REPORT; Grayson Highlands Fall Festival; Sept 23-25, 2011

**gunner76** · 09-26-2011, 18:39

More pics of the hang

**gunner76** · 09-26-2011, 18:40

And more pics....

**gunner76** · 09-26-2011, 19:18

And still more....

**slowhike** · 09-26-2011, 19:28

Good seeing all the pictures.
Here's a link to the web album that has all my pictures from the weekend.
https://picasaweb.google.com/1024602...stivalSept2011

**gunner76** · 09-26-2011, 19:33

And even more....

**gunner76** · 09-26-2011, 19:46

Almost done... check out the kid giving hammocks 2 thumbs up

**gunner76** · 09-26-2011, 19:55

And thats all folks

**Detail Man** · 09-26-2011, 19:59

What a great group hang. Probably my favorite so far. Thanks especially to Slowhike and Rockdawg for putting this together. Thanks to everyone else who cooked, cleaned up, donated to the raffle, etc. All of it made for an awesome weekend. It was great to see old friends and make new ones too. The kids had a wonderful time, despite the rain, and enjoyed making friends. Thanks to everyone for making them feel welcome.

Gunner -- glad to help out. I hope you're family didn't get ruined on hammock camping. I know how miserable it can be to get wet.

Draiken -- If your raffle luck carries over to a lottery anytime soon, I hope you wil remember your dear hammock hanging friends and share some goodness our way.

Dutch -- Your new hardware is going to get field tested this weekend. Report will follow.

Pics will be posted soon.

DM

**L.D. Cakes** · 09-26-2011, 20:36

It was great to get back to Grayson Highlands after being there last month. The weather was definitely for testing in the rain this time!

Friday, Rain kept blowing through light and in short spurts. It cleared off for dinner mostly so that was good. The camp that Slow Hike & Rock Dog set up was very nice, A huge 20X24 tarp from Slow hike erected with extendible army surplus poles that Rock Dog brought. It was just off from the large group fire ring. We had plenty of parking and the bathrooms were very near as well as a camp store. I of course went down into the woods to an opening where many could hang but DBird and myself were the only ones who went that far.

Terry cooked a Taco Soup the first night for everyone that was gobbled completely up but I fixed a steak on my new Eagle J stove because I just had to try it out. It worked wonderfully too! I also used my Bush Buddy to cook some rice. Cooking with fire makes me happy. Terry & Tim surprised me with a Birthday gift, a woven Mayan hammock! We hung it and it's HUGE!!! I plan to keep it in the house for the inside, "impress my friends hammock".

Saturday morning we cooked a huge breakfast that fed 30 people or more. Detail Man and I did the breakfast burritos and Rock Dog and others did all the meat and pancakes. One thing for sure, these people knew how to eat! After breakfast we all headed to the festival after the big feed. We had a fine display of hammocks I think representing almost any type. There was a Warbonnet Black Bird, a Switchback, an ENO, Eureka Crysilus, and a couple of others. Also there were Hammock Gear under quilts, OES MacCat and Warbonnet tarps and Dutch set up his bridge that turns into a backpack! We had a laptop displayed on a table with Shug's Instructional videos playing and some hand-outs. Many people stopped in who were backpackers and campers that were curious and tried out more than one hammock, asking tons of questions. It was a good thing. Even Smokey Bear came in and rested his bones a bit...

I finally left after 3 hours or so and went back to camp. Terry was there fixing Gumbo, and let me tell you it was great! I have left overs for the next couple days too!!! The raffle was FUN. I won some Grizz Beaks and one of Dutch's Continuous Ridge lines with Dutch hardware attached! There were many prizes and the biggest was a HG Phoenix Under Quilt! They built a big fire after the raffle and Puddin told ghost stories that I ignored on purpose (Sorry Puddin) so I wouldn't get spooked when I traipsed off into the woods to crawl into my hammock.

LOL!!

So Rock Dog and I prepared the dutch ovens for tasty sweet delectables. Monkey Bread, Peach & Apple Cobbler! We got it all done about the time the stories were over and the rain came.

The Big Blue Tarp was a blessing with all the picnic tables under it and plenty of room for everyone to congregate and eat, play cards and telling stories of past hangs. When I'd had enough I headed for my rig and in good time too because the rain turned into a storm. It didn't let up all night either! As a matter of fact it didn't let up until about 11:00 AM after we all had had our own breakfasts and tore down our rigs. My breakfast was homemade fried pies & cookies that Draken had brought a whole bag of!! They were delicious!

I headed out pretty early to get home & hang my gear up, mainly my tarps were all that was wet but it all gets hung up anyway. It was a great hang and a great idea of Slow Hike to do the hammock education display. It helps all of us to share our elevated philosophy!

**gunner76** · 09-26-2011, 21:48

Gunner -- glad to help out. I hope you're family didn't get ruined on hammock camping. I know how miserable it can be to get wet.

Having been in the Marines, I am just a little amphibious monster so a little rain is just an annoyance to me. Wife is ok but my oldest son said he does not plan to go hammock camping again. His loss. My youngest son said he will go again as long as it does not rain.