This weekend was my long awaited first hammock campout that wasn't in my back yard! My wife and I used to camp a lot, but she's developed some nasty new allergies so that's been limited... I finally came up with a good compromise. Plan was for me to backpack from home to a campground 6.5 miles away with all of my gear (plus extras to simulate a longer trip), then she and some friends would drive out with her gear and meet me there.
This trip was meant to be a test of my new backpack with it loaded similarly to how I hope to load it out for Isle Royale coming up in the future. Pack weight ended up being 37lbs - which made me laugh a little bit because I've dropped 45lbs recently so in theory I should have had no trouble with it
Anyway the trip itself was mostly hiking along roads, so I know that's not super interesting to most of you - but here is the track my GPS recorded of the hike (the black line):
Along the way I stopped off at a 7-11 to get a Gatorade - I was eating bacon flavored sunflower seeds and having just plain water to drink wasn't cutting it
Notice the great "trail" reflection in my sunglasses... :laugh"
I was about 2 miles away when I got the call that the other folks were on their way to the campsite - which happened to be right when I finally got into the wooded area and had planned to look for some geocaches... but I had to kick it into gear and get to the site. Funny how the pack seemed a whole lot lighter once I was actually in the woods!
This tree is massive - picture doesn't really do it justice:
Almost there...
Went to check in at the campground and the lady in the office looks me over and says "Let me guess... Last name starts with... I'm thinking L? ... and first name is... hmm... Aaron?" I was a bit confused, and she laughed - turned out the "friends" had already shown up and mentioned that I would be showing up with a backpack and a kilt!
Setting up at the site:
After setting up I ran off to the showers to get cleaned up - naturally it was the warmest day we have had in 2 weeks... when I got back we set about getting ready to make a fire. We ended up just buying some firewood since my plan to arrive early and get everything ready didn't work out (left an hour later than planned). The wood they were selling was pretty bad - and a bit wet, so I busted out the ol' Laser Strike and did a lot of batoning to split it down to appropriate sizes, and set about making a flint and steel fire:
Took a bit to get it going because it was pretty humid and windy out, and my char cloth just wasn't getting quite hot enough to ignite the tinder bundle... but eventually I got it going.
As we were playing Farkle and making hot dogs over the fire it started raining - so I quickly deployed the tarp...
It ended up raining off and on for a little while, then just pouring from about 11pm until sometime after I fell asleep at 1am. I kept the tarp up in "porch mode" most of the night until I decided I needed better drainage and dropped the corner by my feet - kept the other end up to get some nice air flow.
Very comfortable night - I stayed nice and dry. Wife woke me up around 8am because the tend had been leaking and she was ready to pack up and go home... so we did just that!
Overall - equipment performed perfectly, the pack took some getting used to and my hip muscles are pretty tight today... but I think that is mostly from trying to walk REALLY fast with the pack. Jarbidge underquilt was almost too warm at first - but I vented it and it was great, had to tighten it back up around 5:30am. Poncho liner top quilt was unnecessary until around 5:30am.
I learned that the "gear hammock" that I almost didn't bring was one of the best pieces of gear that I brought! So convenient to just pull stuff (clothes, cook kit, etc) out of the pack and put it under the hammock until I needed it.
Also figured out that a "triangle thingy" at the foot end and the stock suspension on the head end of my Jarbidge seems to work the best for me - the triangle thingy carabiners end up against my head on the head end - which doesn't feel good, and the stock suspension cords end up in a bad spot for my feet. The combo version was perfect!
Anyway - there's my not so exciting story... hope you guys enjoyed it.
Reply With Quote
How do you like your jar bridge is it very packable?
Originally Posted by ettescott
Bookmarks