The Hunger Hang Merchants Mill Pond NC

[CoreyR]

Gunner, congrats on the great hosting you did for this hang. Looks like your now in the books for hosting two hangs a year now. Great job.

Three, if he goes forward with the January hang he is talking about!

[obxh2o]

Three, if he goes forward with the January hang he is talking about!

If Gunner's track record holds, we will see some of the finest January weather possible for hanging, too.

[CoreyR]

If Gunner's track record holds, we will see some of the finest January weather possible for hanging, too.

I am looking forward to it.

[Sandman614]

I'll be there, with an under quilt!

[CoreyR]

I am hoping to have a new Hammeck Envy. I'll put a yoga mat in the DL LOL Maybe a wool blanket in addition to my woobie/poncholiner under quilt.

[gunner76]

we will see some of the finest January weather possible for hanging, too.

if you mean 1 foott of snow and 20 degree weather

[gunner76]

For those of you who were able to make it...thanks. You helped to make it a great hang. For those who were not able to attend, you missed some excellent hanging weather, lows in the 40's at night and highs in the low 70's at most. We had clear skies and tarps were not really needed. Almost no bugs.


We had 29 folks attending and 2 visitors. This included Mechelangelo and Mechie from the Hammeck company ( http://www.hammeck.com/) who were able to join us and show off their gear and a prototype of a new portable collapsible hammock stand which I got to test and it held me even with PappyAmos trying to shake me out. They are making some nice hammocks.


Many of the folks attending were herefor their first group hang and many were retreads from the April hang. We truly had a very diverse group from Pennsylvania, Virginia and North Carolina.


I am sure I missed a few manufactures but I saw Blackbirds, Hammecks, a Clark, Dream Hammocks, Yukon, Hennessy, various DIY's, and a Trek along with a wide range of tarps, TQ's and UQ's. One of the things I enjoy about group hangs is the chance to check out gear I have not seen before and look at how others are using their gear to see if I can find a better way to hang my gear.


We raised $775 in raffle ticket sales of which we ( the group ) donated $50 to Hotlip's and Kingsford's Chuck Wagon Fund. The mystery donor was Shug who donated a autographed picture ( which the Terminator framed ) of him and one of his cook kits. I wish I had won one the two items but I did not.


I want to give a shout out to Hotlips and Kingsford as they are always busting their butts to help fix the great meals we ate at the hang. Of course CoryR was right in there making various DO cobblers for us to feast on ( I did my best to eat all his Cherry Cobbler ). I also want to thank all the others who brought food and or helped with the cooking and clean up.


Our start for the Hunger Hang was not good. The van would not start. Plan B was to take the Pick Up truck but it decided to go on strike and it would not start. So I activated Plan C and told my son I was borrowing his car and when The Terminator got home from work Thursday AM, we also loaded up her car and took off. At least we were able to leave when planned.


Got to the group site to find tha tPappyAmos and OBXH2O were already there and set up. Later that day Cass52 showed up. We spend some time looking for fire wood and based on the amount we were finding, we concluded that either no one had camped at the group site since we were last there in April or they brought their own wood. PappyAmos has a real nice saw by BobsQuick Buck Saw (http://fourdog.com/bobs-quick-buck-saw-24/) that folds up and made short work of cutting the wood we found.Even the Terminator was very impressed by it and she is not into saws. A local showed up with a load of split oak fire wood and asked if we needed to buy it for our fire and I told him we had a load on the way but I did get his name and number as he said he could deliver any time of the year. Told him I would probably get him to bring some for our next hang.


OBX brought some steaks for us to eat Thursday night and The Terminator cooked some potatoes and salad to go with the steaks. We stayed up enjoying the cool weather. Pappy, OBX and myself went around to each others rig to check out the UQ's to make sure they were all adjusted properly. Had fun discussing the finer points of adjusting the UQ's. Don't know if we adjusted them correctly but we all stayed warm.


Have no idea how late we stayed up watching the fire and telling tall tales and just having a good time around the fire. Did hear some owls, one of which I have been able toid as a Barred Owl from the call..link herehttp://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ec...barred_owl.htmfor more info and to listen to the calls.


Friday morning I got up early and found a downed uprooted tree that I placed on the fire about 8AM and it took until that evening to burn thru. I called it our Yule Log.


Broke out the check in sheet and other misc gear. Tried to greet folks as they arrived to let first timers know where things were and help them find a place to set up if needed. I ended up having to sent folks over to Group Site 2 as Site 1 filled up fast. At least I was able to get a better idea how many hammocks Site 1 and 2 will now accommodate ( about 30+ hangers at site 1 and 20+ hangers at site 2 ) as The Terminator and I walked around the sites Saturday afternoon getting a count of the number ofhammocks set up at each site and how many more might be able tosqueeze in. There is also a site 3 which we did not get as it wouldonly accommodate about 6 hangers max.


We did have some Bear Fortune Cookie users show up to learn about hammock. One of them forgot their tent poles so I set him up with a hammock and UQ. Said he stayed toasty.His wife unfortunately found out that her DIY Poncho Liner UQ was not good down to 41 degrees and I found out she ended up sleeping in her car. I set her up with a UQ for Saturday night and she said she was warm. I ended up loaning out 1 hammock and 3 UQ's during the hang. I always try to bring extra gear as someone at the group hangs always forgets something or did not test a piece of gear in advance before using it in the field. And no...I do not get a commission from the manufactures or free gear from them.


Several folks did go paddling and there was some archery practice in the field next to the parking area.


The Hammeck brothers stayed busy showing off their gear and they gave a splicing demonstration on Saturday and helped several folks with learning howto make whoopies and related stuff. I wanted to attend but I made the mistake of announcing tickets sales for the raffle and got overwhelmed with the number of folks wanting to buy tickets. By the time everyone bought tickets the splicing demo was done. Maybe next time.


The raffle took place after dinner on Saturday. After the raffle items were laid out and people had a chance to look things over we started the drawing. Lots of happy winners and I even won a couple of smaller items and the Terminator won a nice camo knife to play with. AA2FD won the picture of Shug. I did not get name of who won Shug's cook kit. Meckelangleo and Meckiefrom Hammeck donated two of their hammocks to the raffle. They also added some tree straps and togles to a DIY hammock with woopies I had donated for the raffle. Just want to say thank you to all the vendors who took the time to donate items to the raffle. It is going to be hard to top next year.


Many us stayed up till about 2 AM sitting around the campfire. Sandman had fun constantly arranging the fire and several folks with flashlights had a flashlight war to see who had the most powerful light. Once again we could hear the owls talking in the distance.


Sunday AM we had a large breakfast and folks started packing up to leave. Took a shower and the Terminator and I walked around the sites checking to see if anyone left any gear behind but did not find anything. Took the raffle money to the park office and got a receipt then drove home.

For those of you who won items from the vendors, please email them to thank them for their donation as with out their support we could have held a raffle. If you need contact info, PM me.

Normally I take lots of pictures at the hangs but the camera did not get packed this time.

[PappyAmos]

if you mean 1 foot of snow and 20 degree weather

Sounds like fun. Better order the firewood now!

[CoreyR]

Hey, I forgot to throw out some thanks to the Meck brothers. When I got there friday and was hanging my hammock, an 11 foot 'meck breezy, I lost my toggles and they noticed that my whoopie slings were a bit frayed. Nice as you please, they came across with both. SWEET! Can't beet that kind of customer service with a drum. Not to mention a much taller than I tree wrap job.
Thanks again guys.

[slowhike]

Another great hang! Wish I could have been there. Maybe later.
I'd be interested in hearing Hot Lips (& others) ideas on the chuck wagon box. Ive thought about making something to help organize some of the group meal needs myself.
Might be worthy of a new thread in "Off Topic"?