5th Annual Florida Hang (FHV) > January 14-18, 2015

[samsara]

First off... THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU Timberrr and Gumbo! You two take on such a huge task and pull it off without a hitch. You two are amazing.

Second... thanks to all of the others that help. Those that have been helping all along and to the many people that have stepped in to help out recently. I would like to make a special comment about the Carolinas gang. The best thing I can say is that you guys belong in our group and we're glad to have you! What an amazing group that works and works and works and obviously has a food ethic similar to ours.

Then there are the amazing vendors that donated thousands of dollars of goods. What a great group... we are all blessed. The "other helpers" (you all know who you are)... it couldn't happen with everyone's help so thanks for what you do.

Now, Doe Lake... WOW! What a great venue for this thing I'm sorry that I couldn't stay longer but my most dear and best friend doesn't have much more time to spend with me (I'm taking her out for a walk as soon as I'm done with this) and she's getting to where she is a bit nervous being in the back yard (and she's lived her entire life out there happily until recently).

The hammock village
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Sunset over Doe lake
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The gearage sale
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The main hall during the big meal with live entertainment (thanks guitarman and itsandy!) and the raffle tables in the background
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The other end of the hall with feedbags on
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[WaffleBox]

Here's my short trip report on my first ever Florida Hang.

I got in around 930pm on Friday night, well after dark. After checking in, I went and found a spot to hang my hammock. Doe Lake gets used by equestrians a lot, so in addition to trees there are posts driven into the ground all over the place for people to tie horses. They were quite helpful for hanging hammocks, too!

I didn't stay up very late hanging out by the camp fire. I didn't have a top quilt, so I borrowed my friend's 30* sleeping bag, and used my 20* Phoenix Underquilt. The last time I checked the forecast, it had shown around 40* as the lowest low, so I wasn't worried. It ended up getting down to 31 and also got really foggy. A lot of people had moisture all over their gear the next morning. I managed to stay warm until 4 or 5 am when my feet got cold, and I had to put my sit pad under my feet for the first time.

The next morning after a delicious breakfast (thanks, crew!) lilricky led us on a hike on the Yearling Trail. We went to an old family cemetery, a giant sink hole, and then back to the car. It was fairly short, but a lot of fun!

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That afternoon I just kind of hung out around camp and talked to folks, passing the time until dinner. I found the folks from Underground Quilts and Hammock Gear to talk about top quilts. I told them I was going to win one at the raffle, but in the exceptionally unlikely event that didn't happen, I wanted some info to help me pick between the two. The group photo also happened, and you guys are in for some pretty cool shots taken via drone. Dinner was delicious, and then began the raffle.

As a first time attended, I can't begin to express how Impressed I was by the generosity of our cottage vendors. My quick, informal tally showed about $6000 or more on donated gear. Everybody had a good time congratulating various members who won lots of great gear. Just in case you were wondering, I did win the 20* Burrow I had promised all day I was going to win. Thanks HG! I put it to use last night and it worked beautifully.

I had to get back home to do some work today, so I left after a quick breakfast. Overall it was an incredibly fun event!

[Big_Country]

I have only been hanging for about six months. Decided to attend FHV. Best time I have had in years. Organization and team work were instrumental. Timberr, Gumbo, Lilricky and the rest of the crew were awesome. The planning, logistics, blood, sweat, and tears was evident all along. These Folks gave a lot, and for that I am very grateful. THANK YOU ALL.

Met some really awesome people as well. Old Dog, Gone Native, Hanginkayak, Shannon, and the rest. This is such a great community, and I look forward to participating and sharing the good times in the future.

Doe Lake was a great venue as well. How great it was to reconnect with nature a little, and see some of the great Florida that I have not seen since I moved to the state.

The vendors were tremendous. It was great to be able to get a first hand look at their wares. A special thanks to the Mecks from Hammeck. It was really awesome to meet the folks that actually sewed and spliced my hammocks. Really nice folks, who will definitely be making more for me in the future. Thanks you Tim and Lori!!!.

Cheers

[gunner76]

Just got back home after a 12 hour drive back the NC Coast. Will do a full report once I have a chance to go thru the photos I took.

My Report..... and as long as this is, I still did not cover everything going on

The mission....attend the largest group hang in history. Turns out this was not a hang but an epic event and I would go so far as to call it the Woodstock of group hangs.

The past few days are like a blur as there was so much going on. Sensory overload.

The Terminator and I left North Carolina on Wednesday afternoon and spent the night on the road, Took our time and got to the hang site about 2 pm on Thursday. Found out that there is a difference between Hwy 314 and 314A ( you want 314 A ).

Checked in and got our official name tags and patches and found a place to hang. No sooner than we finished setting up, it started raining. Nothing hard but enough to be annoying. Rained until 4 am. Walked around checking out the area. Fantastic view out over the lake. Started running into hangers we have hung with at other hangs and had to say hello and many other hangers we have not meet before. Talk about networking.

Talked our host...Gumbo and Timberrr whom we have not seen since the first Grayson Fall Hang and caughtup with what has happened since then. Also discussed the issues ofputting on a group hang.

Started meeting many folks from the forum who I only know from their posts. One of my favorite parts of the group hangs is being able to put faces to the names from the forums.

For those who could not attend....

As you enter the site there is a large parking area to the right and a dirt road that continues on past the lodge.

The lodge over looks Doe Lake. Thearea has trees and 6x6 posts for horses ( this is a horse camp ) scattered thru the area that also work for hanging hammocks from. We hung back by the woods and others hung by the lake. Others hiked out into the woods about a quarter mile away for the solitude. There is a separate restroom building with hot showers ( hot showers are one of man kinds greatest inventions after hammocks )

Did I mention that there were two very large Sandhill Cranes wandering thru the camp site. Wish we had somehere in NC.

While the meals were cooked outside, all the food was served in side you could eat inside or out. Folks volunteered to help cook, serve and or do KP duty. At one point Timberrr got on his bull horn and asked for some volunteers for KPduty and the person I was talking to asked what did Timberr say andI told him that Timberrr said he needed us inside and once inside I told him we just volunteered to clean up after lunch.

Stayed up till 11pm Thursday night before going to sleep. Was a bit nervous as I was using a DIY Tarp that I finished a few weeks ago and while it past the garden hose test in the back yard, this was the first time using it during a real rain storm. It passed with flying colors ( or it would if I could see it as it is camo ).

According to my thermometer it only got down to 48 degrees Thursday night and 42 on Friday night. One person hanging down by the lake said he got readings about 2 degrees lower than me,. Some folks are reporting that it got down into the 30's but it just never felt that cold to me.

On Friday AM a group of us went on a hike around Doe Lake. A beautiful area and we were all sad to see the amount of trash people had dumped in the area..... tires, hottub covers, bottles ect. This was stuff people had to go out of their way to throw away back there.

Spend more time Friday walking around talking to the vendors that had set up. Papa Smurf had that white winter camo hammock set up. Very cool looking. Was taking some pictures of UGQs various TQ's, UQ's and tarps. At one point I was leaning over a hammock getting a close up of the tag listing the gear when Missy popped her head out from under the TQ. Startled me as Idid not know anyone was in the hammock. She said she was taking anap. Mom and Pop Meck from Hammecks were showing off their new portable hammock stands and a new hammock. Mom Meck gave me some pointers on how to sew a rolled hem by hand in one step. Dutch showed me some new prototype bling he is working on. Also talked to Zpacks, Sheltowee Hammocks, UGQs, Batchstovez and Ripstopbytheroll. Hopefully I got to meet and talk to all of the vendors that were there. Great chance to touch and feel the gear and talk to the folks who made it.

RSBTR was selling odds and ends of fabrics at super low prices and I picked up some red and black ripstop for a UQ I plan to make for The Terminator and got 17 yards of brown silnylon that I am hoping to be able to make two tarps out of. Got a pot with a lid from Batchstovz and some Ti stakes from Zpacks. The Terminator got a really nice hand made wood spoon from Olddog. I had though about getting her a spoon but figured she would get mad at me for getting it. A few minutes later she came over to ask for some money to buy a spoon as she did not want to walk backto the car. She asked why I was laughing. She had that spoon out on the drive back home admiring it.

There was also some hangers selling their excess gear. Lots of great stuff being offered but I could not find anything I needed and I did look. Inside the lodge was a table of gear that members donated to the hang where if you saw something you wanted, you made a donation and took the gear, I got a Ti Potwith lid and stove.

I walked around taking photos of the different hammock set ups but had to give up as I found that as fastI was taking a picture of a set up, I would come back by in a couple of minutes later and there would be another hammock set up. Saw lots of variations of the Turtle Dog stand and other portable stands. There was even a trailer with support arms and two RidgeRunners setup with a large tarp covering it all.

Friday night was great as we got to watch a slide show presentation on hiking the Florida Trail by the authors of the new Florida Trail Guide book..Sandra Friend and John Keatley.

I did win a GC for a custom built hammock from Hammeck and I talked to them about it and will get with them in a few days to decide on the details. So thanks to Hammeckfor donating the GC I won and the other gear they donated to the raffle. Also thanks to all the other vendors who donated gear to the raffle as there were some really nice goodies up on those tables.

I am waiting to see the videos from the drone....that was wild having that thing flying around. Hope the final group shot comes out.

What else can I say...the food was great, hopefully made some new friends and hope to come back next year. The Terminator and I had a great time and hated to leave.

[Floridahanger]

I'm home in body, but still there in spirit.

Still need to shower the smoke off of me, but I just had to post. I left some time after 6pm and Dinner was in full swing in the lodge and FHV still going strong.

Will post a trip report after I get some rest.

[Rock Paper Scissors]

Thank you to all who made this happen all your hard work was noticed and appreciated very very much.

This was my wifes 1st hang, i set her superfly up in porch mode with colored party lights and she loved it so now shes committed to hanging. Their was so much great food and thanks to everyone who made all the deserts in the dutch ovens. The cobblers where amazing. We met alot of wonderful folks and learned a few things as well. I loved seeing all the different rig setups some where very cool.

One thing i wanted to share was Friday night when the temp dropped we where walking back to our camp and i couldn't resist touching all the UQ as i passed by to see which ones had condescension. All i touched where very wet and i was worried ours would be as well. Back at camp I touched our UQ's and was pleasantly surprised it was dry....yea Argon fabric. slept comfortable and warm all night with 3 season gear w/ Polypro heavy weight thermals, low was 31 as mentioned above.

[auggiedog]

My first attendance at the annual hang and i feel terrible..... THAT I MISSED ALL THE OTHERS!!!!! what a great group of people in a great place eating great food and great hammocking!! thanks to all who helped put this event on....

[oldbiker]

Drove down to a motorcycle rally @ Camp Blanding. Stayed in Stark. Came down to the hang Saturday but could not find it. GPS took us to a locked gate. A local guy said we were about 2 mile from it through the gate but we couldn't get there without driving around to the other side. After driving around for a couple hours we found a forest ranger station. Their closed on weekends so we left & went back to Stark. Talked to more locals in the area before we left & none had ever heard of doe lake. Well maybe next year.

[Grinder]

Another great Mega Hang is on the books for most of us. The diehards Hang on until tomorrow.

It is great to see familiar faces once again. Many of you I only see once a year. This hang, with the wide mix of attendees, from newborns to oldsters (like me) is unique.

The degree of organization this affair has is unusual to hammocking and worthy of an organization like Disney. The key people give selflessly throughout the entire year. I remember being elated because we had "a single" privy at the first hang. Now we have hot showers. and an industrial kitchen.

I apparently left my green fold-up origami coffee cup somewhere in the kitchen or outdoor cooking area after I got "coffee-ed out". If it shows up, please keep it with your stuff and I'll get it next time we meet.

[New2trees]

First let me say "who are you guys and where do you come from" Superhero's all of you
This event and I have to use the word Event a hang just doesn't seem to express the size and magnitude as well as the amount of organization it takes to put this event on.Was Awesome for those who attended you already know this.

Personally as a Hanger I want to say thank you to all the volunteers who prepared our meals and worked tirelessly to make sure that we had a clean Facilities. Thank you Timberr, Gumbo, lilricky for putting this event on. You Guys RocK!
Richtorfla a big Fist pump and a You Rock! I never saw you sit down, he was always cooking I teased him that next year were going to have to get him a chair with his name on it and make him sit down every hour for a few minutes.
Hotlips, Kingsford, Floridahanger, and there were many others whose names escape me that maned the kitchen YOU ROCK!

As a vendor I want thank lilricky for reaching out and inviting me to FHV the Hospitality was top notch. Please don't forget me next year I wouldn't want to miss it. LOL
I have many enjoyable hours of conversation and met allot of amazing people. Tinkertom, Thomas, Shannon/ patches, grinder,the Meck family, The Smurfs, Dutch, Flbiker.
I saw some awesome DIY PVC bows being crafted I was able to score me a olddog spoon. The guys from trail walker gear, Gunner76 and a few other members of the Carolina gang.
I'm going to go back through the thread and try and put a face to the names a daunting task Because I think there were over 200 people and I had to have talked to at least 99% of them.
Thank you all for showing interest in my Ultralight cooking gear.

God Bless,