The curtain parts. Trumpet fanfare blares. A man in a tabard steps out and unrolls a scroll. After clearing his throat he announces…
Hear Ye Hear Ye—Attention one and all…
We are pleased and proud to announce the THIRD ANNUAL FLORIDA HAMMOCK HANG, scheduled for JANUARY 18 to 21 and to be held at our now accustomed home, The BUCK LAKE CAMPGROUND in Florida’s OCALA NATIONAL FOREST. Mark it down, add it to your calendars, tell your friends and families, line up the leave time, start packing the car now so you don’t have to do it last minute, put yourselves in general readiness!
The Florida Hammock Hang has rapidly become one of the main don’t miss big deal events of the HF social season. It has drawn HF members and others from all over this great land of ours in impressive numbers and promises to keep on growing and growing. Report threads from the last two events are on the Forum—you can get a good handle on what the hang is like. But in short, we have been having a great time sharing information, examining gear, testing out outdoor skills, taking day hikes, paddling long and short kayak river trips or scooting around Buck Lake, swapping tales around a 24 hour a day camp fire, vying for raffle prizes, and of course, eating! The Florida Hammock Hangs are gatherings of hardcore backwoods campers and trekkers, kayakers, and car campers in and around a trail-laced campsite that enables folks to stay close to cars and toilets or push off into a secluded spot—the choice is yours. But no matter where you love to hang your rig, the Florida Hammock Hang will have something to offer everyone.
The planning committee has been hard at work getting things in line, but is very much an ongoing process with the door wide open to anyone with great ideas, vision, or a desire to help out. Just PM any one of us. Our model is to have scheduling for those who like to have things planned out while also enabling lots of space for free spirits to come and go as they choose. As of now though, and given precedents from previous years planned activities include:
Group Hike on parts of the Florida Trail
River Kayak Excursions
Gear Show and Tell
Gear Swap Meet
Hammock Varietals Petting Zoo (bring your fave rig, test out others)
Tiny Stove Cook Off and Water Boiling Race
The Big Raffle (prizes include gear from many of your fave HF vendors)
Children’s Woods Workshops, Projects, and Gifts
THE BIG GROUP SATURDAY EVENING GROUP MEAL
Dutch Oven World
And of course—hours of socializing with your fellow hammock hangers.
And more….
DIRECTIONS too! I 75. Exit 93. East on Rt 40. South on Rt 19. Right (back westward) on a small dirt road with the sign Buck Lake Campground, then second left to the lake. There will be signs of our own as well all along the dirt road part.
Maps and More Here --------> https://sites.google.com/site/flhang...l-florida-hang
So please come one come all and join us at Buck Lake and help make this wonderful event even better. We can’t spell Buck Lake without “U.”
Pop by the registration tread (already underway here
http://www.hammockforums.net/forum/s...t=florida+hang
and add you name and then swing over the to public planning thread and get in on the brainstorming, creating of meal messes, and all the other things that will come together over the next few lead up months.
Let me remind everyone also that Florida rather famously makes a wonderful winter escape from seasonal affective disorder or just an overload of slush. Our days have usually been in the 70s and we have dropped to a crisp 23 degrees on at least one night.
So we all hope to see you and look forward to what has proven to be a fun planning process.
Jump in on three, 1....2....3....
Here ALSO are some useful planning and travel links. Meal messes are forming here as are schedules for people's with activities or skills they wish to share.
Helpful Links:
http://www.fs.usda.gov/wps/portal/fs...Forest-%20Home
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...h&z=15&iwloc=A
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocala_National_Forest
Mod Edit - more helpful links
Google spreadsheet for Signups:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...hl=en_US#gid=1
Meal Planning Spreadsheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...3c&hl=en#gid=0
Activities Planning Spreadsheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...3c&hl=en#gid=2
Supplies and Equipment
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...3c&hl=en#gid=1
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