First off, I'd like to thank everyone who travelled so far. This was a lot of fun and could not have happened if you guys were not willing to travel so far to freeze your but off!
Jan. 7, 2011
Lars and I meander down the trail at about 7pm. When we arrived at the aspen grove, we found Mugs and Tomjones already there. I set to putting up Lars's (my wife's for the next night) rig- a BMBH, Superfly, 3 season Incubator, and a JRB Rocky Mountain Sniveler; and my rig- WB traveler,1 Grizz Beak OES Delux in Spin UL, winter and summer Phoenix and winter Incubator. We visited for a couple of hours and crashed out. It was Lars's first time in a hammock and he reported a good night's sleep with an ever so slight cold butt. I slept well adding a layer on early in the morning. The temp dipped into the low 20's.
Jan. 8, 2011
Lars and I headed out to have breakfast with our wives and gather the rest them and their gear for their night out with the rest of the HF members that joined us for our little invasion of Umptanum Canyon.
We arrived at around 1:30 PM discovering that half the group arrived and more were coming in right behind us. I gathered and cut wood for the fire we were about to light. Hulk and Mugs also brought wood from their stashes. We lit the fire at 3pm and it did not go out until the wood was gone and burnt to ash at 2am.
I cooked a home made vegetarian stew with dumplings and Lars and his wife brought Elk meat with gravy that was warmed on the fire. Home made Chocolate chip cookies and brownies went around for desert. I hope the person who brought those chimes in. They really hit the spot!
I could not hold out that long. I crawled into my hammock at around 9:30 pm and read comic books until I fell asleep. I could hear the other HF members laugh and tell stories from my hammock, which made me smile. The temps were in the upper 20's, an snow started to fall in the daylight hours of the morning.
A group of 9, after puling up our stakes, then headed off for breakfast at one of my favorite local restaurants. The Yellow Church Cafe serves one of the best breakfast menus in Ellensburg and was only 10 minutes away from the parking lot.
I felt that this was a success when others suggested that we do this again next year. We had a great turn out! And I am proud to say that no one died, froze to death or had to be buried in a shallow grave in the frozen ground. There was much laughter, stories and merriment to be had around or humble 11 hour fire.
Thank you again, everyone. I look foreword to reading stories from everyone else's point of view. I will post another video in a couple of days.
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