were both warm none the less.

Wow, good one! Sounds like maybe a good vent hole above your head would help out. Wonder though how that would effect the temp dif?

Originally Posted by tjm

John,

Accuweather says minus 7 deg F for Lincoln NH and we were at least 1000 feet higher in elevation from there so I am pretty sure we hit negative numbers. It was 13 deg F when we got back to the trailhead on Sunday noon.........
Tom Murphy

Was the weather calm and without wind? Could there have been an inversion? Once it was minus 23 at my house in Flagstaff, AZ but only minus 16 at the ski resort 2500 feet higher.