I got a primitive tent spot booked from the 13th till the 18th. Not sure if I will have a stove with me so who do I need to bring my wieners and a few extra brews to get cooked?:D

I am booked at the camp ground too.

Susan (npw goddess)

All the cool kids are at the campground. The Gainesville crew, Team HQ, etc. It is one of the nicer campgrounds I've been to. Clean bathhouses. Plenty of tall shade trees. Mosquitoes can be a concern at dawn, dusk & overnight. Long sleeves & pants help tremendously. Each campsite has a fire pit w/ metal grill if I recall.

Speaking of Gainesville, Nick and I are in for a Wednesday and Thursday nights. We might get a semi-newby, Iain, as well. I don't know if we'll get anyone else beyond that this year, but I can't say no to such a fun event.

And as to the campground, yes, it is just great. I've never had a bad stay. Much to the contrary the trips are so memorable, so special.

Philip

Awesome! I am so stoked to be getting together with so many land kiters. There are only a small handful of us in Chicago; everybody is a water kiter here. I am one of only two or three people in the city that have a buggy. Riding with Ssayre last weekend was my first time buggying with anyone else. Even most of the land kiters here are exclusively ATB.

How is the walk from the campgrounds to the launch? Would I be able to toss all my gear on the bug and hoof it?

Speaking of which Philip, better make sure you book the same site. Don't want you getting lost coming back after dark! :-p

Demoknight, if you can primitive camp you can hoof it! Kudos for tent camping, I love packing and camping light. That said, I'd guesstimate it's ~3-4 miles camp -> beach so ideally you would have a bike if you didn't want to drive (or at least some rollerblades :-) ).

Quote: Originally posted by Demoknight

How is the walk from the campgrounds to the launch? Would I be able to toss all my gear on the bug and hoof it?

I think it may be a little farther than its worth walking. (I think its more than 3-4 mi) My wife and kids and I go to JI semi regularly and stay at the campgrounds and it's maybe a 5-10 minute drive to kite beach. You can leave your buggy on the grass at "Dunes park" with all the others. They get chained up together and Pokitetrash (Chris) and Frankiter (Frank) sleep in the Kitefort (Chris's camper) in the parking lot of the park and act as JIBE security. But you do need to pack up your kites and take them with you.

If you REALLY want to walk, you can, but you'd have to lug all your kites back and forth each day, which doesn't seem like much fun to me. The drive is not bad at all.

We are bringing bikes to ride and try to avoid NEEDING a car besides the booze runs of course. The trick is carrying all my kites on my back. I have two large backpack style bags that will be a bit difficult to bike with...

There is ample parking at dunes park... No real logistical NEED to bike unless you just want to.

Just sayin'

Bikes are a great thing to have tho for general gettin around... There is an awesome bike trail that goes all the way around the island.

Yeah it is a few miles from campground to JIBE but there are bike paths. Remember the buggy can stay at the Kite Fort overnight every night by special permit. We have a 90' bicycle lock but really hardly have to use it. Lots of friendly watchful eyes including GA state patrol.

Hah right now sitting in the Hyatt on Whacker and Mich Ave Chicago. Looking forward to 80 degrees back home tonight though, LOL.

The island is quite bikeable. The speed limits are low and bike paths are quite common. One trick for carrying gear is to use your buggy as the beast of burden. It's easy to lash packs onto the buggy seat if you use a long odd of paracord abs lace it back and forth over the gear.

The harder party is yoking the buggy to the bike. Consider two sticks about five feet long. At the bike end lash them to a bike rack.At the other end lash each end to the tip of a foot peg. Consider drilling a hole in the end of the foot peg if you don't have a good attachment point.

I have used this method to tow my buggy between beach and camp site. I used a car and it's trailer hitch, but this is not so different.

Philip