The First Annual Frosty Butt Hang was held at Merchants Mill Pond State Park NC 29, 30, 31 Jan and 1 Feb and went off with out a hitch.
I want to thank all of those who showed up and pitched in to help cook, clean up and collect fire wood. We had about 12 folks show up to enjoy the cold and test our gear.
I did see some snow on the ground while driving to hang but there was none at the park...maybe next time.
Attending were...
Gunner76
Chigger
OBXh2o
CoreyR
PappyAmos
Sandman614
Jon
IAmJoshWilson
Meckie
Unmighty
Unfortunately we did not have any ladies join us on this hang. Which is a shame as we did have heated restrooms and hot showers.
There were a couple of folks who showed up who did not sign up and I have to admit I can not remember their names. Hopefully someone remembers the names. We also had several hangers who were attending their first group hang and on top of that were brave enough to attend not knowing if their gear would keep them warm. Several of us brought extra gear to share to make sure everyone stayed toasty and as PappyAmos put it, it's easier to keep them warm than try to defrost a frozen hanger in the morning.
Those of us with thermometers would get together each morning to compare results and agree on the low for the night. I think we had as many as 6 thermometers scattered around the site and in the hammocks.
Thursday night low 33 degrees and overcast
Friday AM we had about an hour+ of rain starting at 5 am...not hard but just enough to be annoying and to find out if you had your tarp set up properly.
Friday night low was 22 degrees....and clear and windy....definitely frosty
Saturday night low was 26 degrees and clear, not wind
I placed my remote thermometer sensor inside my ice chest on Saturday and found it was warmer inside the ice chest that it was out side. I kept my main thermometer on a tote by my hammock and found that it was usually 4 degrees warmer under the tarp than the remote sensor I had on a picnic table about 50 feet away. Did not realize that just a tarp could create that much of a temperature difference
Sandman brought a load of fire wood that was greatly appreciated as the fire pit was well used by all. The only complaint was the smoke seems to follow some of us and leaves the others alone. One person did place an "empty" HEET bottle in the fire which was not very empty as the fumes exploded and it sounded like a bomb going off. No was hurt and it startle several us standing by the fire. One did not realize just how cold it really was until you walked away from the fire.
We had a great variety of hot food and we could not finish off everything. Chigger went so far as to bring us some home made pumpkin pies and CoreyR brought some spiced hot chocolate along with his Cheerwine Chicken and Peach Cobbler. OBX made some excellent pulled pork and Mekie made outstanding hamburgers. If I forgot to mention anyone's contribution I apologize and all the food we had made for good eats. PappyAmos and I would volunteer to do the dishes as this allowed us to warm our hands in the hot dish water.
Several of us went on a hike lead by one of the park rangers and 2 braver souls went on the Lassiter Trail which is the longest trail in the park approx 7 miles long.
A Boy Scout troop pulled in after dark Friday. They spent Saturday hiking and then had a catered pig picking set up outside the restrooms. The only problem was when a couple our hangers went to use the shower and found the scouts were inside the shower cutting up the pig. When asked why, the scouts said they did not want the pig to get cold and they have never had to share the place before. I made a trip over to Park Office to report this and the ranger came right over to talk to scouts.
Friday and Saturday nights were great as we had clear skies and we were able to do some star watching but the full moon made it hard to see some of the sky.
Meckie from the Hammeck Company joined us for the hang and was showing off the new Envy S and their new hammock stand which will be for sale very soon. Meckie also showed me a picture of my Envy S that is in production and is at this stage just a bunch of pieces of fabric...very exciting...can't wait to get it. Also fun when one has a chance to talk to a vendor at the group hang and get some real insight about what really goes into making of a product.
CoryR filled us in on the Old Dominion Hangers group he has started and it sounds like he is off to a great start. Since his first group hang is the same time as the Fat Butt Hang in April, we are going to try and see if we can connect via Skype and have a remote conference two state hang.
I got to put my gear to a good test and stayed very warm. My only complaint was having to get up in the AM to answer natures call as I was so comfortable and toasty ( and no, while I like Dutch Gear, I refuse to get and or use a pee bag ) . I used my BlackBird hammock along with a DIY Tarp. I used a 0 degree RevX TQ from Enlighten Equipment and a 7/8 length 20 degree UQ from from UGQs ( both the TQ and UQ do have a couple of ounces of over stuff ). I feel I could have gone down to at least 0 degrees and stayed toasty. Problem is that it just does not get that cold along the North Carolina coast very often. ( The record low at the park is -5 degrees ).
I did loan one person a 4 season Jarbridge which he said worked but he still felt a bit cool on Friday night, the coldest night, so I set up a FL 0 degree UQ under the Jarbridge and he said he was very warm on Saturday night.
As I was the last one to leave, I brought home anything left behind. I have a Platypus pouch that was left in my ice chest, a bottle of apple cider vinegar, a small frying pan and a partial 20 pack of coke.
I stopped by the rangers office to let them know we were gone and talked to the person at the front desk about our next hang. I also let the park know that we had found that someone was driving nails into the trees at the site and we were able to remove them. I also talked to a ranger about removing the widow makers at the site before our next hang. Suggested they could cut them down just before the Fat Butt Hang so we could use them for fire wood but I don't think that will happen.
I will post pictures as soon as I can. I also left my email address with the park office and hopefully the park ranger that the hike we went on will send us the pictures she took.
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