3-Day Gila Trip

**eugeneius** · 07-05-2008, 09:32

I'm packing up my gear for a 3 day trip to the Gila Wilderness at 530am tomorrow morning, oi, oi ! I'll be heading up to Whitewater Baldy again, minus the 4ft snow pack, adding monsoonal thunderstorms, and hopefully will have time to bag both Whitewater and Mogollon Baldy Peak on Sunday or Monday. This section of the Gila Wilderness lies in the Mogollon Range in Southern New Mexico bordering Arizona. My nest will likely be my DIY HH clone again and for my tarp I decided to use my Travel Hammock ATHH after some thought and input from others here, also it is all I have at the moment. My buddy who is going called to borrow a hammock, for some reason he has a hammock tarp and no hammock? I told him to get to sewing! Hopefully him and I will be hanging and the other 2 guys going will be laying low under Tyvek, sounds comfortable

they are skeptics nonetheless, maybe this time will change them. I'll post some pics like my last trip for sure. Laters.

**BillyBob58** · 07-05-2008, 12:33

Lucky rascal!

**eugeneius** · 07-12-2008, 09:15

Hello all, so I got back from my fourth Gila trip this season.

We decided to do a quick 2day jot up to the highest peak in the Gila Wilderness Whitewater Baldy 10,895 ft., also the highest peak in Southern New Mexico it was a beautiful sight, but a killer on the cardio. Overall the trip was great, we hiked about 21 miles and gained a total of 6000ft in elevation after the killer switchbacks down to camp in an area called Whitewater Creek and the Whitewater Baldy peak bag during the day. Here is a link to my Flickr page and Gila trip pictures from July 6-7:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2681675...7606102667562/

The weather was my concern for the trip as I only had my Travel Hammock ATHH to use as my tarp, I used my DIY Hennessy clone for my nest which worked pretty well, I think after this trip I'm going to make a larger hammock, wider and longer, I think this trip solidified that I prefer the wiggle room and the ability to get wicked diagonal but still have excess fabric at my sides. It rained on us pretty much every second of the trip, we hiked in a fog and cloud for hours, which was sooooo nice as out here in New Mexico this balmy wet weather is very rare. So the monsoon season proved to be a great time to backpack if you're prepared, no crowds, not a single person along the 21 mile trip, this area is fairly backwoods and requires a lot of work to get out here. There is sufficient moss, and fern, and flowers, along with patches of old growth forest and monstrous thousand year old or more Aspen fields, amazing!

My ATHH kept me super dry much to my concern, I had no problems setting it up and I even made HC4U's self tensioning tarp tie outs, they worked like a champ keeping sufficient tautness on the tarp. The 3ft of coverage at my sides with the ATHH was good for the rain we received at night, I just really snuggled my hammock up inside close to the tarp. I think I might have converted my father in law to the way of the hammock, he was quite impressed with the ease of setup, the comfort, the fact that I stayed completely dry, how lightweight my setup was and that I was the only one who didn't wake up multiple times to get comfortable due to pressure spots from sleeping on a Z-lite pad!

I'll either be buying or making a hammock for him very soon! I'm still learning and have much to learn about hammock and backpacking use. I'm hoping to figure out the ideal setup which is definetely going to have to be a combination of comfort and weight. I'm thinking Speer Wintertarp and a double hammock with a lot of length, we'll see. Well, enjoy the pictures and get out to the Gila Wilderness sometime in New Mexico for a real backcountry experience with your hammock.

Pics from the trip:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2681675...7606102667562/