Hall of Honor

The "Hall of Honor" is something I should have started a long time ago. It is a place where I can recognize those people that have made a contribution to this site - minor to major. I have been flamed a couple of times for failing to give full credit or ripping of other's ideas, but that has never been my intention.

There are many different contributions besides gear, things like recipes, techniques, support for trips, web ideas, etc. that are all woven into my site. Like HOI always proof reading my pages and catching spelling and grammar errors, or Waynerd who gave me the idea to do something like this with a military rank structure, or Hacksaw who gives me trail conditions for the southern AT and was my shuttle last year, or Buddur who showed me the light with slits instead of holes on alcohol stoves. The list goes on and on. It will be an ongoing project to keep this page updated or to just catch up with what is already on my site.

Now for how the system works. I use enlisted Army rank to rank the contributions of someone. The more the contribution, the higher the rank. Contributions can be as simple as a single idea, some article I quote, some design I use or mutate into my own piece of gear, web contributions, etc. The exact contribution system in the rank structure may take tweaking over time because I don't even have a clear picture in my own head as to how this should work.

	Private: One time contribution of an idea or minor innovation.
	Private First Class: Multiple contributions of ideas or techniques
	Specialist: Reserved for people that I quote from books or articles.
	Corporal: Contribution of an actual gear design that I later incorporate into a new design.
	Sergeant: Gear design I use in total with the possibility of a few design changes. Also for people that loan me gear for extended periods for testing.
	Staff Sergeant: Multiple gear designs or actually giving me some gear to test. That I get to keep.
	Sergeant First Class: Hard to achieve. Someone deserving special recognition. I'll know when someone finally reaches this point.
	Master Sergeant: This would put you almost level to me. I doubt it is achievable except maybe if I ever leave the site to someone while I get deployed or go on a long hike (like my thru-hike)
	Sergeant Major: Forget it.
	General of the Army: Reserved for my wife. If you can't figure it out, you must be single. Also known as "She who must be obeyed".

Here is my list of Honorees:

RANK:	NAME:	CONTRIBUTION:	NOTES:
	Household 6 (my wife)	Every thing!	My wife and mother of my kids. Ground control when I hike. Chief financial manager when I want to buy gear. Shuttle to numerous trailheads.
	Easy	Creator of www.WhiteBlaze.net	A cool guy that made the site. He gave it up instead of closing it down when he decided to go off hiking.
	ATTroll	My partner over at www.WhiteBlaze.net	Troll is the guy that came up with the idea for us to go in together to run the site. He has also done a lot to fix it up as well as get me the hack to make my front page.
	Tom Hennessy	Excellent customer support for the Hennessy Hammock and gave me a Hennessy Hammock to test.	Tom Hennessy is a true genius when it comes to hammock design. He broke the mold of what people thought a jungle hammock should look like and keeps making them better.
	HOI (Hog On Ice)	Multiple editing contributions, loan of a Zip Stove, many other ideas.	Normally just loaning me a zip stove would qualify him as a sergeant, but HOI has been a great supporter for a long time.
	AYCE	Great web site thru-hiker.com. The V8 stove design, and various suggestions over the last few months.	AYCE has let me contribute to his great site, and he is the one that got me to really scientifically evaluate stove performance. Most of the data here wouldn't have happened if he hadn't challenged me to it.
	Charles Lindsey	The Web Master of The Lightweight Backpacker	Charles' site was the first I ever found that talked about lightweight backpacking. I initially didn't pay any attention to it figuring it was a gimmick, but now it is my number one influence.
	Cedar Tree	Inventor of the Paka	Cedar Tree sent me a Packa while I was in Iraq, and it has turned out to be one of my favorite pieces of gear.
	Jonathan McCue	Owner of Moonbow Gear, makers of the Gearskin, maker of my custom poncho tarp, and for the excellent services he provides hikers.	Jonathan and his group are a true hiker oriented business that knows exactly what hikers need and gives it to them. His custom services and gear innovations are some of the best I've seen.
	Jeff	He gave me some aramid fabric some thermo couples, and Kevlar thread.	Sort of my scientific advisor for a while. His advise about thermocouples and the strong warning against acetone will always be appreciated.
	Smee	Half of Jacks 'R Better	One of the two backpackers who started Jacks 'R Better, supplier of a bunch of cool Hennessy Hammock aftermarket products. The have contributed a couple of things such as the No Sniveler Quilt and the Weather Shield for product testing.
	Sweeper	Exchange of ideas, suggesting Nunatak, and the mesh laundry bag.	Sweeper seems to have the same ideas I do on a lot of levels. I followed his 2001 thru hike like it was my own. Although we had different design concepts, the mesh from the laundry bag for my rucksack was a great idea, and if it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have gotten my Nunatak blanket.
	Peter Pan	Half of Jacks 'R Better	One of the two backpackers who started Jacks 'R Better, supplier of a bunch of cool Hennessy Hammock aftermarket products. The have contributed a couple of things such as the No Sniveler Quilt and the Weather Shield for product testing.
	Rosaleen	Many various things.	Rosaleen has been a big fan and often gets me into long e-mail conversations about things. She petitioned Tom Hennessy for months for him to give me a hammock.
	Aaron Rosenbloom	Inventor of the Brasslite Duo and Solo, and for his excellent customer service.	Aaron has some great talents when it comes to making stoves and has put them to the test in the design and manufacture of custom stoves. The Brasslite is exactly what some lightweight hikers are looking for and he cares about what he does.
	John Hussey	Contributed the Trangia Westwind for testing	I had always been interested in testing the Trangia which is the old time standard for alcohol stoves. Fortunately John had one he was willing to part with.
	Hungry Howie	Lots of ideas like my mail drop plan, and the a down quilt idea.	Howie has been so logical and on the money every time I read one of his posts. I had been thinking about the down quilt for a while and his design affirmed to me that it could work.
	Dan	Loan of the Snugpak Sleeping bags for testing	Although I didn't like the bags, I still appreciate the loan of equipment. You know how hard it can be to let your stuff go off to a stranger.
	Roy "Trail Dad" Robbinson	The cat stove design.	Besides a few minor modifications, his Cat stove served me well for over a year.
	Sharon	Made the green buttons and some other graphics for me I use on the site.	There was a point when I was busy trying to fix two sites at once (among other things) and I need some new graphics but lacked the time to do so. Sharon volunteered and stepped in. She greatly contributed to the look of parts of this site.
	Animo	Loan of the Clark Jungle Hammock for testing.	After a spirited debate he was still willing to do a short time swap of hammocks so I could see (and so could he) what the other was talking about.
	Hacksaw	Trail info and a real Trail Angel	Hacksaw was my 2001 Appalachian Trail Shuttle and is a great guy for the Georgia AT community.
	Buddur	He has given me many important design innovations.	He was the inspiration for the slits in alcohol stove burners instead of holes, and the simmer cap for the soda can stove.
	Lynne Whelden	The owner of LW Gear.	His one pound pack was a direct influence on the design of my SGT Rock's Ruck. His packing instructions are right on the money!
	Scott Henderson	Designer of the Soda Can Stove that is the basis for mine.	His stove was the exact model I made for about a year. I've only made slight changes to the design.
	Dan Winter AKA Trail Yeti	Field tester of my Turbo V8 stove.	Dan is carrying my Turbo V8 stove on his 2002 Appalachian Trail Thru-Hike.
	Linguini	Pot Cozy.	His pot cozy gave me the idea for my original model that later mutated into the one using aramid cloth.
	Waynerd	Recommended The new message board and the Hall of Honor - well sort of.	The board is a great success.
	Dr. Brenda L. Braaten PhD, RD	Author of the article PACK LIGHT, EAT RIGHT©	Over the years I've been learning about trail nutrition from hit and miss. Her article confirmed a lot of what I had learned, and helped me to tweak my hiking menu.
	Michael Koussiafes	Chemist that analyzed solid fuel tablets	When writing an article on Esbit vs Trioxane, his input was valuable.
	Wingfoot	Original author of "The Thru-Hiker's Handbook". And former Webmaster of Trailplace.	Wingfoot is a Trail contributor for the Appalachian Trail of which I can't even begin to quantify. To this site his handbook helped me with various aspects of my AT thru-hike plan.
	Marco	Webmaster of Wings	Wings is THE ARCHIVE of home made stove designs. if your looking to build a stove, check there.
	Lee Van Horn	Webmaster of Hiking Alabama	On my 2000 thru-hike of the Pinhoti Trailhis site was the only source of information I used.
	Phil	Webmaster of the Trail Talk Contributor Page	A fun site I visit often.
	Matt the Webmaster	Webmaster of TheBackpacker.com. Home of Trail Talk	My favorite message board because of the eclectic personalities and issues on it.
	Earl Schaffer	Author of "Walking With Spring"	The first ever true Thru-Hiker.
	Robert Alden Rubin	Author of "On the Beaten Path"	A well written Thru-hiker book.
	Ray Jardine	Author of "Beyond Backpacking"	An ultralight "Guru" that has sort of evangelized ultralight backpacking to the popular backpacking community.
	Bill Bryson	Author of "A Walk in the Woods : Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail"	A humorous book about a failed thru-hike attempt.
	Roland Mueser	Author of "Long-Distance Hiking: Lessons from the Appalachian Trail"	A very concisely researched book about long distance hiking on the Appalachian Trail.
	Adrienne Hall	Author of "A Journey North"	A book written about thru-hiking from the perspective of a woman.
	Tim Ernst	Author of "Arkansas Hiking Trails: A Guide to 78 Selected Trails in the Natural State"	A very informative trail guide that covers many of the trails in Arkansas. He also help build some of the trails and writes guides for all the major trails in Arkansas.
	Shane Graber	Dryer Duct Pot Support/windscreen	I didn't end up using it, but it was a good idea that led to my homemade Esbit stove.
	G. LaMar Kirby	Coat Hanger Pot Support	I also do not use this, but it makes a good alternative to a hardware cloth pot support.
	Atlanta Randy	Trick birthday candles as emergency fire starter.	An idea I never thought of, and also for telling me where you can get them easily.

The list isn't complete, I'll always be looking for someone I may have missed.