Mullica River Thanksgiving Hang 11/28-11/30 Trip Report

[pilsburythrowboy12]

Good times were had at the Mullica River Camp by the "GSHDA??". Silent Orpheus lead the charge into the Pine Barrens this weekend and many laughs, good meals and surprisingly good amounts of sleep were had by most. The hike in was a sugar sand laden 4 mile direct shot into camp which basically everyone defaulted into since the frigid temps in the teens and wind gusts Friday were not conducive to additional distance. Below are just a few photos I snapped of the weekend going on. Feel free to tack on any additional pics ya'll!

, , ,
IMG_3374.jpg, IMG_3375.jpg, IMG_3377.jpg, IMG_3381.jpg,

[pilsburythrowboy12]

IMG_3387.jpg, IMG_3388.jpg, IMG_3389.jpg, IMG_3393.jpg, , , , IMG_3400.JPG, , ,

[pilsburythrowboy12]

, , , , ,

IMG_3385.jpg, IMG_3395.jpg, IMG_3397.jpg, IMG_3398.jpg, IMG_3399.jpg, , IMG_3401(1).jpg

That's all folks!

[2ply]

Looks like a good time around the campfire. Looking forward to the tales of adventure to come from the trip.

[The Tree Frog]

More pics and stories to share. Preview, oh the ribs, and the greasy potatoes!

[El Gordo]

Great pictures! I guess every Friday night is cold.

[Ratdog]

Friday 11AM, Atsion Park Office (definitely do not call it a Ranger Station), Atsion NJ
Breakfast Pizza, Wood delivery, obligatory pallets for ritual burning of the Piney Pyre.
IMG_20141128_115219043.jpg


Sherpa Delivery to drop cache location completed 2:30PM
IMG_20141128_133201905.jpg

Did someone say ribs?
IMG_20141129_102105566.jpg

[Dochartaigh]

Great pictures! I'll see you guys out there come spring time (I'm always looking for people to go to the Pine Barrens with - it's one of my favorite places).

[Wilson]

Great pics! That's a lot of ribs.

[SilvrSurfr]

What a great weekend! Many thanks to SilentOrpheus for handling most of the planning duties, and njredneck and Ratdog for their usual contributions to logistics, planning and food. It was a well-organized event with a shared budget for food, firewood and site fees. There was hardly any waste (well, other than a massive overestimate of the number of tortillas we'd need for the weekend), and no pile of leftovers (sorry, Ratdog). We each paid our share and I think it came out costing all of us a lot less than we normally spend on a hang.

I got a late start on Friday and about halfway to Atsion, I realized I'd left the salsa at home. Luckily I was driving by a Shop-Rite so I got some salsa fixins. I ended up about an hour late but Ratdog, silentorpheus, njredneck and sons were still waiting for me (sorry about that). Ratdog drove the firewood, food, dutch ovens and such to about a mile north of Mullica River camp and dropped off the cache.

The rest of us drove to Batsto and hiked the 4 miles into Mullica River camp, set up hammocks then went and got the cache. I carried a 20 lb. Dutch oven on my head for a mile. Plenty of sherpas volunteered to haul in gear.

Friday night dinner was steak fajitas; Saturday morning we had bacon, eggs, cheese, tortillas and fresh-ground, locally roasted coffee (Booskerdoo). Saturday dinner was ribs and ciambotta (jambot), and Sunday breakfast was more bacon, eggs, tortillas and some fresh salsa.

This was my first cold-weather hang of the year and my body wasn't quite prepared for the low temperatures. Friday night's low was 16 degrees, and Saturday night was 33 degrees. By the time we hiked out on Sunday, the temps had warmed up to about 60 degrees - quite a wide range of temps in one weekend - a 44 degree swing!

Pillsburythrowboy12 jumped over the campfire and averted injury. Though he boiled water all day, it was apparently just to fill his nalgenes so he could keep his quilts warm - he's usually a dish-washing machine but I didn't see him wash a single dish.

Ratdog convinced us we were under video surveillance by nefarious forces infringing on our civil liberties. We searched, but couldn't find the cameras. Perhaps they are disguised to look like pine cones!

On the hike out, silentorpheus and I took the old Mullica River trail with the blown-out bridge from Hurricane Irene in 2012. We knew we'd have to take off our shoes and wade across the river but figured our feet would love it. We were mistaken - it did not feel good. The water was extremely cold and it was extremely painful. Our feet stayed pretty numb for the rest of the hike.

Looking forward to the next outing!