So, Canoebie had those in the Northern Indiana/Southern Michigan area over to his place for a hang. He has plenty of wooded acreage and a pond (with fish) to enjoy. We arrived between 4 - 5:30, me being the last one. So, it was Canobie, Gargoyle, Otter, and myself (Troutehcuss - Trout for short). Canobie was already setup and had two dutch ovens cooking over a nice fire and a nice camp chef setup. After the others talked over some beer near the fire, they setup their gear. As this was my maiden voyage, hammock hang and testing of my DIY tarp and hammock, I needed a bunch of guidance. As I had been called into work (On-call) the night before, I hadn't had time to find and organize all my gear.... I was just a...well, call it little...unorganized. Gargoyle and Canobie set me straight... taught their padawan (geez, StarWars?)... the tricks of the hammocking trade. More chatting, gargoyle finally getting to his hammock setup and Canobie called us in for some chow. We ate some really hearty Dutch Oven soup and then Gargoyle grilled over the fire some venison (I shared homemade bread and butter pickles). To Gargoyle's very sad surprise, the other DO didn't have dessert - cobbler - but the potato's for breakfast. Can you say, "Gargoyle very sad?" Me too. Canoebie fell out of the ranks by around 10:45 and the rest of us enjoyed the fire until 12:45 before heading off to our hammocks. Again, I can't say enough good about that fire. Oh, and Canobie had out wool blankets for us to line our hammock (if we wanted) and in the camp chairs - very thoughtful.
By 7:15 everyone was out of their hammocks, but myself. For some reason, they thought I slept all night... do to some snoring issues; however, I was just frozen in place and unable to figure how to get up without dumping myself on the ground. The temperatures had dropped to about 11 degrees during the night. Canoebie's wife stopped by and was so pleasant and easy going - a real charmer. Canoebie made some sort of DO doughnut bread and fabulous breakfast of potato, eggs, onion, cheese, and maybe a few other things - a real breakfast of champions. Cowboy coffee and hot sauce both were offered. After talking, peeing, talking, peeing... and more peeing, going back for more breakfast, we again talked hammock shop. I thought the day before was all I could learn from this hang, oh no! We gawked at Canoebie's Clayton setup a bit, and then messed with Gargoyles DIY and bear burrito. Finally, everyone took a turn swinging in my 12 foot hammock - ahh, the comfort! After some camp cleanup, we all went our way... around 1:30.
I can't say enough about how much fun a simple hang with a few hammockers can be and how much you can learn. Everyone was easy to get along with. Your gear and some food was all we needed for entertainment. A big thanks goes out to Canoebie and his wife for their hospitality.
Pictures and video may show up at a later date - when I learn to edit video and photos. Thanks for reading.
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