Reflections on Gauley Fest

The trip was great, don’t get me wrong. There were a few downsides and a few upsides. I’ll reflect on them as well as post a couple pictures at the end.

First off, to learn more about Gauley Fest, check out this post I wrote last week. Now that you are caught up, lets get down to business. The festival was great – everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, enjoy the river, drink lots of booze, and spend lots of money at the marketplace.

Friday
Courtney and I drove down from the Northern Virginia area and took about 5 1/2 hours to get there. We wound up taking some back roads type of way to get there but it was pretty scenic and a nice route. There was one spot in WV where we crossed by the windmills, I wish we stopped to take pictures, but it was just amazing at how big these things were. Instead of having a road that went right by them, the road literally made a giant 20 mile circle around them and you could see them from any angle. Here is a picture from Google of them.

Gas prices reached around $4.15 a gallon for unleaded as we strolled through the country side…when I had just paid $3.44 the night before outside of the BWI Airport. When we did stop to get gas, it was down to about $4.05 and stayed that price pretty much everywhere else that we saw all the way into Summersville, WV. We finally arrived in Summersville at about 6 and checked into our hotel…yes I said hotel. Rather than camp out Friday night, we stayed at the Sleep Inn because Courtney still was not feeling well and did not want to get any worse. After checking in and dropping our stuff at the hotel, we headed out to the Festival grounds to get set up for the rest of the night. We pitched our canopy, set up some tables, and the tent before the both. We wanted to save the space so no one parked right behind our area so that we could get in and out. We ran out to Wal-Mart to grab some beer and a couple other items and it was back to the festival to open up the booth and try to sell some gear! Friday night is usually just a ‘chill’ night around the campground and festival. However, this year they pushed to have the marketplace open and have the vendors set up. I was surprised by the amount of people that were actually making rounds, but it seemed as though most people were doing just that, just walking around. Not many were buying, but just looking. We had a few sales Friday night which was fine. We packed everything up around midnight and headed back to the hotel to crash.
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Welcome back!

Chris 30 September 2008 White Water American Whitewater, Gauley Fest, Pies and Pints, Summersville 1 Comment

Back From Gauley Fest

Just a quick note for now that we made it back from Gauley Fest and had a GREAT time. I’ve got a couple pictures from the festival and will make a longer post later tonight/tomorrow about it!

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I’m also working on getting the fully functional store up and running this week, so look for that to launch soon!!!!!!

Chris 24 September 2008 Updates Gauley Fest No Comments

Gearing up for Gauley Festival This Weekend

One of the largest whitewater focused outdoor events, Gauley Festival, is happening this coming weekend, September 19-21 in Summersville, WV. Gauley Fest is hosted by the American Whitewater .

Gauley Fest just keeps getting bigger and better! Started in 1983 to celebrate the derailment of a hydro-electric project that would have disrupted the flows on the Gauley River

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, Gauley Fest has grown to become the largest river festival in the world.

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The festival is a showcase for American Whitewater and the top whitewater vendors in the boating community, plus it’s THE place to catch up with old friends, make new ones, and just have a great time with like-minded river loving folks.

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Gauley Fest is also AW’s largest fundraising event. All proceeds from the festival support American Whitewater’s conservation and access works throughout the nation.

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The festival will feature live entertainment, a whitewater marketplace, raffle, and a silent auction where you can pick up some awesome outdoor gear. Come out and join us for a weekend of great paddling, exciting camaraderie, live entertainment, killer boat raffles, and the infamous silent auction.

I am pretty excited about the event coming up because it will be the fourth year in a row that my fiance and I have gone. It is a great time to camp out, pick up some cheap gear, hang out with friends, and get outdoors. I am also super stoked because The Gear House will be set up as a vendor pushing all the great products that I sell on eBay and in the gear shop Tick Tock Lullaby move

The Master of Disguise film . To get ready for the event, I have been putting price labels on all the gear that I’ll be taking, printing signs for my tent, and just gathering all the supplies that I am going to need.

If you are going to be checking out Gauley Fest next weekend, be sure to look for The Gear House tent and stop by and say Hi! If you’ll be there, leave a comment and let me know!

Chris 14 September 2008 White Water American Whitewater, Gauley Fest, Summersville, WV 2 Comments

Patagonia store and shopping in Georgetown

A couple weeks ago, my fiancé and I went down to Georgetown, just outside of Washington D.C. and home to Georgetown University. The area is bustling with young people and very lively. The streets are lined with retail shops, boutiques, restaurants, and bars.

One of the reasons that I wanted to check out the area, besides having never been there before, was that they had a Patagonia retail store along the main strip – something I had never heard of! I was super excited…but let down.

We did the normal shopping first hitting stores like Gap, Banana Republic, Coach, American Eagle, etc. There were also a lot of smaller boutique stores that featured dresses or other designer clothing. Then we went to check out the Patagonia store which was right around where we parked.

I guess I had my hopes set high – as you know, Patagonia sells a lot of gear (PFDs, etc) on top of some excellent clothing. Well, the store was all clothing and not much else. They had a small library of outdoor books, but it was mainly all clothing. Being right on the river and at the Georgetown waterfront where you can rent kayaks, canoes, and boats, I guess I figured they would have a little bit of gear, but there was no such thing going on inside of the store.

Anyway, I know this is a bit of a rant, but if anyone at Patagonia happens to read this, I’d love to hear why you are not pushing your gear AS WELL AS the clothing in your retail stores….or maybe it is only this store that was all clothing?

Here are a couple pictures that I took outside of the store as well as down on the waterfront. If you live within 45 miles of the Washington D.C. area, checking out Georgetown on an afternoon is definitely a good idea!

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Chris 6 September 2008 Updates Georgetown, Patagonia, washington dc No Comments

Looking for Sleeping Bags and Tents? Buy from Great Bear Outdoors!

If you are looking for a wide variety of sleeping bags and camping tents, then you need to check out Great Bear Outdoors. Heck, their wide selection may even be the largest on the net!

Great Bear’s sleeping bag selection has more than 125 bags ranging in everything from light and warm to heavy and cool – get what you need in one place. Whether you need a solo backpacking tent, a 2/3/4/5 person tent, or a tent for 7 or more people, you can find it at Great Bear.

One of the great things that I like about Great Bear is that unlike other outdoor equipment retailers online, they focus their product line to fit into only about 10 categories, rather than 50 or more. Having only a specific line of products really does allow the company to focus their efforts on serving the true needs of their customers rather than throwing a net out and hoping to cover everything. This focus also allows for better customer service – representatives have a better idea/understand of the products they are selling and are not trying to look up information or transfering you to someone else if you have issues.

If you are looking for sleeping bags, tents, stoves and accessories, backpacks, or lanterns, I suggest you take a look at Great Bear. There site is incredibly easy to use and you should not have any issues getting the gear you want!

Chris 5 September 2008 Reviews Great Bear Outdoors, Reviews, Sleeping Bags, Tents No Comments

Light My Fire Sporks Work Pretty Well

I’m a huge Light My Fire fan, mostly because I deal with them regularly and am a dealer of their products. They have some really great products including the spork, meal kit, and the UCO Candle Lantern line. Today I wanted to touch quickly on the Spork that they sell.

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The Light My Fire Spork features a spoon, a fork, and a knife all in one single utensil. It is incredibly handy, lightweight, and great for taking on any trip – short or long, backpacking or car camping. The spork measures just under 7 inches and weighs about 7 grams. Not too bad right? The length is good and does not affect the idea of wanting to cut weight and be ultralight; you can still achieve that with this utensil.

I have used it many times for a variety of meals including noodles, pasta, rice, and your normal freeze-dried food like beef stroganof. The LMF spork handled all of these meals pretty well.

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The spoon on one end is your normal spoon – nothing special here. Its about the size of a teaspoon and is good for your soups and other foods like that and also for mixing batters or mixes if needed. The fork end is the side that also includes the knife, which is along the side of the fork. The fork prongs seem short and fat and not the most helpful when trying to get some noodles wrapped around them. However, it does hold up well for most of your normal fork needs. The points of the fork are not incredible sharp either, which can be good – I have used many other sporks that have been made of titanium or other materials and poked right through plastic bags and other items. The knife on the other hand is where things fall apart for me with this spork. It almost seems useless – its definitely not the best option for cutting meat or just about anything else. It cuts through noodles and pasta pretty decently but so does the spoon end, so nothing special there.

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The Wild Geese dvd The spork is constructed of heat resistant polycarbonate material and will be fine if it is left in some boiling water or other hot liquids. It is also has some flex to it, so if you were to step on it may not break, but if you bent it hard somehow, it would snap in two. It is also a nice material because you do not really need to worry about it scratching up your pots and pans. Being a nice smooth plastic, it won’t leave many if any marks and you should be good to go with using it on your Teflon or other material pots.

The spork is also incredibly easy to clean – just get it wet and wipe it off. The spork is a great item to keep in your pack, take with you on any trip, and also give to your kids to use when you take them outdoors.

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It is available at pretty much any outdoor store and major retailers including Wal-Mart for around $3.00 and in a range of 15 colors.

Chris 5 September 2008 Ultralight Gear Light My Fire, LMF, LMF Spork, Sprok No Comments

Make Your Own Backcountry Cutting Board – Tip from Backpacker.com

I was just over at Backpacker.com taking a look around and found this great reader tip about how you can make your own backcountry cutting board.

Michael Irvine from Santa Rosa, CA shares the tip:

To make a backpack-friendly cutting board, I trimmed plastic cutting boards from Target into small circles that fit snugly inside my cook pots. These lightweight discs keep my knives from dulling–and provide a hygienic place to store ingredients while I cook. Fame release

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One of the follow up comments from a visitor to the site even suggested cutting a notch or putting a hole in the board towards the edge to help with getting the board out of the bottom of the pot if it gets stuck or suctioned in from washing it. Great tips!

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Chris 4 September 2008 Helpful Tips Backpacker, cutting board, DIY, make your own cutting board, tips No Comments

GSI Outdoors Kitchen 27 Gourmet Kitchen Utensils

Here is another video that I put together walking through the different 27 utensils that make up the Kitchen 27 by GSI Outdoors. Similar to the small Kitchen 11, the Kitchen 27 is great for any gourmet camp cooking or backpacking adventure. The major difference between the Kitchen 11 and 27 is that the 27 includes cutlery for 4 (forks, two sizes of spoons, and knives). If you are looking for a gourmet kitchen kit, the Kitchen 27 is definitely worth taking a look at.

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Chris 3 September 2008 Videos Camp Kitchen, GSI Outdoors, Kitchen 11, Kitchen 27 No Comments

GSI Outdoors Kitchen 11 Chef Tools Set

Here is a video that I put together on the Kitchen 11 made by GSI Outdoors. The Kitchen 11 is an all in one 11 piece kitchen set and has a utensil for any gourmet expedition.

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Camping doesn’t have to mean making sacrifices. And this lightweight cooking kit proves it. The perfect companion for the backcountry gourmand who demands a bit more from their adventure than just killer views and bug bites, it’s got every kitchen tool needed to make fluffy omelets, fat pancakes, or grate a little cheese for that Mexican feast.