Has anyone just taken off with a tent and lighter and gone camping?

[Lex]

I live in Campton.  Did you mean Grafton county or is there a place up here named Grafton?

There is Grafton County but also Grafton Town which is IN Grafton County. It is a small town of about 1200 people. There is no building permits or zoning here. Property taxes are pretty low. It is also the home of the Chairman of the New Hampshire Libertarian party (who is now the fire chief in grafton).

At one point in time there was a big controversey in Grafton because of the Free Town Project but that has mostly boiled over. There are just a handful of free staters here but we love it and couldn't think of chosing any other town. We love the freedom of no zoning and no building permits especially.

[Dreepa]

It is also the home of the Chairman of the New Hampshire Libertarian party (who is now the fire chief in grafton).

former chairman.
The chairman of the NHLP is a selectman from Seabrook.

[Raineyrocks]

I've actually always wanted to do this.  Never end up doing it because I am a packrat.  I rarely travel light.     You guys, and gals, have my admiration. 

I haven't done it yet because of the snow this weekend.  I never travel light either but I will have to this time and it will be good for me.  If you always wanted to  do it, why not just do it?   I have to bring my radio that's for sure!

[Raineyrocks]

I live in Campton.  Did you mean Grafton county or is there a place up here named Grafton?

There is Grafton County but also Grafton Town which is IN Grafton County. It is a small town of about 1200 people. There is no building permits or zoning here. Property taxes are pretty low. It is also the home of the Chairman of the New Hampshire Libertarian party (who is now the fire chief in grafton).

At one point in time there was a big controversey in Grafton because of the Free Town Project but that has mostly boiled over. There are just a handful of free staters here but we love it and couldn't think of chosing any other town. We love the freedom of no zoning and no building permits especially.

That sounds like a  nice town. I didn't see that town when we were looking to buy, drats!  How far is it from Campton? What does my son have to do to join?   

[Dreepa]

How far is it from Campton? What does my son have to do to join?   

about 40 miles.

South on 93 to New Hampton
West on Rte 4 to Grafton.

[Raineyrocks]

How far is it from Campton? What does my son have to do to join?   

about 40 miles.

South on 93 to New Hampton
West on Rte 4 to Grafton.

Thanks Dreepa!    That's is pretty far, I guess it would depend on the frequency of trips I'd have to make.

[Lex]

That's is pretty far, I guess it would depend on the frequency of trips I'd have to make.

We mostly meet every Sunday (not this Sunday due to Easter). He doesn't have to come to every single training session. In fact, we are working on a program right now where you would only have to come once a month or once every two months, I don't remember the details. I think we were looking at doing one full weekend of training (how the team works, radio protocols, maps, survival kit, etc) to get into this program and that would allow you to respond to search & rescue calls with us. After this full week of training you would only be required to come to one day of training a month or so afterwards.

I believe there was talk of charging folks for the training session simply to make sure that those who take the class are serious about it and are not wasting our time, there is also a monthly pager fee of $10 (this is a typical pager with a phone number attached and you can use it for personal stuff, when there is a call out for search & rescue you will get paged to this pager to let you know) and there is a yearly membership fee to NASAR. Your biggest expense will be equipment which you have to buy yourself (backpack, snowshoes, tent, sleeping bag, etc, etc, etc). You don't have to do anything complicated to join other than start coming to the meetings/training sessions, you can buy equipment at your own pace as you have the funds and the same goes with the pager, we are a small group right now and if you can convince someone to just give you a ring on your phone instead of being paged you can get away without a pager for a while, if you become really active you should probably get a pager though.

I'm assuming your son is 18 or older, correct?

[Raineyrocks]

That's is pretty far, I guess it would depend on the frequency of trips I'd have to make.

We mostly meet every Sunday (not this Sunday due to Easter). He doesn't have to come to every single training session. In fact, we are working on a program right now where you would only have to come once a month or once every two months, I don't remember the details. I think we were looking at doing one full weekend of training (how the team works, radio protocols, maps, survival kit, etc) to get into this program and that would allow you to respond to search & rescue calls with us. After this full week of training you would only be required to come to one day of training a month or so afterwards.

I believe there was talk of charging folks for the training session simply to make sure that those who take the class are serious about it and are not wasting our time, there is also a monthly pager fee of $10 (this is a typical pager with a phone number attached and you can use it for personal stuff, when there is a call out for search & rescue you will get paged to this pager to let you know) and there is a yearly membership fee to NASAR. Your biggest expense will be equipment which you have to buy yourself (backpack, snowshoes, tent, sleeping bag, etc, etc, etc). You don't have to do anything complicated to join other than start coming to the meetings/training sessions, you can buy equipment at your own pace as you have the funds and the same goes with the pager, we are a small group right now and if you can convince someone to just give you a ring on your phone instead of being paged you can get away without a pager for a while, if you become really active you should probably get a pager though.

I'm assuming your son is 18 or older, correct?

Thanks for the information I will print it out and give it to my son.  Yes he is 18 years old.  Downside, he doesn't have a drivers license yet so I'll have to talk to my husband about the driving.  This is something Jon, (my son), is very interested in and I'm sure he would be quite a positive member.  Should I just pm you with contact information after I discuss this with Jon and my husband?  Thanks again!

[Lex]

Thanks for the information I will print it out and give it to my son.  Yes he is 18 years old.  Downside, he doesn't have a drivers license yet so I'll have to talk to my husband about the driving.  This is something Jon, (my son), is very interested in and I'm sure he would be quite a positive member.  Should I just pm you with contact information after I discuss this with Jon and my husband?  Thanks again!

You can PM me.

One thing I will stress is that this isn't a hiking club so we don't always get to go out and do fun stuff. In fact, pretty much everything we do revolves around the dogs since they are the main driving force in the searches. Typically our Sundays have gone like this: In the morning we have a meeting and then we do "dog problems" (someone goes out into the woods and hides and then the dogs go searching), sometimes we will do equipment checks to make sure we have everything or we may do other misc. things. Basically, you won't always get to go running around in the woods.