2025 GGG?

Jeez, wait till you folks find out what GGG means on the sex/relationship advice column/podcast Savage Love!

I’ve been to BPL GGGs at the Grand Canyon (okay, that was more of a R2R2R death march/run), 3 at Henry Coe, one at Samuel P Taylor SP, and several of us convened in the Aleutian Islands to harass caribou on Adak.   It’s nice to see folks I’ve known online for 15, going on 20 years now.  Yeah, there was some weather during that last one at Henry Coe, but still a good time.  And all the others have been quite benign.

I’d be game for most anywhere in North America and 2025 will be more flexible scheduling for me.  There are some seasonal synergies – low desert in winter, not summer; need the snow to melt for the high mountains, etc.

DaveG did a lot of the logistical stuff recently but he’s moved from the North Bay now.

“Lassen would need to be snow free’ish, which moves our GGG …into later spring. so probably not a fantastic, but modestly passable idea.”

Modestly passable??? thanks, I guess, for this shrug of indifference. At least it was a modest shrug. I did mention that Lassen tends to open late spring due to snow. and I was responding to katt’s notion of finding a spot further north to make Wa. and Or. members more likely to participate. But who knows how this year will turn out, snow wise? In any case, let’s not discourage folks from tossing out ideas in order to see what sticks.

RE: Savage love: GGG means, “good God I’m gregarious!”?

I want to know what GGG means : )

That intimate partners should “Good, Giving and Game”.  I’ll let you Google the more detailed explanation.

I learn all the important cultural things on BPL :)

I looked it up; nothing wrong with that ha ha.

Having the get together reasonably close to a major airport makes a lot of sense since we hope to get folks from a distance away to come. For me central/northern Cali or Oregon are better options than Southern California.

Sounds like a private club.

^^^ anyone is welcome though :)

You mentioned Pinnacles Terran Terran; that looks like a viable option actually. I offer to pickup at airports..

what is the thinking ?

A few comments that hopefully won’t offend anyone. The GGG started somewhere around 2008. It was a bunch of backpackers, most of whom were on BPL, who lived in the NoCal/Bay Area of California. So it really wasn’t a BPL function, but a NoCal/Bay Area get together.

I have been to four NoCal GGGs and three SoCal GGGs. These were separate events. When the SoCal events were held, there was also a NoCal event held the same year. No coordination between the two events. To my knowledge the ownership of BPL has never participated or sanctioned or even attended any of these events — I could be wrong.

The NoCal/Bay Area GGGs have a different “vibe.” They tend to be larger and more diverse in regard to gender, ethnicity, age, experience/knowledge, education levels, etc. For me they are just more fun. I have built many friendships with several of the NoCal/Bay Area attendees — done several backpacking trips not related to GGG and have stayed at the homes of some of these fine folks, and several have spent time at our house here in Palm Springs. Never got that sense of community at the SoCal events — although the SoCal events were a lot of fun too.

It also seems to be easier to find a NoCal location for the GGG that is easily accessible for those who live in the area, versus the high density population in the south.

One thing to keep in mind is these GGGs need planning. They need someone to organize it and deal with all the little things most of us don’t think about. It takes considerable time to put one together.

If there is a GGG in NoCal this year, I will probably attend. I would attend a second one in SoCal if someone is willing to put it together. I live less than 30 minutes from the proposed Whitewater Preserve, and less than an hour from all the entrances to Joshua Tree National Park. Logistically (planning) they may not be the best choices.

Oh, and thanks to Katt and Peter V for input on this thread. They’re two of my favorite hiking partners that always make the GGCs fun, not to mention the numerous other backpacking trips we have done.

yeah, well said

“I have built many friendships with several of the NoCal/Bay Area attendees”

same here

so far I haven’t synced with Nick though

I was going to suggest Blythe. It’s warm anyway.

My thinking was that it was a bay area activity with old friends getting together. There’s nothing wrong with that. I’d just keep it up there. Springtime should be nice, if not foggy. I think the hardest part would be getting reservations at a state or national park. I mention Whitewater because you can hike out a short ways and camp and it would be perhaps warmer  Better logistically for southern California though. And Arizona.

I hadn’t mentioned Pinnacles. I brought up a trail camp just north of Big Sur Village. Probably a logistical nightmare though.

Creamery Meadow Trailhead

I’ve met some future hiking / hunting buddies on the BPL forums themselves, and done trail angel stuff like dropping people at trailheads (one north of the Arctic Circle) or loaned out bear spray that you can’t fly with numerous times.  Others have made generous offers of fuel or couch surfing when I’m traveling south.

An aside: there are likely more synergies possible in the trail angel stuff.  Someone was posting about a GCNP BPing trip from an obscure trailhead and I realized I’d be there on the South Rim with my kids at the same time, so I used my rental car to drop his party right at their trailhead.  When I’ve done that, including Manfred & Sons to the Brooks Range, I hike along for an hour or a day and it’s been nice beta about a possible future trip for me.

I’ve also gotten to know some folks better at GGGs and that’s also led to some trips together.  It was actually a GGG sex-advice-column reference that started a convo between DavidG and myself at a GGG at Henry Coe, I learned he was going through some transitions in life, and flew him out to the Aleutian Islands for week on my frequent flier miles.  I even flew him back.

I really liked Katt’s slide show from her trail cam.  And being inside of other people’s tent with and without wood stoves really help me imagine how they’d serve on my own trips.

Yes, cannabis is legal in California now, but Jeez! if you’re smoking ANYTHING, stay downwind of everyone else around the campfire.  It smells like smoldering toenail clippings.

Not legal in the state parks, certainly not legal in the national parks.

Ok then; thanks to someone else’s work ( active on this thread) we have found the time and place for the next ggg.
March 13-15 at Whitlock Campground in the Mendocino National Forest, east of Paskenta.
It’s a small, fairly remote campground but the FS contact said we are welcome to pack in whatever number of people as long as we clean up after ourselves.
https://www.google.com/maps/@39.9178501,-122.6775779,770m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI0MTIxMS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

So far we have:

Ken T. Jerry Adams, Nick Gatel, Peter Vacco and a maybe/likely for Idester and Debbie.

Ooops, March 14-16. Friday through Sunday, not Thursday through Saturday.

Hi Guys,
It would be great to see everyone. Please put me on the maybe/likely list.
Cheers

<p style=”text-align: left;”>Oooh! I’ve been wanting to go to one of these! If it is in SoCal or maybe the central coast I would be interested, NorCal is too far for a weekend gathering for me.</p>

I’d love to join the fun. I’m not active on the forum but I went last year (about my third time) and enjoyed the conversations in the hot tent while it rained outside. I’m in Berkeley so Mendocino is fine with me!

I’ll put out additional info soon

so, you probably don’t carry near enough, and that’s a problem, because it limits how far you can go.  and NoBody wants to limited by not going far enough. to help the cause, our friends Nick and Peter, both known for occasionally going “plenty far enough .. for sure”, plan on bringing our collections of McHale packs, so parties interested in expanding their .. range of activities, let’s say, can try out how real weight carries, and perhaps find that it’s not quite so bad as imagined. we will have plenty of weighted test bags (it’s just cat food) for your toting enjoyment. you can try out the renowned McHale CM series pack and experience it’s abilities. perhaps a .. “you will carry more weight, and you will like it.” experience.

if it wasn’t so early before dawn, and on a Sunday, I might phrase it as “ohh come on … nobody will know, and it won’t hurt That bad ..”

we will also have a rare and strange Aarn Pack, which is a fantastic development along an alternate vector of design. Aarn’s are different, and they are indeed a viable way to go. this thing has front bags as well, which help with one’s tendency to tilt forward as off-center loads are increased.

we have only seven weeks left to prepare for this. so, stop mucking about, and get on with it.

cheers,

v.

“we have only seven weeks left to prepare for this. so, stop mucking about, and get on with it.”

ok yes yes this is happening. We have someone that will go check out the area today I believe and then we’ll start a new thread with dates in the heading so it’s obvious when and where this is happening!
Thanks for the help Peter and others; we already have a solid group coming and hope others will join.
I will be bringing my Seek Outside Redcliff ( this time seam  sealed) with the stove and enough wood to keep it going for a couple of days. This can be one of the hangouts should it get wet or cold. If anyone wants to bring a larger tarp for folks to hang out under that would be welcome!
We have a couple people willing to do airport pickups , Sacramento being the closest large airport.

Thanks for organizing! I will try to make it. Returning home from backpacking on the Te Araroa in New Zealand on March 10 I will just leave my backpack packed and drive north to this year’s GGG.

Manfred— it’ll be fun to hear your stories from down under!