We went car camping this past weekend. It was a good weekend and we had some real nice weather that helped make it an even nicer time.
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- My hammock is on the right (Blackbird XLC hammock 1.7 DL with an 40* degree Incubator underquilt underneath)
- Oldest son's hammock is on the left (Darien hammock)
- Youngest son's hammock is in the back (Hennessey Cub hammock)
- Wife's hammock off camera to the right in her own “girl's only” little space (it's my "old" Blackbird hammock 1.7DL with a 0* degree Incubator underquilt underneath). A picture of her blackbird is below.
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Upon arriving at the campground, we found out the site we reserved wouldn't work for 4 people in hammocks. The site didn't have enough trees spaced far enough apart without underbrush underneath for us. We went back to the park office to get a list of available campsite for us to check out. It appeared the park officials haven't had many, if any, people using only hammocks before as it took a little explaining to the park office and the ranger as to what we were doing. They weren't against it, they just weren't familiar with it. There were about 20 available sites and we went off to check out each one out. Thankfully, we found one! Site 193. Throughout the weekend, we had many curious eyes as people walked by our site and saw all the hammocks and no tent. It's nice to know that hammocks are allowed!
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Here's a picture of me using my SOLO stove. It cooks with wood pieces or twigs you can either get off the ground or you can split from a log. I also have a small alcohol stove that fits inside it to give me a second cooking option. I really liked using the SOLO stove. This was it's inaugural debit for me. I have used other people's SOLO stove, but this was my first time with mine, I really like being able to use twigs and small pieces of wood to cook with. Unfortunately, we were in a heavily used campground and most of the small twigs have already been used and i had to baton some small pieces of a few logs. A friend's Jetboil gas-fired cooking system is in the foreground.
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Here's my oldest son sleeping in on Saturday morning.
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Saturday morning was a nice slow paced morning. R-E-L-A-X-I-N-G
On Saturday afternoon, we went for a swim at Lake Pinchot … or Pinchot Lake, I'm not sure what the official name is. We had a fun filled afternoon.
After the Lake, it was time to head back for showers and cooking dinner. I had me some Texas State Fair Chili by “Pack-it Gourmet”. Good stuff! We also had a campfire that evening and played cards as it was getting dark. We needed our headlamps before we finished playing! Then it was time for some “zzzzzzzzzzssssss”
Sunday, My wife and I started our day off with a nice chapel service at the park.
After eating and packing everything up, we went to play Disc Golf. Wow, we only played the first nine holes, but we played on the tougher of the two courses. I wish I would have had my camera or phone with me to take some pictures. The first hole is straight up a hill (mountain). It was rough walking up that hill! One hole was over 900 feet long (3 football fields). I think my oldest son had the record for the most throws into the woods! He even scored a bonus disc by finding one as he searched for one of his inerrant throws. The found disc didn't have any name on it, so now he is using it!
After disc golf, we were sweaty and decided to go swimming in the lake again.
One of the nice things that I like about going camping is that the pace of life slows down. It takes longer to cook and the meal times seem to have everyone working together to make the meal. I think that makes it even more special. Everyone helps cook. Everyone does their own dishes. Everyone has one food container (mug), one water bottle, and one utensil (spoon). Everyone's involved. Here's the wife and our oldest.
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I was originally supposed to be on the Appalachian Trail. I reinjured my knee just a few days of my month long hiking journey on the AT! Bummer!! I tore my meniscus before and haven't heard yet what I did this time. While I would have preferred hiking and camping with just the things on my back, my knees just wouldn't allow that to happen. (Disc golf on the mountain confirmed this fact). I'm glad we were at least able to go car camping. My wife was glad for the flush toilets and showers. I do have to admit, that flush toilets are a lot better than digging your own cat holes!
Gifford Pinchot State Park is one of the biggest State Parks in PA. It has almost 400 campsites! A fair amount of the camping sites have electricity for RV's and campers. Some sites are better than others. I'm just glad we found one that worked for us. I may have to make a day trip this summer to scope out all the sites (without electricity) to see if there are any other sites that may work for us with four hammocks in the future.
We had a fun weekend! Here's a picture of us in the lake on Sunday afternoon.
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Overall, it was a good weekend for all of us.
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