Synopsis/AAR/Lessons Learned
We arrived at ground zero around lunch time on Friday and were greeted by the sight of some old friends, Marty and Aggie (can’t forget Shadow and Nellie), akabu, and Joezilla. There were some new friends there as well, Csimms, Jilly, Ashley, John, Greywolf, and Muddypete. After some pleasentries, we got down to the serious business of gear schlepping. Down darn hill, to the lower camp where the communal meals would be had, and dang hill to the upper camping area. Setup was completed fairly quickly. As a note, my family currently uses a Eureka Headquarters tent with a queen size air mattress and a 5 gallon bucket/wag bag setup for nighttime ablutions (the missus is down to one kidney and it’s her sisters’
. That Eureka is a big tent, a lot to haul, and a lot of extra room to spread everything out in. While we sat and stretched the truth around the world, there was this swallowtail butterfly that wouldn’t leave Ground Zero alone. Figure it was his shirt and he looked like some giant flower. Hannah came over and wouldn’t you know it, that butterfly seemed to think she was some sort of flower too. With our bleesing, Hannah went of with Joezilla on a little walk around and came back with a couple of interesting souvenirs. One was an inch worm in a vile with some leaves and the other was a chewed up deer leg. She was most impressed with herself. Thanks Joe, for keeping an eye on her, I really do appreciate that. Most of the group arrived before 4 pm, with a couple stragglers; in the end we had about 27 folks there.
Friday night was spaghetti night and it was something – the sauce had all sorts of meat thrown in. I made some separate spaghetti for Tracey (she has a wheat gluten allergy and needs gluten free foodstuffs), but she only had a little; she felt pretty poorly the whole weekend, unfortunately. Looking back on it, we figure she got a hold of some food that claimed to be gluten free, but was likely contaminated at the factory. While the group spaghetti was being worked on, several of us worked up our frustrations with a compound bow brought by Jeepers and Ground Zero’s atlatl. That atlatl is frustrating and highly addicting. Not much else can be said about it, perhaps other than “It was balsamic!” After dinner was the usual fireside chat; Brian Jones wandered by, but couldn’t stay the night. He’d be back the next day.
The nights’ weather was about perfect for sleeping. High 50s with a light breeze. Just the sort of night to get comfy and drape the sleeping bag over oneself. The nights’ serenade by the neighbors’ coon hound, left something to be desired – I know, it lacked a chorus. And verses. And a pleasant sound. But they were the ones that provided us with farm fresh eggs, so we can overlook some things.
Saturday morning brought with it breakfast. Hmmm, those farm fresh eggs with a little onion diced in sure hit the spot. The only downside was that we cooked up the breakfast at the lower camp area while most folks stayed in the upper camp area. Marty planned on a plant walk that, as a result, the folks below at breakfast missed part of. Not to worry though, as the walk went right by and they were all able to join up. That left Tracey, Hannah, Cameron, and myself. Tracey really wanted to go on that walk, but she just wasn’t up to it, instead she went up to rest. That left me and the kids. So just how do you entertain a couple kids in the woods? They had a lot fun looking for critters and rocks up and down the stream; when that ran its course, we went up to the camp area where they played hide and seek awhile (with very clear rules laid out); when that ran its course, what’s left? Ah, fire. Roast some marshmallows, play with some sticks, and release the spirits to the winds.
The folks from the plant walk wandered back in, looking rather dazed. I’d say that’s another fine job done by Marty. His walks are always packed with a lot of information and it quickly leads to overload. Nothing to be done except to go on more and take lots of notes. Our hostess wanted to take anyone interested up to Bears’ Den for a look at the whole valley, Hannah was quite keen on this idea and thought it’d be swell to take her Camelback Mini MULE for a hike. We rounded up Ground Zrro, his daughter, Muddypete, Camm, and John and off we went. Hannah was exhausted at the outset, but pushed on. A good thing she’s persistent, too, she stumbled a bit on the rocks and roots – trying to get her hiking legs in order. Her feet are a story themselves; not toughened too much so lots of breaks were made to rest. This set a right leisurely pace and allowed the boys a chance to go ahead and climb all over the rocks. We did our own climbing around a bit and even tried denting a couple rocks by bashing faces into them; just a little scrape and bruise was the result of that tangle. A mile out and a mile back on the Appalachian Trail and the blue blazed side trail, the view was spectacular and well worth it.
Back at camp dinner was being readied. Chile con the kitchen sink and ribs with leftover salad and corn bread and muffins. Anyone that goes hungry here does it to themselves. Some changing weather pushed in, with more wind and a spot of rain. Not too bad, just enough to make you think about where you stashed your rain gear and if you remembered to close up the tent. After dinner, we figured we’d best get a group picture in before anyone had to leave, so that fiasco was set about and we got a couple good laughs out of that. The host and hostess joined in on some guitar, song, and harmonica, afterward. Some sweat sounds that were just right around the campfire. The cooler weather made for some sound sleeping, that and the coon hound kept quiet.
Sunday morning came much too early. Up and out. Break down the tent, clean up the area, and break up the schlep to the cars with some breakfast. Out of there around 1 pm. We all had the best time we could; it was a real shame that Tracey felt so bad and it was a real pain with my allergies being the worst they’ve been all year. Hannah had a blast, though, so that makes up for it. I know that when Tracey was up and about, she had a grand time talking with Csimms, Jilly, Joe, and Ashley (the rest were great too!). My legs are still not talking to me, for all the abuse I put them through. Next adventure will be in Chateaugay, NY at PEACE.
Lessons Learned.
The tent we use, while nice, is too large and we need to look into downsizing.
With Tracey’s gluten allergy, we really we to be self sufficient about food, which means we need to bring more of our own, which means we need to downsize other things, like the tent and chairs.
Bug dope and sunscreen are very good things to have. We are very light skinned folks and overheating can quickly become a real showstopper.
Single use cold packs absolutely rock for when you do overheat and you have precious little other ways to cool off.
Our air mattress seems to have developed a leak that I need to track down. I’d fill it and I’d wake up on the ground with everyone piled on top of me since I became the lowest point on the air mattress.
I made a small Apache throwing star for Hannah. She’s not quite six and I let her only do a little knife work at any given time. A simple project to have fun with while making and she had fun with it afterwards.
Atlatls – frustrating, but so much fun.
Blowing a fire back from coals is easier than you think (so long as you have the right material to take the baby flame) and can make for some fun “Wow” moments with the kids.
We brought comms gear, so naturally, we didn’t need it. I like that.
Try not to change the kids’ clothes too often. There is this magical thing called dirt. It’s clean. Sort of.
It’s nice to have some music around the campfire that doesn’t come from a plastic box.
Allergies are horrible. I need to find some allergy meds that won’t knock me out, pronto – and that’s tough.
We need more time to be with everyone, especially as these get togethers get larger.
There will probably be more lessons to be learned as we wind down and sort out everything.
We arrived at ground zero around lunch time on Friday and were greeted by the sight of some old friends, Marty and Aggie (can’t forget Shadow and Nellie), akabu, and Joezilla. There were some new friends there as well, Csimms, Jilly, Ashley, John, Greywolf, and Muddypete. After some pleasentries, we got down to the serious business of gear schlepping. Down darn hill, to the lower camp where the communal meals would be had, and dang hill to the upper camping area. Setup was completed fairly quickly. As a note, my family currently uses a Eureka Headquarters tent with a queen size air mattress and a 5 gallon bucket/wag bag setup for nighttime ablutions (the missus is down to one kidney and it’s her sisters’
. That Eureka is a big tent, a lot to haul, and a lot of extra room to spread everything out in. While we sat and stretched the truth around the world, there was this swallowtail butterfly that wouldn’t leave Ground Zero alone. Figure it was his shirt and he looked like some giant flower. Hannah came over and wouldn’t you know it, that butterfly seemed to think she was some sort of flower too. With our bleesing, Hannah went of with Joezilla on a little walk around and came back with a couple of interesting souvenirs. One was an inch worm in a vile with some leaves and the other was a chewed up deer leg. She was most impressed with herself. Thanks Joe, for keeping an eye on her, I really do appreciate that. Most of the group arrived before 4 pm, with a couple stragglers; in the end we had about 27 folks there.Friday night was spaghetti night and it was something – the sauce had all sorts of meat thrown in. I made some separate spaghetti for Tracey (she has a wheat gluten allergy and needs gluten free foodstuffs), but she only had a little; she felt pretty poorly the whole weekend, unfortunately. Looking back on it, we figure she got a hold of some food that claimed to be gluten free, but was likely contaminated at the factory. While the group spaghetti was being worked on, several of us worked up our frustrations with a compound bow brought by Jeepers and Ground Zero’s atlatl. That atlatl is frustrating and highly addicting. Not much else can be said about it, perhaps other than “It was balsamic!” After dinner was the usual fireside chat; Brian Jones wandered by, but couldn’t stay the night. He’d be back the next day.
The nights’ weather was about perfect for sleeping. High 50s with a light breeze. Just the sort of night to get comfy and drape the sleeping bag over oneself. The nights’ serenade by the neighbors’ coon hound, left something to be desired – I know, it lacked a chorus. And verses. And a pleasant sound. But they were the ones that provided us with farm fresh eggs, so we can overlook some things.
Saturday morning brought with it breakfast. Hmmm, those farm fresh eggs with a little onion diced in sure hit the spot. The only downside was that we cooked up the breakfast at the lower camp area while most folks stayed in the upper camp area. Marty planned on a plant walk that, as a result, the folks below at breakfast missed part of. Not to worry though, as the walk went right by and they were all able to join up. That left Tracey, Hannah, Cameron, and myself. Tracey really wanted to go on that walk, but she just wasn’t up to it, instead she went up to rest. That left me and the kids. So just how do you entertain a couple kids in the woods? They had a lot fun looking for critters and rocks up and down the stream; when that ran its course, we went up to the camp area where they played hide and seek awhile (with very clear rules laid out); when that ran its course, what’s left? Ah, fire. Roast some marshmallows, play with some sticks, and release the spirits to the winds.
The folks from the plant walk wandered back in, looking rather dazed. I’d say that’s another fine job done by Marty. His walks are always packed with a lot of information and it quickly leads to overload. Nothing to be done except to go on more and take lots of notes. Our hostess wanted to take anyone interested up to Bears’ Den for a look at the whole valley, Hannah was quite keen on this idea and thought it’d be swell to take her Camelback Mini MULE for a hike. We rounded up Ground Zrro, his daughter, Muddypete, Camm, and John and off we went. Hannah was exhausted at the outset, but pushed on. A good thing she’s persistent, too, she stumbled a bit on the rocks and roots – trying to get her hiking legs in order. Her feet are a story themselves; not toughened too much so lots of breaks were made to rest. This set a right leisurely pace and allowed the boys a chance to go ahead and climb all over the rocks. We did our own climbing around a bit and even tried denting a couple rocks by bashing faces into them; just a little scrape and bruise was the result of that tangle. A mile out and a mile back on the Appalachian Trail and the blue blazed side trail, the view was spectacular and well worth it.
Back at camp dinner was being readied. Chile con the kitchen sink and ribs with leftover salad and corn bread and muffins. Anyone that goes hungry here does it to themselves. Some changing weather pushed in, with more wind and a spot of rain. Not too bad, just enough to make you think about where you stashed your rain gear and if you remembered to close up the tent. After dinner, we figured we’d best get a group picture in before anyone had to leave, so that fiasco was set about and we got a couple good laughs out of that. The host and hostess joined in on some guitar, song, and harmonica, afterward. Some sweat sounds that were just right around the campfire. The cooler weather made for some sound sleeping, that and the coon hound kept quiet.
Sunday morning came much too early. Up and out. Break down the tent, clean up the area, and break up the schlep to the cars with some breakfast. Out of there around 1 pm. We all had the best time we could; it was a real shame that Tracey felt so bad and it was a real pain with my allergies being the worst they’ve been all year. Hannah had a blast, though, so that makes up for it. I know that when Tracey was up and about, she had a grand time talking with Csimms, Jilly, Joe, and Ashley (the rest were great too!). My legs are still not talking to me, for all the abuse I put them through. Next adventure will be in Chateaugay, NY at PEACE.
Lessons Learned.
The tent we use, while nice, is too large and we need to look into downsizing.
With Tracey’s gluten allergy, we really we to be self sufficient about food, which means we need to bring more of our own, which means we need to downsize other things, like the tent and chairs.
Bug dope and sunscreen are very good things to have. We are very light skinned folks and overheating can quickly become a real showstopper.
Single use cold packs absolutely rock for when you do overheat and you have precious little other ways to cool off.
Our air mattress seems to have developed a leak that I need to track down. I’d fill it and I’d wake up on the ground with everyone piled on top of me since I became the lowest point on the air mattress.
I made a small Apache throwing star for Hannah. She’s not quite six and I let her only do a little knife work at any given time. A simple project to have fun with while making and she had fun with it afterwards.
Atlatls – frustrating, but so much fun.
Blowing a fire back from coals is easier than you think (so long as you have the right material to take the baby flame) and can make for some fun “Wow” moments with the kids.
We brought comms gear, so naturally, we didn’t need it. I like that.
Try not to change the kids’ clothes too often. There is this magical thing called dirt. It’s clean. Sort of.
It’s nice to have some music around the campfire that doesn’t come from a plastic box.
Allergies are horrible. I need to find some allergy meds that won’t knock me out, pronto – and that’s tough.
We need more time to be with everyone, especially as these get togethers get larger.
There will probably be more lessons to be learned as we wind down and sort out everything.
