Second Annual Indiana(with honorable mention to all other states and Canada) Jamboree

[equus]

Mel and I and the boys will be there as long as we have the finances.

[kyratshooter]

I'm in, unless I get an offer I can't refuse.

Could someone E-mail everyone in case this thread does not get bumped or noticed.

[crashdive123]

Here's the list of people that say that they are definitly going. Once the plans are finalized, I'll PM everybody that said they are going.

Huntermj
Pgvoutdoors
Kyratshooter
Equus/Poco
Rick
Crash

[Winnie]

I'll be there in spirit(again)

[equus]

So have we decided where to have it

[crashdive123]

So have we decided where to have it

Not yet. Rick and Mrs. Rick are exploring some options this weekend.

[Rick]

I'll post results next Wednesday, 8-11

[roar-k]

I will be doing Honey Creek loop this weekend in BSF if you are around that area.

[Rick]

We won't get into BSF until Sunday evening some time. We'll be at Green River Lake in Kentucky on Friday and Saturday. Feel free to do a write up on BSF if you want to. Some of you guys are in there all the time. This will be the first time for me. I just offered the write up as another option for the jamboree.

[hunter63]

So what was the dates? Been decided on?
I would sure like to attend, but end of Oct is pertty much in the hunting seasons.

Sound like a great time.

[crashdive123]

So what was the dates? Been decided on?
I would sure like to attend, but end of Oct is pertty much in the hunting seasons.

Sound like a great time.

22nd - 24th of October.

[huntermj]

Thanks Roar-K and Rick for doing the scouting.

[roar-k]

Alright, I was unable to do the hike like I wanted due to the family deciding to throw me a party for my bday. But I do have some pictures from the same hike that we did in September or last year. I am going to try to post them when I find them.

[roar-k]

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And this tree greeted us on at the beginning:

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[Rick]

Big South Fork turned out to be a pretty impressive place. The water was down in the river so we didn't get to see any class IV-V rapids but it was a nice canoe river. I don't have anything better than Roar-K posted but some different ones. This is the Bandy Creek Campground at Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area in Northeastern Tennessee. It is at the very southern tip of Daniel Boone National Forest.

Here's a view from above:

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And a view from water level. They do raft it when the water is up.

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This is what the primitive campground looks like. It's basically an asphalt pad, a fire ring, a picnic table and if you look closely you can see a lantern hook in the left margin of the pic. The campground is on top of the ridge line.

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The site we stayed in:

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And a shower house! Yeah, sort of a primitive Ritz Charles, I guess but they had a very nice shower house/bathroom and it had a kitchen area outside where you could wash dishes. I assume they don't want dirty dishes sitting around because of Yogi. There are two shower stalls in the men's and two in the women's side (according to my wife). There were two bathroom facilities in Loop A so you weren't very far away from one no matter where you stayed in that loop.

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They have a pool so the kids might be happy. There are bear in the campground so things like trash and coolers are closely watched. They WILL write you a ticket if anything is left unattended. They have bear proof food storage lockers and trash bins throughout the campground.

The only down side to the park is there really isn't a "commons area" like what we had last year. The camping spots are designed to give the camper the most isolation from other campers so there is brush and trees separating the spots. However, we could easily get 3 or 4 that are close together and there is plenty of open fields I'm sure we could use depending on what we wanted to accomplish. I completely missed the group camping area but I sure did look for it. That might be another option that can be explored. Roar-K, if you get back out there you might take some pics of the group camp area and see what you think about that as an option.

The East Entrance is a series of switch backs up the side of the mountain and they are tight turns. 180's. However, the road is good asphalt. The West entrance is all gravel for about three miles, roughly. I didn't measure it but that would be my guess. It's on top of the ridge so it was really pretty flat.

Firewood is available for $10 a stack. A stack is about 1'X1'X4'. yeah, that's what I thought, too. Ice is available for $1.94 a bag. There isn't a general store very close by so you want to make certain you have whatever you want. I'm talking several miles back out of the park and across gravel roads or down the switchback.

Fees for the Bandy Creek Campground are;
Sites with hook-ups (loop B,C,D) $22.00
Sties without hook-ups (loop A) $19.00
Group Campsites (loop E) $75.00 minimum or $3.00/person

We stayed in Loop A.

The campground is first come-first serve from November 1 to March 31. For the April 1 to October 31 season, reservations can be made up to 6 months in advance for regular campsites and up to 1 year in advance for the group campsites.

Here is a link to the campground map:

http://www.nps.gov/biso/planyourvisi...0CG%202009.pdf

I'm not suggesting we stay here, I'm just providing an assessment of what was there.

[rebel]

Thanks Rick. That's a good Recon.

[kyratshooter]

So what is the decision? Where/When? Weather down there is usually good until November 1, then it starts raining like a monsoon.

[crashdive123]

Honestly - I'm up for anyplace in the area. Based strictly on availability, the place that Rick scouted out might be the best option so far. If anybody else that is familiar with the general area, let's hear it. It'll probably be one of the more busy times of the year with the fall leaves and all, so the quicker we decide, the quicker we can make individual reservations.

[Rick]

Okay, time to share THE STORY on this travel. Every time we go somewhere something happens to make it a bit more memorable than it otherwise would have been.

Day 1 - Traveling south a wasp flew in the window and stung my wife twice.
Day 2 - A bird literally shizzed through the open window of the car, striking the back of the seat and sending bird shiz everywhere. I'm not at all certain it wasn't a flying elephant considering the amount of poop I had to clean up.
Day 3 and 4 - Windows rolled up.

[crashdive123]

Hehehe - you said shiz.