3 Day weekend

My little hatchbacks wheels struggled for traction. Summer performance tires are no match for rained out, non maintained national park roads, especially when climbing uphill. There were stretches of road that I could really open up and semi rally my way through, but the bulk of my travel was in the single digits. I was already behind schedule and what I imagined taking 30 minutes was now over an hour in the making. 7 miles. That's all it was, but man was it rough. My sport suspension was howling at me to stop but I just kept it in first and let her drag me up the hill. I looked forward to the descent, but come to find out, it wasn't as much fun as I had envisioned.

Finally I had made it to the top of the mountain. The turnaround point of my last trip and the starting point of this one. They call the last chunk I had done the “approach trail” to the AT. What I was about to embark on was the actual Appalachian Trail, and I couldn't be more excited. My itinerary was pretty relaxed, 8.1 miles the first day, 7.7 the second, and 8.1 the following, where my wife would meet me at a park in the mountains to bring me back to my vehicle. After speaking with a couple from New York who travel the US chasing the best hikes the nation has to offer, It was time for me to start mine.

Not two weeks had passed, but the trail had changed from a somber deciduous forest to a luscious and densely packed wilderness. Already, I was hearing life that was non existent on my last trek. Although I was later than I had planned, it was still before 10AM and the song birds were still out, removing my desire to plug in headphones. After hiking for a bit and passing a few interesting groups of people, ranging from 50 year olds to teenagers I found a quality watering hole and broke for lunch. A volunteer approached me and we talked for a bit about the Appalachian Trail Conservancy and what her roll was. She was out marking with flags, areas of the trail that could be improved. I noticed them after we split ways and made an effort to look at the trail the way she did, taking note of what she was recommending. Some parts of the trail were washed out and in need of repair, others were small ground water run offs that could be dammed and turned into refilling stations. Either way, it was interesting to see that although it isn't paved, the AT is without a doubt maintained.

The goal was to stop at Hawk Mountain Shelter and break for the day, but when I hit the 8.1 mile mark in just under 3 hours, I could not justify stopping. I had done a fair bit of reading and knew that the Hawk Mountain Shelter would be my last water supply until Justus Creek, about 6 and a half miles away. My choice was to pound out the miles or sleep between water sources. Seeing that my food required water to cook and my body needed it to survive, I was forced to push on.

Gearing up

After returning from Springer, I was hooked. I already was hooked with hammock yard sleeping, but now hammock camping was solidified on the list of interests. I knew that itch was there and running out into the woods with as little as I had was all the justification I needed to get scratch it. Having been into hammocks for over a year at this point I went ahead and purchased the camping hammock of my dreams. The Warbonnet Blackbird. Now I know you guys at home cant hear it, but when I think of the Warbonnet BB I hear the sound the pearly gates make when opened. You know the sound. I've gotta say, I am beyond please with my Warbonnet and could (and probably will) write a whole page on why it is better than the rest. I also got an insulated inflatable sleeping pad to help with heat retention. It is not the best tool for the job, but the specialized hammock under quilts are just out of the question at this point.

Now with some new gear and a couple miles under my belt I was ready to make a plan to get back on the mountain. I spent the next week and a half thinking about the next trip. Where was the water? How much food will I need? Where would I make camp? These were some of the questions I had to answer if I wanted the trip to be as successful as possible. I called up a friend to see if he would be interested in joining me, he said he was, so I planned the trip. 2 days, starting at Amicalola Falls and finishing at a road crossing 19.5 miles later. Using other peoples guides and different maps, the plan was set. A few days before the hike he had to back out because of work. Rather than letting his schedule dictate mine and canceling the trip, I instead took Friday off and turned it into a 3 day weekend on the AT.

Weekend in the woods PT 3

After falling on my ass at the top of Springer Mountain, I started back on the nearly ten mile trip to my car. I had no intentions of making it that evening, but I wanted to get close. I was beating myself up pretty bad at this point because the whole situation was avoidable. Never take untested gear into the field. This has become my wilderness mantra. As much as I can now, I test my gear at home. Especially if it is homemade. But I digress. The Appalachian trail is littered with shelters maintained by enthusiasts and volunteers, the one at the base of Springer was pretty nice. Unfortunately I don't care too much for people so I passed up staying there for the night. I made it about halfway back to where I started before finally calling it a night. I set up camp on top of an unnamed (as far as I was aware) hill and prepared dinner. Instant mashed potatoes, pasta, and tuna. It wasn't great, but after 14ish miles, it was what I needed.

The wind was howling and I began to become concerned with an issue I was expecting to face, but didn't want to think about. Unlike ground camping, when you are suspended in a hammock, there is nothing under you to insulate and help maintain body heat. Even a slight wind will roll by and strip your body of all its warmth in no time. This phenomenon is something I had experienced a lot in my yard, and hadn't really came up with a solution for...especially since I just decided on a whim to go do this. It had been in the 40s back home and with my 40 degree sleeping bag and zero insulation under me, I had been regularly waking up shivering. Now that I was in the mountains, I knew it would be worse.

I wrestled with the idea of setting up the tarp to help block the wind, but of course, the wind had no bearing. It was literally swirling around my campsite. I decided that there was nothing I could do about the wind and made the executive decision to use the tarp as a barrier between my butt and my hammock. It did not look like rain, but I have been wrong before. Eventually the sun started to set, it continued to get colder and It was time for me to crawl into bed. I took my food bag and tied it off in a tree like I had read to do. After seeing bear poop along the trail, I wanted to keep the smell of tuna far from where I would be sleeping.

Throughout the night, the wind never really died down, it came in gusts, and it made the lose parts of my hammock flap. Unfortunately based on the design, a big chunk of fabric next to my head would rustle with the slightest breeze. All I heard was a bear exhaling in my ear all night. Of course, with this being my first solo camping experience and having recently watching The Revenant, it kept me spooked all night. Needless to say, between the idea of an imminent mauling and sliding about on a tarp in a breezy hammock, I slept pretty poorly. I didn't die of hypothermia and I wasn't ravished by a bear. The sun came up, I packed my stuff and made it the rest of the way to my car.

The lesson I learned from this experience was a great one. I had been putting off this trip for over a year, and for what? I didn't have the best gear in the world, but I made what I had work. I didn't have to wait for my schedule to line up with anybody else's, I went alone. I guess the point of it all, is that the things that were keeping me from my dreams were all self imposed. I pulled the trigger that day, went out and made it happen instead of sitting at home and complaining that this wasn't right or I need this to do that. I stopped making excuses and am better off for it.

Weekend in the woods PT 2

So, let me set the stage for this hike. It is the warm-up hike taking you to the Southern Terminus of the daunting 2k+ mile trip north that thousands of people set off to take on annually. I cannot speak for the rest of the trail, but this section is tough. Georgia doesn't have massive mountains like the west coast, we just have rolling hills. Lots of them. Springer mountain is about 8 miles from the top of the falls and only about 1500 feet higher. Sounds easy right? Its not. The hills are killer. That 1500 feet of elevation gain is coupled with a multitude of 500-1000 foot hills that you have to conquer first. Without trekking poles or any clue as to what I was doing, it was tough. I hiked for a a few hours playing leapfrog with a few groups, none larger than 5. Myself, being the introvert I am, gave a half hearted greeting and carried on my way. Eventually I came across a hill that really made me question what I was doing out here. I dubbed that hill “Strong Quads and Trekking Poles” as you would need both to summit it comfortably. I had neither.

Shortly after said hill I stopped for lunch. Spoke with a young family who was out on an overnighter like me. I said I would see them at Springer and carried on. I played leap frog with a few groups again for the next couple hours until I made it to my final hill. Springer Mountain. Atop that hill was where I planned to sleep for the night. With the idea that I was almost finished I put my head down and took on the beast. The 1000 feet of elevation in under a mile was as expected. Daunting. My legs were throbbing from being worked harder than they had in recent history as I kept on. I made it to the top. I dropped my pack and enjoyed the view for a few minutes. I was not alone at the peak. About a dozen folks where chilling in hammocks or sitting on logs, all of them in their little groups. I found two trees that were adequately spaced and strung up my hammock.

Just a quick primer on my hammock and sleeping system in general. My hammock was made from a banquet tablecloth. Taffeta nylon to be specific. My homemade hammock was fastened to the tree with straps cut from tie downs (more on that later) and in the case of rain, I had a 8x10 tarp from wally world. Anyhow. I had tested all of my gear in the yard. I have trees that are great for hanging between, They are however on the small side as far as diameter is concerned. Expecting the trees on the trail to be thicker, I made a new tree strap from a different strap than the ones I had been using in the yard. Now that we are caught up. Back to the mountain.

I was hanging in my hammock, enjoying the view and coming to grips with what I had just accomplished. Yes it was a minor accomplishment perhaps, but a win is a win. Suddenly and violently my new hammock strap snaps and I plummet to earth. Luckily I learned enough from the hammock forums that there are two rules to hammocking. 1. you will fall and 2. never hang higher than you are willing to fall. I wasn't but 2 feet off the ground, but I for sure landed hard on my back, and with a busted sleep system and a bruised ego, I packed up and headed down the mountain. Looking back, I knew at the time that I would be fine and I could have stayed and slept atop Springer Mountain as planned, but my pride hurt and I don't care too much for crowds.

Weekend in the woods

Being outside has always been a major player in my overall happiness. I love the outdoors, the beautiful simplicity of not having cell reception or having to hear the highways has always made me feel better. As a kid, my parents did an amazing job at filling my summers with outdoor camps, and although we lived in metropolitan Tokyo, they managed to get my into the outdoors. Hiking, rock climbing, white water rafting, you name it and I did it. Thanks to them and the amazing MWR program we had access to, my love for the outdoors was chiseled into the stone that forms who I am today. Fast forward quite a few years and now I live in North Georgia where the outdoors is easily found. Georgia is home to the Southern Terminus to the Appalachian Trail, a fact that sadly I was not privy to until about 2 years ago when I found people on YouTube hiking from one end to the other. Georgia to Maine. Roughly 2,200 miles. People hike this. In one 4-6 month stint. The idea of this fascinated me and I couldn't stop thinking about it. Until one day in April when I said enough thinking. I had previously made a hammock out of a table cloth which I enjoyed hanging in out in my yard. So I bought a tarp in case in rained, borrowed a camp stove from my dad, and I threw what I thought I would need to survive the weekend on the trail into my backpack.

Saturday came and I packed my car and drove the hour north to Amicalola Falls state park, the starting and finishing point of my trek. Mind you, I had done no real hiking prior, and surely not with a 30lb pack on my back. The plan was simple. Hike from Amicalola falls to Springer mountain on Saturday and come back on Sunday. The trip would be a little less than 10 miles each day. I am a fairly healthy fellow and this didn't frighten me. That was, until I saw the steps at the falls. The first quarter mile of my journey was nearly straight up hill, followed by almost 600 steps to the top of Georgia's tallest waterfall. I don't know if it was my lack of physicality or the fact that I hit it too hard, but by about step 200 I was ready to quit. Less than an hour into my two day adventure I was questioning if I had bit off more than I could chew.

Needless to say, I harnessed my warrior spirit and pushed on. Making it to the top of the falls was just one of many minor victories the weekend would provide. Nearly quitting quickly left my mind as I crossed out of Amicalola State Park and into the Chattahoochee National Forest. Now I was alone. The majority of the people I had met at this point where there for the falls, however, my journey was just starting.

No More Excuses

I've spent the bulk of my life interested in making things, taking stuff apart, and finding out what makes them work. I have dabbled in pretty much all of the “mainstream” hobbies and a few more less “mainstream” ones. I have made some real quality items in my day, and a whole lot of not so quality items. The majority, truthfully, were never finished. You see, I have this problem and its multi faceted.

1. I am somewhat of a perfectionist and take a lot of pride in my work. More often than not, this will be what stops my project. I will hit a point where I am not happy with my product and just quit. Which leads us to my second point.

2. I am lazy. I really am. I look for excuses in everything to explain away why I haven't finished something. Sometimes this will ground a project before it has even taken flight. 

3. Probably not the last of my problems, but this is enough self deprecation in a single post. I am a dreamer and I have an excessively addictive personality. When I find a project, a hobby, or anything for that matter, I will skip sleep, tirelessly learning all that I can about the matter at hand. Because of this, I can burn myself out on a subject, or hell, stumble across something in my research that is more appealing then the original topic. Its happened before, and I would be lying if I said it would never happen again. More often then not, all of this dreaming leads to excuse making and I never get around to actually using any of this knowledge. Which is why I guess we are here today.

2017 rolled around and I said I was done making excuses. I set an extraordinarily simple goal for myself. I would make and use my own knife, and my own wallet. I have been interested in blacksmithing for about a decade, and over the past couple years I have focused that desire into knife making. My grandfather was a hobbyist leather-worker and when he passed I inherited his tools and a few of the wallets he had made. My shitty Fossil wallet was falling to pieces, giving me the perfect excuse to make my own. Needless to say, the year is half way over and I am using my grandfathers wallet and a store bought knife. I told you I was lazy.

So, now, literally at the apex of the year, I will levy that goal once more. I will finish a wallet, and I will carry my own handmade knife. I am tired of making excuses and this is where I stop. Regardless of outcome, I will finish. No more stopping short because I don't like the perceived outcome. Finishing a sub par product will do nothing but teach me how to make it better. I am putting this out there to document my adventures and to have something that is keeping me accountable to my dreams. So, if there is anyone out there reading this, strap in, it could get bumpy.