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Graves Mountain MV Trailrides and Rally, September 1-5, 2016

olbucksnort

olbucksnort

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Looks like the Manufacturer I've Seen in Aberdeen know as Dell Browning with his custom wide fender job he doe's on M105
He makes a bad AZZ'ed TRUCK !
Browning is a proud son of d' confederacy
Nice Camp Dell.
 
olbucksnort

olbucksnort

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This years event was the best weather. Reminded me of camping with Mom n' Dad when I was 7yo. So very relaxed I forgot I brought a camera. Had great sunsets every night shooting stars counted to about a doz. on Sunday nite. Very few Mosquitos must be due to the nice Bat Habitats installed in the field behind me. I'm looking to camping there around the 1st weekend of November or even Veterans Day (or both). I enjoyed everyone there even tho I'm not a big Socializer but enjoy doing my own thing in my own time.
 
Another Ahab

Another Ahab

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olbucksnort said:
This years event was the best weather. Reminded me of camping with Mom n' Dad when I was 7yo. So very relaxed I forgot I brought a camera. Had great sunsets every night shooting stars counted to about a doz. on Sunday nite. Very few Mosquitos must be due to the nice Bat Habitats installed in the field behind me. I'm looking to camping there around the 1st weekend of November or even Veterans Day (or both). I enjoyed everyone there even tho I'm not a big Socializer but enjoy doing my own thing in my own time.
Click to expand...
Those shooting stars are a great treat. I count myself lucky if I see one every two years or so.

Seeing a dozen - in ONE night- would be like a bonanza!
 
Ford Mechanic

Ford Mechanic

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Geez guys, we don't bite. If someone had of just come said something we would have shut the generator off. It was our first time and we didn't know where to set up at to get it away from everyone. There was just a handful of folks there when we got there. We shut it down one night after Allen said it was to loud, but after he left we figured no one else minded.

We didn't find out until we were loading that other people were having problems with it. We'll be building a insulated dog box for it to sit inside of for next year to help with the noise.

Sorry guys.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
 
Bulldogger

Bulldogger

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olbucksnort said:
This years event was the best weather. Reminded me of camping with Mom n' Dad when I was 7yo. So very relaxed I forgot I brought a camera. Had great sunsets every night shooting stars counted to about a doz. on Sunday nite. Very few Mosquitos must be due to the nice Bat Habitats installed in the field behind me. I'm looking to camping there around the 1st weekend of November or even Veterans Day (or both). I enjoyed everyone there even tho I'm not a big Socializer but enjoy doing my own thing in my own time.
Click to expand...
My son shouted that he'd seen a shooting star Saturday night. I missed it. Perhaps we'll schedule star-gazing next year.

It would be nice if we could arrange for the streetlights down the center of the campground to be shut off at some point, to improve visibility and general sleep-ease... I doubt it's possible, but I'll make a mental note to ask when the threads for Graves Mountain 2017 start up.

I agree, the mosquitos were almost non-existent, everywhere. The drought might have had something to do as well. Just a little skeeter-juice kept them off. The gnats had their moments, but they don't bite.

See you all next year.

Bulldogger
 
C

CGarbee

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Bulldogger said:
My son shouted that he'd seen a shooting star Saturday night. I missed it. Perhaps we'll schedule star-gazing next year.

It would be nice if we could arrange for the streetlights down the center of the campground to be shut off at some point, to improve visibility and general sleep-ease... I doubt it's possible, but I'll make a mental note to ask when the threads for Graves Mountain 2017 start up.
See you all next year.

Bulldogger
Click to expand...
Please remind me about them next year...
I have the ability to shut them off, but the switch for the lights in our field also control the rest of the line including those in the horse camping field... Since we have the port a johns and trash cans located under the lights... I may not be allowed to kill them...

However, there is talk about reworking the electrical setup in the camping area (due to some proposed updates to the showers that will allow them to be open next year) and I will see if I can get them to split the street light circuit in half so that we can enjoy some darkness while allowing the horses to be well lit at night... :)
 
C

CGarbee

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Ford Mechanic said:
If someone had of just come said something we would have shut the generator off. [Snip] We'll be building a insulated dog box for it to sit inside of for next year to help with the noise.
Click to expand...
I chatted with Mike and Amber about this as they loaded up for the trip home...
I hadn't realized that folks had an issue with the noise during the event since no-one mentioned it to me...

It's a learning process.

We had a record number of folks this year and I hope that everyone returns next year (and brings a friend).
We'll all tweak things a bit and keep on improving the experience for everyone.
 
C

CGarbee

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So, the list of things that folks have mentioned that I should tweak for next year:

White board at the HQ tent for updates to the trail ride schedule and to remind folks of Mike's availability for range duty, etc.
A notice that if Mike is sitting around the campsite, all one must do to go to the range is to ask him.
A notice that if Mike is not sitting around the campsite, all one must do is to check the whiteboard (or Chuck aka BMan) to see if Mike is at the range already...
Turn the street lights off late night or at least a portion of the time to enhance stargazing.
Update the generator policy
Post a sign up reminding folks that everyone must have a buddy when trail riding (NO solo riding on the mountain...).
Provide some maps/printed instructions for folks who want to do some road roads (local roads/orchard roads/fire trails) that don't require a buddy or a trail guide, but do require some knowledge of the routes...
 
C

CGarbee

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I have been collecting photos in addition to the ones that I took during the event.
I posted them to my facebook page this afternoon....

I have 378 photo posted so far... (so don't look for me to post them here...).

They are located at:
https://www.facebook.com/cabell.gar...0210128133030545.1073741955.1554695295&type=3

I will eventually post them to the event website, but that might take some time as I need to rework that site and I have other demands on my time...
 
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EMD567

EMD567

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Jane and I with the 4 dogs arrived safe and sound back home at 1945. We had a blast...... Jane rode horses all day, and even though the M37 was acting up, it never left me in a lurch, or required wrenching(which is more then I can say for Ferro).I would have liked to gotten a photo of all the M37's gathered together(Their were 5 at the rally), so maybe we can plan to do that next year.As always, we really enjoyed the rally, and have all ready made plans to return next year.
 
rickf

rickf

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Yea, you were putting on quite the show with the smoke. And do not worry about the generator, we all survived. nobody said anything because nobody wanted to be an a**hole among friends. That field is so quiet at night that a whisper is heard all the way across the field so just about anything seems loud.
 
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