Trip report: SC Fall Sprawl 2015

[Junebugdawn]

I wanted to get this started as folks are already getting home. I'm on my way home, too.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU...to each and every one of you who attended and made this the biggest and best SC FALL SPRAWL ever.

I will edit and post more later.

[firemedic]

It was epic, and now we know who the father is !!!!!
Bwahahaha

[Karebear32123]

Thanks everyone all of us Floridians had a blast. It was a great event and made the drive well worth it! Till next time...

[The Wanderer]

We finally made it back. Had a great time as usual. It was awesome to catch up with some of the fokes we met at the Smoke Butt, NC hang.

And PS:

PSH; Thanks for hosting.
Hotlips and Kingsford; Thanks for the most awesome meals, as usual.
Stubby; Thanks for the Sauce..
Gresh; Thanks for the show, and the loss of the beard. It was for a good cause.
Capt Morgan; Awesome chatting with you about football
Everyone else we chatted and hungout with, it made it hard to return back to the normal day life.


Hope to see everyone again in Florida

[PSH_Trip]

Didn't even have to go to the Maury Show.

[Gresh]

Just now getting around to this after getting home and handling my youngun' who hadn't seen me all weekend...

First of all, THANK YOU to everybody that came out to make this weekend the tremendous success that it was. We hosted over 100 hangers (I think the final count was around 110) through the weekend and raised $2545. ALL OF THAT money goes to the SC State Parks. I maintain that we may not be the biggest hang in the nation, but we're absolutely the best in the community that we've built and the donations that we make. Because of our members, we have the unique privilege of not having to fund the hang with the raffle proceeds. The Regional Chief for the state parks system came by and was in awe of what we had going on and came up with some pretty outstanding ideas to keep us from having to abandon that park next year (including introducing a low-impact/no-impact campground for our EXCLUSIVE use).

I got there Friday afternoon, leaving Irmo behind in the rain and showing up in the sunshine. That's the best sorta way for things to happen. I got outta my truck, made a beeline for the facilities, and then started making the "hi, how are you" rounds. I was glad to see that our club sponsors had joined us again this year (Dream Hammock, Underground Quilts and Outdoor Equipment, Ripstop By The Roll, and TATO Gear) and had thrown SO MUCH STUFF into the raffle. Hanging out at the Dream Hammock area, I was all the way stoked to check out the original version of the HyBird hammock prototype. It's always exciting to see innovative new ideas come out of the community, and having seen the product I'm sure it'll be popular enough that there'll be folks out there ready to emulate it! Randy had brought the whole crew down and it was a legitimate honor to meet the folks who make such fine products available.

I got set up and went back to Camp Smurf to hang out with Randy and the rest of the family along with Paul and Missy from UGQ for some chatting before the dinner bell rang. As always, 2014-2015 Members of the Year Hotlips and Kingsford put on a fantastic spread for supper and I glutted myself to the point of sloth on their fine vittles. I stuck around the main camp for a while as Pudden enthralled the fed masses with his ghost stories and lies and enjoyed a few minutes to myself and the quiet evening before the stories were over (including young Drew telling a story about how Bigfoot has a pet dragon) and folks meandered on back to sit a spell and trade lies with one another over some homemade sweet tea. Around 1am, we all shuffled to our respective hammocks.

Saturday morning saw me up around 8ish to the sound of a generator, which I knew to mean HOT COFFEE. That sweet, sweet nectar of the gods. If, for some reason, I brushed off your wishes of a good morning on my way to get my go-juice, I apologize for my rude behavior. The breakfast pot-luck was a tremendous success and thanks very much to everybody who participated. Good vittles are good, and you can't go wrong with breakfast burritos. Later on in the morning, Scott from Terrapin Outfitters showed up to conduct Lundy's Lessons, a kids' clinic on outdoor skills and activities. Mike Broadus provided us with an "All About Knives" demo at the same time that the kiddies were learning their stuff, and while I didn't get a chance to check that demo out (there's a lot I didn't get to check out that I wanted to) I heard it was incredibly informative and I really wish that I'd been able to see that one.

Immediately following that, the Gearage Sale happened and I've never seen a more exciting flea market. I'm REALLY sorry to the people who didn't believe that I was giving away free stuff - I literally gave away everything on my table for free. Didn't charge a single dime. Brand new in the package wool socks, emergency blankets, books...all sortsa good stuff fo' free but naw, y'all wanted to spend money.

As awesome as the Gearage Sale was, the meal dehydration demo immediately following lunch was all sorts of informative. Thanks to Stewart Armstrong, I'm feeling confident enough to start dehydrating my own meals and taking them out with me. The Smurf Clan put on a pretty awesome anodization clinic and I've never seen so many people bring spoons and Dream Hammock stakes over to get them turned to a different color. BearPlow was CLEARLY in his dojo in working those metals and currents, so I'm really stoked that we were able to have that there this year.

Then...it was time.

My beard was on the line - I'd made the promise that if we raised $2500, that Sampsonian fur on my face that was the source of my power would come off. I wasn't scared, I didn't think we'd make it. I'd been keeping tabs on the raffle ticket sales all weekend.

I was wrong. Just before the raffle started, a few last minute sales bumped us up, and we raised $2545 - enough to get that perfection gone from my face. To that end, we had a LOT of great vendors and individuals throw in to help us reach our goal this year.

Of course, our club sponsors REALLY donated a tremendous amount each:

Dream Hammock
Underground Quilts and Outdoor Gear
TATO Gear
Ripstop By The Roll

More top prizes came in from A LOT of cottage vendors and bigger companies as well, including:

BoneFire Gear
Nalgene
White Box Alcohol Stoves
Chilihead Photography
Hobo Hammocks
CRKT
2QZQ
Eagle's Nest Outfitters
Wildhorn Outfitters
Dutch
Mainewoods
Wilderness Logics
Warbonnet
Packit Gourmet
Ribz
LuminAID
WhoopieSlings
Zpacks
Tacoma96
Wood & Thyme
OldDog
Loco Libre Gear

Without the help of these vendors and individuals (as well as a few that I'm sure I've forgotten) we never would have been able to reach that goal. Half of that money is going to support the Palmetto Campout program at Sesquicentennial State Park, the other half to the program of the same name at Huntington Beach State Park.

After the main raffle, the kiddies all got something in the Kids' Raffle and we had about an hour and a half of vendor demos. Any vendor there got time to set up a space to showcase their wares, answer questions, meet the people that use or are interested in their gear, and more. It's a great way to get some one-on-one time with the folks that make the gear we all use, and I hope folks learned a lot. The pot-luck supper was AMAZING and Country cooked enough chicken bog to feed a small army. There were more deserts than anybody had any business having but I took it as a personal mission to try everything...twice. Once to taste it, and once more to confirm. Science, you know.

Michael "Firebox" Johnson joined us from up yonder in Chester, SC to soothe our hearts with sultry songs from his heart, along with Stewart Armstrong (of Dehydrated Meals Demo fame). I stayed up until the wee, wee hours of the night with TATO and Brother Bones talking smack and telling fibs before finally wandering off to bed.

I slept until 11:00 the next morning, which is usually pretty unheard of but anybody who's put a hang of this size together can attest to, it's a lot of work for a lot of people - it's not just Dawn, Kevin, and me doing things. We have some amazing members who always jump at the chance to help in any way they can and to that end, I'd like to congratulate members Mark Bloomer and Kim Moans for being the 2015-2016 Members of the Year.

Thanks to everybody that came out and we absolutely hope to see you all again next year. Like I mentioned, it's a lot of work to put this hang on but it's SO, SO worth it to us to be able to have the sort of community that we have. If you've never been, now's the time to start planning to come!

Finally, if you're a member of our Facebook group the pictures are starting to show up. Go check them out.

[dosei]

And so my first year with the Palmetto State Hangers has ended, and my second has begun! This year I was able to bring not only my wife, but also another couple that enjoys camping. We enjoyed a picture perfect hang location, vittles fit for royalty, relaxing evenings around a campfire, and of course the excellent company of the Palmetto State Hangers and guests of the Fall Sprawl. A great big THANK YOU to everyone that lent a hand in pulling off another great Fall Sprawl! Hotlips & Kingsford, you ROCK! Everyone that contributed to the potluck meals, WOW! Papa Smurf and family, ALWAYS great to have you around and to get a little time in your latest creations (the Hybird is brilliant). UGQ, thanks to your raffle donations, and a lot of luck, my wife enjoyed her best night of the hang on Saturday night (also, thank you to Papa Smurf & PSH for the loaner hammock she enjoyed for the weekend). Thank you to all the sponsors of PSH that have given so much to help support the group. Thank you to all of the many vendors that graciously donated so much great stuff for the raffle. Gresh, thank you for giving us all the chance to show just how much we hate you by putting your beard on the line. (So just how many years of beard growth did $2545.00 buy?) Junebugdawn, Paulie, and the rest of the PSH officers…THANK YOU!

Our shady little spot with a view:

[Gresh]

So just how many years of beard growth did $2545.00 buy?

I haven't been completely clean-shaven in at least 7 years. I've had the full beard for over 2 years.

[mbcruzin]

A most epic hang indeed. Thank you everyone for a great weekend.

[Zilla]

Makes me feel like i live in the wrong state everytime i read a SC fall sprawl trip report, glad y'all had a great time.
I don't do facebook so someone please post up some photos here.