Quick Hoegee's Trip

[robow8]

My wife and I went to Hoegee's Friday night to try out some Christmas gear; new Nitecore NU25 headlamps and new Cedar Ridge Outdoors quilts. Thumbs up on both pieces of gear. Hoegee's was good. A couple of other groups, Plenty of water in the creek, and no sign of bears. The toilets are boarded shut, which reminded me of a story from the 80s.
I was a Scoutmaster and we use to go to Hoegee's quite often. They used to have trash cans there and the pack train would come empty the trash and pack it out. The racoons loved the free pickins! Any ways, one trip, one of our Scouts was showing off the new flashlight his grandfather had bought him. He was so proud of it! So we hike up to Hoegee's and get camp set up and settle in, when all of a sudden, he comes up quite distressed. "Mr Waite, can you help me?" So come to find out, he was in the kybo peeing, holding his flashlight with his chin, when his grip slipped and, you guessed it, his brand new flashlight fell into the huge, steaming pile below. Well, we couldn't take his word for it; we had to go and see. Sure enough, there was his flashlight, illuminating that heaping pile of paper and poop. It was almost too much for the human mind to process! I could tell that he really wanted to save his flashlight, but no-one was dumb enough to attempt the rescue. But the funniest thing was that it shone all night long, and was still shining when we left the next day. That now closed kybo had the best night light you could want. I've often wondered if it was still at the bottom of the pit!

[Anthony]

I have a Nitecore NU20. So awesome.

Is Hoegee's known for bears? The only bear I've seen in the Angeles was near Spruce Grove. A massive one at that.

[robow8]

I've seen a few different bears at Hoegee's over the years. I think that they hang around for a free meal because of all of the unprepared people that go there. I always take a bearcan. Spruce Grove is just over the hill from Hoegee's.
Just remembered that we were at Hoegee's another time and a guy came in with his cat. Another time a group of older guys came in. One of them packed in a 3 burner Coleman stove. Got there and couldn't get it to work!

[Tom Kenney]

Hoegee's was our scout troop's 'quickie' - did many weekends there due to the short drive and easy hike. On one outing, spent a rainy night, 5 drenched scouts in a 2-man orange tube tent. On another, one of the guys brought a frozen pizza...no clue how he would cook it on a Svea stove.

Rob, I think we met once at Spruce Grove. My wife (short person) and I were on a day hike. If that was you, wow, small world! Cheers!!

[JeffH]

Nice trip for a gear test, I switched to a quilt last year and also recently got myself the NU25.
Out of habit, I also take my Bearvault, on top of the critter safety it's a nice seat.

[dima]

That's a great story! Thanks for sharing

[Sean]

It sounds like that kid wasn't very bright.

Sorry, couldn't help myself.

[AnthonyEKing]

I've seen a few different bears at Hoegee's over the years. I think that they hang around for a free meal because of all of the unprepared people that go there. I always take a bearcan. Spruce Grove is just over the hill from Hoegee's.
Just remembered that we were at Hoegee's another time and a guy came in with his cat. Another time a group of older guys came in. One of them packed in a 3 burner Coleman stove. Got there and couldn't get it to work!

Speaking of ill prepared people going into that camp. When I was there last week I picked up a huge pile of trash, at least a dozen wrappers, kleenex and burnt paper that they probably used as poor kindling the night before. Luckily I had an extra trash bag on me so I cleaned it up after setting up my tent and packed it out the next day.

Last thing I wanted was a pile of sour patch kid wrappers attracking animals while I slept -_-