I was out on a day hike yesterday with my winter pack. I stopped for a few minutes of rest and got out my full hammock with winter sock. I clipped the UCR/Mule Tape suspension to handy trees and then set up the hammock to them. After a short rest, I unclipped the hammock from the UCRs and stuffed the hammock into my pack.
It was not until after dark that I realized that I did not have the hammock suspension in my pack. I guessed that the Mule Tape and UCRs were still attached to the trees in the public park! This Forgotten Utility Compression Rope (FUCR) syndrome was new and somewhat worrying. With polyester straps, I had never needed to worry about leaving the hammock suspension in the woods. The straps were firmly attached to the hammock body.
I started thinking what it would have been like to have walked away from my hammock suspension on the AT and realized that night that I had no suspension and that I needed to consider walking 20 miles back down the trail to retrieve the gear.
Needless to say, there is a lesson I will take from this. There is one more spot I need to check carefully when leaving an overnight spot, or even an afternoon rest. The trees!
As it was, it was bad enough to persuade my pretty EllieD to drop me off at the park before church this morning and wait while I retrieved the hammock suspension before breakfast.
Woods 1, Risk 0.
Another lesson learned.
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