Man, what a hang! Though we didn't plan all that much, everybody came through on a great event. Slackpacking could definitely grow on me.
We (Silent Orpheus, njredneck, brooklynkayak and his buddy Minh) met Ratdog at Batsto Village. We put our packs, cookware, and comestibles in Ratdog's pickup truck and he schlepped them to a mile north of Mullica.
Brooklynkayak and Minh took the 4-mile Mullica River trail, while SilentOrpheus, njredneck and I headed up the Batsto Lake trail, then up the Batona Trail to Quaker Bridge before crossing over to the Mullica River trail. We ended up doing about 8 miles. Njredneck blew out his foot 'cause he's just not used to hiking at the pace of the speedy SilvrSurfr and SilentOrpheus.
We got to the gear drop-off point around 3:30, but Ratdog didn't anticipate us doing 8 miles in 2.5 hours, so we waited for him to show up with his two nephews. Brooklynkayak and Minh hiked to the drop-off point and we began to sherpa the gear the mile to Mullica. Minh was a workhorse, carrying a cast iron Dutch oven and frypan on his back, while pulling a wagon load of wood. Ratdog's nephews pulled two other wagons to Mullica.
While we hung our hammocks, Minh and brooklynkayak got the fire started. Then the festivities began. Silent Orpheus and brooklynkayak chopped up about two cups of garlic, while I got to work on slicing up yellow squash, zucchini, tomatoes, onions and garlic for the jambot.
First course was 2 lbs. of gambas al ajillo (shrimp with garlic cooked in olive oil) with Italian bread. For the second course, njredneck brought beef filets wrapped in bacon, and we ate the jambot with that. I always bring a veggie dish to group hangs and nobody eats it, but there were some serious veggie eaters in the crew and there was no jambot left. By the time we got to the third course, Ratdog's sausage and peppers, I was in a food coma. I thoroughly believe that, had we started eating earlier, this band of ravenous eaters would have finished off everything with no leftovers. SilentOrpheus brought an excellent selection of beverages to accompany each dish, and by the time everyone had eaten, we were ready to start telling stories and tall tales. As always, we had some fine conversation and chuckles.
We awoke in the morning to a light rain. Njredneck made us coffee, and cooked sausage gravy with hashbrowns - very impressive breakfast. After everyone was packed up, Ratdog, his two nephews, and njredneck schlepped the gear back to the dropoff point. Brooklynkayak and Minh headed back to Batsto via the Mullica River trail, and SilentOrpheus and I followed a bit later (carrying our packs this time).
SilentOrpheus and I set a blistering pace (with one stop for SilentOrpheus to remove 47 base layers 'cause he was hot). We did the four miles in 1.5 hours, but we couldn't catch up with brooklynkayak and Minh. The last mile it started raining pretty hard. Ratdog and njredneck arrived at Batsto at the same time we did.
We picked up our gear (cast iron and such), shook hands, and promised to do it again soon. I must say it was the best eat and drink at a hang that I can remember!
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Originally Posted by Ratdog
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