Went to Jones Gap State Park with two of my sons and my daughter-in-law. Weatherman was calling for considerable rain and thunderstorms with temps in the upper 30s at night but they wanted to go anyway so... we went.
It was pouring rain when we arrived, so the first thing we did was put up a honkin' big tarp. We had two small tents and way off in the distance on the right, you can just see my Blackbird.
I had a chance to try out several new toys acquired since my last trip in November.
Santa Claus took advantage of the Jacks-R-Better sale over Christmas and brought me a Mt. Washington 4 UQ and an Old Rag Mountain TQ.
Just last week, I had a MacCat Ultra modified with doors by the Zipper Queen. Here it is with the doors deployed on one end.
I found two perfect trees, right next to the river. Man, did it sound good at night!
Here, I'm sitting under the big tarp watching it rain. With the doors, it looks bombproof. It was waterproof. Never had a drop of anything get in.
Thank you Donna, for a beautiful job.
Here is the JRB stuff
The big poofy thing inside is the Old Rag Mountain Quilt
Notice the solid ridgeline and prussiks. I'm really liking that.
Both nights were in the high 30s and wet. On the first night, I suffered some from cold butt syndrome. It wasn't enough to make me get out though. I grabbed a fleece and put it under me. Just goes to prove that even with the best equipment, there's no accounting for human ineptitude. Checked it after I got up and sure enough, there was a gap between the UQ and the hammock. Fixed that and the second night was a dream.
I've also been messing with alcohol stoves, thanks to 2 Questions and his video on the Caldera Cone. If you haven't seen it, check it out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VerP7-aiEBw
It's very nicely done.
You can't see it, but there is blue flame coming out of the ports
That's a Snow Peak 700 ml pot
No campout would be complete without some Dutch Oven cooking. My sons have come to expect cookies around the campfire at night.
I put 1 inch pipe nipples in the bottom to keep the baking plate off the bottom and keep from burning.
Put the cookie dough on the metal plate and spread it around.
Bake it for 20 minutes.
Dutch Oven $60
Cookie dough $3
Warm cookies on a campout with your grown kids...priceless
Breakfast was cinnamon rolls and baggie omelets
All in all, it turned into a much better weekend than I was expecting. The weather kept us from hiking, but we had a great time just hanging out.
Many thanks to all those on the forum that helped make this weekend a success.
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