Wyoming Rendezvous

Sarge the Mountain Man.

Bear River State Park is only about one and a half hours from Salt Lake City. Remarkably close when you think about it. I drive out of Utah looking forward to a nice weekend camping in the woods with Sarge (my dad) and Uncle Shorty. The directions I got were to follow I80E until the Evanston exit, get off there and immediately pull into the State park, follow that road all the way to the end. After that I should park in this little parking area and follow a trail back into the camping area. I am picturing West Virginia camping areas at this point. Telling myself to keep my eyes open and hoping the road isn't to beat up for my old car.

I pull into the park and there really isn't a forest at all. The road is paved and well marked. I think to myself that the road will twist and turn and probably turn into a dirt road at some point. It doesn't. But hey, I will have to look around for this trail into the camp. I don't want to follow the wrong path and end up wondering around for hours. No problem. There isn't really a path. But there is a trailer setup selling hamburgers, a permanent bathroom facility and a large parking area. Oh well, nature isn't what it used to be.

Upon entering the camping area I was surprised at how few people there

Shorty scouts out the town.

were there. But as the weekend went on the numbers increased and in the end there was a rather sizable settlement. Sarge and Shorty had their tee-pee set up right along the river just off a little roadway that separated their site from those of the other campers. I braced myself for the sight of these two WV boys in full mountain man attire. Sarge walks up and shakes my hand wearing shorts and a tank top! Seems I arrived before everyone was required to get into the century. Of course, with the beard, dark tan, and multiple scars on both hands, he looked like a mountain man knocked out of his own time. Kind of like cave man lawyer, if you are a Saturday Night Live fan...

It bears mentioning that this summer was very bad for range fires in the western US. Wyoming was hit very hard and consequently they had a "no burn" policy in effect for the weekend. This meant everyone had to cook on a camp stove or other non-exposed flame devices. Sarge, fortunately, was able to trade a couple walking sticks for a wood stove. Rather nice actually and it burnt plenty hot for making the meals we did cook. Which brings me to a theme on the weekend. Sarge cooks, cleans, straightens, etc. Shorty? Well, he is in charge of

All four campers.

sitting in his chair and saying hello to people as they walk by. Surprisingly, this isn't really a point of contention; probably because they both are having such a good time they don't really care. That isn't to say it isn't brought up, often, but no arguing over it. Oh, Shorty was also in charge of getting the morning coffee going so that does count double!

One of the highlights of the weekend was to be my firing the old Thompson rifle. I say "was" because after breakfast Sarge went over to enter the mornings shooting contest. Well, actually breakfast took too long to make so he left before his breakfast, I stayed and finished cooking for Shorty and myself. Before we could finish and walk over to join him he was back. After drawing the hammer back only once the main spring broke. Sadly, this meant no shooting that weekend since no one had replacement springs for rifles that actually were from that time period. Everyone else shot rifles that were modern recreations of the old fare. Too bad. This left a lot of free time that wasn't supposed to be there.

We walked around the settlement and shopped at all the tents. Shorty was feeling a tad worn down so he sat himself down at the registration area and starting talking to Two Toes. It seems the majority of the

Two toes with daughter.

people that attend these Rendezvous seem to have clever names such as this. There were guys named Shotgun, Stinky, and so forth. Two Toes was one that became friends with both Sarge and Shorty and had been with them at their previous Rendezvous at Ham's Fork. There was also Otter who had the tent next to their tee-pee. Both looked very much the period.

After watching the shooting for a while we went back to the campsite. About this point I wished I had brought a book. Not because I was bored, but because being from the 20th century I craved input every moment and had trouble just sitting and watching other people move about at a 17th century pace. I took a nap. Hey, I needed one since the previous night I didn't exactly get much sleep being in a tee-pee with a couple of Thompson snorers! Actually, Shorty is like a small baby snoring compared to the train wreck that is the snoring machine we call Sarge.

We ate lunch and then made another round through the trading tents. They had a lot of neat things, but nothing I could see myself needing, or using, once I got back to "the real world". None of that

A long row of shops.

slowed Sarge though. I have no idea if his truck will get them back home or not. So much stuff, and a lot of animal pelts! Man, I even have two in my truck. Moose. Wow.

That afternoon was the big Mountain Man Run event. It is kind of like a pentathalon. I don't know the exact events, but it involved shooting, throwing a knife, throwing a tomahawk (or `hawk as they call it), starting a fire with flint, and running from event to event. So it is a timed event with some point system on the rest. Again, I don't really know much about it and neither did Sarge or Shorty. But it was fun to watch. These guys (and ladies as well) could really compete. It was not uncommon for someone to start the fire in under 10 seconds. Quite amazing since with a box of matches Shorty couldn't get a fire going given all day!

As we watched I made mental notes about where they were throwing the knife and `hawk and so after they were done we went over and gave it a

Shorty takes a rest.

try for ourselves. Apparently, I can't be sure mind you, but it seemed to me that these people must practice -- a lot. I could hit the target with both items but making it stick is another problem all together. Shorty was about as good as I was, meaning, neither of us were good. Shorty did manage to miss by enough to actually get the knife to stick in a tree though. That was the highlight. Well, that and we broke his `hawk. Not good. Sarge couldn't throw at all because of the whole tennis elbow thing. Odd, never seen a mountain man with such a pretty boy affliction!

That night they had a small bon-fire, under the watchful eye of the state park service representative, and gave out awards for the events. They also held several raffles. One was open to "flatlanders", people not in period attire, and the other was open only to participants. Sarge and Shorty each bought five tickets to the open raffle and Sarge bought an additional five to the restricted. They had a ton of prizes in the open raffle and if your ticket was drawn you were to walk up and pick a prize off of a blanket. Oddly, this was done at night and no one was supposed to use a flash light. I say, if you pass out modern tickets for a raffle, let people read the numbers! Anyway, people shared lanterns and stood near the fire. This is the amazing part. Sarge managed to get four of his tickets drawn out! Meanwhile Shorty had none.

In case a non-Thompson reads this let me explain as to why this is amazing. Thompson don't win raffles. We don't win lotteries. We don't win at anything that requires luck of the draw. To make this clear, I

Our town on Bear River.

once one a little ceramic fish at a cake walk when I was like 7 years old. Why do I remember that? Because it is the only time I have won! My family remembers because it is such an abnormality in the luckless life that is Thompson. But let's not stop there. No, we need to go on to the limited raffle.

They drew out a ticket first and announced that the ticket would be for the 50 caliber rifle. Very nice and certainly the prize everyone bought tickets for. They then said that they weren't going to read the number until after they drew tickets for the other four prizes. Couple of tickets later Sarge gets a number drawn and he collects a beaver skin hat. Odd looking thing but it made him very happy. After this they talked a bit about how nice the rendezvous went, how next year will be better, yadda yadda, and then they announced the winner of the rifle. Yes, you guessed it -- Sarge, again. An incredible run of luck that must go down in the annals of Thompson lore.

This also meant I was lucky since now I would be able to shoot a rifle after all. We went back to camp and after not eating cobbler we

Sarge works -- Shorty rests.

went to bed (dag man, no burn makes it hard to get enough coals for a cobbler). The next day I got breakfast started early. We were having potatoes, country ham, and eggs to order. When I request scrambled I naturally get to hear how I was raised wrong and that something was just not right about me. Shorty, such a loving soul.

Done with breakfast I do the dishes while they wander about and get ready for the day. Then we head up to the "primitive" range for some shooting. This was a lot of fun, even if you think it might not be. It isn't just shooting after all, there is a little bit of education involved in learning how to load such an old weapon. Also, there is a real feeling of stepping back into a history you might have only read about or maybe seen in a movie. You get an appreciation for what these people had to do in their day. Also, the gun was loud and threw smoke everywhere!

I can't say I was a good shot. What I can say is that I was a better shot than Shorty will tell you I was! Again, I let down all the Thompsons that came before me with my inept shooting. I hit the target, a small metal buffalo around 50 yards away, 3 times out of 8 shots. I

A natural.

agree, not good, but I had never shot this rifle, or any rifle similar to it, before. I give myself a B+ for the effort. I got to shoot both a 50 caliber and Otter's 38 which is similar to the one I had hoped to get to fire. Both were fun and you could certainly get the feel for how every shot counted with these guns. It would take too long to reload if you missed a charging bear!

After that we went back to camp and had some lunch. We wondered through the tents again and talked to people about the next weekends event at Fort Bridger. That is the big daddy of rendezvous and everyone was excited to go. Shorty and Sarge were excited to be heading into Bridger at last, and I think both were also eager to finish up and take a break! The plan, at the time, was to go to a base in Wisconsin and fish for a week or so and then move on. A long trip but one both of them seemed to be thoroughly enjoying.

They also both seemed very glad to be together on this trip and for me, that was by far the high point of the weekend.

the end.


tom.