TS Debby Go Away!

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Goodness what a debacle she’s become. Last night I looked up at the ceiling in the spare bathroom and noticed a water spot. Checking the attic didn’t reveal anything. When I heard the dripping later I checked again. I was missing some shingles and water was running underneath and coming through at the seam in the plywood sheathing. I was up until about 3am trying to stop the leaking. I also discovered another one. 🙁

I worked from home today and spent the day on the roof putting some plastic sheeting down. It’s held down with roofing nails so I think it should be ok. When I checked about 6pm the attic was still dry. The backyard is a lake and I just hope this isn’t too much water for my new sod.

It seems that we have some fire stations flooding around town so the National Guard is bringing in sandbags. We’re supposed to get 4-5″ today with 15-25″ for an overall total. Since I got the weather station back on the air this morning I’ve had 1″ at the house. I’m not sure how much more came down before that. Things sure are crazy. I really should be out in the hammock, though. Not very often you get to test your gear in these conditions. 🙂

TS Debby

I don’t know if I’ve ever seen the radar look like this. Fortunately the power’s only gone out once. It seems that Duval County is opening a shelter. I’m surprised it took so long since our surrounding counties have already been opened. It’s certainly a dark and stormy night.

NC/TN Trip Report

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I finally finished my trip report for this year’s section of the AT. You’ll find it under the Trail Reports -> North Carolina section. I broke each day into its own report for easier reading. You can read on to the next day by following the link at the end of each report.

Let me know what you think! Especially let me know if you find it helpful for your own planning.

Start Reading!

Back To The Real World

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Well, after a week trying to forget what the real world is, I’m painfully back in it. The NC/TN AT hike was, for the most part, a success. I didn’t quite cover the planned mileage but I had a great time and experienced some wonderful sights. I got to enjoy some wonderful time in the hiker-friendly town of Hot Springs, NC and met some new friends.

I’m still working through many, many pictures so it’ll be a few days before the trip report is done. Part of the pain of the real world is that in the processing of getting a new yard put in the guys nicked my cable so I have no internet at the house. Today they severed it completely. While I’m waiting for Comcast to fix it (they’re 2.5 hours late) I’m tethered to my phone. Can’t do much photo uploading this way. I’ll give you one for now, though. 😉

Max Patch

Max Patch

Tighten Them Lines!

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Since I had some time to kill sitting around the house while TS Beryl dumped a bunch of rain on us when I should’ve been hiking I decided to be productive with my time. I thought this would be a good time to make some minor adjustments to my gear before hitting the AT so I tackled some tarp changes.

I had ordered 180′ of 1.75mm Lash It! from Redden Marine during the week and was playing around with making some continuous loops, soft shackles, etc. My continuous ridgline (CRL) for the tarp consists of 30′ or 35′ (I need to measure again) of Dynaglide. I’m really not a fan of it but it’s what I have at the moment. In addition, Jacks R Better was having a Trail Days sale and I decided to order some Dutchware along with my new hammock.

The first thing I did was cut the Nite Ize knotbone off the fixed end and replaced it with a Tarp Flyz. On the other end I replaced the braided mason prussik and small Figure 9 with a Lash It continuous loop in a Klemmheist knot and a Dutch hook.

I really like Lash It since it’s basically the Amsteel Blue that I’m used to working with for whoopieslings and other odds and ends. I’ll probably end up ordering a spool of 2.2mm to replace the Dynaglide. I’m anticipating a 50% weight reduction based on the manufacturer’s specs. As it is I only dropped .3 oz going from 1.1 to .9 oz.

I have to apologize that I don’t have any images. It seems that I deleted them when I formatted the memory card in preparation for my trip. I’ll have to re-shoot.

Next up was making some self-tensioning tarp lines. Like many of you I sometimes struggle with the tarp tension changing throughout the night. I had some 3/32″ shock cord from a previous project and decided to add some to my tarp lines to try and prevent sagging problems on the trail.

Here’s what it looks like with the shock cord holding the tarp.

Here’s what it looks like with the shock cord stretched to the length of the original guy line.

And finally, a profile shot.

I attached the guy line to the tarp tie-out with a bowline and used a clove hitch to connect the tarp tensioners to the guy line.

I’m headed out for real this Saturday and I’ll report back on the success of the mods when I return.

Thanks TS Beryl

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So here I am sitting in my office thinking I should be on the trail. Unfortunately the stars didn’t line up this week. I was still battling the sunburn from my previous stupidity and not looking forward to putting a pack on. Then we got hit by Tropical Storm Beryl. I work closely with our local emergency management officials and we had people to staff at the Emergency Operations Center and a local shelter. Then I checked the forecast and it looked like Beryl was supposed to turn and head north. Even today the week shows thunderstorms all week.

To be honest, though, the 10-day forecast doesn’t look much better. The chance of precipitation decreases throughout the week but there is still a chance I’ll be hiking in thunderstorms. I guess it is what it is. I’m not pushing it back again.

No worries. It’s a short week at work now and I’ll get to relax since my pack is all ready to go. In the meantime maybe I’ll learn some good skills. My mom’s Christmas gift finally arrived. I guess it’d been sold out for a while. I’m now reading “The Natural Navigator.” It’s been pretty interesting so far. I’m looking forward to practicing some of the skills on the trail.

I hope that everyone is enjoying their Memorial Day and that you’ve a) got your flag flying high and b) have remembered our fallen service men and women.

I Are Dumb

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On Wednesday I got a package in the mail and it contained my new Bear Mountain Bridge Hammock Ultra Light from Jacks R Better. I set it up in the backyard Thursday and messed around with it a little bit to get a general feel for it and how well my tarp would work with it. Then I made a mistake…

My son has been having pool days at school every day this week. He really wanted me to come and join him but I didn’t think it’d be possible. Thursday morning he seemed like he really wanted me there. So I told my boss I was working from home and I’d be away for a little bit. Then I surprised him at school. The mistake is that I didn’t put any sunscreen on. I figured 45 minutes wouldn’t kill me. Oh how wrong I was. 🙁

It’s 2:30 in the morning and I’m writing this now so you don’t make the same mistake. I was supposed to be trying out the new hammock. Unfortunately it’s way too uncomfortable. My chest, neck, shoulders, and back are all sunburned. Even my face is driving me crazy it itches so much. I tried getting comfortable but the hammock is just not working with my irritated skin.

Now I’m wondering how quickly the sunburn will go away. I leave for the AT on Sunday morning and the last thing I need is to be carrying a loaded pack that’s rubbing every area that’s sunburned. That’ll make for a miserable time. Trust me when I say I’ll be bathing in aloe vera until then.

So learn from me, kids. If you’re out in the sun, even for a little while, and you have new hammocks to try or big hikes to undertake, put that sunscreen on!

Food Section Added!

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I’m working hard to provide some new content in an effort to further enhance your backcountry experiences. One area that’s near and dear to my heart (and belly) is food. 🙂 Check out the main menu and you’ll see that I’ve added a new option called Food. Pretty smart, ain’t I?

At the moment I have just a single review. Don’t worry, though, more are on the way. I like food and I’ll be sharing as I try out new dishes. I’m into keeping things light and simple so there probably won’t be a lot of trail cooking involved. My goal is to do the prep work at home for simplicity on the trail. I don’t like to waste water cleaning dishes if it means carrying more weight when I leave a water source.

So fire up those stoves and let’s get busy eating!

Great News Florida Hangers!

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After years of being rolled into the legislation preventing hanging anything from trees in our state parks there’s hope on the horizon. Thanks to the efforts of numerous people the State of Florida is beginning a one-year pilot program to allow hammock use in state parks. At the end of the pilot they will evaluate the results and determine the long-term plan. Park managers should have been notified by now but it may take some time before everyone is aware.

The decision can be read here. Print it and carry it with you!

Hammock Presentation

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Ok, I’m going hiking after work tomorrow so I should be packing but I wanted to share how tonight’s presentation went. I’d offered to do a talk on backpacking with hammocks for the Trailblazers and tonight was the night. We had a good turnout with 16 people. Overall I think it went very well.

The Presenter

I’d spent some time building some “trees” out of 3″ PVC. I hate the idea of doing presentations about gear and just showing pictures. I know I like to see things up close and personal and like to offer the same opportunity to others. I ended up setting up the Light Hiker, Explorer Ultralight, and Blackbird.

Setting Up The Light Hiker

I was quickly running out of time so I only had the chance to briefly touch on underquilts and only got one tarp up. I think it was enough to provide a good starting point, though. We had some good discussion and I answered questions along the way.

Hopefully some ideas and curiosity were sparked. I’d love to see more people get interested in hanging. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that tonight may be the catalyst.

Presentation