Mark your calendars for the weekend BEFORE Saint Patrick's Day!
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Because I have been getting a few private message questions I decided to post the overview earlier than originally planned. Hopefully the information below is helpful. If you just browse through the information below please be sure to pay attention to the information about the Irish Feast
Holy crap! Are we really celebrating our five year anniversary of this hang? We’ve sure come a long way in five years. When we started there hadn’t been much in the line of group hangs in Southern California so about 12 of us met up at a first-come/first-served campground with very little idea as to how things would go. Since then we have moved to our own reserved group camp sites, had some great potlucks, planned activities, got a raffle going, and met a lot of great people. We had 30+ attendees last year and I wouldn’t be surprised if we break 45 this year. Because of the SoCal Hangers Facebook Group, there may be less activity on the thread than in previous years. I would encourage everybody on both to make sure to remember that HF is our original home and we should make sure to post updates here. The great news about the Facebook Group is that I’ve been able to pull lots of hangers that are not part of the HF community. We have 80+ members and I’d guess a third of them are not on HF. So we should be pulling some great numbers this year.
With that in mind, I'd encourage people to bring hammock stands if they have them just in case!
Falcon Group campground is off the Ortega Highway in the mountains just west of Lake Elsinore. The campground is removed from the city, and is close enough to civilization in case we need supplies. There is water (non-potable) and vault toilets present.
We have reserved the largest site as our home base for Thursday through Sunday. On Friday night we add in the Lupine site next door, and on Saturday night we add in the Sage site next door to Lupine. We can add Lupine in for Thursday later on if there are enough people staying Thursday to justify the expense. I really want to make sure we are spending economically so we have overage to pay for next year. It’s quite a chunk of change to pay up front (~$600 at this point) so anything we can do to mitigate this in the future is helpful.
As for the sites, we have never booked Sage before. There aren’t a lot of hanging opportunities at Sage but booking it accomplishes two things:
1) Gives us extra parking
2) Reduces the chance that we’ll have “neighbors” during the hang because not too many people would reserve a group site on a Friday night without being able to stay Saturday as well (knock on wood)
On the off chance we run out of parking spaces we can park just outside of the entrance with a wilderness pass available at the small store just before you turn off of The Ortega Highway (74). I’ll grab a few extra Wilderness Passes for any vehicles that need to be kept at the entrance. If we run out of trees we can use the adjacent Blue Jay Campground for overflow but I think if we’re all willing to make it work and spread out we will be fine. We ran low on trees last year but it’s primarily because we didn’t utilize the whole available space because nobody wanted to hang too far from the fire because of the rain. Trees at the group site are first-come, first-served.
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Confirmation and Costs
Please confirm if you are going below. As we get closer I will be posting updated lists of attendees.
If you want to pay beforehand you can send your fees via PayPal to [email protected]. Please make sure to include your name and you HammockForums User Name if you have one. We covered the site up front so any help in this regard is appreciated
If you don’t pay in advance, please remember to bring cash with you!
Payment of $25 per person ($10 per kids)
This cost is the same whether you stay one night or three.
Think of it as a “Cost of Admission”
Any overage will go towards reserving the site for next year so we don’t have to go so deep out of pocket for it.
It really helped to have the $100 left over from last year (again) to book this year.
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Items to bring:
1) Hammock Rig / Tarps / Gear
2) DRINKING WATER!!! The campground is listed as having potable water but my buddy and I got sick from it last time.
3) At least two bundles of firewood, per person. I'm bringing at least three. I love a fire… Almost as much as Pedro. Which is saying something because Pedro is second in loving a fire only to Mrs. O’Leary’s cow.
4) Potluck Dish for Friday and/or Saturday night. Friday night will be our regular potluck as we have done in years past. Saturday night hangers are encouraged to bring something in line with a Saint Patrick’s day feast. Corned beef, potatoes, cabbage, carrots, soda bread, Irish whiskey, green beer, Lucky Charms, etc… You get the picture. I’m crossing my fingers there will be some left over corned beef for hash the next morning!
5) Toilet paper. There are supplied vault toilets but it is better to be safe than rely on the forestry service.
6) Other Camping Gear you think others would benefit by seeing.
7) Obvious stuff like food, bourbon, water, clothes, bourbon, etc…
8) If we get close to the date and it looks like rain, bring your wet gear and any tarps, rope, and/or other cordage we might use.
The potlucks seem to be one of the things most enjoyed by everyone so please be sure to plan for it. We can figure out who is cooking on which night based on what people show up with. I’m really looking forward to both, but especially the Irish Feast on Saturday. Please post an idea of what you plan to bring in this thread as we get closer.
There is plenty of hiking in the area. There are 2 trails out of Falcon and out of Blue Jay San Juan trail along with opportunities for bike riding if that tickles your fancy.
Plan on bringing out not only our hammock gear, but also any backpacking or outdoors gear we have so everybody can take a look at how others rough it. I'm always impressed by new technology and especially DIY stuff. If anyone wants to ask questions about those and how they're made, that's great. Bring a few extra items, even if they don't need them, so we can all take a look and learn from everybody's different rigs.
Non-hangers (or “Pre-Hangers” as I prefer to call them) are welcome to come out for the weekend and take a look at what they are missing. Just make sure they are prepared to hear a whole lot of hammock geek talk!
Well-behaved kids ~12+ are welcome. Especially since we will be occupying such a large space. It’s always great to see the kids that came out and spend some time learning about hammocking and backpacking. Car camping tends to lead to (at least) a fair share of adult beverages being consumed and spreading out will help make sure the kids aren't adversely affected by any questionable behavior. We did a good share of drinking at the last few group hangs (which led to a fair amount of salty language) and I imagine suit will follow this time.
Well-behaved dogs are also welcome. Park regulations require them to remain on a leash.
If anybody has ideas for activities beyond what is listed above? A poker game perhaps? Bean bag tosses? Horseshoes? Raffle? Scavenger hunt for the kids? List your ideas below! We tried to play poker once but the wind wasn’t cooperating. Hopefully we have better luck this year.
I’ll bring along what remains of the official SoCal Hangers patches with the SoCal Hangers logo for $5 each if anybody is interested. I’ve got one on my backpack and one on my down jacket and they look sweet! I also have stickers at 2 for $5.
I’ve already begun gathering donation items to be raffled in effort to raise money for “Homes for our Troops”, an outstanding charity that builds homes for veterans with physical disabilities. I would encourage everybody to check them out online as they do some really stellar work. Ticket swill be $5 each and available at the hang.
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Directions:
From the 15 (East Side) Heading South:
Take Exit 81 to Lake Street
Make a Right on Lake
Follow Lake down, it will become Grand Ave.
After you get off the freeway you’ll be on this for about 15 minutes
You’ll reach a point where you can either turn left on Riverside or Right on Grand. STAY TO THE RIGHT TO STAY ON GRAND
Turn Right on Ortega Highway 74 up the mountain
Go up the hill to just a mile or two past the crest
Get off the highway by making a right at No. Main Divide road
No. Main Divide road is just before a campground on the right
Take the paved road in the middle (DO NOT GO TO THE SITE RIGHT BY THE HIGHWAY)
You will go about 15 minutes back and likely feel like you have gone too far.
Look for potholes and narrow roads.
Follow Signs to Falcon Group Campsite
Yarrow is the last site
From the 15 (East Side) Heading North:
Take Exit 77 to get on to Highway 74
Head West (Towards the lake)
Right on Collier (light)
Left on Riverside Dr (light)
Pass the lake
Riverside Drive curves to the left and becomes Grand
Turn Right on Ortega Highway 74 up the mountain
Go up the hill to just a mile or two past the crest
Get off the highway by making a right at No. Main Divide road
No. Main Divide road is just before a campground on the right
Take the paved road in the middle (DO NOT GO TO THE SITE RIGHT BY THE HIGHWAY)
You will go about 15 minutes back and likely feel like you have gone too far.
Look for potholes and narrow roads.
Follow Signs to Falcon Group Campsite
Yarrow is the last site
From the 5 (West Side):
Take Exit 82 to get on to Highway 74
Head East (Into the Mountains) for about 23 miles
Make a left on to No. Main Divide road just after the fire station (on the right)
No. Main Divide road is just after a campground on the left
Take the paved road in the middle (DO NOT GO TO THE SITE RIGHT BY THE HIGHWAY)
You will go about 15 minutes back and likely feel like you have gone too far.
Look for potholes and narrow roads.
Follow Signs to Falcon Group Campsite
Yarrow is the last site
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Now that all of that's out of the way... Let's get the ball rolling and the sheets hanging!
If you have questions, post them below!
Yours in hanging,
Addam
(AKA: WillieCash)
You can reach me via PM here on HammockForums
Or on the public Facebook Group “SoCal Hangers"
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Originally Posted by Bizzz
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