Widow makers...

[Sweeper]

This past weekend, the Corps of Insanity hiked from Unicoi Gap to Neels Gap on the AT in North GA.

An embarrassing moment ensued on Day 3. I had just gotten set up near the Whitley Gap Shelter and one of my non-hanging buddies pointed out this beauty of a widow maker.....

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_od9vTj91Xo4/S9JkLLzWm-I/AAAAAAAAAJ0/UjB38ew1SD8/s512/CIMG6135.JPG

And did I move? Nooo....and glad that I didn't. There were SIX mice that met their deaths in the shelter that night (one of my buddies is a Thru and he hates shelter mice).

I was rewarded the next morning with this lazy man's sunrise picture from the comfy confines of my Blackbird....it was cold, campers! :laugh:;)

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_od9vTj91Xo4/S9JlNicu3CI/AAAAAAAAAKk/VS2GaSm402w/s640/CIMG6141.JPG

Perhaps I'll get around to filing the full trip report one of these days. It was a pretty neat trip as Spring hadn't reached the tops of the ridges just yet.

Sweeper

[TinaLouise]

If still daylight, always check out above you!!! Can't do that if it's dark though. That picture diffinately looks like you should have moved your hammock!!! eeek!!!!! Sure was "nice" of your non-hanging buddy to point out the widow maker though.

TinaLouise

[Cranky Bear]

Glad that didn't fall on the hammock and possibly you! Pics look great, hope to see more!

[oldgringo]

You are a braver man than I am, Gunga Din.

Nice pics, though.:)

[Sweeper]

Well, what you can't really tell is that the angle of the fall on the branch would have missed the hammock, and that the amount of the branch still attached to the tree was substantial. The branch had only recently broken due to the late winter heavy snow we received up there (2.5 feet according to some accounts) in late March. I really posted as a "Do as I say, not as I do" kind of post. Or, as my buddies said, "you are an idiot". :):):) Probably true. The rest of the trees in the area were covered with new growth poison ivy, and I was loath to hang on them and get it on my straps. Thinking back, I should have used TD's stick method and I would have been alright. It's amazing the decisions I make at the end of the day when I am tired from hiking!