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About a moon ago or so, the time arrived for all good souls to make that last pilgrimage of the season to the last rendezvous of the year – Wolf Trapper Memorial. Now, the Wise Men followed a star on their journey and arrived at the appointed place and time. There may have been a star guiding the way to rendezvous, but hey, didn’t need it! We had a map! Sign had been left and marked accordingly on each parchment. So each buckskinner, after his own fashion, made his way toward Devil’s Canyon. Hmmm, says here the site is off a trail called 214. Gotta be so! But what’s this marker “220” all about? Well, it is a pretty little ride to Lincoln, and it ain’t too far out of the way. You just wheel that ol’ mule around at the settlement limits and come back west a might. Folks at Fort Stanton are always glad to trade information for a good laugh. Well, eventually, all arrived at the appointed place, in their own good time. What’ good is a journey anyway, if it hasn’t a story riding along? Sleeping Bear and Waits to Shoot done real good in picking out this season’s site – pretty little canyon, good access, no wind to speak of, and grass belly high to a tall horse (pay attention now – no dust). Most important of all, of course, are the people, good folks all, who showed up. Most of the faces were familiar – Delore, Gaylon and Amy, Roger and Beverly, John and Joe, David and Ken, Brad Paul and Bob, Jim and Sally, Juver, Doug, Charles, Julie, Randy, Dan, Danny, Arvel and Lewis, and Wild Bill to name a few. A few new ones made it, too. Dutch from Deming, NM, came to trade and Mitch traveled south from Ignacio, CO, to see what all the fuss was about. Both fellas are new members of the NMMM. Hope to see both of you again real soon! One sad note - Sleeping Bear couldn’t make it. See you soon, too! A little something about camps. WTMR has the reputation of, not always, but occasionally being a little on the cool side. No big deal! Buckskinners come prepared with lodges equipped with wood-burning stoves, IR heaters (primitive, of course), extra blankets and/or hides, and some come and simply throw down a bedroll on the ground and let the chips fall. Now that’s tough! A couple nights this year were a little frosty and some of the throw-down crowd suffered accordingly. No worries! Companions were soon to arrive, set up camp, and provide a warm shelter for the next night. Well, two out of three ain’t bad, right? The partner did arrive and did set up a lodge; but around midnight, when it’s time to retire to that warm refuge, and it isn’t, ‘cuz there isn’t any external heat source, suddenly you’re “0” for three. Dang! | ||
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Now as to shooting, throwing, and carrying-on, well, there was plenty of each. Five events took up the two days of rendezvous – a smoothbore match, rifle trailwalk, pistol trailwalk, one-tie-all-tie, and hawk and knife. All were tough enough on their own, but with this crowd, whooee! A listing of how she finished up will be presented in due time, but a few details are in order first. Scratch, tutored by Silent Tongue, has been sneaking up on the competition for a while now and is finally front and center. Scratch done himself proud a while back at McGaffey and again at WTMR by placing first in the smoothbore competition. Congratulations! While he was sweeping the smoothbore, partner Bob was comfortably walking away with the pistol trailwalk. Never take your eyes off these two! | |
| One-tie-all-tie is an historical occurrence at this rendezvous and has been won by several over the years. Waits to Shoot took the honor this year, and that is no surprise, but his new technique was quite a shock. You see Waits to Shoot mostly does just that. His ol’ .62 will rise to shoulder, hold, drop, re-shoulder, hold, drop, re-shoulder – well, you get the idea. It takes a while. By golly, not that day! He shouldered his piece and let fly for three hits out of three in less time than it took to write down this sentence. Unheard of! Way to go!
Lazy Horse made all those present screw down pretty tight come hawk and knife time. When he lets fly with that 40-plus pound throwing knife, either the card or the log is sure to split. What are you doing with all those Bomboy knives anyway? Way to go Juver! Watch out for Arvil, cuz he’s sneaking up on ya! |
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| There was a little of the carrying-on type fun, also. Rougher on some than others. Saturday was missing a few faces outside their lodge.
Then it’s time to announce the winners, thank the attendees, and make medicine for the next season. The following folks rose to the occasion: | ||
Rifle Trailwalk |
Pistol Trailwalk |
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Hawk & Knife Throw |
Smoothbore Trailwalk |
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Attendance was great! About 27 or so found the site. Some haven’t been seen or heard of, though. State Rescue is still looking. With regards to next year, Sleeping Bear and Waits to Shoot will host ‘er again and hopefully in the same place. Thanks fellas for all your work. WTMR 2006 was a good’n. Thanks to Long Shadow for running down the Forest permit and powder. We appreciate all of ya from the heart. See ya come Moon of the Crow! |
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