Merchants Mill Pond hang

[Unmighty]

Just wanted to start a thread with a few pics! We are having a blast. We may need to rename it the fat butt hang!

[shipsgunner]

Shawn,
Those pics don't even come close to the amount of food we had last night and today... there was 15-20lbs of just Smoked Pulled Pork! That Cole Slaw was the exquisite! Even the Brunswick Stew was to die for. The entire Friday Evening Dinner was spectacular. In fact, I don't think I have eaten this well while camping in my life... Breakfast this morning was terrific, I don't think I have ever had 3 types of sausage and meat candy all at one sitting... Let me know when those folks are making it again... I want to get some of that in my freezer! When hotlips pulled out the pan of cookies today after making some of the best burgers I have had in years, I was done for.

I want to tip the hat to Gunner76 and Terminator for hosting such a wonderful event and all of you who were there for making Josie and I feel at home. You folks don't know how much that meant to us since it was our first time and we had no idea what to expect. We felt like royalty. Thanks.

Cheers and enjoy the rest of the weekend!
Shipsgunner and Gunnette

[2ply]

That's some good looking eat's! Looking forward to more pics and stories as the weekend progresses.

[gunner76]

A big thanks to all of you who showed up for the hang. My wife and I just made it possible for us to get together. It was all of you who showed up that made the hang a reality. Told the wife when we started the planning for the hang was that the worse thing that could happen is that we would have a very expensive camp site to ourselves.

Got back safe and sound, took a shower ( I did not find any ticks but the wife found one on her ) and took a short nap then got up to help wife clean up.


On to the trip report............


In attendance...


Guuner76 & Terminator
hotlips and Tclayton (AKA Kingsford)
Canoe ( stopped by to visit )
obxh2o
Tacoma96 & Jazzie
CoreyR
Shawn (Unmighty)
Shipsgunner and Gunette
Pappy Amos
Cass52


We did have a couple of others show up to visit but I did not get their names


Left Friday AM and stopped at Bunn's BBQ in Windsor about 9:15 and got some BBQ sandwiches for brunch. If you have never been there, its an old gas station and easy to miss. Arrived at park about 10:30 AM. Checked in and waited for Park personnel to open access gate to group camp site. Set up camp and found out that the water had not been turned on. Went back to Park Office to let them know only to find out that the person that opened the gate did not know how to turn on water and a Park truck I had passed was the person who knew how to turn on the water and has just finished turning it on when I got back.


As I was leaving the Park office I passed a vehicle with one person in it and thought that it could not be a hanger as he appeared to be too dressed up. Turned out to the Unmighty who drove straight to the hang from work.


Others started showing up over the course of the the afternoon. Had good time checking out some different hammocks, tarps ect. I like Unmighty's new ThunderBird. Unfortunately he never let it out of his sight so I was unable to take it home with me.


For dinner we had 3, yes 3 different BBQ's to choose from along with Brunwick Stew, Home made cole slaw and Potato salad. I am ashamed to admit it but there was so much BBQ we could not finish it. I know I did my best but I am only one person. Someone mentioned some thing about somebody called Shug


After clean up we sat around the campfire to tell bad jokes and some of then were stinkers.

Obxh2o said his Swedish candle was not working as it suppose to. I told him that if he had not said anything I would have never known as I have never seen one in action.


About 10 PM the Boy Scouts rolled in for the night. They had a group site just past ours. They left early in the AM to go paddle and camp out. On the whole they were very quiet. I stayed up past 11 pm before heading to my trusty BB for the night.


For Saturday breakfast, we have a bunch of sausages from mild to hot,scrambled eggs, grits, meat candy...have to be missing something but can't remember.


For lunch the Iron Chef of Dutch Ovens, hotlips, made gourmet hamburger made with bell peppers and I think she said Blue Cheese dressing. I don't like ranch and or blue cheese salad dressings but the burgers were excellent and I would be happy to eat more. Hotlips even made a large Chocolate Chip cookie.


My wife spent Saturday afternoon hard at work conducting afternoon hammock studies ( taking a nap in her hammock ). Others went hiking and or paddling for the afternoon.


Tacoma96 and Jazzie showed up with a cooler filled with ice cream. Don't know the last time I ate so many Nutty Butties and Ice Cream Sandwiches in one day.


A Girl Scout troop showed up and asked if I would allow them to use Group Site # 2 which I had reserved but we did not use. Basically the Girls Scouts did not want to have to hike to Group Site # 3 which is a good hike. I decided to be nice and let them use it. They were much nosier than the boy scouts.


For Saturday dinner we had Frogmore Stew, Dutch Oven spaghetti, Three Dutch oven cobblers, Apple, Cherry and Peach. Once again I am sure I missed something.


Once again we sat around the fire and talked about how much food we were eating and alternate names for the hang were discussed and the most popular one was “The Fat Butt Hang” due to the amount of food we were eating and it should be a required prequel hang if one wants to attend the Smoked Butt Hang.. The Dead Buzzard Hang got mentioned a few times.


At one point we heard owls in the distance as a couple of hangers tried their owl calls with some success in getting the owls to hoot back. I was told in the AM that the owls kept hooting all night and PappyAmos said he heard them even with his ear plugs in. I did not hear them once I went to bed about 11 PM


Sunday AM was sad. We fixed breakfast, eggs, sausage, left over cobbler, monkey bread and then we all started packing up to leave.


As you can tell, we ate well, maybe too well. When we got home my wife got on the scales and said some unrepeatable words about gaining weight. I tried to check my weight but the scales would not work...I think she broke them.


Other notes...


Weather.....PERFECT. Highs were in the 80's and lows were in the 50's. Clear skies and full moon and stars. Slight breeze kept things pleasantly cool and the bugs way. I saw one Skeeter. There were a few wasp around but they did not bother anyone. Some folks did find a tick or two. There was a report of one snake. Many us did not set up a tarp Friday night although we did for Sat as there was a slight chance of rain that never happened


Pollen...the Pine trees were shedding so much pollen that when one walked around at night with a light, it looked like you were in a snow storm. The only real bad thing about it was that the pollen covered everything. My black tarp is now yellowish green. Will have to set up all the gear outside just to wash off the pollen.


The group agreed that Merchants Mill Pond was a good place to hold a group hang and volunteered me to set up one in the Fall in October and another one in the Spring. We also discussed setting up a hanging association like the South Carolina Palmetto Hangers for NC and VA. We decided hotlips ( against her protest ) should be president.


Obxh2o said he tried to do a group hang here a few years ago but canceled it at the last minute due to very bad weather and 2 people still showed up.


I told the group when the wife and I were discussing the possibility of doing a hang at MMP State Park, we wanted to do it here as it would be a central location for hangers east of Raleigh NC and SE Virginia. I think it worked out as we were about a 50/50 split of hangers from NC and VA.


A big thanks to Pappy Amos as he wins the person who drove the furthest to attend the hang award.


More shout outs to....


hotlipsfor keeping us feed with gourmet foods from her Dutch Ovens.


CoreyR for those 3 cobblers


obx2ofor the Swedish Fire candles and BBQ


Tacoma96 and Jazzie for the Ice Cream


Unmight for the sausages and jelly


shippsgunner and gunnet for the 2 very large trays of BBQ


PappyAmosfor helping for not making toast until Sunday breakfast so we could use his stove.


Everyone who brought firewood.


If I missed anybody's contribution it was only because there was enough going on I could not keep up with everything.


We collected $264 in donations which is enough to cover to cost of the camp site rental and paying for this falls rental.


Oh yes...Black Birds ruled this hang, we had 5 BB and 2 BB XLC's and a RidgeRunner.

[obxh2o]

Good report. Pretty well sums up the weekend.

I have to mention the gunner76 did a spectacular job organizing this hang, complete with a registration/sign-up sheet and pre-printed name tags (which really, really helped). Thanks for all your hard work.

Looking forward to the next one.

[grannypat]

Sounds like a great hang! Pulled pork sandwich with slaw on top is the way to eat!

[gunner76]

We had enough BBQ to try it anyway you wanted. Your name was mentioned a few times as the mistress of the camp fire.

[gunner76]

Good report. Pretty well sums up the weekend.

I have to mention the gunner76 did a spectacular job organizing this hang, complete with a registration/sign-up sheet and pre-printed name tags (which really, really helped). Thanks for all your hard work.

Looking forward to the next one.

Thank you for attending as with out your participation it would not have happened.. I always enjoy meeting forum members I have not seen before. Its fun to meet the faces behind the posts.

Hope to see you again soon and hope your next Swedish candles works even better. Take care of that back.

[gunner76]

Some of the pictures from the hang.

Just thought I would mention that regardless of the phone, the folks with Verizon were the only ones who seemed to be able to connect from the park.

Shawn (unmighty) started this post from his laptop at the hang.

[gunner76]

More Pics of the hang