WV>Watoga State Park> October 21-23, 2016 WaHHA!

[WVwanderer]

A number of us, have been back each October since then. I think the second or third year we decided to name it WaHHA. The weather system seems to be moving in (and out) quicker than originally forecast, so I hope Friday evening and Saturday may be clear. The temperatures will drop Friday and Saturday nights. I'm planning to lead a hike for the intrepid (i.e. - Hickery) Saturday morning, about a 7 mile loop, with half a mile or so of easy bushwhacking (downhill) to connect two parallel trails. It might take 4 or 5 hours, so we'll take snacks and water. There are other trail loops I can recommend that can be done in an hour or two. The trails in the Arboretum are especially nice, as is the Monongaseneka Trail. Fishing in the lake might be good.

There is a raffle; tickets are $10. Proceeds pay for the campsites and firewood, and benefit the Watoga State Park Foundation. Dutch is sending some stuff, and individuals may contribute if they want. 2Q and ZQ arrived at the park yesterday. I'm putting a People's Bridge Hammock in as a prize, too.

ChiefH suggested that we have the Saturday potluck supper at the Picnic Shelter, the way we did 4 years ago. It's 5 miles down the road, so we'd need to transport everything there early afternoon and get a fire started. We'll decide Friday night. We'll have an informal hammock tour around 1 PM Saturday if I'm back from the hike. That's the plan.

Dave since I'm not bringing my bike or able to much hiking right now, I volunteer to hold a amsteel splicing seminar. We can make whoopie slings and continuous loops while others are hiking or later in the afternoon.

[WV]

Great. Dutch is sending me 600 ft. of orange Amsteel 7/64 (a purchase), along with the raffle prizes. Hope they get here!

[WV]

I have just received an email from the new park superintendent saying they may enforce the "one camping unit" per campsite rule.
If so there, won't be enough campsites for our group. I will go talk to him tomorrow morning and send out updates by PM.
David

[HappyCamper]

My question is why did they wait until the last minute to tell us? I would argue that the staff at the park have known about us coming for quite sometime. Including the supertendent since he said they would not be selling us wood at the same price as in past years.

We've come there for the past several years and have made donations to the park. We do not make trouble or cause a ruckus. We are good campers. Now he waits until the last minute to treat us differently than in the past.

I understand if he wants to start interpreting the rules differently. That's his prerogative. But if he wants to implement this differently on us, he should do it next year since he waited to the very last minute and did not give us any time to find another location.

Watoga is a beautiful place and in the past the staff has been very cordial to us. And we to them with our donations and appreciation of the park and our respect to their staff. I'd hate to see this all change. The new super should at least keep to the old rules this year. Come meet us and see why we've been allowed to camp there for the last several years and that we respect rules.

Just my 2 cents.

Tracy

[2Questions]

My question is why did they wait until the last minute to tell us? I would argue that the staff at the park have known about us coming for quite sometime. Including the supertendent since he said they would not be selling us wood at the same price as in past years.

We've come there for the past several years and have made donations to the park. We do not make trouble or cause a ruckus. We are good campers. Now he waits until the last minute to treat us differently than in the past.

I understand if he wants to start interpreting the rules differently. That's his prerogative. But if he wants to implement this differently on us, he should do it next year since he waited to the very last minute and did not give us any time to find another location.

Watoga is a beautiful place and in the past the staff has been very cordial to us. And we to them with our donations and appreciation of the park and our respect to their staff. I'd hate to see this all change. The new super should at least keep to the old rules this year. Come meet us and see why we've been allowed to camp there for the last several years and that we respect rules.

Just my 2 cents.

Tracy

Just met and talked with WV, EVERYTHING IS GOOD TO GO! See you at Watoga. WV will send a pm later. He must reserve some more sites.

[WV]

Good news – WaHHA lives on, … but not in its present form. I had a good talk with Watoga Park Superintendent, Jody Spencer, and we have permission to go ahead with WaHHA this weekend as planned. We can have up to four hammocks per campsite, and we can have our cookout and raffle in the Picnic Shelter (with its nice big stone fireplace). I’ll be going back up there this afternoon to string up a big tarp. I have already rented two sites (#22 and #23) for people arriving today.
The really good news is that even though hammock hangs at Riverside Campground will end with this one (to abide by the “one camping unit per campsite” rule, which has been necessitated by the excesses of tenters), we talked about other beautiful groves of trees in the park that would make better group hang spots anyway (no widow makers), and he floated the idea of a dedicated hammock group hang site. “Leave no trace” makes something like that a lot easier to plan. It may be the beginning of having the nature of camping hammocks recognized in state regulations, rather than simply lumping them in with tents as “camping units.”

[HappyCamper]

Great work, Dave. Sounds like a great compromise. Thanks so much!

[Silverpalm2x]

Hello all who came! Sorry we missed you all to say goodbye. My daughter with her lack of winter coat, my dog was just shivering non stop, and rumors of colder windier weather, we decided to pack up and head home last night. The van did not show temps above 50F until we made it within 30 minutes of home and it was just for a minute and then dropped back below. We saw 37F this morning at home in NC. Hope you had a warm night and a good drive home.


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[HappyCamper]

Hang report started here!