Chattooga River Trail- first hang!

This past weekend the wife and I went on our first hang! We had scouted for a suitable site for a double hang with our 2 hammocks on a previous hiking outing. After loading up the final pieces of gear, we headed out on the Chattooga River Trail. Our campsite was only about a mile from the trailhead but there are two decent obstacles, a steep creek crossing and a nasty root-infested dip in the trail that we had to overcome with slightly overloaded packs. We managed to get to the site and unload our packs and set up our tarp and both hammocks without too much trouble even though my #2 tree was about 25' away from my other tree making for some interesting suspension manipulations. The 10x12' tarp in porch mode was able to cover both of us nicely and there was no wind and no chance of rain in the forecast.
To my surprise, there were 7 or 8 other hammocks in the immediate area in both campsites and "stealth" sites! I guess HF folks are well represented in this neck of the woods. I talked with Brian from GA about his underquilt and he was very helpful and a nice guy. After a dinner of rice and beef hash cooked on my alcohol stove, we decided to build a small campfire and and enjoy some "adult beverage". When the fire died down, it was time to douse it out and get to bed. It was an almost pitch black night and Lil' Red Bird (my better half) followed me down to the clear waters of the Chattooga. As I tried to scoop up some water my feet slipped- aided by some overindulgence of whiskey- and I ended up on my butt in the cold water! I managed to get the water and put out the campfire, but I learned 2 valuable lesson. #1 plan ahead and get your water to extinguish the fire ahead of time- preferably before dark, and #2 whiskey and water don't mix when one of them is a cold river. :lol:
After drying off, I climbed into my hammock and snuggled into some downy goodness. I slept fairly well but my wife found out that her hammock was just too small for her to get comfortable . I plan to either get her a ENO double like mine, or try to dial hers in more on a dry run in our woods near the house. All in all it was a great trip and I learned some things about my suspension that need to be changed and that my wife needs a more comfortable hammock. Thanks for everyone here on HF for all the great advice and info- I wouldn't have been able to pulled off this first hang without your help. A special thanks goes out to Shug for getting me ( and a lot of others) into this new "hammock thing". Also, my wife deserves extra special kudos for going with me and putting up with a not so great night in the woods. I have a few pics that I will try to attach to the thread tomorrow. One hang down- many more to go!! :D:D:D

I camp up on the chattooga all the time. Very nice place.

One of my favorite places to camp and fish.

Sounds like you had a good night even though your wife's wasn't the best. Glad she is willing to stick with hanging though. Just got get back on that horse. Only in this case the horse is a hammock. And the you don't have to worry about the hammock throwing you. Well, not unless you have WAY too much whiskey to drink. Then it can feel like the ground is bucking you. AKA a good night and bad morning. :lol:

Whiskey + hammock = me getting hurt...lol

Sounds like you both had a very nice time. You should have given the wife some of the whiskey, and she may have slept better. :lol:
I love the Chattooga area. :thumbup:

Chattooga is great. I did my first solo hang there. I feel fortunate to be so close.

Sounds like a good time.I love fishing and hiking that trail,the best place i think is coming down from Ellicott rock in NC there are a lot less people till you get to the East fork trail.I was up there Saturday also.

Thanks for the trip report. Chatoogga is on my list...hopefully this spring.

Awesome trail. Love that I'm only a couple of hours away.

Think I may get back there this winter.

Keep tweaking your hammock.

And keep drinking your whiskey so your tolerance doesn't drop! I'm a firm believer in alky stoves. Not for cooking, since I'm and esbit guy. But when you put some alcohol in me, my furnace fires right up!

I'm predicting that you two will enjoy many an evening along that river. Once bitten by that bug and you'll live wth the sting.
Too bad she had a less than perfect evening. There are a lot of excellent hammocks out there. My wife uses the Warbonnet Blackbird.
If you would be interested in try before you buy, drop me a pm.

swampfox

Glad you went there, this was the place for my first real group hang last November, a chilly weekend, but I slept toasty warm. 2Ply has posted an open invitation to all for an upcoming hang some where in the North Georgia Mountains, exact date and location still TBD. Try to make it and you will see how much fun this can be, even with a group. Plenty of things to see and learn.

LB

Here are some pics of our campsite and setup-
The beautiful Chattooga (also site of river incident with whiskey later that evening!)





Lil' Red Bird (my better half) with our setup, bear bagging, me starting fire, Bird in her nest, and morning coffee. Still learning but I think this was a good start for us! Thanks again to all the folks who have helped me get into hammocking and all the valuable lessons from HF.