birthday present to myself

Frank, looks like you had fun, and ate well! That steak looks big enough for a few. Yum.
I wanted to be Grizzly Adams growing up. Your pics and story reminded me of that. Thanks.
 
Frank,

Looks like you had a great time - and thanks for the history lesson! Too little of our nation's heritage is taught in school these days.
BTW - that must be the 1862 model Dodge. How's the tranny workin' for ya?:D
 
Looks like you had a good time and a Happy Birthday.

Question for you: On the tepee there's a flap at the top. I assume that this flap is open so you can have a fire in the tepee and to provide ventilation, even without a fire - and it's closed if it rains. How waterproof are the tepees? Does the canvas leak? Does the tepee seal well at the top where the flap is?

Mike
 
Looks like you had a good time and a Happy Birthday.

Question for you: On the tepee there's a flap at the top. I assume that this flap is open so you can have a fire in the tepee and to provide ventilation, even without a fire - and it's closed if it rains. How waterproof are the tepees? Does the canvas leak? Does the tepee seal well at the top where the flap is?

Mike

All good questions. The flaps are adjustable with poles to allow smoke to escape in the direction of prevailing winds. Yes, they do provide ventilation. In summer the bottom sides can be raised a bit and the air flow is very nice. Traditionally, all lodges are set up with the door facing east. This allows the first warm rays of sun inside and puts the front in shade in the hot afternoons of summer. Indians, and others, ascribe religious meaning to the east-west factor also. Most modern made canvas lodges are very waterproof and are treated. With the prevailing winds in most parts of the country east to west, when the flaps are facing downwind, there is little chance for rain to enter. In fact, I have never heard of rain coming in. Tee pees are not perfect cones. They slant from back to front and other design factors make them very sturdy, comfortable places to live. They are big, very expensive and those long-long poles are difficult to transport. That is why many use other types of lodges like I do.
 
Fourth picture: Do you get "marked down" for bringing camp furniture that's held together by wood screws? :eek: Or is that type of hardware older than I think? :huh:

Looks like a fine way to spend a birthday or any other day. But (for me anyway) not too many in a row, eh?
 
Fourth picture: Do you get "marked down" for bringing camp furniture that's held together by wood screws? :eek: Or is that type of hardware older than I think? :huh:

Looks like a fine way to spend a birthday or any other day. But (for me anyway) not too many in a row, eh?

Good catch. That little folding table was a gift from my wife. While the table style is period correct, the screws sure aren't. 'suppose I could fill the holes or plug 'em. Actually, the camp chairs are argued by some to not be 'correct'. Similar chairs were found during the time period but unlikely in a trappers camp. We do allow concessions there. Lots of us are a bit older than the trappers were. Many of them didn't live long. 40 was an old man. We do need to rest our backs. And, I do mean need to rest them after being on our feet all day.
 
Looks like you had a great time Frank, and were in no danger of starving. :D
...Lots of us are a bit older than the trappers were. Many of them didn't live long. 40 was an old man...
It's easy to forget that many (if not most) of us here would already be pushing up daisies back in the olden days.
 
Looks great, I've done a fair bit of "Fat Bag Camping" IE using the Arn Mule, and some motorcycle camping, a much smaller Arn Mule, as well as most of summer of bicycle camping too. I also did a lot of backpacking, where I was the mule :D

Boy you learn to live on the bare essentials when you have to carry it all on your back. I subscribed to the 70/30 rule, which was taught to me like this.

Take everything you have, lay it out on the floor, remove 70% of what you have, then remove 30% of what you have left, this amount is the absolute bare necessities you NEED to bring with you :thumb: Anything after that, is a luxury. I remember once going backpacking for an extended long weekend, 4 days, with some friends, two of them were quite experienced, one was like myself, experienced, and three others were total Newbies. The night before we left, we went through all of our gear, no need for everyone bringing the same stuff, right? Well the newbies could NOT believe the total lack of stuff that they thought they would NEED that the very experienced guys had NOT brought. Well we did get them to leave a lot of stuff behind, but they still brought WAY too much stuff. We were also packing our own food, as we were walking into the mountains, no 7/11 around :D Sure we caught fish but most of what we ate, we carried. The worst thing you could do, was to come home and unpack something that you had carried around all weekend long and NOT used (talking luxury items here, NOT a first aid kit).

Ah, your post brought back a lot of good memories for sure.

Glad you had fun.
 
Looks like you had a great time Frank, and were in no danger of starving. :D

It's easy to forget that many (if not most) of us here would already be pushing up daisies back in the olden days.

Yes. Today, what we might consider a minor injury could result in slow, agonizing death to a trapper stranded in the mountains. Gangrene was common. Lack of warm and dry footwear meant frostbite and, probably, death. Illnesses simply went untreated because no one knew what to do. Add simply freezing to death, starvation, Indians wanting to kill you, grizzly bear attacks (not uncommon), horses slipping and falling down steep mountainside, etc., life was very uncertain. That is a big reason they lived it up so big at rendezvous. Every one might be their last.
 
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