Well, I finally finished my plans for the Trangia stand. I think I’ve got the changes finalized. I put together a PDF instead of posting smaller pictures here. Leave a comment if you find it useful.
Trangia Pot Stand
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>Just Catching Up
>Man, it seems like it’s been so long since I posted. Would you believe I still haven’t found the time to go through the GPS track from the AT hike? I guess things have been a little more hectic than I’d realized.
The itch has started and is in full swing now. I’m already working on plans for another hike. It looks like we’re going to shoot for Labor Day weekend to avoid having to take too much time off work. If things go as planned we’ll pick up where we left off in Feb at Hogpen Gap and hike about 30 miles to Dick’s Creek Gap.
I’m working on a modified design for a Trangia pot stand. Hopefully I’ll have some pics posted about that soon.
>AT Day 0
>The day has finally arrived. Today I head out for our AT hike. The pack is loaded and sitting in the truck. The fuel is topped off. I’m cutting out at lunch. Life is good.
In less than an hour I’ll be leaving work and hitting the road. I’ll make a quick pitstop at Taco Hell to grab something I can eat on the road and then it’s just fuel stops after that. I’m hoping to miss the worst of Atlanta but we’ll see. Hopefully the construction on 75 has wound down and it won’t slow me down any.
I’m really looking forward to meeting up with everyone and enjoying a great hike through some beautiful country. I decided to leave the SLR at home. Hopefully I won’t regret that decision later. If I do I’ll just have to hike it again. 🙂
I’ll post the write-up when I return. Happy trails!
>Getting Packed
>Last night was spent going through my checklist and packing everything. I’m mostly done. I just have some odds and ends. Need to charge the MP3 player and put new batteries in the GPS and camera. I’d really like to take the SLR but I’m afraid the weight is going to be bad enough as it is.
The biggest group left to pack is food. I did noodles up last night and pulled them and mixed vegetables out of the dehydrator this morning. I fixed two boxes of noodles but now I think that might be too much. I picked up a chicken breast (garlic & herb) that I can slice up to add some protein and bulk. With that and the veggies it might make a good meal.
I took a little break last night to try out some new gear. I’ve heard so many good things about the Svea 123 white gas stove that I finally decided to pick one up and try it myself. I dropped a little Coleman fuel into the tank, primed it, and she lit up with a single match. It was cold out and I was in shorts and a t-shirt so I didn’t do anything beyond the functional test. Tonight I’ll probably do a quick boil test to see how it does. I’m still undecided as to whether I’ll take it this weekend or not. It’s 19 oz plus fuel and it takes up more space. We’ll see then I do the final weigh where I am.
AT Final Touches
Well, I’ve been busy putting the final touches on the plans for the upcoming AT hike next weekend. I’m really looking forward to the hike from Woody Gap to Hogpen Gap in North Georgia.
I’ve been trying out some DIY dehydrated meals and still have some more to go. I’ll probably finalize the menu early in the week. Today the wife brought home the last of my cold-weather base layer. I was missing a LS shirt so that’s taken care of. I broke down on Thur and dropped the coin on a nice Marmot Precip rain jacket. I’m just going to reuse the rain pants I wore when I played golf.
I’ve been tweaking the GPS track and finally got that wrapped up. My memory card is loaded with the Eastern US and I have the AT track from Woody to Hogpen loaded as well as key waypoints along the way. The USGS maps came in earlier this week so I need to get busy waterproofing them since it takes some time for them to cure.
All I have left to do really is the final loadout and weighing. Can’t wait to hit the road for GA and then the trail!
Rockin’ Cold Weather
This is actually an update from 1/23. I stayed in the backyard most of this past week. My mom told me we hit a record low of 16. If that’s true then I’m most impressed with how well I did.
Oooooh yeah, baby! Nothing like a 12-hr hard freeze to make you feel alive! I think it got down to 22.
I really didn’t know it was cold except for a light breeze on my face every once in a while. I slept like a baby…until the !&!@#*!@#$&*&@#$ sprinklers went off!!!!! I let them run last night so everything would freeze. Guess I forgot to turn them off and they’re scheduled to kick off Thur morning. Of course my hammock is setup right next to one of the heads. These aren’t dainty little heads. Oh no. These are high-volume rotating heads. I woke up to a damned firehose on the tarp.
Thankfully the tarp held up remarkably well. I don’t know why but they ran for over 30 min. I set the time last night to just 10 min and I turned off the zone I was in. I’m not sure wth happened. The tarp was sagging bad from the weight of the ice on it. I was going back to sleep when they cut off but by then the tarp had started to drip into the hammock. I gave up and headed inside. Hopefully we’ll warm up enough today and things will dry out.
I can say that I now feel 100% confident in my ability to stay out in at least 20° weather…even if it rains. 🙂 I put the wool socks on and used my liner socks too and didn’t have cold feet. If I could just find my face mask (and if I can sleep in it) I won’t have a single problem. I might try to find a balaclava instead but it has to wick so it doesn’t get soaked with sweat.
Cold Weather Round 2 Update
Well, I figured out what happened with the Hennessy. I don’t know why I did this but I had it shipped to my business address instead of home. So it did arrive, just not where I was looking. My mistake. Sorry Hennessy. :-/
Last night I slept very well with the Lafuma bag. I almost got too warm a couple of times and had to open the zipper a little. My only problem was my face getting too cold. I really need to find the facemask.
I learned something tonight. Don’t try to setup up hammock gear you’ve never seen before in the cold and dark. I didn’t really get the Super Shelter figured out. I got the cover on but the pad seemed to just screw things up. I’m going to have to take a look at it during the day. For now I have the SS cover in place with my old blue pad and space blanket. We’ll see what tonight holds. I don’t think it’ll be as cold but it’s 33 right now. Not bad for a test.
>Cold Weather Round 2
>Well, much to my dismay there was no Super shelter waiting for me when I arrived home. Alas, here I am in store for another cold night in the hammock.
I picked up a 30 degree Lafuma bag this afternoon. So far it feels pretty warm. There is a noticeable difference in the temp. I'm breathing fog now. Sure wish I knew what happened to my face mask.
Tonight the forecast is 24. The only difference is nice wool socks, my knit cap, and new bag. Let's keep our fingers crossed! We're in for a 12-hr hard freeze.
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Cold Weather Update
When I awoke about 3am thanks to the moon shining like a flashlight on me it appeared to be about 35 but I don’t know how accurate it is. According to the local news station’s wx page it was 37 when I got up at 6:30. When I got to the office it said 31. So I really have no idea how cold it got last night but I’d be surprised if it was below freezing. Maybe it was just a really dry night but there was no frost or anything on the ground.
Here’s my setup:
Hennessy Explorer Ultralight
JRB WeatherShield2
1/2″ OCF pad (blue Wally World eggshell special)
emergency blanket
Marmot 40* mummy bag
I put the emergency blanket on top of the pad in the WS2. I slept better in the sleeping bag than I thought I would. It wasn’t too hard to get comfortable. I did make the mistake of taking my socks of (just felt better). I did put them back on at 3 but when I went in the house at 6:30 they were pretty cold.
I noticed that even with all that stuff I could still feel the cold to a degree on my back. It wasn’t bad, or enough to keep me up, but that could change if we’re down in the 20s as I expect. I needed my knit cap since the top of my head would get cold. I did have some ear muffs which helped. I also need to pitch the tarp even steeper. I’d get a good breeze once in a while. Fortunately I was able to hunker down in the bag and avoid most of it.
All in all I slept well. I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again. I wasn’t miserable or anything. I just need to make sure I’m really ready for lower temps. If Hennessy is right I’ll be able to try the Super Shelter tonight. I think tonight is definitely the good trial night. It’s supposed to be in the 20s after 11pm.
Shelter On The Way
Well, it’s been quiet since the chainsaw stuff with the holidays and all. I did get some good hiking stuff for Christmas like Wet Tender, a whistle, Les Stroud’s survival book, and “Into The Wild”. I’ve also picked up a couple of knives. I got the Gerber LMF ASEK II and a SOG Flash II. They’re both awesome knives.
I’m gearing of my the first hike of ’09. I’ll be section hiking the AT from Woody Gap to Hogpen Gap. According to the AT data I have it’ll be right at 17 miles over the course of three days.
Since it’ll probably still be mighty cold up there on the mountain I ordered the Hennessy Super Shelter. I still want to make a DIY underquilt but I don’t think I’ll have the time with ordering material, cutting everything out, and finding the time to actually sew it. So for this trip I opted for a pre-manufactured solution. One benefit to the SS is that they have a special going where I’ll get a free Scout hammock with snakeskins. That’s a $80 value. Worst case I’ll sell it and use the funds to offset the price of the SS.
I’ll write more about it when it arrives. Should be here in 6-8 business days.