Mason Dixon Trail day hike / clean up and hang on the beach Trip Report....

**Chesapeake** · 10-01-2017, 09:39

To start, I want to say THANK YOU to : jelly, Murph, Phil, and Deb, for coming out to help me take care of my newly inherited length of the Mason Dixon Trail. I couldn't have done it without you're help. We got way more done than I was expecting us to and put a big dent in the work that needs to be done. Thank you.

It was a GORGEOUS 65° day for a hike and once we got on the trail, we cut, snipped, pruned and cleared our way through almost 2 miles of heavily overgrown in some places trail. Everyone worked great together, sharing ideas and having fun with work that got tough at times. We worked until around 330 , and then headed out to come down to my beach and hang for the night. Once everyone got their rig setup and dialed in we had amazing dutchoven pizza that jellyfish made and a cold beer to wash it down while we sat on the beach and took in the amazing views. Later on we sat around the fire and shared stories, talked about gear and relaxed until it was time to turn in. The forecasted low was 48°, but by 0630 it had got down to 40° with a stiff wind off of the bay that made it feel in the ,30's. Murph made fresh ground coffee and we gorged on scones, cinnamon rolls, fruit and other pastery while discussing our slumber in hammock bliss once everyone was up. Everyone had a great night with no cold buts even though it got much colder than anticipated. We hung out and relaxed for a while and then packed up around 930 or so, then headed home.

We all had a great time and I think everyone learned something new about how to do this or that with their hammock. It was a vary productive hike and the hang afterwards made it even better. I'll be planning the next clean up hike soon and hope to see some of the same faces, and a few new ones as well. So thank you guys again for all your hard work and willingness to come out to help me get this amazing section of trail back in shape so it can be enjoyed by many generations of hikers to come. Your more than welcome to invite yourself over ANYTIME to hike or just come hang on the beach with me. I hope to see you all again soon and most certainly appreciate your help. THANK YOU all again, I've made 4 new friends and I think that's the best part of the whole trip. See everyone at MAHHA hopefully and on the MD-T again too. Thank you.

***** pics to come, once everyone gets home and posts them***
**** Email me your total mileage & drive time to : [email protected], so I can send it to my trail advisor to help with grants and future funding from the State of Maryland.

**jellyfish** · 10-01-2017, 11:10

Thank you Marshall, Phil, Murph and Deb for a lovely time. I took a few pics.

Looking forward to camping with you all again.

**Chesapeake** · 10-01-2017, 11:26

Beautiful pics! Gotta love the dutch oven lids to keep your tarp down! Now that's hiker wisdom right there! Like I said, invite yourself down anytime you want to hike or hang again. Maybe you can drag your hubby out one time to kayak and camp when its warm out again. See ya at MAHHA! Thanks again for the help, the board of directors for the Mason Dixon Trail system, trail advisor for this area ,Pete and myself are truly greatful for the help. Ill see if I can get a Mason Dixon Trail patch, shirt or set of maps for everyone for coming out and giving up your weekend to help out. Once its done, that section of trail will be beautiful and I can get some nice wooden signs for the trail heads and advertise it to the rest of the county.

**Chesapeake** · 10-01-2017, 12:04

Oh, and thanks again for the work on my " Frankenquilt" lol. I'm laying in my Argon hammock in the bedroom right now with it on and the footbox is MUCH better now that its deeper. I'm gonna take pics of it, and do a vid for my YouTube channel reviewing my insulation options for the fall & winter once my -10° HG set gets here this week. I'll make sure to have it in there and give you props for sewing it for me lol. Those "wings" on the sides just got in my way , so taking them off and using them to deepen the " footbox" ( although it was more like a pouch) worked out great. Did you notice that you sewed them on inside out lol ? The fabric that's facing out is the smoother inside fabric, and the part that's inside now is the DWR treated , diamond weave ripstop outer material lol. Def not a big deal though, just thought it was funny hahaha. Thanks again! I got it back at the perfect time too, my CDT TQ was at its lower limit last night @ 40° I think. I could push it a little lower using my Snugpak Thermalon bag liner and the right clothes as well, but I'd rather have this below 40° and know I'm good down to 32° or so. Well I was using it, my wife just stole it from me lol. Oh, and the little black bag you made me for my suspension bits works great. I can fit both 15' tree straps w/ their soft shackles and my Dutch zing- it tarp CRL w/ bling in the big section and both wooden toggles plus both Dutch buckles and a few more zing-it soft shackles or a set of whoopies in the smaller one. On the outside I have a large amsteel soft shackle and a few different sized biners. Thanks!

**jellyfish** · 10-01-2017, 12:11

Lol. I will turn them around for you. Bring it to mahaa

**Chesapeake** · 10-01-2017, 12:25

Oh no, its fine I was just giving you a hard time lol. Its perfectly fine the way it is now and I'm sure will work exactly the same. I think the next thing I wanna do to it is shorten it down to 60" , the same as my Burrow and CDT TQ's , since I don't pull my quilts over my head ever and so I won't have to deal with so much extra material and insulation all bunched up in my face. Then I'll take the part I cut off, move it down onto the quilt and sew it as a draft collar like what I did on my CDT TQ.

**jellyfish** · 10-01-2017, 13:15

Originally Posted by Chesapeake

Oh no, its fine I was just giving you a hard time lol. Its perfectly fine the way it is now and I'm sure will work exactly the same. I think the next thing I wanna do to it is shorten it down to 60" , the same as my Burrow and CDT TQ's , since I don't pull my quilts over my head ever and so I won't have to deal with so much extra material and insulation all bunched up in my face. Then I'll take the part I cut off, move it down onto the quilt and sew it as a draft collar like what I did on my CDT TQ.

Frandenquilt 2.0

**Chesapeake** · 10-01-2017, 13:38

Yes! It'll be great!

**Chesapeake** · 10-01-2017, 16:49

Its supposed to be 45° tonight, so I think I'm gonna hang again to see if it maybe gets down into the 30's like it almost did last night. Plus I wanna test Frankenquilt out and see how much warmer my legs get with the now deeper footbox. Might even throw the winter cover on or just the sock since its not that windy with no chance of rain and so I don't have to drag my tarp out again lol. I woke up waaaay too early this morning lol. Glad everyone had a good time, can't wait to do it again sometime soon.

**Tigglet** · 10-01-2017, 18:51

Thank you all for a great weekend!
I know I learned a few things and had a really great time meeting you all
I've got a few pics as well... Some I took last night and a few from early this am.
Looking forward to seeing you guys again at MAHHA in a couple of weeks.
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