Official 4th Annual Florida Hang Photo and Trip Report January 16-21, 2014

[Concho73]

This was my first outing with y'all, and I was very impressed and had a great time. I particularly want to thank Gumbo and Richtorfla. You guys are awesome! I never saw them rest ... and it couldn't have happened without their efforts. See y'all next year!

[Concho73]

I had a great time and here are some of the pics.

[Brancher]

Good times, folks!

Thanks for letting me tag along this year, I had a great time meeting lots of folks, like Vanguard, Spark, EarlyBird, Gumbo, FLRider, Rick, Andy(forgot yer handle, dude...), and all the rest -- and paddling among the monkey troupe (blew ME away....), shaking down some new gear, eating some great food, and pushing the temperature limits of my rig (23F is plenty for Florida, folks--next time I'll bring some real clothes)....

Hope Ya'll let a poor ole boy from Nawth-By-Gawd-Carolina tag along again next year!

Br

[Pimms]

Remember everyone to check yourselves and your pets for ticks, just found one embedded in my leg. Second one I saw out there. I'm still recovering from all the fun and food I will add more reports tomorrow but overall I enjoyed my first group hang and going to sleep in my bed tonight is going to be rough haha I miss the comforts of my hammock.

[Newfie]

That's a fine feed you folks have going there Life Scout. Also a good turnout and fun had by ya'll.

[nookis]

Fantastic time. Glad to meet many of you that I interact on here. Grateful for new knowledge and friends. Dont miss the next one guys.

Sorry that all my pictures are not of people. I tend to take more scenic pictures

[barich942]

I had a fantastic time! This was my first hang and the first time my hammock saw the light of day. Thanks to "Lil Ricky" who unselfishly helped me hang it!

I was NOT prepared for the low temps and Underground Quilts stepped up and let me use one of there 20* UQ. WOW! Thanks Paul and Missy my order is coming!!!

There are so many things to embrace about the Hang and the Hangers. Everyone is so right on about the food. It's WAY better than "Cruse" food and there is MORE of it.

It was great putting faces to names and hard to keep up with all the faces there. From young at heart to young in age everyone seemed to enjoy themselves very much.

Looking forward to the next hang!

[FLRider]

It was a wonderful hang!

First off, I want to thank our organizers and everyone who pitched in an hand in helping in any way!

There's too many of you to name individually (and I'm sure that I'd forget someone, somewhere), so I'm simply going to say this: if you washed a dish, if you helped prepare food, if you brought a Dutch oven, if you helped a new member adjust their rig, if you donated to the site cost, if you taught a skill, if you led an event, if you shared a piece of gear that someone needed, if you donated to the raffle, THANK YOU!

Personally, though, I would like to offer special thank-yous to Gumbo, richtorfla, Lisa, and everyone who offered to help me fill my rear tire on my bike (and there were quite a few of you). Gumbo and richtorfla were nice enough to help me get on over into town to get a bike pump for my ride home, and Lisa was nice enough to give me a ride when it turned out that there were pressing reasons for me to head home a day earlier than originally planned. Thank you!


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Trip report follows...

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My particular FL4 Hang began about a week before the hang proper, when I finalized my two potential routes for the bike ride into the hang. I then spent the week in a frenzy of gear making and tweaking, as I expected 20* as a possibility and wanted to be warm rather than not dead at that temperature. I managed this.

Tuesday, I started in on my 20* down underquilt. Eight hours (spread out over two days) of measuring, cutting, sewing, stuffing, hanging, measuring, sewing, cutting again, seam ripping, adjusting, and hanging once more, I was done with it. It fits me perfectly, and I'm very happy with my design: it comes in at a whopping ~16.3 oz.

Thursday, I went over to the local Army/Navy store and WallyWorld to pick up Permethrin, stakes (I lost one a while back and then bent the pair I bought to replace it), food, a fleece (my other one had been claimed in the name of Mrs. FLRider), and a "Don't run me over!" windshirt for on the bike. Everything was easy enough to find, and I even came across a pair of polypro long underwear and an M65 jacket liner at the Army/Navy store. An hour of modification later, and I'd cut about 10 oz from the jacket and liner.

Thursday night, I got out of work at 11:00 (fairly early) and headed home to pack my food. Food prep was done by 12:30, and I turned in at ~1:00, only to be woken by my alarm at 5:00.

Friday morning was a caffeine-relieved blur of attempting to get the ol' neurons firing and then beginning my packing for the trip. Packing took about an hour and went relatively smoothly until I got to the calzones I'd intended on bringing down to the hang.

Now, those calzones are ~1 lb a piece. I brought five of 'em. Each gets ~5 oz of sauce. The box is probably ~4 oz. That came to ~7.25 lbs of food that I needed to balance on top of my pack on the bike. And the weight distribution was...suboptimal. I tried placing the box on top of the pack and then using my mason's line tie-down for my rack to stabilize it. That lasted all of four blocks before it started trying to slip off of the pack (still, better there than ~10 miles from the nearest town, like some of my ride was).

I was out the door at ~8:20, hoping to make it into camp by ~3:30 PM. Well, the box stabilization issues required a bit of fiddling and a stop at the local gas station for some bungee tie-downs. Those solved my issue for me, but cut another ~20 to ~25 minutes into my ride (a good four miles or so!). Which was okay; that's why I gave myself as much daylight as possible when I planned the ride.

By 8:50 or so, I was headed southeast on Hawthorne Road, pedaling furiously into the cold morning air. It was 36* when I left Gainesville, but with the cardio demands of hauling as much gear as I had, I was warm enough. My toes remained somewhat cold, but they never went numb. Around 9:15, I turned off of the main road and got onto the Gainesville-Hawthorne rail trail and took my one snatch of video for the entire trip (sorry about that, but I always have too much fun at these group hangs to remember my camera). This was good for my nerves (I was still a little worked up about leaving later than I'd intended), as it got me away from traffic and into a spot where I could just enjoy riding.

The Hawthorne trail took me out to CR 325, where I made a right to head southbound. I'd ridden 325 before as part of the grand 325 loop and to get to the Longleaf Flatwoods Reserve, but I'd never gone farther south on it than CR 346. I have to say, though, that the pavement improves immensely after that intersection. Traffic picks up a little bit, but that's the difference between seeing one car every ten minutes to seeing one car every five minutes.

325 was a beautiful ride: I got to travel through the hamlet of Cross Creek and pass The Yearling restaurant and the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings State Park, the homestead where she lived for over twenty-five years and wrote The Yearling. Sooner or later, I'm going to revisit that park and see the place up close.

Continuing on down 325, I soon came to the US 301 intersection and turned right, towards the southwest. Here, traffic picked up and semi trucks were common enough (and moving fast enough) to worry me a bit; the bike lane was a little narrower than I'd like for the traffic volume and speed limit. Still, I made it through the first mile and came to the small community of Citra, right where the bike lane expands and the speed limit drops to 45 MPH.

Riding through Citra was easy and fun, though the exhaust fumes from the traffic weren't too great. Soon enough, I came to the turnoff for NE Jacksonville Road, which runs along the old 301-A road bed. Here, the bike lane narrows down again. On the other hand, traffic drops to approximately a quarter of the amount on 301 and there are only two lanes rather than four--limiting the amount of ways for a driver to screw up and hit a bicyclist.

The first few miles of Jacksonville Road are picturesque, rolling through hilly cow farms. Soon enough, though, I came to the tiny hamlet of Sparr. Here, I stopped at the local gas station to refill the Camelbak and grab some lunch. My time estimate was for 4:00 PM arrival at Buck Lake now, due to the pace I was making. I also adjusted my seat back up here; it had fallen down about an half an inch and was starting to strain my quads more than I'd prefer.

Loading back up on the bike, I continued southbound along Jacksonville Road into (slightly) more urban areas, hitting the feeder communities for Ocala, until I reached CR 326 and turned east. The wind had been from the west-southwest since I'd turned onto 301, and this made for a nice change. I went from straining along in third gear to breezing along in fifth, making my time estimate shorten a bit.

The ride along 326 is wonderfully pretty, and the bike lane along there is wide enough to allow one to spare the attention for it. 326 passes through several forested areas along its path and a couple of fairly individualized neighborhoods. The traffic light at Baseline Road is new, though; last year, it was a stop sign for the cross traffic and a simple blinking yellow to warn of traffic merging from the cross street. I suppose Marion County intends upon some expansion out that way.

Soon enough, I turned eastbound onto SR 40 for the long ride to US 19. I like the bike lane lines along 40; they've got hockey-puck-style rumble strips built into 'em to warn both drivers and bicyclists that the car is over the line. It allows me an half-second's warning to dive into the bushes if needs be. And, given the traffic levels along that section of road, that's not a bad thing.

I passed up and over the Ocklawaha River bridge, a thigh-buster if ever there was one. Coming down the bridge is fun; going up it, not so much. I rolled into the small community of Silver Springs and stopped in at the Winn-Dixie there to refill the Camelbak--the last water stop for the day.

Soon enough, I entered the Big Scrub and knew that I was more than halfway through my 75-mile trip. I didn't get too excited, though; I knew that several tallish hills lay in wait up ahead. Last year, when I did this ride, I had a stiff headwind coming into my teeth. Let me say how nice it was to have a tailwind on this one!

Riding across the empty spaces of Ocala National Forest, my thighs began to tire. Just as my spirits were flagging, a car pulled over ahead. My first thought was, What the heck? Am I going to have a problem with the driver out here? Well, this should be fun... It turned out to be okay, though; specialk198305 had stopped to see if I was okay on the side of the road. It was just in time to bring my spirits back up, even though I declined his offer of a ride the rest of the way into the hang. I want to give out a big "Thank you!" to him for that.

I continued on across the scrubland, soon reaching the entrance to Juniper Springs. I knew that I only had another four or five miles to US 19 and therefore only another ten or twelve miles to the hang. My spirits rose once more in response, and I continued on. Soon after, I noticed what looked like a storm front moving in from the east. I began to regret having declined specialk's offer of a ride, thinking that I was going to get poured on; the front looked dark.

As I came up on a turn in the road, though, I realized that the "front" ahead of me was actually a smoke plume. Apparently, the forest service had a controlled burn planned for this weekend around the Alexander Springs area. Heaving a sigh of relief, I continued on.

Unfortunately, I hadn't been paying attention to my caloric intake after lunch. Or, at least, I hadn't been doing it with the same diligence that I had during the morning hours. Soon enough, my legs began to give up the ghost as my blood sugar plummeted and I bonked. Fortunately, I had had this happen before and knew the solution: food! I pulled out a Ziplock of dried pineapple and devoured it during a break that I took on the side of the road.

Drinking more water to help with digestion of the pineapple, I loaded back up on the bike and continued on. I came to the US 19 intersection and turned right, to head southwest. Unfortunately, this meant the end of my helpful tailwind. Fortunately, the wind had shifted more to the west than the southwest by this point. It hit me broadside as I toiled on down 19.

The ride down 19 was uneventful until I came to the turnoff for Buck Lake. I turned onto Forest Road 22, and the wind hit me full in the face. Between that and the washboard effect of the road and its potholes, I didn't notice that my rear tire was slowly going flat until I hit Railroad Grade Road. Coming up the slight rise after that, I realized that my rear tire was splashy.

I stopped and got off of the bike, intending to simply pump up the tire and ride the rest of the way into the hang before changing it. Unfortunately, that was when I realized that my bike pump had been left at home. Cursing my inattention when packing the bike, I rode it most of the rest of the way into the hang, taking it slow to avoid warping my rear rim.

I arrived at the hang right at my second estimate: 4:00 PM. Greetings from everyone were was warm as they always are, and my heart cheered to see everyone once again. I moved on down to the end of the row at the north corner of the lake, hoping to find a spot back up by the FT connector trail. Apparently, I wound up hanging right where Running Feather was last year; it was a nice little cove and fairly sheltered from view by Shannan's truck.

After setting everything up, drinking the remainder in my Camelbak, texting Mrs. FLRider to let her know that I hadn't become roadkill, and changing into clean (and warm!) clothing, I headed over towards the fire ring and communal area with my new REI FlexLight chair. A Christmas present, this was to be only the second time I'd tried it out. I soon discovered that even planting of the feet on the chair is absolutely necessary in any kind of loose soil whatsoever. I made the mistake that night of reaching too far and falling the heck over... But, it's a very comfortable chair and offers that key ingredient for longer periods of sitting: lower back support.

I soon unwrapped the calzones I'd brought in from work and set them by the fire to warm inside of their foil coverings. About an half-hour later, they were about as warm as they were going to get and got hauled out for serving. They seemed to be an hit; they were gone in less than twenty minutes.

That evening was a blur of food, friends, and a fine fire (thanks, Floridahanger!) that will stick in my memory for quite a while. I got to eat some of the wonderful turkey that richtorfla prepared, a bit of calzone (yes, I stole one; there's a reason that I work where I do), several of the absolutely amazing desserts that were whipped up in Dutch ovens, and some of the tortilla soup that had been prepared earlier that afternoon (not sure who did that one, but it was amazing!). Feeling full and content, I remained at the fire until I thought I was going to fall asleep sitting up that evening.

I retired to my hammock, where it was 38* according to my AccuRite (AccuSortaRite is probably closer; there's usually a 3-5* differential between those models), up from a low of 37* F for the night. I turned in, blinked my eyes, and it was just before dawn.

I thought about getting up to watch the dawn and enjoy my "coffee", but decided that sleep was the better part of valor given my ride and lack of rest on Thursday night. I woke again around 8-ish and turned my phone on to check for messages from my wife (thank goodness for the fact that I get service in ONF now that we've switched to Verizon, actually; but that's later in my story...). I let her know that I'd survived the evening and checked up on things back at the house while my "coffee" brewed.

I enjoyed my "coffee" from my chair, as I had already done the "from the hammock" bit before and wanted to see how the chair compared. (From the hammock wins on cold days, by the way.) It was already up over 45* F, and I was starting to feel a little too warm with my clothing. Soon enough, I wandered over to the fire and chatted with everyone as gustatory wonder after gustatory wonder was produced from the kitchen area. Coffee (real coffee!), beignets, mountain man breakfast, oatmeal, and more came flying out to feed the hungry crowd. I'm not much of a breakfast person, but the Florida kitchen crew are probably the only folks who could ever convince me otherwise.

I looked up Gumbo and richtorfla to see about hitching a ride into town with them to get a bike pump when they went grocery shopping. They agreed to let me ride, and I have to give them a big ol' "Thank you!" for that. We spent the early afternoon at Alexander Springs where the two of them took a shower and then at Publix down in Eustis, picking up several items for the shrimp boil that evening.

After coming back, I spent some time helping out with a few things before dinner and then spent the rest of the evening chatting around the fire once again. The food was amazing that night, too: Gumbo's gumbo, the shrimp boil, and all of the desserts were to die for. I stayed up late that night, putting the fire to bed with Floridahanger and a few other folks; I apologize to everyone for forgetting about the chairs before turning in. Mea culpa for the frost on Sunday morning. I won't forget again.

Saturday night was colder by far than Friday night. Per my thermometer, it got down to 27*...however, itsandy had 23.something*. 23* is the official new low for the FL Hang, at least at the campground. I slept warm that night, except for my toes, a recurring problem. I woke just before the dawn to what looked like a storm front moving in from the southeast. A moment of staring at it made me realize that it was simply fog condensing out of the warmer air rising off of Buck Lake. It was really cool-looking, and I wish that I'd thought to take a photo of it.

I brought my cook kit on over to the fire ring for Sunday morning "coffee" and spent a little while trying to get it to light. A special thanks go out to Vanguard for his help when my mini-Bic didn't want to light. About an half-hour after I tried starting my "coffee", I managed to have my first cup. I like the Minibull Elite stove, but it just doesn't do too well in the cold. It'll be my warm weather stove from here on in, I think.

Soon enough, eleven AM rolled around and Tomasz mentioned the trail run that I'd intended on doing. He was the only other person to have an interest in it, so I moved on down to my hammock and changed before stretching some. We met back up and headed northbound along the FT. One wrong turn was made on the way out along the connector loop, but that was easy enough to fix. I kept the pace easy, as I'm not that fast of a runner, and we moved through the sandhill pine ecosystem between Buck Lake and Farles Lake. About a tenth of a mile from Farles Lake, there was a notice about the reroute around the lake. It turns out that the FT now goes east around the lake rather than west, as the western portion has been folded into the Pinecastle bombing range.

We reached Farles Lake after about twenty minutes and then took a short water break before moving back down the trail. We made decent time on the way back, arriving at Buck Lake about forty minutes after our start--making our pace just about six MPH. Tomasz was a wonderful running partner, and I'd do that again just about anywhere with him.

After some stretching and chatting with olddog, Shannan, and hangNyak, I rinsed out my clothing and took another bandanna bath to help keep the funk down. I put my clothes out to dry on my bike and pulled the tarp down since there was a line of clouds moving in. It figures; as soon as I had my clothing out to dry, the rain came in.

I spent most of the afternoon huddled under the kitchen popups with ten or fifteen other folks, jawing about life, the universe, and everything. It was a fun little chat, even given the suboptimal weather. Soon enough, the rain quit and it was time to start getting ready for dinner.

I went on over to my hammock and hauled out my dinner for the evening, heading back to the campfire circle for another night of wonderful companionship and food. That evening went on a little later than the other two, fueled by sweets cooked up in Dutch ovens and a bit of ribald humor once the younger folks went to bed. Many farewells were said that night, as those folks with jobs that didn't recognize MLK Day had to head home.

I wandered off from the fire at around 12:30 AM, to turn in for the evening. That night was warmer than the previous, getting down to 34* according to my thermometer. I slept warmly, with none of the toe issues of the night before, though I did miss my Thinsulate hat--I'd left it over by the fire by mistake.

I woke around 8:00 and checked my phone for messages. My heart stopped when I read the text that Mrs. FLRider had sent me the night before: someone had tried to break into our house. I immediately called her. Fortunately, it turned out that whoever it was didn't actually enter the house, nor did he harm anything other than her nerves. Her mother was actually more worked up about it than she was.

However, I decided to head home that day, and made "coffee" over by the fire, collecting everything that I might have left over there (hat!) before heading back to the hammock to change my tire and pack. As I was in the midst of changing my tire, Lisa (who doesn't even have an hammock and had only met Chuck of all of us before coming out to the hang; I want to emphasize how nice this was of her) came over and offered me a ride home so that I could be with my wife Monday night. I jumped at the chance, called Mrs. FLRider to let her know what was going on, and loaded everything as quickly as I could before jumping into the truck and heading northbound.

Lisa and I chatted as we headed north to Gainesville (I want to thank O-Boy for his information on where the name "Gainesville" comes from, by the way), and the trip went quickly. Right up until we hit about a quarter-mile from my house. See, I'd forgotten that the MLK Day parade is right along Waldo Road and University Avenue right at 1:00. We had to make several detours to reach my house, as all of the major throughways to it were closed in order to prevent parade-goers from being run over.

However, I reached home easily enough and unloaded everything as I greeted my wife. Lisa had some laundry to do, and it went on in as she grabbed an hot shower before heading back to Buck Lake.

Last night went easily enough, and Mrs. FLRider and I got a call from the local PD. It turns out that they have a suspect in custody. Given his story and age, we're not going to press charges, but he did spend the night in the drunk tank. I don't think we'll hear from him again, and I want to commend the Gainesville Police Department for their excellent work and speedy response to our problem.

[olddog]

Another fabulous Florida Hang. Thanks to all the volunteers helping out I was able to spend more time socializing which was a pleasure. Missed seeing some of the faces from previous hangs but was amazed with all the new people who joined in. I believe we had at least 9 states represented this year possibly more.

Setting new low temperature records for most of us was fun or at least informative as to just how good our gear was. Thanks to all who stepped in to help those in need. I don't believe we had any that abandoned ship. The only complaints I heard was from Hammy. He was a little peeved about being left out in the cold.
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Though there are many to be recognized for their contribution I want to give a special Thank You to my brother, Ricktorfla. Sunday evening when this was taken the man was running on empty. Love you, brother.

[slowhike]

Very impressive! Maybe one of these years I will be able to make it down there.