4th Annual Goat Island Hang

[Muskrat]

What a crazy weekend!

All day Friday we had very pleasant weather. Buggs and I arrived early on the island to get situated and greet people as they arrived. Around lunch time, BajaHanger and Mac arrived via pontoon. Blind Squirrel and YakinKate arrived via kayak. Others started arriving in intervals. Swampfox unfortunately ran into some delays at home and was not able to arrive until 6:00ish that evening.

I will take this liberty to speak for all as I want to express my appreciation to Mac and Baja for helping to assist all those that needed a shuttle to and from the island... my hat is off to both of you for your willingness to shuttle everyone. And on that note, I missed you guys at the marina where my brother in-law and I intended to give to the gas fund. If you have a PayPal account and don't mind sending me your email address, I will forward my donation to you there. You guys are great and it was a pleasure to meet you both.

I am saving the rest of my trip report until later tonight as I have "WET" gear that has yet to be hung up but I wanted to get this thread started. So here is shortened summary...

Friday was very pleasant and I want to estimate that we had about 28 people on the island. Saturday morning came with darkened skies. As breakfast was commencing, the skies let loose. After looking at the the weather radar on a smartphone and our faces looked like this... After learning that this weather was planning to be like this all day Sat, Sat night, and all day Sunday, we all looked like this... Our concern was not so much the rain but the forecast was calling for thunderstorms all the way through Sunday evening. Being stranded on the island until the weather provided a break was not our intentions. After discussing with everyone, the decision was made to evacuate the island so as not to be shuttling people back to the marina with lightning in the area. Safety first.

We went to Plan B and decided we would congregate at Moon's Landing and have our traditional Lowcountry Frogmore Beaufort Boil Stew there under their pavilion. With everyone safely off the island, the skies calmed, the sun made a few appearances and we all looked like this... Swampfox, JuneBugDawn, Baby Hooey all started preparing their Dutch Oven Desserts. With the assistance of several people, I got the boil off and running (thanks for the help!). Around 4:00, the boil was dumped on the table and the feasting began. After having our fill of shrimp, sausage, potatoes, and corn... it was time for dessert Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake, cinnamon rolls with granny smith apples and cream cheese icing drizzled with caramel syrup, a pumpkin-dumpkin cake, and finally a pineapple cake with toasted coconut rounded off the competition. All 4 desserts were fantastic but we can only have one winner... I'll save that conclusion for someone else to post a picture

After dessert, we all said our goodbyes even though it was one day sooner than we expected. All in all I think we made a good decision to leave the island based on the information we had on hand. I was good to meet several new forum members and even a few that were not.

I did not get any pics so I am sure others will be posting pics soon...

Until next year . . .

[Junebugdawn]

Goat Island Pic Album Slideshow

Password: goatisland

Trip report to come......

[born2roam]

Great pics!

Love the pot ehrm beer cozy! Where can I get me one of those

Thanks mate!

Grtz Johan

[Cali]

Any donations for gas can be contributed to Chcikenwing for another firepit.

Mac and I had a great time, but it was too short. Darn weather.... We wanted to stay for the low country boil and desserts, but wanted to get the boat back home so we wouldn't have to pull it in a thunderstorm.
Blind Squirrel and YakinKate stayed on site #3 with us, and they also commented on how great it was. We were a little distance off from everyone else on sites 4&5, but we got to do a little socializing friday night. We really wanted to do some kayaking, but missed out. Maybe next year.

It was great to meet some wonderful folks and we look forward to a better year next year.

Thanks to Chickenwing and Muskrat for setting this up.

[chickenwing]

For me, this trip actually started Monday night with a work trip to Charleston. I was scheduled to be in Charleston for a 3 day training (rough life I know but someone has to do it ). When Muskrat heard about my trip, he transferred the shrimp acquisition responsibility over to me. We met up in Cola on my way to Charleston Monday night. Not being familiar with the area and because I take my job seriously, I decided to scope out the lay of the land on Tuesday after class so I would know exactly where I was going on Thursday.

A little too late to be looking for Shrimp.

My wife was able to come down and visit with me on Wednesday and again we scoped out the area for shrimp and seafood on Sulivan's Island at Shem Creek and at Red's Icehouse.



Thursday after passing my exam, we took a quick ride downtownand then we headed back once again to Sullivan's Island and Shem Creek to pick up the shrimp. WFR recommended Wando Shrimp Co. so we made a bee line there. Once there we walked around and looked at a few shrimp boats and when we couldn't stand it any more, we headed inside and bought 22 pounds of the freshest shrimp I have ever seen and then we high-tailed it back home (being sure to go through Columbia to meet back up with Muskrat and transfer the shrimp so he could make sure it got on the island.






We finally got to the in-laws to pick up the kiddos and peel and de-vein and grill 2 pounds of shrimp we saved for ourselves before heading home a little after 9:30pm.

All this and I still hadn't really packed for the island.

to be continued...

[grannypat]

Sounds like you all had fun, even if it wasn't at the originally planned venue. All the kids look like they are having fun. Food looks AWESOME.

[yakinkate]

Sure had a good time, used some of my new gear, ate well, slept in my hammock, but really enjoyed making new friends! Baja & Mac made the whole trip special with their generosity and kindness! Always enjoy hanging out with Blind Squirrel, she's like a Big Sister! A Big Thank You to everyone who were involved with getting... the permits, use of parking at moon's landing, shrimp wrangling and all the other 101 things that went into the organization of the hang.

Yakinkate and Blind Squirrel's hammocks on Goat Island 2013

[mbcruzin]

Had an epic time between the weather and the food.

[Dos]

looks like SOOOO much fun!!

[swampfox]

I can not say enough about the guys that organized this event. Chickenwing and Muskrat sure know how to put on a show.
I had a few surprises for this weekend. My son in the Army arrived home on Thursday for 3 weeks leave. I asked him about his plans for the weekend, he said, "I'm camping with you". That just made my weekend.
The other surprises weren't so cool. Hard drive crash so I couldn't get to my recipes, my little Chihuahua took sick and required a vet trip on Friday. She's fine now. Got to the lake and my boat wouldn't run.
Fortunately, Mac was there to tow me out to the island ( as well as shuttle everyone else) and Muskrat to tow me back to land with his jet ski.
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They're both my heroes.
The highlight for me though was the food. This group does an awesome Low-country Boil and I have been planning and looking forward to the dessert cook-off for a long time.
Brought my Craftsman drill for a battery powered mixer to make a Godiva Chocolate Almond Cheesecake.

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I also made an apple dessert that uses two cans of cinnamon rolls for the dough and you top the apple-sugar-cinnamon mixture with the cream cheese icing from the rolls, mixed with caramel ice cream topping.
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These are two of my very favorite desserts.
After the food was all gone,we said our goodbyes, started talking about next year.