I knew we'd be bringing a lot of stuff, which helped me make the decision to just bring the hammock, as I was going to try and sleep in it and knew we could use it to sit while hanging out. With no tent, and no camping chair I was already saving space, which when looking at the truck after it was loaded was a good thing. Not that my couple pounds was going to make much difference.
With 4 bikes, 4 people, 1 dog and camping gear for 8, we grabbed some breakfast at the local bagel hut (more on that later) and headed out to meet the other 4 in our group. They also had a fair amount of stuff, most of it being food and beverages of the car camping variety: wine, and spirits.
As we got to the site we were planning on using, we realized someone was already there, but luckily the next one was open and it was actually bigger and more suited for 8 anyway. I promptly set up the hammock as the others unloaded and prepared lunch. Lunch was a variety of cheeses and lunch meats with olives and a tomato relish on a baguette (more on that later too). Delicious! Half of us came to ride Braily's Pond trail so we changed and got the bikes ready to roll and were dropped off at the head of the trail. The others got their jackets and hung out around Braily's Pond at the end of the ride.
The ride was great with a variety of ups and downs, rock gardens and even a shoes-and-socks-off-carry-your-bike-through-stream crossing and awesome blazing fast tree weaving descent to the bottom. We then made our way back to the camp site to change and get more food. With the fire going and jackets on, the mid 50's cloudy weather wasn't so bad.
Until it started to rain. Thinking I could save the hammock enjoyment, I brought my tent's rain fly and attempted to rig it up over the hammock. But a tent fly is meant to fit over a tent and let the rain run down the sides and not be a tarp, so as it sagged in places and collected rain water, it did not shed, but dripped through, making utterly useless. Luckily Kirk and brought a big 12x12 real tarp which we set up over a common area we could all huddle under and eat snacks.
At one point a couple people thought they'd brave the hammock and insufficient cover, but unfortunately, the hammock decided it didn't like the conditions it was being subjected to and committed harry carry. Split wide open. There went their sitting, and even more unfortunate, my sleeping, but as it was raining, I wasn't sure about where I was going to sleep anymore anyway.
The fire we had was big and established enough to endure the rain and we eventually were able to cook dinner which consisted of rib-eye steak tacos, veggies, guacamole and chips. During this process, dessert was also being made in the Dutch oven. Fresh baked dessert, you say? Yes, we do car camping right! Super simple and oh so tasty. 1 can chopped pineapple, 1 can cherries, 1 box of yellow cake mix, and a stick of butter. The fruits go on the bottom, then the dry cake mix and then butter on top. Put the lid on and let it sit over some coals for about an hour. Dessert doesn't get any better than that. Well, maybe if the icecream had survived the trip in the cooler, but no such luck. We just had the cobbler and hot cocoa with Rumple Mintz, which Lisa will tell you is "SOOOOOOO good"!
The rain finally tapered off as we were getting ready to turn in for the night. Since someone else brought a hammock for hanging out, they let me use their hammock for sleeping since they were sleeping in a tent. As I tried to fall asleep in the hammock by the fire, my stomach began protesting, but being in a sleeping bag, in a hammock, I put it off know it'd be hard to get out of my set up. I feel asleep, but a couple hours later my stomach couldn't wait any longer and forced me to get up. This is where the bagel and baguette came back to haunt me.
Gluten is no longer my friend. I'd been off the stuff for about 3 weeks and feeling great. Caving to social pressure and pure convenience, I ate the bagel, the sandwich and the cake. This sent me into the woods at 2am, and I'll let you use your imagination from here on out. After that, I was okay and slept through the night minus, the random times water drops from the trees I was under would smack me in the face.
Breakfast went much more smoothly for me. Someone had forgotten the frying pan, but we made do with the dutch oven again. Two packages of bacon, some chicken apple sausagues, and a dozen eggs make for some good eatn'. As we packed up and left around 10am, the sun finally decided to make an appearance, which was nice after the all clouds and rain from the night before.
Another good weekend. Full of food, riding and a couple lessons learned. 1. Hammocks can break. 2. When it's your boss's hammock, replacement should be swift, and very swift it was and much appreciated. 3. No more gluten. 4. Keep toilet paper handy. :-)
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