Hello everyone. I'm new to the Hammock forum. I am an Infantry Platoon Sergeant currently deployed in Afghanistan. When the Army moved me to the east coast 3 years ago, my wife and I started hiking on the AT and fell in love with hiking, but we hated tents! As most people do, we over packed on our first hike, with myself carrying about 80 lbs, and my wife carrying 60. It's embarassing to admit that, but I am an Infantryman, and am used to packing heavy and walking long distances...but I learned that hiking the mountains is far different from what I was used to. We made it 15 miles as we had planned, but learned an important lesson. Lighten the load! That's when we started doing our research and found websites on making your own hiking gear and lightening the load. Cook kits, hammocks, etc(We're now down to a 5 day packing list which only weighs 20 lbs). We made our first hammock from bed sheets and realized right away, this was better than sleeping on the ground. Then, After a quick trip to Hobby lobby for some materials, we had our own hand made Hammocks for both of us and our two boys. After a quick trip back to the AT, we learned that we loved the hammocks, but the cheap material ripped on us and ended our trip two days early, so we broke down and ordered some Warbonnet Black birds. So far, we love them. If I can help it, I'll never sleep in a tent again. My wife and I hiked the entire Georgia section last summer and some of the better moments of that trip were just hanging around in our hammocks. I'm addicted to hammocks now, and really interested in making my own again. Through all my reasearch, I've really been inspired by both the blackbird, and the Pak it Lite FOB designs. I think both are genious. Anyway, looking forward to meeting everyone through some great forums. Take care everyone - Cardy
"Although no sculpture shal rise to their memory, nor marble stone bear record of their deeds. Yet wil their rememberance be as lasting as the land they honored."
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