Well it’s about time I took time to let you know about the Willow Creek Free Trappers 30th year rendezvous for 2013!  What a GREAT time it was too!  If you missed it, YOU REALLY MISSED IT!

Bones had everything planned, in order, organized and it went off about as smoothly as it could have possibly gone!  Thanks Bones!

And thanks to everyone who pitched in and helped out.  One person can not pull off an event of this size by themselves!

So, I’ve decided to put this rendezvous on here in a couple of sequences!  Let’s start with day one!  That’s a good thing to do.

Wednesday, August 28 was my day to take my camp down and set it up.  It was also the day to get the rest of the rendezvous stuff set up and ready.  Things like the shooting range and porta potties.  Important stuff like that.

There were quite a few people who were there on Wednesday to help with the things that were needed and the work got done quickly.

Our friends with the porta pots came right on time.  They do such a good job and their prices are more than fair.  If you are ever in a need for porta pots and you live in the Northern Utah/Southern Idaho area, please contact these folks.

Once those were set up, it was time for the range and so, down we went with the POS…it contains all the stuff we need for the range, hawk blocks and lympics…

It’s nice to know that the city of Willard will allow us to shoot at our rendezvous and the only restriction is our 20 grain limit on powder charge.  We have all found that 20 grains is more than adequate to accurately put our patched round balls down range and poke a hole in a piece of paper.  It also blows up small V-8 cans really nice too (if you can hit em)!

We set up the farm canopy and once that was done, we just had to take a seat and begin a bit of a relaxing time in camp.

Speaking of camp…some folks just have to pack their camps in very tight spots.  Don’t they Dry Dog?

And so, the day progressed and as usual the time really flew by.  The old saying about time flys by when you are having fun, really held true for this day, and actually for the entire six days!  SIX DAYS?  WOW!  We really were down there having fun for 6 days!

I had to fix up some supper for when Winemaker got to the camp and our good buddy MaPa’s helped.

It didn’t hurt to have the wonderful aroma of dutch oven spare ribs to help him stick close by.

And then as the night time darkness fell around us, we started a fire and sat back and talked about “whatever”.  But others had still to cook their meal and eat.

4 Dogs at a time…could there be a naming in there somewhere?

And just like the rest of the day, the evening came and went and suddenly the morning alarm clock was calling our names and telling us it was time to get up and begin the next day of the rendezvous!  ROOONNNNDDDEEEEEVVVOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Breakfast!  Yummy!  And so what’s up with the weird skull thing?  There is a company called “Badlands” and they are having a contest where you place this symbol (their logo) somewhere and take a picture and post it on their site.  I’m not sure what you win, but I thought this was a good spot to put the logo on this day.

Thursday was a day to get a lot of things done that I personally wanted to get done, like  Winemakers and my shooting, but I had forgotten my camera back at camp and so didn’t get any of the activities of that recorded on this day.  On the schedule of events for Thursday, was only the shooting being open from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m., no other events were scheduled.

But later in the evening, I did catch McKenzie learning how to start a fire using flint and steel.  Her dad, Weasel did a great job of showing her the ropes.

Good Job Kenzie!

Well, again this day came to a quick end and just like this morning, Friday morning came fast!  Because of work schedules most of the rendezvous goers could not get to the camp before Friday and still more could only come on Saturday, it’s all understandable.  And so, Bones had scheduled a TON of things to happen on Friday.

The range opened from 9 til 5 and then we had the standing of the sharnes and a flint and steel contest with the kids (under 13 year olds).

Down on the range things were quickly heating up.  There were 10 targets to get shot by each of the contestants, some paper and some not paper.  It was a well done packet of targets and everyone seemed to have the same amount of difficulty hitting them.  A very BIG THANK YOU to the rangemasters for putting all of this together!

We later decided that 20 grains of powder should probably be shot at a 25 yard maximum distance…let’s try and remember that for next year!

It was a very hot day this day, highs near the 100 degree mark and so lots of shade was needed, as well as lots of water and other beverages of choice.  Everyone that was there had a really good time.  A ton of side bets and good humor!

Let’s sneak a peak at how Silent Thunder does his aiming!

OH!  And let’s not forget there is a pistol shoot involved as well.  Same line as the rifle shooting only the target is closer.

After Switchback shot, the smoke filled the air.  Did he hit the target?  Only he knows for sure.  Let’s check out Wapiti Dung shooting his pistol.

Shooting blackpowder is really fun!  Especially at dangerous game.  Once you pull the trigger, you hope like heck that critter don’t come charging you through that smoke!

Meanwhile back at the camp, No Grimace is caught next to his herd of chain saw carved bears.

As his tribute to the Willow Creek Free Trappers 30th rendezvous (which this year was), he decided he was going to retire from carving bears with a chainsaw.  And one can not blame him, he has been carving them since Soda Grizz was last seen up on the Curtis Creek.  He made up a bear for each of the events of the weekend and presented them to the first place winners of each scheduled thing.  He even had a couple in the raffle and the winners of those were extremely happy to get them.  Each of these bears has a special meaning and each was tailored to fit the event for which they were given.  Thanks No Grimace!  That was a lot of very hard work!

After the range was closed for the day and everyone got back into camp to fix up some supper, Bones called for the “Standing of the Sharnes”!

As most of you know, a “sharn” is a stick that has been chewed on by a beaver, most if not all the bark is usually off the stick.  We decorate our sharnes with receipts from past rendezvous, muzzleload hunts or whatever strikes our fancy.  At the standing of the sharnes, 3 or 4 of them are tied in the middle and then everyone in camp that has one leans theirs into the stand.  This stand is a symbol of unity in camp, and it protects the camp from evils and brings good luck to everyone who comes into the camp.

So, with the flag up, the sharnes stood and everyone fed, Bones goes through the ritual of welcoming everyone into camp and off we go with the kids flint and steel contest.  This fire is going to be the nights council fire, which everyone enjoys! (Sorry, I didn’t get any pictures of the kids event, I got too involved with it…my bad!)

But with the fire all lit up for the night, everyone gathered around to enjoy it.

And suddenly Twister comes out with his guitar to entertain us!

No offense meant Twister, but you sure can belch out a good tune of “Don’t Pet Dry Dog”!!!!  My favorite!

So, there are still two and 1/2 days of rendezvous left.  If we have had this much fun so far, what is the rest of the weekend going to be like?  Come back tomorrow and find out!

Bears Butt

Sept. 4, 2013