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  1. #1
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    Apr 2014
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    10% means 100%! (Or, a weekend car-camping with the family at Lake Eufaula)

    Just finished a great weekend of car camping with my family of 6 and my brother’s family of 5 at Arrowhead State Park on Lake Eufaula near McAlester, OK. I didn’t get any pics because I was too busy relaxing without my phone. I should have though, with all those hammocks floating around! My brother brought a big tent for his family; I brought hammocks for mine. It was interesting that we were set up before he was, despite the fact that I had to help everybody with their setups. I know, they should be better able to do this by now. They’re getting better, but it seems like everybody forgets one piece, especially since I like to experiment and fiddle and have everything set up differently.

    Here’s a brief rundown of the variety I had set up. For me, I had my favorite Dream Hammock with Molly Mac Gear UQ/TQ. I let my wife use my new Draumr XL, as she hates camping, so I was trying to give her something comfortable to enjoy (she still didn’t sleep well, but really liked the hammock once she figured out the ingress/egress). My 16 yo daughter got the double-layer Warbonnet Ridgerunner with CCF pad. My 15yo son slept in my Dutchware Chameleon with a SnugPak UQ. 12 yo daughter enjoyed the double-layer Trail Lair from Simply Light Designs. And my 9 yo son (birthday this weekend!) slept in a Grand Truck single with ENO bug net.

    Of course, you’ll notice that I’m missing something in all that variety...I set up my SuperFly by my hammock as a changing area. The size and the doors make it great to provide some privacy. But I had been watching the weather closely, and there was only a 10% chance of rain. After everything that Oklahoma has been hammered with recently, surely we’d be just fine. And I enjoy seeing the trees and sky above me. So I didn’t set up any of the tarps. 10%, right?

    But as we all know, when you’re not prepared for it, 10% is 100%. Sure enough, about 1am, the winds began to howl. We hadn’t slept much anyway since a large group of very inconsiderate people was making noise nearby. So we checked weather, and sure enough, it appeared that rain was imminent. I hopped up and grabbed tarps to try to get everything covered. It’s quite a chore for a big group like this. Along with my SF, I have an Amok tarp for the Draumer, 2 Yukon Outfitters square tarps (they were a good price, and convenient for this purpose), an SLD Trail Haven, and a large Chill Gorilla Tarp (another really good Amazon deal). Of course, under pressure, no one could remember how to tie the knots to secure them, so I was scrambling. And I couldn’t find half of the stakes I needed. I had one tarp up, and another one halfway up when it started pouring. I was trying to throw tarps up just to get everything covered, even if they weren’t staked out. I was moving hammocks to double up under trees to speed things up. By the time I had everything up and was personally soaked, it was starting to slow down. Of course, we caught the tail end of it - by all rights, it should have slipped past us to the north. And it probably would have if I had tarps up like I knew I should.

    Fortunately, though there was some wet gear, nothing was soaked through (except me), and everything was OK to jump back in the hammocks and get some rest once it was all secured again. The next day, I checked weather again, and there was another 10% chance of rain in the evening. Figuring that if we were properly prepared it wouldn’t rain, I went ahead and fixed everything the way it should be in preparation for the worst. And of course, that night, there was no rain! Fortunately, the rowdy group had received a good talking-to by both me and the ranger, so they were much more considerate, and everyone got a great rest.

    My brother enjoyed watching and learning, and was able to see firsthand the extremes of hammock camping, but he got a good impression of it. When the winds came up, he could certainly see the advantage of properly secured tarps over his huge family tent. I’m still trying to convert him!

    And the lake was great. It was a little high, and a few of the lower campsites were under water due to the recent flooding. But it wasn’t too bad, and since everyone was scared away, there weren’t too many boats on the water! As such, we were able to enjoy my brother’s jet ski without worrying too much about all the other crazies. I did lose a good pair of sunglasses when I capsized due to landing a wake jump at just the wrong angle on another wave...but it was worth it.

    I would much rather have gone backpacking over the weekend, but that would have only involved two or three of my kids. So I’m glad we were able to enjoy it as a family. And the hammock sleep was incredible!

  2. #2
    Senior Member BillyBob58's Avatar
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    Great report! Looks like you got caught up in BillyBob's addendum to Murphy's Law: i.e. Murphy was an optimist!

  3. #3
    Member
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    Apr 2014
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    Yep, and I knew better...
    Of course, if I had set the tarps up properly, it wouldn’t have rained at all!

  4. #4
    Senior Member NOBOZax's Avatar
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    Peoria, Illinois
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    Top notch man! Those are the type of trips that become family folklore and a bond forever for you and you family. Entertaining read, thanks for sharing. Happy trails

    Sent from my LM-V405 using Tapatalk

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