DIY Hammock

A few months back my sister was about to begin an outdoor class for her bachelors program which would have her outside studying wildlife and what have you across many of the states parks. She would be staying in cabins and research facilities which in itself is neat, but also as a person without gear, a great opportunity for her. As far as I was aware, she had very few hours in a hammock and as a college kid with a limited budget I decided to make her one. I started with 3 and a half yards of 1.7oz ripstop nylon, hemmed the edges and sewed in a channel for the suspension. I had a pair of amsteel whoopie slings from my last DIY hammock and tied them in. In just a few hours I was in my front yard hanging in the freshly minted hammock. It was a nice feeling having built it, especially in such professional form. My original DIY hammock was a table cloth, so this is quite an improvement. I spent the night in it of course as a final quality assurance check. Although I had made it to be a quick hang and chill hammock, it made for an exceptionally comfortable evening. I made a stuff sack to go along with it and gave it to her.

Since having the hammock, she has paired it with a much needed bug net and tarp. Now that she has all the makings of a sleep system, it is time to test it in the field. This will be her first foray into overnight backpacking and I am stoked to test her mettle. We plan to attack Springer Mountain from the south, which I had only done once prior. Its not overly difficult, but it is considerably hotter now than it had been back when I did it. Being that its been over a month since my last outing, I am itching, regardless of the weather. Come to think of it, I just looked at the weather and its 100% chance of rain. Looks like it will be a muddy trek.

Getting caught up

I started this to keep myself honest to myself and to have a reminder that I said I would accomplish a thing. Something to look back on and be like “Dude, you said you were going to make a knife. Why is it not done yet?” I was between projects when I added this one (a blog) to the list. So the truth of the matter is, that I'm almost done with my first knife and currently carry my own handmade wallet. I have nearly achieved what I had started at the beginning of the year. The question is; why did it take so long? I drew out, patterned, and cut all of the pieces for my wallet in 2016. It then sat until a week and a half ago because I didn't have contact cement. Seriously. I set off a project for half a year thanks to glue. I'm telling yah, the excuses I make for myself are ridiculous.

I had some garbage steel that I was playing around with last year when I made a jig for hand filing knives. I “made” three blades to prove that the jig worked and I could move ahead with the plan. It wasn't until two months ago that I finally ordered quality steel worthy of being a blade. When it arrived, I sat on it. It would take me a few weeks to finally get around to doing anything about it. I ground, profiled and filed my blade to a point where I was “happy” with it. It wasn't as I had designed, and in the grinding process I clipped the tip off. Normally I would toss it and start over (in a few months), but I pushed forward. I tried making an excuse that I couldn't heat treat the blade and that would be my big holdup until I had a forge, but instead I made use of the tools and materials I had at hand. Now, sitting on the counter, is a heat treated blade ready for final grinding and sharpening. I've ordered new abrasives, and am so close to being finished it is crazy.

Lets jump back to the wallet. The only leather I had on hand was super thick. Thick enough that I could probably make belts out of it and have them last longer than this blog probably will. The leather that I had was purchased nearly a decade ago when I got into steampunk and decided I was going to start tooling leather. Spoiler alert...that was short lived. There are literally dozens of free and hundreds of less than free templates and patters for wallets on the internet and I wanted none of it. I had decided that I would make my wallet based on what I thought a wallet should look like. Being that I am a straight noob in the wallet, and especially leather crafting industries, my wallet design was crap. The original design I made for the cards simply didn't work. The space I had left to slip bills in, wasn't big enough. All around, the wallet was garbage. Seeing that a wallet that couldn't hold cash, nor card was useless, I attempted to remedy the problem.

The wallet that I ended up with is stout. You could probably stop a bullet with this wallet. I'm not willing to test that hypothesis, I'm just speculating. Its ugly, dyed with food coloring and barely functional. I have to fold cash in half to make it fit and it only holds 4 cards. The fact of the matter is, it works. I have used it for nearly 2 weeks and it has not left me hanging. I took my hits with this project, learned from them and moved on. I saddle stitched the mess outta that wallet. I broke half a dozen needles, but I learned how (and how not) to join leather together. Had I given up, I may have had to encounter some of these problems with a project I was actually proud of. But instead I now have a shitty wallet and a properly heat treated shitty knife, but at least they are getting done.

Winding down

To have gone from just 2 weeks prior having never hiked or solo camped before to taking on a 30 mile trip in 48 hours was a big accomplishment for me. The original plan was nearly 10 miles shorter with an extra 6 hours to do it in, yet I pushed myself to go farther, faster. This was not at all without consequence. Of the 32 miles I traveled, I can staunchly remember maybe 5 sightings. I’m sure there were hundreds of interesting things that I straight missed in my goal to put up numbers. That wasn’t what this trip had been about, merely what it had become. I literally missed the forest for the trees as I pounded out mile after mile, nearly as if watching a movie in fast forward. You get the gist of the story, but you don’t really grasp the emotional connection with the characters. That’s exactly how I feel now, having sat down and condensed my trip into a handful of paragraphs. I had just spent 48 hours in the wilderness and although I’ve achieved quite a bit, I don’t feel fulfilled. I missed the mark on this one. Does this mean I am done hiking? Absolutely not.

Now don’t get me wrong. I saw some really cool stuff. Wildlife I had never seen before, bizarre growths off of trees, crazy rock formations, and spectacular views. Although I may have seen them, I did not appreciate them because I felt rushed. Nothing was rushing me, but myself, for I had a feeling that I couldn’t stay for too long and take in the beauty of my surroundings.

What I have taken away from this adventure is that life is not a race and should not be treated as such. I had set out with a plan and decided that it wasn’t enough, inevitably missing the point. Yes I can hike 8 miles in 3 hours and choose to hike another 6, or I can hike 8 miles in 6 hours, take in what the trail has to offer and chill out a bit. I think over the coming outings I will find out what my happy medium is and not limit myself to racing around in the woods.

3 Day weekend PT 5

I don't know what it was that woke me up this morning but I was slow to get out of the hammock. It had rained all night, yet I was completely dry. A true testament to the importance of preparation. When I finally got up and moving I was amazed at how foggy it was. visibility was about 30 feet, which was pretty spooky. My shoes, as expected were completely soaked, which brings me to my first bit of advice. Buy wool socks. As soon as I started hiking I forgot my feet were wet. I couldn't say the same thing had I been wearing cotton. I hiked for about a mile before I came to the spot I had wanted to stop for breakfast. Slaughter Creek sat at the base of some roughly cut stairs at the junction of another trail. Looking back at my GPS data, I may have gone the wrong way at this point, but the trails intersect again shortly.

It was not long until I was at the top of Blood Mountain. With an Elevation of 4,458 feet, it is the highest point in Georgia along the AT, and I don't think I could have chosen a worse day to be sitting atop it. The top of the mountain is pretty bouldery. I don't think that is a word, but I'm at a loss for how to describe it. Its like standing on top of a stack of boulders that have been flattened over a millennia. With the addition of rain and fog, it made for some treacherous traveling. There were points where you needed to have a third point of contact with the rock to avoid slipping to who knows where. Seriously, I couldn't see, so I don't know what would have happened. Photos do not do the sketchiness of it justice, so you will just have to take my word for it.

The view from atop Blood Mountain

The trip down the side of the mountain was steep, muddy, and extraordinarily slippery. I figured I had to be getting close when I started passing groups of day hikers, all of them questioning how far it was to the top. I told my wife to pick me up at 10 and she ended up being 30 minutes early, which I think is a first for her. I rolled into the parking lot at Neels Gap at 9:58, soaked, covered in filth, and beyond exhausted. In the parking lot were trees filled with hundreds of pairs of hiking boots and shoes. After hiking 32 miles in 3 days, I had zero desire to chuck mine up along side them. On the ride home I was already thinking about my next trip and what it had in store for me. 

3 Day weekend PT 4

I stood atop Preacher Rock for nearly an hour taking in the view and thinking about the importance of stepping away from society and technology. This was the first time in two days of hill climbing that I couldn’t spot the influence of man for as far as the eye could see.  It was a wonderful, yet fleeting experience as a group of hikers had just began to summit, and with that, I was on my way.

 

The next few hours seemed to drag on longer than usual. The terrain was nicely varied, breathtaking at times, monotonous at others, but there really is something to be said for human interaction. After all, we did evolve as social creatures. Trailside depression was something I have come to realize exists and I have yet figured out how to deal with it. As I kept on pounding out the miles I got close to the wall again. The distance between water sources on this stretch of trail is weird. You will run into patches where there is water every half a mile and then there will be a dry section that’s 8 miles long. My choices on this were to hike 6 miles, 14 miles, or somewhere between there without water. I personally only carry two liters of water, and with rationing I like to be close to empty by the time I’m afforded an opportunity to refill.  So, today was a 14 mile day. I slept next to water but soon would realize it didn’t really matter. 

I made camp at Woods Hole alongside a boyscout troop. I hung my hammock on the edge of the site and got in and out a few times making adjustments to my suspension until it was perfectly dialed in. This was something I didn’t do the night prior and am willing to bet that that lead to my poor night’s sleep. Dinner was alfredo with salmon which was not hateful at all. As I was kicking back and drinking my hot chocolate watching the troops try to decide who was going to spark the campfire and who was allowed to hold the knife, I felt comfort in their presence. My son, being 5, is coming up on the time where I’d like to get him out camping I’ve dragged my feet all spring and I really need to prioritize it or else it will never happen. There were a dozen kids here, all 12-13 years old, and watching them work together to do stuff like cook, and hang bear bags, was entertaining to me. As I finished up my cocoa I looked at the clouds. Having had looked at the weather before my trip I knew there was a small chance of rain, but it hadn’t rained last night and I was hoping it wouldn’t tonight. I hung my ridgeline anyhow to aid in rapid tarp deployment if it started in the middle of the night.

Again, the sun began to set and I crawled into the hammock. Exhausted from the day and still really hot, I could not stop sweating. It was pretty warm yet and with the lack of a breeze, it wasn’t getting any cooler. That was until the rain came. 

At first it was a couple drops; just enough to encourage me to hang my tarp. I hung it high as it was hardly raining and I didn’t want to trap in heat. As soon as I got back in the hammock, all hell broke loose. Massive water drops slammed into the tarp as thunder roared through the canyons. It wasn’t quite dark yet, but the lightning was clear as day. The wind began to come in sideways and I heard the boyscouts running around hollering to one another trying to get in their tents before they got soaked. I hopped out and dropped my tarp down closer to the hammock. Storm mode is what I call it, and storm mode is exactly what was needed. Rain water rushed beneath me as if I had hung over a river. It came from all angles and thrashed my tarp about, really testing my knot tying skills. It continued like this for at least half an hour, and I couldn’t help but think of the two guys I had met the day prior.  When it finally let up, we all emerged from our shelters to evaluate the damage. 

A pair of kids whom had left vents open and another that had set up downhill got totally soaked. Through trial and error, meticulous research and a bit of luck, I was completely dry. After the excitement around camp wore off and the kids simmered down, I crawled back in the hammock and went to sleep. Tomorrow was a big day. I would be summiting Blood Mountain, the highest peak my state had to offer along the Appalachian Trail, where my wife and kid would be waiting to pick me up.

3 Day weekend PT 3

Since I had pushed through to Justus the day prior, I was less than two miles from what my intended second day stop was going to be. I knew immediately that the plans were going to change and I would end up hiking much further than anticipated. After eating breakfast and drinking my coffee I hit the trail. That had been my first night in the field in the Warbonnet and unfortunately, I didn't sleep so well. I think I hung my head too low because my feet kept going numb. It was odd. Definitely not the hammocks fault, but something that I would need to address tonight.

It was about 5 miles before I came across a road crossing and a good place to take a break. Gooch Gap. I spoke with a dude who had just pulled in and he had informed me that the road in was less than a mile of non paved road. I made note that this place would be excellent for the family. The water source was plentiful and there were a ton of clearings for tents. Also my car wouldn't get thrashed coming in. I passed a dude in Army issued boots while he was complaining of foot issues. I was wearing trail runners, no problems yet. The next 3 miles were pretty much all uphill, so I just shifted the load on my pack and hit it.

I passed what looked to be a boy-scout troop and unfortunately they had yet to be taught that uphill hikers have the right away. Its a lot harder to regain momentum going up than it is going down. I did meet an older couple and their dog Mitsy. As I came up on them the gentleman said “Mitsy, hiker” and Mitsy hastily got of the trail and sat down. It was very cool. After I passed, she returned to the trail and kept heading downhill. 

With every hill that I summited I would take a photo of the view. Cameras cannot take in the beauty nor do justice to the rolling hills. To this point there had always been something man made in the picture. I knew I wouldn't be happy until I was truly free of civilization and I hoped the next peak would be void of buildings or roads. Suches Georgia would not fail me for Preacher Rock atop Big Cedar Mountain provided me with a breathtaking view completely absent of man made obstruction.

This is a big picture. Click it to fully enjoy the beauty of Big Cedar mountain

3 Day weekend PT 2

Every time the terrain changed or I came to a valley I expected to find water. Like a man stranded in the dessert, every rustle of the wind sounded like a babbling brook. It wasn't until I was so near the point of failure that I was looking for an adequate spot to sleep that the trees finally gave way and the sound of Justus Creek was undeniable. It is a bit of a descent to the creek as it is in a valley. As I was coming down one side a pair of guys were coming down the other. We talked about the trail and the day as we refilled our water and they informed me that there was room at their site just a quarter mile up the hill for my hammock.

I was beat and as soon as my hammock was hung I started on dinner. Mashed potatoes, dehydrated veggies, and ground up jerky make for a surprisingly filling meal. While I was eating, two more people showed up, also in hammocks, but clearly unprepared. Each of them were armed with an ENO hammock and a 5x5 tarp. Together with a hank of cordage and a box of bungies, they managed to string together the most ridiculous sleeping system I have ever seen. I wish I had taken pictures, but I didn't want to be rude. All I can say is that they are lucky it didn't rain. I hung my bear bag with the others down by the water, crawled into the hammock and started dozing off. That was until another kid came into the camp site asking whose bear bag was black and hung on yellow rope. Of course, it was mine.

I get out of the hammock and greet the dude, who informed me that in the process of hanging his bag, he broke the branch mine was on and now it was on the ground. Seeing that my bag is by the water, about a quarter mile away, and by now the sun had set, going out to re hang it was not high on my list of shit I had wanted to do. But it had to be done. On our walk, the kid informed me that he was from New York and he took 30 days off to see how much of the trail he could cover. I envy the people that can drop everything and go fulfill a dream, even if it is only 30 days.

I got into the hammock again for what I could only hope would be the last time and immediately fell asleep. It didn't rain that night, I had my tarp up anyhow. I wish it was clear so I could see the stars. Maybe tomorrow I wont use it. At the start of the “season” I had told myself that I was going to hike the entire Georgia section of the Appalachian Trail this summer. Every step I took was putting me closer to achieving that.