GGG?

Matthew,

The G.G.G. stands for Gathering of Gear Geeks, which has been an annual winter gathering of lightweight/ultralight backpackers in the California Bay Area.

This is the 6th year that it is being held.

It is open to anyone….traditional and lightweight backpackers, anyone interested in learning about UL backpacking.

The 1st one was organized by Ken Helwig, a BPL member, and was held at Point Reyes, CA. and had about 15-17 people attend.

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=18317

Successive G.G.G. were co-organized by Ken Helwig and Ken Thompson until we outgrew the group sites there.

At that point, the G.G.G. was moved to Henry Coe State Park in CA/Bay Area, which would allow groups of up to 100 people.

Eventually, Ken Thompson became the sole organizer of the G.G.G with generous help from fellow BPLers who donated water and firewood, which the Rangers at Henry Coe State Park would allow to be trucked into the group sites.

Recently, UL Cottage Gear Manufactures have been coming out to the G.G.G. to enjoy the gathering and to show their products. In fact, last year we have had Ron Moak from Six Moon designs with Brian Frankle, founder of ULA Backpacks, announce a new partnership and showed pro-type product and to get feedback from the UL Community via the GGG attendees.

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=72766

People have traveled from all across California to attend and we have had a handful of people fly in from other States to attend.

What is nice about the G.G.G., in my opinion, is that it is a great way to check out the large variety of UL/Lightweight gear that you typically can only see in photos online. More importantly, it is about people making friends, sharing their love of the outdoors, swapping stories, sharing knowledge, finding people to take backpacking trips with….etc.

It is casual and inclusive- everyone is welcome, no matter if they are new to backpacking or long time travelers.

Within the past two years, there have been other G.G.G.s that have popped up around the U.S./country.

Hope this helps explain what the G.G.G. is.

Tony

It does indeed!

Thanks for the detailed response and the PM.

Might be cool to try to go to next year.

I think Tony meant 'Gathering of Gear Geeks'.

Cheers

@ Roger,

Thanks for catching my mistake….edited my post.

*shaking my head* Embarrassing that I screwed that up.

@ Matthew,

Please feel free to come out next year….sure that you will enjoy yourself.

The 1st GGG was a simple one night event, but with people traveling long distances to attend, it has expanded to three days and two nights, typically Friday to Sunday. The bulk of the people attending Saturday to Sunday. Also, people have come out just for the day as the hike itself is only about 2.3 miles on an easy trail and fire road.

Ken generally will post about the upcoming GGG 4-5 months in advance on the BPL forum.

The cost to attend this year was $15 per person.

The money goes for campsite reservations, covering the cost of supplies that Ken buys for the event such as TP, Glow Sticks, Air Fresheners, Moist Towelettes for the bathroom, water jugs, etc All excess money is donated to Henry Coe State Park, which has a lot of volunteer staff.

http://gggwest.com/

Tony