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Encampments
Forts of today, and more !Fort Bridger, Wyoming
State Historic Site PO Box 35, Fort Bridger, WY 82933 (307) 782-3842, FAX
(307)782-7181 This is a great camp spot for a small party and in this area several have made different requirements or learned new or renewed skills. Can be a test of one's ability to survive. Mar. 1995 Head a group of AMM members into the mountains above Ft. Collins, a primitive camp at Bull Mountain site, south of Laramie, WY, but in Colorado. Found this site by accident when near here looking for new hunting area last year. Everyone likes the spot as its in a small grove of aspens with an active beaver stream, lots of firewood and good cover to be hidden from the public. The camp goes well with the usual members coming and going. I will spend several days and nights here later this month as a requirement of the AMM to advance to a higher level within the ranks. Need to live here three days and two nights alone, setup a camp, trap for food or shoot and forage my edibles as well as keep a record of what was done and how well I handle the experience. Apr. 1995 I arrive back at this site to full fill the mentioned requirement, I hike into the spot found earlier in the month. Take my first of two loads in and setup camp, with all the activity in the mountains anymore you have to bring in water or spend most of your day boiling it, reason for additional two trips in was bring water barrels. By 10 AM I am setup, have a fire going and will have a comfortable bed of small pine limbs cut and laid out under my lean-too. Have a large rock to my back with good cover to hide and protect me from possible mountain lions in the area, have several escape routes planned if needed. Should be an excellent spot to watch for game in the valley below, as well as a good place to defend from local natives. I have a good supply of firewood covered in case the weather changes and have hung the small amount of food I brought with me in a tree away from my camp. After lunch and the fire has burned down, I scout around the area for a possible place to set a trap or two and maybe a snare in a game trail. After several hours a place is picked and the snare and traps are set and baited. I spend the rest of the day scouting for game and sign, lots of activity in the area, elk and deer tracks are everywhere. Even find tracks that I believe are moose, as this is a release area for them. I work my way around to camp, looking for any unusual sign such as cat or bear, a lot of dead timber and soft ground that a bear may find to his liking for ground insects or roots. Find no sign of this type of activity in the area, a relief to me, but I will be on guard for such a visit, have read of cat problems in the next valley. I restart the fire and have an early supper, then settle down to watch the valley until its dark and return to sleep with a primed flint pistol at my reach and my rifle close by, ready for whatever is required. The next day is spent gathering firewood, checking my traps and trying to catch some fish near the beaver ponds. Spend some time working down into the valley below my camp and checking how visible it is from down here. After moving around for an hour I decide to make some needed changes to my camp after viewing it from several different angles, this takes an hour or so. Have a late lunch, then check traps and back down to check hand line at the ponds. Its trying to snow, go back to camp and put more cover on the sides of the lean-too, to try and close in the ends making in more wind proof and hopefully warmer. This is my second required night in camp, hope to catch at least a rabbit or a fish before the day ends. I return and check my sets and then spend the rest of the day fishing, finally I catch a 11-12 inch trout, but it has bent my last hook, I know where another hook is just have to wade into retrieve it from a log. I take the trout back to camp after cleaning and put it over the fire to bake, get warm then go back for the other hook, which is gotten with not much effort, other than getting wet and cold. Return to work with fish and get dry and warm, all works out better than I had figured, got part of a bath, (but not high enough up to have voice problems), and feed all in one afternoon. I'm up at dawn and have half my gear backed, have fire going and water heating, take bedroll and one empty water keg down to vehicle. Have some breakfast and some coffee, fill canteens and finish packing camp, make another trip to vehicle with items not needed for a day scouting the area. What is left I will use in making my rounds, only need to tear apart snare and pickup traps, otherwise I'm ready to scout or head to the vehicle. Mid afternoon I work my way down to the vehicle and get on the CB, channel 19, Powderhawk is coming by late and wanted to meet me as he's returning from Hannan, WY and cuts across country within a few miles from here. No answer, I'll try in a half hour, he will be here as he knows right where I have left the vehicle. Its now 4 PM he was to be here around 3PM, I'll give him another half hour then head out to the main road. No answer, so I start out to the main road, couple of miles, as I climb up a short hill there's Powderhawk sitting, he's been watching me for a half hour, his CB antenna is acting up and could hear me calling but couldn't answer. We stop long enough for him to tell me I look like hell and away we go heading south to his place, a good two hour drive. Late April '95 Leave Loveland, CO from Trustem's Farm and head to Vern's Place (approx. 19 miles) head northwest following the Pourdre River (approx. 53 miles). Stop and rest for a short time at Garth Peterson's, lots of mud and snow making for poor travel, we still need to go 19 plus miles to camp site. About 10 miles of it is in low ground and probably very poor footing available. Its around 175 miles of mud and snow so far, could be a hard camp this time. We finally arrive at the site, an easy 2 foot of snow covers the trail in, we break down a path hoping it stay open for the others. We clear a spot for the wedge tent and set it up, build a fire and gather firewood, we're in good shape when Bill Klesinger and Mike Moore show up, had the same problems with coming in as we did, soft ground most of the way. The snow keeps coming, about an inch an hour and now the wind is really blowing, and my cold from a month ago is starting to give me cold chills and then moves into hot sweats, not doing good at this point. We have a large kettle of stew going and Mike makes some "Bannock", I'm starting to get the shakes and have to retire to the tent and cover up for a while. In the mean time Ken Smith shows up and sets up a lean-too next to the wedge tent, I never hear a thing until the next morning, by then I'm shaking so bad I can hardly talk. Everyone tells Kermit to load up and get me out of there, this is done in record time and we're heading home, Powderhawk drives my vehicle as I'm to sick to get the job done. Hawk tells me that I helped make jerky on an open fire with a green stick frame and roasted green coffee beans for everyone and ground the beans up using my camp ax. I tell him I don't remember any of what he has said, really don't, he thinks I pulling his leg! At 9500 feet I guess I was out of it as mentioned, don't remember any of it. I guess Mike and Bill made several trips scouting the area, really liked what they saw, even patterned a shotgun for Mike, don't remember that either. Firewood was an never ending job just keeping it at hand. Not a good camp for me as I remember very little of what went on, and I don't drank hard stuff anymore. I guess we named this place "Lost Park", beats me I guess I was lost, or at a lost, something !!! This is near the AMM encampment location, earlier in April of this year, I'm so sick that it seems like it takes days to get to Hawk's place after leaving. I stay at his place that night and drink a half bottle on Night Quil, wake up at 7AM and get up and head for home, takes three hours instead of the usual two, I'm sick. This last for several days before starting to get better, bad stuff.
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