Congratulations on completing the AT. Excellant information and you answered the number one question I have wondered since getting into hammocks and that's if the AT especially northern sections were hammock friendly. Now I know and hopefully someday I will be able to take that journey to Maine.
I have plans to one day bike the AT too and your report here does make me feel better about some sections I was worried about( smokies and the whites). Thank you.
I do have a question. I am currently torn between my WBBB or a simple gathered end hammock(my freebird) with a fronkey bug net. Any thoughts on these 2. I like my WBBB but I can ditch the zipper(less things to break) and save weight by going with the open hammock. Do you see any problems with going with an simple hammock with bug net?
Great report
I am still 18 but with 52 years of experience !
Thanks for all the info!!
Great initial post and follow-ups! Congrats on completing the AT! I wish I could thru-hike it someday, but it will likely have to be completed in sections due to time constraints.
Enjoy your travels. I read you're going to Thailand soon...great place...lived there a few years (wife is Thai and our son was born there). Don't get stuck in Bangkok...not my favorite place and cannot recommend spending 2 to 3 days there at the most. So much to see in that country! Get down south and enjoy the islands. If you're in luck, you'll be there for Songkran (Thai New Year), which is basically a country-wide water fight that is to be remembered...lots of fun.
Thanks for all the kind words! I'm sorry for the radio silence on my end. I've been moving around Thailand for the last few weeks and didn't have much downtime(I've got internet access and a few hours to wait for a ferry now).
Memorable sections of the trail would include the Smokies, the really dense pine forests in Massachusetts or Vermont (it blurs together a bit), the Whites, and the entire state of Maine.Originally Posted by lckeeper1
I would absolutely love to hike the 100 mile wilderness again. I came through during the fall color change, it was beautiful.
I'd also like to rehike the southern stretch of Maine. It was foul weather when I came through there, really cold, overcast, rain. I was extremely sore after going through the whites. I'm not sure I appreciated it as much as I should have and I'd like to do it again in a better mental state lol.
The vast majority of nights I've spent in hammocks were in hammocks with integrated bug nets. I've only spent a handful of nights in hammocks with separate bug nets. I may speak to the latter with a bit of ignorance, so take this with a grain of salt lol.
I think either will work just fine, it all comes down to personal preference. A friend of mine hiked with a WB Traveler and a bug net, and was fine for the whole trip. If I were to do it again, I would use the WBBB again.
The following things may be trivial, but they are the reasons I prefer the integrated bug net.
Stuff falling out of the hammock into the bug net. I toss and turn a lot, and I frequently had stuff fall out of the hammock and into the bugnet below me. Sometimes it was my topquilt or cell phone or whatever else I fell asleep holding. If whatever fell out of the hammock was heavy enough, it pulled the bug net in closer on the sides of the hammock and left me more susceptible to bug bites through the mosquito net. And if the ground below me was muddy or wet, there was a chance for whatever I dropped to get muddy or wet. You could hang the hammock higher to avoid things being able to hit the ground, but it seems to me that the times where the ground is wet, may be the times that you want your hammock and tarp as close to the ground as possible.
Slightly more claustrophobic. There were several points on the trip where I spent some extended time in my hammock to wait out bad weather. I liked that the WBBB tieouts kept my "living space" wide open at all times.
Zipper? Personally I wouldn't worry about the zipper on the WBBB. I've found the zippers on those hammocks to be very dependable.
Going without the bug net? There weren't very many nights on the trip where I wanted to be without a bug net the entire night. There were only a handful of times when the tree cover above my hammock, the cloud cover in the sky, the weather, and the bugs all cooperated. When they did cooperate, I was content with the view I got from tying back my WBBB's bug net.
How much lighter is it? How much weight do you save with your other setup? I've never had gear where I could make an apples to apples comparison. The WBBB uses much less mesh than a bug net that envelopes the entire hammock. It seems the WBBB mesh + zipper should be comparable weight wise to a full bug net. I'm just speculating though...
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In reality there is nothing more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future.
Thanks!
I've really been enjoying Thailand and I avoided getting stuck in Bangkok lol. I spent 4 nights in Bangkok and saw the city and some temples. Then I went down to Koh Tao and spent a week scuba diving and hiking around the island. Then I passed in and out of Koh Samui to spend 2 nights camping in Ang Thong National Park. I'm currently in Koh Phangan, after coming here to see what the Full Moon Part was all about. Now I'm off to Koh Phi Phi and then Khao Sok National Park. I'm going to try and be back in Bangkok for Songkran.
Anything in particular you recommend I see while I'm here?
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In reality there is nothing more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future.
I'm not into the Full Moon parties, but then again, I'm early-40's and have already done the whole rave thing back when I was younger and living in Europe, so...
If you like diving and snorkeling, I'd recommend the Similan Islands...cannot be beat (just north of Phuket and off the west coast). Phang Nga Bay is crazy cool for taking a boat trip and then canoeing around enjoying the scenery. It's has the famous "James Bond Island" from the movie "The Man With The Golden Gun." Awesome to view! Phi Phi Islands and Krabi are also nice spots.
James Bond Island
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If you're Buddhist, there are a ton of cool temples. There's one not terribly far from Phuket that has a giant reclining Buddha statue and the place if full of monkeys that will eat out of you hand and climb on you. There's another temple referred to as the "Million Bottle Temple" in Khun Han (Si Sa Ket Province). It's made out of green, brown, and clear bottles (mostly green)...quite unique. There's another temple that sits atop a mountain that you have to take about 10 busses to get from the bottom to the top, and it's a hairy ride. At the top are footprints said to have belonged to Buddha. You won't see many (possibly any) foreigners there and it's a great experience. Unfortunately though, it's only open in February unless they've changed that since I was last there a few years ago. The Sanctuary of Truth is a hand-carved wooden temple outside Pattaya and is surprisingly large and majestic.
One of the buildings at Wat Lan Khaut (aka "The Million Bottle Temple")
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Khai Yai National Park is great if you're into checking that out. The border between Thailand and Cambodia is cool as well...you can see military emplacements and soldiers. Some border crossings are closed and some aren't. If you can shoot across the border and get a peek into Cambodia for a day or two, it's worth it. As soon as you're in that country, you can tell right away it's communist...quite an eye-opener.
Cambodia
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Pattaya gets a bad rep, but it's an interesting place. There's a lot to do around there due to the large influx of tourists to the area (can be a tourist trap and is ripe with scams though...just have your head switched on and there's no worries). Aside from the earlier mentioned Sanctuary of Truth near Pattaya, there's the Nong Nooch Tropical Botanical Gardens, Buddha Mountain (not to be confused with the Big Buddha), and Silverlake Wine Vineyard.
Silverlake Wine Vineyard
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I could go on and on...loved my time in that country. Aside from seeing all the sites, be sure to indulge in all the various street food. I can count on one hand how many times I ate in a restaurant while living there. The vast majority of the time I ate from food carts and the rest of the time I ate whatever food I made in my own kitchen. The people are incredibly friendly, so be sure you interact with them when you can. Also, after a long day of walking, get a foot massage. The cheap (100 to 200 baht) foot massages are on my top 5 list of the things I miss since leaving there.
Glad you'll be able to experience Songkran in a big city. I've never experienced any celebration quite like that anywhere else in the world. I try to imagine everyone in New York City throwing water on each other for a week straight, regardless of what they're wearing or where they're going, without anyone getting mad in the least bit, and cannot do it. Just get a LifeProof for your cell phone, wear shorts, a tee shirt, and Crocs, and you'll have a blast.
Last edited by P Chang; 04-05-2015 at 09:54.
Let me add to the growing list of thanks for your report. I've been an AT section hiker for about 10 years now, and recognized some of the spots in your photos. Also, your gear list and ideas on what worked best mirror a lot of trial and error that I've done myself over the years, so it's good to know that I have a workable system now, not that I'll ever be able to do more than about a week at a time on the trail due to life's restrictions.
It sounds like you are really enjoying your world walkabout, they will be memories that you'll treasure all of your life.
Thanks again for sharing!
Hiking & Hanging is therapy, and much cheaper than medication in the long run. Carry on.
Proud Member of the "Corps of Insanity" Hiking Group, 2000-2015. Semper Gumby!
Great report and congrats on finishing the AT. I finished the AT this year (9-12-2015). I used a Hammock for the last 300 miles of Maine and was glad I did. Good level campsites were few and far between but with the hammock I never had a problem finding a good site.
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