2025 Fall Camp Out

[Farside]

 After the disappointing turn out this spring I was wondering if there was still any interest.  SOOO! Mark your calendars, and post if you plan on showing up to camp or just a day trip.

Looking forward to seeing everyone! Bring a friend or two.

The 2025 Annual Fall Camp out  October 3 - October 5 at  Cedar Creek WMA. If you can't camp with us, come down for the day trip. Most planned activities will be concentrated on Saturday.

Cedar Creek is located south of Monticello on GA Hwy 212. Our camp site is across from the Check Station (N 30* 13' 45.1 W 83* 31' 36.1) on Checking Station Road. If Googling, google Cedar Creek Check Station or you might get directions to the range which is a different road off 212.

The campground is on the opposite side of the gravel road from the Checking Station on the map, and just a hair BEFORE it. The path into the woods is subtle and some would say hard to see, but accommodates the largest of RVs. If you drive fully up TO the Checking Station, you've gone too far.
 
As most of you know we finance SEPN domain. website, and activity from the auction at the camp outs. Because of the low turn out we did not have one this spring. God willing, we will this fall, so start picking out your auction item for donations! The Saturday evening donation auction is a highlight of the event and our only source of income, and everything goes back in to SEPN 100%. In the past we were able to subsidize the Christmas party for all attendees. I'd like to see us doing more activity in the future.

No camping fee: SEPN is picking up the bill for Port-A-Potties this year. No GORP/WMA pass is required at this site

Activities: No classes or formal events planned yet. Hopefully that will change before the event. If you have an idea, let us know.

[nj_m715]

I plan to camp one night

[Searchboss]

I plan to be there! There will probably be four of us.

I have also heard that VooDooMD is planning on being there (he still cannot sign in the the SEPN website).

Plus, there should be one or two more from down our way as well.

[RWS]

My camper is still not operational.  All my money is going into the BOL.  I also have a conflict for that weekend, so don't look for me.

[Searchboss]

RWS, I sure understand your desire to get your BOL finished and working to your satisfaction. I always look forward to your posts and pictures! We will miss you at the 2025 Fall Campout for sure! Be forewarned that we will probably talk about you in your absence. It looks like we will have seven people coming from the Middle Ga area at last count. I hope that some of the old timers will be attending as well. It would be great to catch up with them. Hopefully, we can visit with you, RWS, at some point. Timing is everything, as they say... See you next time. 

[Searchboss]

I thought I would share another “experience” that I had while preparing for the Fall Campout.

Yesterday, as planned, my son brought his tent over and we put up both his and mine in the back yard to inspect them and spray on a layer of waterproofing as a precaution before the upcoming Fall Campout. My six-person tent is a large tent that I bought online for car camping because of its size and low price. (Thank you Lilburner!) Fortunately, both tents looked good, despite mine being about 4-5 years old and having been used dozens of times. Then it happened. While we were waiting for the waterproofing spray to dry, one of the fiberglass tent poles suddenly broke! It was a clear day with almost no wind. The fiberglass pole sheared off just below one of the metal joints, apparently from fatigue.

This was fortuitous because we were still at home, not camping somewhere. So my son went to Academy to pick up some items he needed and to look for a repair kit, and I went online to the Coleman website looking for a replacement. As usual, Coleman lists several pole replacement kits, but none of them are currently available. Sadly, I had a similar experience when I was looking for replacement parts to repair my Coleman gas stove last year. Amazon returned a similar result.

Fortunately, when my son came back, he had a $12 Coghlan’s tent pole kit with him that was the same size as my tent poles! It was the only one they had in stock. That was amazing considering I found online that there are over half a dozen different sizes of these tent poles made. So all we had to do to replace the broken pole was untie the elastic string inside the poles, cut the new pole to the correct length, restring the elastic, and it was ready to go again. I sure am glad we decided to check out our gear at home before the campout! This would have been a real headache if it had happened while we were out camping.

When I took the tent down, I did a closer inspection of all of the tent pole sections and found another one that looks like it may break at some point, but it is not bad enough to replace immediately. Since the Coghlan’s pole kit had three replacement poles, I cut one extra pole to length, labeled it as a spare, and put it into the pole bag to have on hand if another pole breaks on a campout. It will make repairs go much more quickly if necessary.

While I go camping because I enjoy it, using the equipment also ensures that I have everything I need, in working order, should it be needed for an emergency. By getting everything out and using it a few times a year, I ensure that I have what I might need and that I know how to use it should the need arise.

Keep Prepping!

[Searchboss]

At this point, it looks like we may have eight campers from the Middle Ga area in five campsites. We have a meeting on the 27th where we will discuss the final count and encourage day-trippers. As always, we probably won't know who is coming until we see them in person at Cedar Creek, but the response has been encouraging. Hopefully, Farside will be able to contact some of the folks who have been regulars at previous campouts like: Lilburner, stvr, BennyMG1, bountyhunter, & Surveyor1, etc. It would be great to catch up with them at the campout if they could come.

We have been working on having some informal events on Saturday, but we will not finalize these until the 27th, so I don't want to make any promises just yet. If they work out, we may have a few demonstrations and presentations this year just to make things more interesting.

[nj_m715]

looks like good weather

[Searchboss]

We had our monthly Middle Georgia prepper meeting yesterday. It was a great gathering of like-minded people. The attendance fluctuates from month to month, but we usually have around 20 people at each meeting. Yesterday's presentation was about reloading ammunition.

I made another announcement about the campout. Unfortunately, no new campers are coming, and the person that tentatively agreed to do a cast iron cooking presentation told me that he will not be able to come due to family issues. Other than that, everyone who planned on camping with us are excited and looking forward to it.

There may be some day trippers, but no one would commit, so as always, we will find out if and when they arrive at the campsite.

I was pleasantly surprised that two people specifically asked me if RWS was going to be at this campout as they wanted to meet him again. Sadly, I had to tell them no since he already told me that he will be working on his new BOL that weekend. He will be missed!

nj_m715 posted about the weather, which looks great at this point. I hope that forecast remains. There is a tropical cyclone out in the Atlantic that is forecast to turn to the west and not make landfall in the US at this point. Hopefully, it will be far enough away from us not to make changes to the forecast.

I am looking forward to seeing everyone again. See you out there!

[Ravenwood1950]

Dear Friends,
I wish I had the energy to make the day trip with Farside, but my thoughts will certainly be with you all.
Looks like super weather for a campout, enjoy!
Ravenwood

[Farside]

Port-a potty guy just called and said there Boy Scout on site.

[nj_m715]

I'll be there in the morning. I'll walk around in my robe drinking beer until they pack up and leave.

[Searchboss]

Another great Campout! The weather was quite comfortable. There were a total of five campers in four campsites. What was different this year was that two groups of campers were in the camping area when we arrived. It seems there was a group of older scouts in one area and another group of Filipino hunters in another, close to us. Both groups eventually left Saturday evening, so we again had the place to ourselves. It was fun to watch the scouts packing up in the dark. It was a classical Chinese fire drill. All the flashlights moving around in the dark made quite a light show! Now I wonder why they waited until just after dark to break camp and leave, but I suspect I will never know.

One of the first people I saw once we got our camp set up was nj_m715! He day tripped in on both Friday and Saturday while visiting with family nearby. On Saturday afternoon, he did a show and tell about drones and how to fly them legally. Several people asked about his truck, which he has heavily modified for camping, etc. Unfortunately, he did not drive it to the campout this time, so maybe he will bring it to do a show and tell at a future campout.

Lilburner showed up Friday afternoon, too! I have not heard from or about him in ages! He is looking good and on his way to good health. It was great to chat with him and hear about all the projects he has been working on or has planned. He day-tripped on both Friday and Saturday as well. Stvr drove in pulling his travel trailer Friday afternoon, found a spot near us, and camped with us all weekend! He missed the last campout, so it was great to see him again a well.

We had a new young camper join us this time who had a unique camping arrangement. He strung a hammock up in the back of his “work” truck and spread a canvas cover over the top. His truck has storage boxes mounted all around the bed. I have to say that all the mounted storage box lids that folded down like shelves when he opened them made excellent work and cooking tables when he needed them. The extra storage space was awesome as well. I learned that he can cook. Not instant foods but real meals from scratch! Like all of us when doing something for the first time, he found several things that he wants to change and improve on before the next campout. I have to say that I was quite impressed with his inventive approach. I am looking forward to seeing what he does the next time.

We had a few other day-trippers as well. VoodooMD and his wife showed up on Saturday and set up a table for a show and tell about all his medical equipment and documentation. I had prepared a couple of short options for fun and training, but folks were more interested in chatting and catching up with each other, so we did not do these. It was great to see everyone socializing with one another. As I have said before, the best part of the campouts, at least for me, is the camaraderie. It was quite enjoyable to have everyone just gather together and talk each evening.

As usual, the auction was a success and a fun event. Several people went home with new toys that they did not know they needed before the auction.

All the feedback I got from everyone at the campout was that it was a resounding success. I don’t know what the secret is to increasing participation, but for everyone who did camp, they only had good things to say.

[Zach5849]

New guy here! (Zach)

It was very enjoyable meeting everyone from SEPN and I look forward to the next campout.

Here's some photographs of my setup for anyone that's interested: https://nextcloud.ao2001.com/s/jbWMNiiGbRPpMHN