I went to a party last weekend on the beach at Bellows Air Force Station. It was for a Sgt of ours who was leaving the unit. They reserved a campsite at this AF base and once I was informed, I was like "OH boy, time to go into survival mode." I packed my tent in my truck just in case more people decided to camp. I planned on using my
hammock for myself and a
poncho tied over my hammock just in case a notorious, hawaiian, no-cloud required, drizzle decided to happen. I'm a big fan of ultralight backpacking so both of these items of gear are some of my favorites because of the versatility. For example the hammock net can be used to trap animals or net fish. The poncho for shelter and/or water collection. My gear also consisted of a
Kershaw Leek folder and a
Buck Special. I also had my PSK which has all the normal goodies in it but I still haven't finished getting everything I want in it. I'll show it off later. Since hunting wasnt exactly allowed, brought some GORP, jerky, and Chex Mix. There was still a party going on and plenty of food to spare from that. Well the whole night there was a sustained wind of 25-30 mph with some bigger gusts coming off the ocean the whole night. It made setting up my poncho over my hammock a bit of a challenge but I eventually sharpened some sticks and anchored those down in the sand with good-sized rocks. Fire wasn't allowed either so I was bummed on that issue but I brought along my
plexiglas fire piston anyway. The fire piston gets many props from me. I really really love it and it was a good investment to buy and I'd have to say from now on, one will always be at home in my PSK.
Well, the party ended and all the straglers left about 1-2 am. I checked my 550 cord lines on my poncho and hammock, pulled my
issued sleeping bag (second one down) from my stuff sack and proceeded to hit the hay. Next morning I woke up to a beautiful sunrise over the ocean and I thought that was pretty cool. Looking around and coming to, I noticed that it did in fact rain. My sleeping bag remained dry. Water dripped off my hammock before it ran down to where I was sleeping. I have to say that my poncho surprised me. I tied off the hood before I went to sleep and the next morning the hood was full of rainwater. I was so excited. I extracted the water from the hood into a canteen. I emptied out the good water in it, used two normal water purification tabs and 2 neutralizers 30 mins later on the water. Water never tasted so good. even though I was in no way shape or form in danger of lack of water. All in all, I give all the gear I used two thumbs up. The only bad thing in all this was I camped out on the beach...well back off the beach into the woods a little bit but there was still sand. Sand got everywhere and on everything, but that's not a big deal. If was in a place like that FOR REAL, the ocean would have done miracles as a washing machine. I just wanted to share my lastest adventure. Everybody have a good one.
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