How to tie the toggle hitch, by Alan Halcon

The Toggle Hitch

One of the most common tasks for bushcraft is tying a ridgeline for a tarp between two trees. And, because of the popularity of Ray Mears, the Siberian (Evenk) Hitch seems to reign at the top of the list.

However, there is a very simple, fast, and easy alternative that meets the more bushcrafty aura: the toggle hitch.

Similar, but different than a Marlin spike, the toggle hitch is extremely fast and secure; moreover, when tension is slackened, a few quick shakes of the line will release the toggle, freeing it… perfect for those times when you are too lazy to walk back to the opposite tree to undo the knot.

To tie this hitch, only two things are needed, a loop tied in one end and a piece of a twig, pencil, pen, etc.

Following the series of pictures below, one can see how easy this hitch is to tie...

This hitch will stay firmly and securely in place, so long as tension is kept on the running end. This is easy enough, as one will be tying it off under tension on the other end to hang the tarp. Once ready to undo, simply pull the pin out, or untie the other side and shake the line and it will release the pin, freeing it from the tree.

NOTE: Before anyone gets the wise idea and thinks, “Oh Great! I can apply this to a rappelling rig so I can retrieve the line from the bottom”, let me say… this is not intended for that.

Source: This article was adapted from Ridgeline Toggle Hitch, by Alan Halcon, owner and operator of Outdoor Self Reliance (OSR) Wilderness Survival and Bushcraft Training in Southern California. Copyright © 2014.  All Rights Reserved. Excerpted with Expressed Written Permission. To learn more about Outdoor Self Reliance, or sign up for a class, point your Internet browser here.

Alan Halcon, owner and operator of  Southern California's
Outdoor Self Reliance (OSR) Wilderness Survival and Bushcraft Training.

Author Alan Halcon, in his own words: Ever since I can remember, I’ve  loved the outdoors. My dad was an avid outdoorsman and always taking the family camping, fishing and hunting.

I reckon I must have been about 10 or 12 (circa 80s) when I went to Segovia, Spain and spent a summer there. While my parents wanted to go sight seeing, I was more interested in staying back and playing with my friends. I spent a lot of time in the outdoors with my friends, learning Survival skills, though at the time to me it was just goofing off in the wilderness. Oh how my mom hated me hanging out with them. But try as she may, I didn’t listen and was always running around with my friends. I reckon she had good reason to keep me away from those kids… They were Gypsies! Oh but how I learned some skills.

Those Gypsy kids were the ones that taught me how to poison fish with plants, hand magfishing, and bird trapping with a substance called “Liga” or birdlime—A sticky substance smeared on branches that would cause the birds to stick when they landed on the branches. This Liga was made from the bark of a tree through a pretty drawn out process. It was during that time I also bought my first survival book, in Spanish, no less. I also very much recall heading to the hills for some wildcrafting with my aunts and Grandmother. My Grandmother was always gathering medicinal herbs and I also learned how to make wood ash soap from my grandmother.

While I got older and had different interests, my passion for the outdoors remained. It must have been maybe in 1995 I met Christopher Nyerges and Dude McLean. We all quickly became friends. Sometime in the late nineties or early two thousands, I began writing for Wilderness Way Magazine, of which Christopher was the editor.

A lot has gone on since that time. I’ve been featured in Ron Hood’s video series (Number 15 of the Woodsmaster series). I currently hold the record at getting a handdrill coal (2 seconds). I’ve written for a couple of other magazines and have ghost written sections of other books and I’ve traveled the country teaching outdoor self reliance.

Along with Christopher Nyerges and Dude McLean, I own Dirttime.com. I’ve made a lot of friends because of it. In fact, we have a yearly event that reunites instructors and students for a week long family oriented shindig in the outdoors.

I don’t consider myself an expert, never will. I will forever be a perpetual student of the outdoors. I do enjoy sharing my experience and teaching others skills that will help them become more self-reliant and proficient in the outdoors. I run workshops year round, and I am still rewarded every time a student accomplishes their first coal, or sets their first trap.

My discipline is more Wilderness Living, than it is running around in a panic when one gets disoriented. Woodcraft/Bushcraft are the foundation of what I do and it is what I try to instill in my students by helping them grow their woodsmanship skills

One of Alan's favorite quotes....This panic stricken craze and sense of fear so prevalent in the survival community is the antithesis of the accomplished woodsman. For it is he or she who looks upon such circumstances as minor annoyances, at best, and more often as opportunities.—Anonymous

• Alan's OSR Web site; Follow OSR on Facebook
• Alan's Dirttime Web site; Follow Dirttime on Facebook