I was recently walking through a dense hemlock forest in upstate New York where I came across some chewed-up mushrooms and several little orange critters crawling around them. I instantly thought a) salamanders? and b) they must be eating the mushrooms. Turns out I was right on the first point and only half-right on the second.
I had met what are generally referred to as “Red Efts”. They are the juvenile (eft) form of the Eastern or Orange Spotted Newt (Notophthalmus viridscens, a type of salamander). It turns out they weren’t eating the mushrooms, they were eating the smaller animals that were eating the mushrooms.
Red Eft from Above
These newts have a very interesting life cycle…
They hatch with gills and start out living in water.
Then they morph into these air-breathing orange juveniles that roam around on land for several years. Sometimes traveling far away from where they hatched.
Finally they morph again into dull green adults who go back to live mostly in the water.
Their Latin name refers to their markings and color: Noto = mark, ophthalmus = eyes, viridscens = greenish (referring to the adult).
KIST combines the best elements of various plain text markup languages I’ve used or developed over the past forty years. I assume the source text must be easily understood by casual readers. To the extent possible I exploit conventions already used by plain text typists (in email for example). The most basic of these conventions are:
Separate paragraphs, headings, lists, etc. with blank lines.
Precede headings with pound signs (#).
Precede list items with tabs.
Bracket words for emphasis with asterisks (*).
KIST aspires to the “Minimal Ink Principle” proposed by Edward Tufte in 1983: “The ratio of ink that conveys information vs the total ink used should approach unity.”
KIST aspires to “fail gracefully” when something isn’t quite right.
Background
In the beginning there was Text. By “Text” I mean the digital representation of characters from the major phonetic languages in use today. And because I’m writing in English, I will focus there. Things first come into focus with the “American Standard Code for Information Interchange” (ASCII) back in 1961. It represented all the characters found on typewriters of the time (a-z, A-Z, 0-9, with assorted punctuation). ASCII is embedded in modern encoding schemes such as Unicode and UFT-8. Various systems evolved to process and display text on screens and paper.
Then there was HyperText–the ability to link words to information in other locations. Many developers proposed hypertext systems (myself included), but none dominated until “HyperText Markup Language” (HTML) came on the scene in 1980. After five major revisions it has become the de facto standard for most electronic publishing.
For all its strengths HTML is somewhat hard to write freehand. It has complex syntactical rules that are easy to break (the ubiquitous “unclosed tag” problem for example). Writers want to write–without focusing on a language intended to be read only by computers. So programmers immediately began inventing ways to generate HTML from other formats. This 1996 list from CERN has over 80 entries, including my own MTX.
Synthesis
KIST combines the best ideas from several sources:
For the height of this sort of deliciousness is to have nothing but the blanket between you and your snugness and the cold of the outer air. – Herman Melville (Moby Dick)
I became aware of Hammock Camping back in 2016.
Luckily my first hammock
was reasonably well designed and built.
Seven years later that hammock has taken me many places and taught me a lot!
Unfortunately it is showing some wear and I’ve been looking for a possible replacement.
My Original Hammock
One of the things I learned is to keep things as simple as possible. That first hammock was unusual–having a short tent pole spreader at the shoulder (vertical orange bar in photo above). This eliminated the need for tying the hammock out when no rain threatened, and eliminated two extraneous lines to trip over! The rainfly was a standard 10×10 foot diamond with the ridge on the long axis. It also served as the de facto ridge-line when hanging the hammock up. Deploying it took only two stakes and I added some shock-cord to help keep it taut.
Four Point Suspension
I call this the “four point suspension rule” and it works!
Minimal trip hazard–most nights you just hang up and jump in.
Even with the fly fully deployed it is easy to enter from any quadrant.
I carry a few lengths of lightweight rope to solve minor problems as they come up.
I had to search hard to find a hammock with a single aluminum spreader pole similar to the above. Most “spreader” hammocks have non-removable, self-deploying wands at both ends. This makes them harder to pack up, since you have to fold them in a very precise way. I bought one of these a few years ago and found that it made a better bugnet tent on the ground. It works when hung, but not very well. The spreaders don’t spread, they just support the netting. Newer models appear to have wands closer to the ends and that arrangement might work better. (?)
Setting Up the New Hammock
Spreader and Netting
This “TravelBird” hammock looked promising and was not very expensive.
The first thing you’ll notice is the spreader pole on the outside
(my original had the pole inside the netting).
When empty the whole thing tends to tip over in the wind. Not so much with gear in it.
(The video instructions tell you to stake it out, but there really is no need to do this.)
New Hammock
Here’s a closeup of the spreader in action. You can also see the standard carabiner suspension and entry zipper. Note that these are not the supplied straps, which are two feet shorter and could not span the distance between my “hammock testing” trees.
Hammock Spreader
Note that you can enter from either side, and the netting folds away
into a pocket at the foot when you don’t want it. (Nice!)
The dark netting is also better for stargazing at night.
Hammock Netting Folded
When you lay down in the hammock the spreader bends and keeps quite a bit of tension under your shoulders. I’m still experimenting with proper pitch for the most comfortable effect. My only major complaint–at only 100 inches it’s too short. It should be 104-106 inches IMO. I’m 6 foot 2, so if it works for me it will probably work well for anyone who is shorter.
Inside Hammock Pano
Rainfly
The rainfly is a custom shape and the spreader supports it just like a modern tent.
The problem is the inadequate ridge-line tension using the weak elastic tabs on the ends.
I re-engineered this with some shock-cords that tighten the fly and allow it to
rise above the netting for better airflow.
Weak Fly Attachment
I added a six inch shock-cord loop and hook.
Better Fly Attachment
As you can see there is more tension on the fly.
And when the hammock is loaded the fly can better maintain both height and tension.
Fly Under Tension
The fly can be tucked on both ends to keep out blowing rain. This works very well!
Fly Tucked Under
I’ve found that in many situations the foot can be left lightly tied or loose.
The side pull-out tabs can be tied to each other as shown below (black tabs near the ground).
Loose Footed Fly
If more wind is anticipated you can stake out the fly as shown below.
The hammock came with thin elastic cords that I replaced with heavier shock-cords and lightweight rope.
(The knots are an adjustable Taut-Line Hitch and a Zeppelin Bend to connect cord to rope.)
Hammock Knots
The final result meets the four point rule outlined above, and keeps the head and sides clear of ropes!
Staked Out Fly
If you want to hedge your bet you can reef the fly along the ridge-line. This also makes it easy to pack up when you’re breaking camp. Note that one of the reef points was not sealed properly and caused a minor leak. I will be adding some seam sealer to address this.
Fly Reefed at Ridge-Line
Note that this is the first hammock I’ve seen where you can
access and deploy part of the rain-fly from the inside!
Fly Access from within the Hammock
There are two pockets, one at the foot and one along the right side.
As always, I wish there were more pockets and larger.
A “loft” near the head would also be helpful.
Hammock Pockets
Recommendations
PROS
a good hammock overall, at a great price (~$69)
single external pole design, fewer ropes!
enter from either side
netting folds out of the way
dark netting is good for stargazing
CONS
too short (needs 4-6 inches more IMO)
rainfly needs better suspension (easy to fix)
included hanging straps are adequate, but short
no ridge-line, so harder to hang (minor)
side-zipper bag included, a stuff sack would be better
