Most of my hiking and backpacking trips include a SOTA activation or two and that was certainly the focus for this excursion. The easiest way to explain SOTA (Summits on the Air) is that it is like peak bagging for ham radio. We take small radios to the tops of mountains and make radio contacts with people around the world. Our SOTA targets on this trip were four rarely activated summits in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The relative remoteness of these summits make them difficult to be done as day hikes, especially for us old men! We may not make huge miles, but we also play radio for a couple hours a day usually. That’s my excuse and I am sticking to it.
To avoid having to get on the road at 4 a.m. I started out my trip a day early and camped close to where we would have to leave a vehicle for our shuttle. I was hoping to sneak out early from work, but the emails and phone calls just kept coming in on Tuesday afternoon. I finally made it to the Cable Cove campground near Fontana Village just at dusk, which gave me just enough time to install some new hammock goodies before dark. Cable Cove is a really nice Forest Service primitive campground just off of Highway 28. The campsites are spacious and most looked they would work for hammocks.
Cable Cove Campground
I am a big fan of the simplicity of the Beckett hitch suspension, but not so much in the morning when it is time yank on that strap, especially with the thin straps that come from Warbonnet. First install of the evening was Jeff Myers’ Beckett hitch package. They work like a dream when it comes time to tear down camp with the small pull loop on the continuous loops and I really like the EVO loops on the straps. Next up was a continuous ridge line and pole mod kit from Autumn Ultralight. When I first started hammocking I tried a continuous ridgeline and didn't really like it and switched to a split ridgeline soon after. I figured I should give it another shot and I really wanted to try a pole mod again. It is great to have a little more openness under the tarp. Really great workmanship and quick service from both companies.
I have a thing for odd signs, so this one next to the garbage cans at the campground made me smile.
Cable Cove Campground Sign
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