It was a great event. Learned several things about my gear and about myself. The people were great. It was nice to meet (well, I will not use names for opsec reasons) a prepper's wife and daughter. That little girl was a real delight. And got to spend some time with another of the newer members of the group and found him to be an excellent addition to the group.
I was proud as punch for another prepper that problems similar to mine that came through with shining colors. Put me to shame.
The new game cart worked even better than expected. At least, once my compatriots adjusted the weight distribution for me.
Also did an experiment with my water bottle cup stove. I have been using the new military style gel fuel with it, and a single packet was just barely getting the water to a tiny bubble state, but not quite boiling in cold, windy, higher altitude situations. Since the stove is set up to take a variety of fuel, I took along a few small sticks of tinder size wood. I only needed one piece of it, and had some left over, after splitting it down smaller, and feeding it into the stove with the burning gel fuel. Worked like a charm. Got the 12 ounces of water to boiling in a reasonable time, using only part of that piece of tinder.
I also learned that I do not need to worry about others having what they need for these trips. I took quite a bit of extra gear, just in case someone had not planned for something. It has not been needed on any of the trips. I will stop hauling around specialty gear for others and lighten my load a bit. It was kind of presumptuous of me to think I needed to, anyway. Sorry about that.
Also realized, the hard way, that planning and packing while tired and not feeling well leads to major mistakes. Case in point. Since I do not keep the game cart loaded as there is not enough room in the apartment for it, I load it up for each event. Well, my preliminary planning was to take a single 4-liter water bag in addition to my standard water bottles, since there was wild water available along most of the route and near the site. Being tired and not feeling well when I packed the night before the trip, instead of the 4-liter bag at about 8 pounds I packed two 10-liter water bags instead. About 40 pounds. So the game cart was carrying 32 pounds I did not need. Add the other 15-pounds or so of extra, unneeded gear for others, and I could have shaved almost 50 pounds off the total load. Learning experience!
And I want to thank everyone that lent a hand when I needed one. And that was everyone, and quite often. Especially my buddy for the ride and help, and the Leader for keeping an eye on my health during the event.
And a couple of others that I think know who they are, for also keeping an eye on me.
All in all, an amazing experience. I highly recommend that members take advantage of these events when possible. I come away from every one of them feeling like I have improved my prepping capabilities, and learn something important every time.
Just my opinion.
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