PA>Dingmans Campground>10/18-20/2013

[Knotty]

Like Jeff wrote, we're looking at alternatives. Unfortunately that could change the tone of this hang as it could go from car camping to requiring a short hike. Dylan's suggestion of the group sites at Round Valley is being considered. 3 mile hike.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Round_Valley_Reservoir
http://www.state.nj.us/dep/parksandf...rks/round.html
http://www.state.nj.us/dep/parksandf...letterpage.pdf

[pinballwizard]

Jolly - thanks for the 411 on the 501.

As far as alternatives, is Stokes being considered? I agree with silvrsurfr though, I don't think the shutdown will outlast the camp date.

[Ratdog]

If it is not car camping, I am down to a single.

Brendan Byrne (formerly Lebanon) has bathrooms and showers.
Batona has outhouses but is a bit more isolated.
Lower Forge?
Goshen Pond has some ok group sites, the one at the end being the best. (Again outhouses)

Still, I'd rather do northwest Jersey or Pa Gap area stuff.
I'd even do Catskills.

[Demeter]

The 501 can't hold more than maybe 8 or 9 comfortably. We are looking at alternate sites now and should know better shortly. Amy, I'm looking forward to seeing all your new cuben bling.

Haha, I thought about changing my name to the Cuben Princess

[Zilla]

My wife and i have decided that we will not be attending this hang. My wife has over 20 use it or lose it vacation days built up and will not be able to use many of them in nov or dec as others have allready schedualed their time off then.
Her best friend got married and moved to nc 3 years ago and we have not seen her since the wedding, so the wife made me a deal that if we could go spend a week in NC we could go to the WV Watoga state hang on the way down.

I agreed to this as i really want to get my first group hang in and with all the uncertainty with where this hang is gonna end up it just makes sense to us, besides if it becomes a hike in she would be out anyway.

I am sorry about the last minute change as i was really looking foward to this and to meeting all of you guys,, but making my wife happy comes first.
I Wlll most likely get a chance to meet some of you at the winter hang in ME.

I Hope it all works out good for you guys and have a GREAT hang !

[Knotty]

No problem zilla. Wish you could be there, wherever there is, but we appreciate the heads up.

[Knotty]

After a little hiatus, I'm back in hammock mode. Just signed up and looking forward to getting into the woods. I really hope the government gets their S#!t together so we can hang at Dingman's.

I attached a couple pics from 2010. See everyone soon!

Vagabond, so good to have you back. It's always good to have one of the "cool hangers" participating.

[Knotty]

With our scheduled hang being only a week away and Dingman's still closed due to the federal budget shutdown, I went looking for an alternative.

Round Valley isn't going to work for various reasons. I thought Jenny Jump state forest would be the answer but the available sites just didn't have the trees needed for hanging. So I went over to nearby Stephens State Park on the Musconetcong River near Hackettstown, NJ. While most sites didn't work, there were four in a row that did. Only issue is Stephens allows just two cars per site. But for the moment it looks like our best alternative.

Here's a video:


If the federal budget issue isn't resolved in the next few days, we'll reserve at Stephens. Stay tuned.

[Dylan]

Looks nice Knotty. If we had to, we could always grab a few more sites just for parking cars.

[tat2ITgeek]

I have a question, from what I read on the Dingmans campground site they are closed for the 2013 season. Not because of the government shutdown. Am I wrong?