Date: 2007-10-13
From: Port clinton

To: Eagles Nest Shelter
Miles today: 8.6
Weather: few clouds

mi. 8.6sleep hammockdest. Eagle's Nest Shelter day 93 Happy 3 months on the trail to me. It seems like forever ago I started and twice that until I'll be done. But I'm finally in my groove and loving life. To celebrate, below is a review of the new traveler adventure hammock. Something new to the market. I got the honer to seeing it at the outfitter. Unfortunatly I did not get a chance to lay in it. I would have liked to. It was late and there wasn't anywhere easy to do it from last night when he showed it to me. What really comes to mind is the saying that something does a good job of doing a few things, but not a great job at any one of them. I think it would work as a tarp, or hammock, or tarptent, or ground cloth. I just think there are single use ones that do it a lot better. Hammock wise. It is gathered on the ends using the a similar method to the ENO hammocks. It probibly lays in a similar way. Size and weight. I don't know the exact size, but it appeared to be around 10 feet long and 5 or 6 feet wide (maybe wider). Weight I think I remember him saying 22 oz. That is not including suspension lines to the trees, guy lines, or stakes. It doesn't include any type of insulation or bug netting. You cannot use it as a hammock and a tarp at the same time. This is a huge issue for someone who wants to mainly hammock. You could use it as your tarp giving you a backup hammock I guess. I think this hammock would be good for someone who mainly tarps and sleeps on the ground. Who only wants to occasionally hammock and relax. Or maybe only spend prefect weather nights hanging. Workmanship looked really good though form the few minutes I was looking at it. The guy said that at a tradeshow they held it over a pool and were dumping water on it and it held. It wasn't sil nylon. It was a ripstop. It just had a different treatment. I brought up the question of condensation and he said he was told they didn't have any problems so far. I hope this helps shed some light on it. Anyways back to your regularly scheduled journal. For once I actually slept in somewhat. I woke up freezing though. A airmatress really doesn't insulate when it is flat. I had to throw my second quilt overtop of me in the middle of the night to stay warm. After that I was ok as long as I kept turning. I think I am going back to the foam. It is a lot more durable and fits my needs. It insulates well and provides enough padding on the ground. I am looking at the Z rests that have the egg crate shape. They will give more padding than the cheap foam one I was using before. I like to get it out at breaks and lay or sit on it. I also like to lay next to the fire. I think a foam one will hold up a lot better to what I dish out. The original plan of 25 to 501 shelter quickly changed. We didn't get out of be until around 8 or so. Sometime around 11 we got a ride into town to resupply. We were told there was a resturant close by just down the street. I didn't want to resupply again on an empty stomach. We walked around the grocey store and got an idea. Then we headed off to find a resturant. We walked probibly a mile or so around this really small town. The only thing we found was a couple of closed places. So finally we gave in and headed back to the store. I went through and got a pound and a half of the lunch buffet and a half gallon of extreme choclate milk. It wasnkt that extreme, but had close to 1500 calories. Then it was one of my worst resupplies. I don't know what it was, but i just couldn't think straight. Torque expressed a similar feeling. I wondered the store a few times. I came out with 3 liptons, stuffing, snacks, cookies, bread, hard salomi, and chz. A lot of weight and bulk. Oh and a dozen doughnuts to eat before we left. I think it is easier to resupply from a convience store. They do not have much. You don't have a selection, so the choice is made for you. This was just way too any options and I got the deer in headlights feeling. We got back to the outfitters and repacked everything. The plan was to head out at 2. I managed to get everything repacked in the new ziplocks I got and almost into my food bag. The bread and doritos are going to have to be in the extension coller. Funny who before my thru I was using a 8 liter bag for overnights and 2 night hikes. Now a 20 liter bag won't hold everything for 4 nights. i did get a little nap in at some point, which felt great. We got to talking with the outfitter. He had some good stories to share. He finally dropped us back off at the trailhead in Port Clinton around 2:30pm. The plan was to do 10 miles to the first shelter. My Zen navigational skills got us a little off couse going out of town. We didn't cross the train tracks and had to cross then back track. Even with all of that we got to the shelter around 6 or so. Not bad knowing that i can bust out 10-ish in an afternoon. We got there to a group of weekenders and sectioners. Only around 6 or so. Funny how you are alone all weekend, then have company on the weekend. I did get to talking with them. Great group. It was fun answering their wquestions on my hike. they managed too to ask good ones, and not the usual crap. One of the Mistie, was looking at my hammock. She had a bad go with lyme a couple years ago and was still recovering. I gave her the grand tour and decided to let her give it a try. Later on the others got the tour without the trial. I gave her my email address and the hammock forums site URL. She was really intereted and loved the hammock. I told her to give me an email when I got back and I would be happy to help get her going. I will say she did a great Mcgyver rig on her tent. Somehow her tent poles brock and she riged up sticks and tieing to a tree to work. I was impressed. I would have just slept in the shelter. A little side note. I am knd of weird about letting people lay in my hammock. I is my own personal space. I lay in it and can pull the hammock sock over and shut out everything else. It is a personal comfirt thing. I usually don't let people lay in it. Mainly because of that, but also I don't want someone to rip it. That would cause all sorts of trouble getting it swapped out. But I was glad she got a chance to try it. I think it can really help her out. If you are keeping track that makes 2 people including myself who have laid in this hammock.   I was told that bears really are not an issue here. So foodbag is hung in the shelter. Torque is staying there alone. Everyone else was kind enough to leave their stoves out and food bags hanging there. As I walked to bed he said usual screaming like a girl rule applies. We have a rule that we use that if we hear the other one screaming like a little school girl then you will run over and see what is going on. Luckily I don't sleep in the shelters much. I haven't got use to the mice that usually live in them. I tend to scream like one when one crawls or gets close to me.