I can report another successful hang down on the Lake Wales Ridge State Forest near Frostproof (FL)! This annual hang will forever be known as "Grinder's birthday hang" from now on (come down next year!).
This particular hang was on the Walk-in-Water tract for a change of pace since the other hangs that I have put on were on the Arbuckle tract. Olddog and emcee arrived early on Thursday and headed out to get some time in the woods. They made it to the camp site fine and set up camp (olddog snagged the premium site!) and were treated to two motorcycles literally riding through the middle of the camp (no motorized equipment is allowed on the forest but maybe we'll catch them next time).
Grinder got out to the site Friday morning (on his birthday) and Great White and samsara got there a little after noon. Later in the afternoon MAD777 and lilricky arrived and the final piece to the puzzle (and the one that drove the farthest) was SkunkApe a little before sunset. Everyone got settled in and had dinner around the campfire. Bear bags were hung *ahem*and olddog started the birthday peach cobbler in his dutch oven. The cobbler was delicious (of course) and we all wished grinder a happy birthday and sat around the fire visiting late into the night.
Saturday started with breakfast and preparations for our day hike. We headed out and experienced some world class sugar sand and hills (yes... hills in Florida!!). There were many nice views, lots to see, a cypress dome up in the sandhill on the Lake Wales Ridge, and 6 miles later we were back at the camp for the afternoon. Naps, relaxing, and food filled the rest of the day and most turned in early after a days hike through sugar sand.
Sunday brought breakfast and packing up to head home again. We had a nice hike back out that brought the weekend total to about 12 miles of hiking/backpacking and 12 miles of sugar sand is like 24 miles of regular hiking. We said our goodbyes at the parking lot and headed towards home. It was good having SkunkApe come along to join our hearty crew of regulars. I know we would all love to have him come back again and we'll probably all see each other at the big hang in January if not sooner.
Pics to follow,
Dave
P.S. I feel like one of the luckiest people in the world to have such a great group of friends to hang with
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