I decided that my S5LE had to be put to good use, and my large INFI knives have been getting all the love lately, so my SoD deserved some attention too, so out to Alabama we went....

We had three main goals for this trip - one, to get our first cool night camping in for the season. Two, to do some awesome rock climbing (no pictures of that). And three, to PLAY WITH GEAR!!! And play we did.



First, the knives...

The S5LE and SoD were put hard to work splitting some wet and green wood to try to find something that would actually burn...



The little lady striking a UST Sparkie one-handed firesteel. Cool little gadget. For tinder, it's dryer lint with a little bit of fuel from my alcohol stove. Our lint doesn't light particularly well because it's mostly animal hair <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/doh.gif" alt="" />



and the fire a-roarin!



Tools of the trade near the fire



And some other toys we brought along... some high quality flashlights. That's my Black Diamond headlamp, a Fenix L0D AAA light, a Fenix TK20 2xAA light, and an Olight T10 CR123A light. All three were awesome, but the Olight really threw some light.



It was a beautiful brisk night, lows dropped a few degrees below 40. Not too cold but cool enough to test some winter gear...



All meals were cooked with a Trangia burner in a Clikstand and Evernew titanium pot. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the clikstand without the windscreen.



As usual, we slept in our hammocks, testing out some new gear setups, like a winter pitch of my OES 12x10 winter tarp...





Inside the tarp, with the doors closed up, it's mighty toasty...



And with the "snakeskins" pulled up around the tarp, you can see my Warbonnet Blackbird hammock with a custom-ordered modular underquilt for bottom insulation. This quilt can be separated into sections for various uses...

[img]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2491/4027854730_0a4dd9fce9_o.jpg[/img]

[img]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2777/4027099949_288fe3559c_o.jpg[/img]

And finally my fiance made her own underquilt, a ridiculous winter version with massive amounts of loft to keep nice and warm.

[img]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2724/4027855018_4ac03e7a7d_o.jpg[/img]

All in all, not a half bad night in the woods.... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />

sweet pics bro, looks like fun. I think next time my SOD will come along, it was left out this trip

Looks comfy. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Great pics MM - Looks like fun. I miss camping...and the hammock camping, which I've never tried, looks awesome. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Awesome man!

Looks like fun! Thanks for sharing.

Nice hammock setup MM!

Will have to try the hammock thing sometime <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />. Looks like you had a great time <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />- Thanks for sharing <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Sweet !

+1 <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" /> Way to go James! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

pretty cool man.... i can dig it...

Nice campground.