Date: 2008-05-12
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Miles today: 0.0
Weather: moderate rain

Woke up assuming today would be just another normal day, but there werehiking-related surprises in store for me! So I've commented on some prettycreative ideas coming from my friends over in hammock forums. Everyone got onthis bandwagon last summer about creating a way to hang your hammock that tookaway the need for tying knots, yet allowing for easy adjustments. Well, whenwe went to the hangout in Gathland State Park last fall, a guy from the forum,Bruce, had his and his 2 sons' homemade hammocks AND he showed me hissuspension idea. It was absolutely ingenious, and I told him I'd want to getthe lowdown on how to make this for Karen and I. I took pics and everything.Well, then I somehow erased ALL the pics from that trip (duh..) and winter cameand it wasn't a priority as much. So fastforward to now. Bruce emailed me afew weeks back, because he's keeping up w/my hike, and I told him Karen mightemail him to get more details about his suspension system we saw.This morning, I'm sitting at the table drinking coffee, and Karen walks up andasks me to hand her this zip up bag that was sitting on a chair next to me. Ihanded it to her, and then she goes, "Open it." I did, and sitting before meare 2 sets of Bruce's strap/ring buckle/carabiner suspension systems!!!!! Shehad contacted him alright, and he was nice enough to sew the straps for us, andthen send her internet links of where to find the hardware!!!!! I am SOFREAKING EXCITED!I know you non-hammockers probably have no idea why, but here's the deal. It comes down to versatility, speed, and ease of adjustment. I have no problemtying my hammock up the way I've done for over 1100 miles. I do not, however,always get it perfect the first time, and that's no big deal to me either,because I rather enjoy the process of setting up and tearing down camp, butanytime I can increase my camp set-up efficiency, I will. What Bruce's systemallows me to do is never actually untie anything and the strap goes through 2ring buckles that allow you to tighten/loosen the suspension with the hammockall tied up. I'll take pics when I get out there of course, but there's notree huggers to deal with and no figure-8 knot or anything required everytimeyou put it up. It's literally as easy as wrapping the end of the strap aroundthe tree, hooking the strap back onto itself with a carabiner and thenadjusting the other end of the straps by tightening or loosening through abuckle. I can't wait to try this.   The straps themselves are similar to treehuggers in width and material, so it is still not harming the tree at all.So man, I'm so stoked and after we run some errands, we're both going to hangour hammocks just to make sure we have it all set up right before we head outin a few days.So to Bruce, seriously man, I can not thank you enough for sewing those strapsfor us and directing Karen to the hardware. Now you'll get to see how youridea weathers a multi-month trip! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!But this isn't the end of the story. I also got my birthday present (early.it'sin July) this afternoon. (If you all are sitting back saying, "This person isspoiled rotten," then I'd have to agree).Last year I carried a Creative Zen Nano mp3 player on the trail. So this year,I wanted to update and download some new music to it. Well, I found out 2 daysbefore I left this year that my mp3 player was no longer supported by thewebsite Rhapsody, where I purchase all of my music. Believe me, I triedeverything to make it work and it just doesn't. I am a PC user, but do believethat Mac takes the cake when it comes to using iTunes, iPods, etc. So thisafternoon, Karen tells me to get into the car and she takes me to the store andtells me to pick the color that I want and got me my very first iPod for mybirthday!! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!! She already has one of these things (I got itfor her this past Christmas) so I got to see how easy they are to use and hadalready decided (before I left in April) that I wanted to get one eventually(like maybe after I got back and found a job! hee hee). See, I can totallyhandle not having "entertainment" while out hiking, but there are days whenhaving music can break up the monotony or give you extra energy. Afterall, IDID download the theme song to Wonder Woman and that is one rockin song!So there ya have it. A pretty awesome day. New and improved hammock suspensionand a way to listen to music that I know won't be obsolete in a year. I couldnever watch television again, and be totally fine with it, but music,well..it's like a drug to me so I can't imagine being without it.We resupplied yesterday so tonight will be getting the packs all ready to go,food all ready to go, verifying some last minute details, etc. We'll beheading out in a few days, so not much more of the home-life blabbing left. Wonder what adventures are waiting out there! PLEASE LET IT BE WARM!!!~Certain