Hi all! Long time lurker here - haven't posted much before now. I've been doing a lot of work prepping for an AT thru hike this spring that involves a lot of tweaking of my setup, so I'm back to devouring the wealth of knowledge here again, so I thought an introduction was long overdue.
Quick Bio - I'm a software developer from Birmingham, AL. I've recently gotten fed up with life in a cubicle farm making board members and shareholders rich, so I've ventured out on my own. I guess you can call that a midlife crisis . I love being outside - my pasttimes include hiking, backpacking, mountain biking and running. I also like to play guitar(having fun learning the banjo and mandolin recently also) and I like to build things out of wood with old hand tools in my shop.
My gear, prior to recently, has consisted of a DIY GE hammock, a gift which started the slippery slope. The system that evolved around that was made up of a hennessey hex hung by a CRL of zingit using a dutch hook and a dutch fly(z?). I settled on dutch spider straps with marlin spike -> whoopie sling -> biner -> hammock CL as my bulletproof suspension. I have an OG hammockgear 20deg incubator and 20deg burrow with snap footbox both of which have been so amazing I haven't even thought of upgrading them since purchase.
All that said I've been tweaking my gear for the upcoming thru hike, trying to lighten where I can but also to expand the capabilities since I'll be living in the system for 4 months on the AT. I have to admit, I actually tried to abandon the hammock system for a lighter tent system(zpack duplex, thermarest neoair xlite, burrow as ground quilt), but quickly gave that up since I didn't sleep NEARLY as well as I do in my hanging rig and sleep will be critical. After that attempt I decided the weight gain was worth it and went all in on the hammock system. I splurged on a wbbb xlc for max comfort. I switched the ridgeline to some smaller zingit(i know...) and I've added on a HG gear loft and RL organizer. Between those and the shelf of the BB I should have plenty of space to "live" in(that said I can't seem to resist and am working on a DIY mesh peak bag for extra space). For suspension I've simplified and am using UHMWPE straps from dutch, titanium toggles(i know...again), and I ditched the hammock biners and built whoopies with dutch whoopie hooks to connect directly to the hammocks CLs. I'm going with my HG 20deg setup, at least to start with(mid-april start so I'll see some mild cold), but will hopefully switch out the 20deg quilts for my 40deg burrow and a DIY costco UQ for a summer setup. Haven't done the UQ yet, but supplies are on the way. Going with the clew suspension on this one which I'm excited about and if that works nicely I might retrofit my incubator. Tarp-wise I splurged on the HG winter palace with doors, rigged with lawson 2mm glowwire guylines and shock cord on the pullouts. I compromised on the weight for "quick" setup and went with linelocs all around since I'll be packing this thing up 100+ times in a row. I found my prussiks connecting the tarp to the CRL were slipping badly on the zingit, so I switched to nama claws...jury is still out. I'm packing the tarp up in dutch two-sided snakeskins and it fits in a diy two-sided stuff sack made to fit just right in my arc-blast outer pocket. Oh, and I'm using UL titanium stakes from lawson, though I'm considering carrying a couple of groundhogs for some insurance. WHEW, I think that covers the basics!
<shameless plug> Inspired by the likes of Shug, Dixie, Darwin, Bigfoot...etc, I've started a youtube channel to document the thru-hike and fo far have put together some intro videos letting folx know who I am and my approach and strategy. If you're interested, you can find me at "NeverStandStill" on youtube, or directly here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzU...YERyeioiLhU3Nw (I'm a few subscribers short of being able to have a nice URL). I've just recently released a video of a training/shakedown hike through the Cheaha Wilderness and Pinhoti Trail that you can see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReaWySQhphg . I'm excited because I've finally made it through the more cerebral bits and I can move on to gear vids! I'd love feedback from anyone who's interested.
Anyway, I've rambled enough for now. I'm sure I'll see some of you in some gear posts(costco/clew UQ is on the immediate agenda) as well as the local section(I'm following the sipsey hang thread). And thanks to everyone for all the info I've gathered from the forums so far!
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