My buddies and I went on a weekend trip to Henry W. Coe State Park just west of Morgan Hill, CA. A lot of swimming, a lot of hiking, and a lot of relaxation.
Enjoy pictures:
Half of the group.
I led most of the hike and was affectionatly called Sacajawea.
Rattle snake sunbathing.
Hanging out in the manzanita.
Close up view of the super smooth manzanita.
Big backpack.
We stayed at China Hole on the first night. Swimming in sued.
The problem with China Hole is the lack of places to hang. Many trees are covered in poison oak, so I got creative. I used a large boulder that had some nobs where I could lash my strap around, and then shoved a fallen branch between some rocks making a "tree." When the strap slipped off while lounging in my hammock, I fell only about 2' onto gravely-sand. So I MADE the strap stay.
It didn't slip all night.
"Tree"
Looks more dangerous than it actually was, none of those pointy rocks were directly under me.
Te-Wa Breeze UQ.
Because of the lack of height on my setup. I was a mere 2 inches off the ground. It was much better than sleeping on the ground which what happened later that night.
Somewhere around 2:30am nature called, I handled business and then went back to sleep. A few minutes later one of my buddies had to do the same. As he crawled out of his tent he noticed a very large cat sitting on the rocks by my "tree." He did a double take and the thing ran onto the large boulder where my hammock was also attached to. In the process the cat nocked over my trekking poles which woke me up. I shined my light at my buddy asking him what's going on. Him and his tent-mate said shut up and stay still because there was a mountain lion sitting on the rock above my hammock. The others woke up and helped shoo the cat away. I proceeded to sleep on the ground between my friends freezing my butt off. So much for a comfortable hammock.
AHE Gravity Filter
The group not wanting to take anymore pictures.
My favorite photo of the weekend. Me giving the thumbs up to comfort. His backpack was easily over 50lbs. Mine was 21lbs with consumables.
Alive.
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