Creating a new thread per Ken Thompson, so there won't be any confusion between his GGG #7 and this separate event:
From the comments above it seems a good time was had by all. I certainly enjoyed seeing old friends and making new ones; hope to do even more of the same next year. Especially enjoyed the families introducing their children to the SUL experience (car camping is a gentle introduction, where they see the SUL gear but still have most of the comforts of home).
Hikin' Jim Barbour arrived first around 2:30 pm on Thursday, which gave him plenty of time to scavenge a nice pile of left-over firewood from other sites by the time I arrived about 7 pm. We totally geeked on stoves the next day from the time we got up in the morning until about 3:30 pm – time flies when you're having fun! No fireballs this year, though we did get a dramatic (and wet) demonstration of poor-fitting stove lids.
Saturday's events were well-attended, and a number of local BPL'ers who weren't camping dropped by for the afternoon to see the gear show/swap. In addition we had a good number of people who just happened to be staying at the same park or stopping in for a picnic, who came over to see what was going on and ended up being amazed at some of the SUL equipment they never knew existed.
I was particularly interested in Stephan Catalan's 2-stake, 3-pole winter tunnel tent made from two Big Agnes Emerald Mountain vestibules sewn together. It's still a work in progress, and I'd love to see him finish it. He also brought the smallest cannister stove any of us had ever seen, a 25-gram model made by ??? An unofficial craftsmanship award goes out to "Doc" Les Waddel for his MYOG cuben backpack and beautiful hand-made and sweet sounding SUL carbon-fiber bodied ukeleles. Amazing work.
The annual wood stove burn-off was revived, with the winner's laurels going to first-time attendee Allen Robinson and his $13 steel folding stove. I started slow but thought I might have a chance of catching him until Tony's water spilled on my fire. Hikin' Jim would have done better too, but accidentally snuffed his fire with his pot before realizing he had forgotten to put the stakes in his Caldera Ti-Tri Inferno. Next year…
The first annual alcohol stove burn-offs went well too. The speed contest had four entries, including a brass Trangia and titanium Evernew from Allen Robinson, a homebuilt rig from "Doc" Les Waddel, and my own GOLD Gear rig, which won with a time of 5:46 min. to boil 500 ml starting with 20 ml of Klean Strip denatured alcohol. Hikin' Jim won the efficiency contest by default as the only entry. He couldn't quite get a boil with 15 ml of alcohol in Sgt. Rock Ion stove with a Flat Cat windscreen, although I watched him do a successful test run the night before.
I brought plenty of freezer bag meals, but Hikin' Jim is a gourmet camping cook and I benefited from sharing a camp site with him, so I ended up bringing most of them home. I particularly enjoyed his chicken Masala on Saturday evening, as did everyone else who got to try it.
The rangers were friendly and accommodating, and let us stay in the day-use picnic area until 7:30 pm so we could enjoy a group dinner, even though that area usually closes at sundown.
Dave Thomas managed to get there Saturday night, just when we were starting to think we might miss him. Great to finally meet, and enjoyed receiving two of the many XUL saws he made from band-saw and sawzall blades with plasti-dip handles that he passed out to whoever wanted them.
Below are some of the few pictures I managed to take, and some contributed by Doc Waddel. Hope others will contribute theirs too.
Driving north over the Golden Gate Bridge on the way to the event:
Hikin' Jim talking stoves with Jerome:
Friday night dinner at Site #56 with Mike Hill, Rebecca, Hikin' Jim, me and Tony's friend Sopria:
Saturday afternoon gear show/swap. The first picture shows one of Doc Waddel's UL ukeleles on the table, next to some of the cork running sandals he also makes:
More gear/show swap, mostly of my stuff:
Preparing for the wood stove burn-off:
Wood stove burn-off:
Me weighing 15.78 grams (20.00 ml) of alcohol for each of the contestants in the alcohol stove speed burn-off:
Alcohol stove speed burn-off:
Anyone else have more photos to share?
Also, I wanted to mention Greenbelly Meal Bars. Greenbelly Meal Bars are made by Chris Cage as a solution for complete, balanced and healthful nutrition when backpacking or traveling in third world countries. Each package contains two bars made with natural ingredients and which together meet approximately 1/3 of daily nutritional needs for protein, calories, carbohydrates, fiber, fats & sodium. Delicious and hearty!
Not only that, but Greenbelly's company slogan is "Buy a Meal. Give a Meal." and its stated mission is to fight hunger in children living in the Atlanta, GA area:
"1 in 6 Americans are food insecure. 1 in 5 Georgians are food insecure. And yet, even worse, more than 1 in 4 Georgian children are food insecure. The USDA defines food insecurity as the lack of access to adequate food resulting from the lack of money and other resources. That means that 28.1% of children in Georgia are in households that cannot afford to feed them adequately. Greenbelly is proud to partner up with the Atlanta Community Food Bank to help reduce these high numbers. For every meal bar you buy, we will give a meal to someone in need. Help us help those in need."
A great product and a great company. Unfortunately, in the hubbub of getting the picnic area ready for the group gear show/swap the box of samples that Chris sent me somehow got misplaced and I couldn't find it until cleaning up after dinner at the end of the event, so I didn't get to share the samples with others. Kind of a "Doh!" Homer Simpson moment on my part, which I regret.
I hope people will give Greenbelly and Chris the business they deserve for a great product: http://www.greenbellybar.com
Cranberry Almond and Peanut Apricot bars:
Chris also sent some Chocolate Banana bars, but I gave that package to Hikin' Jim and don't have a picture.
