To Preserve the Heritage of the Fur Trade Era

New Mexico Mountain Men

McGaffey Lake Rendezvous - 2004

McGaffey 2004 has come and gone. Fifty some folks attended the 4-day rendezvous this year. A little rain on Saturday slowed things down; but as soon as the sun broke through, the activities jumped into high gear. Not going to elaborate just yet on the shining times. A special guest writer will have something for us next month. The results of most of the individual events are listed in this newsletter a little later on.

A bunch of new faces showed up this year, which is always great. Quite a few folks came over from Arizona and new NMMM members from all over New Mexico. Glad to have ya! We did miss the familiar faces that didn’t show. Hope to see all of you again real soon.

"Gone Again" donated a beautiful shield as an in-camp raffle prize this year. Lots of tickets were purchased; but of course it only takes one, and that one belonged to "Does It All". However, a little post-drawing horse trading ensued, after which "Tatonka" claimed the shield and "Does It All" went away with a nice Beacroft bow. Smiling faces all around. Thanks "Gone Again"!

Didn’t quite break financially even on rendezvous this year, but rendezvous is why we’re here and we did good.

Long Shot

Lots of smiling faces at McGaffey. The big fella in the photo looks a whole lot like our Booshway; and the little gal strung up by the neck is Callie the Calabasas beaver.

From Packmule’s Lodge; The Labor Day weekend rendezvous at Mcgafee Lake was one to remember. For those of you who missed it, we missed you, too! And you missed your chance to see some water in the lake…a few inches maybe, but water all the same. We started the doin’s a little early this year. Tatonka and I and the girls showed up on Tuesday afternoon, only to find out that Cassandra and Brett beat us up there! By Wednesday afternoon there were three or four more early campers…and talk of having the hooters brought in earlier next year! We shared some quiet time and good food before all the shootin’ started on Friday.	This Way!
Friday dawned clear and pretty, and many of us were able to do our trailwalks, as well as various other shoots. And it’s a good thing we did, because the rain started falling Friday night while we slept. And what a downpour it was! It rained steadily all day Saturday, most of us spent our time huddled under various canopies visiting and drinking coffee. We are a hardy bunch who just like being part of rendezvous, because I never heard a complaint one during the inclement weather. My memory is a little fuzzy about the days and times that all the events took place, but I can tell you we managed to work around the weather and have a lot of good fun!
Thursday Evening Potluck
As I said, a whole month has passed since this all took place, so allow me to hit the high spots… "Many Scars" was kind enough to lend some of his perversions to the Mountain Man Run. Along with the usual shooting, fire starting and trap setting, the contestants had to haul traps and beavers with them during the run.
	Joel on the Mountain Man Run
Thanks to Long Tongue and Joel for providing the targets and putting on the archery trail walk. Lots of folks are getting interested in archery, and therefore we gave primitive bows away to the aggregate winners.

One of the highlights of the weekend was our friend Storm Dancer! She always treats the kids at rendezvous with much importance and respect. She took the time to take the kids on hikes, looking for food (Yucca root, pinion nuts, wild onions…) and even showed them how to start a fire in the rain. Storm Dancer also educated the adults by cooking a venison stew inside of a deer’s stomach, exactly as the Indians would have done. The authentic use of ingredients (Deer meat and stomach provided by "Walks on a Rope") and cooking method, as well as the tasty outcome, earned her first place in the cooking contest. Thanks for taking the time to show us how it was done!
Deer Stomach Cooking
I could go on for a long time…Strawstalkers’ poetry, Joel’s banjo, and Charles’ singing around the campfire, the outcome of the Ugly Man Contest (Hint: ask Timber about it!) Suffice it to say, we had a great time and look forward to next year. Thanks to everyone who helped with targets, shoots, scoring, prizing etc. Special thanks to "Gone Again" for once again donating an original work of her art for the raffle. As is our custom, the weekend was brought to a close by a memorial service on Monday morning, complete with bagpipes and a rifle salute, honoring fallen service men and others who have completed their journeys. It was a haunting and beautiful tribute.
Before I close, I want to thank everyone who turned up for the Ham shoot. If you didn’t make it, you were missed. We had great weather, good shooting, and a hamburger cookout. We gave away 8 hams. We hope to see all of you at the Turkey shoot in November, and bring some friends! We need more shooters, and can always use some new competition! Pack Mule
"Stands on a Rope" Making Fire	"Pack Mule" & "Timber"

McGaffey Lake Rendezvous Results Did a lot of playing at rendezvous this year. Here’s how it panned out (Minus a few events I couldn’t figure out. I apologize if I missed you.).
Multiple Gongs 1^st — Ron B. 2^nd — "Hands" 3^rd — "Waits to Shoot"	Men’s Knife & Hawk 1^st — "Strawstalker" 2^nd — "Pack Mule" 3^rd — "Waits to Shoot"	Jrs. Hawk & Knife 1^st — Katy V. 2^nd — Meca W. 3^rd — Casey W.
Women’s Pistol Trailwalk 1^st — "Tatonka" 2^nd — Claudia M. 3^rd — "Gone Again"	Jrs. Rifle Trailwalk 1^st — Meca W. 2^nd — Casey W. 3^rd — Katy V.	Women’s Shoot 1^st — "Gone Again" 2^nd — "Tatonka" 3^rd — "Does It All"
Women’s Rifle Trailwalk 1^st — "Gone Again" 2^nd — Martha G. 3^rd — "Tatonka"	Women’s Feather Shoot 1^st — "Does It All" 2^nd — "Blows Hard" 3^rd — Andrea Y.	Men’s Rifle Trailwalk 1^st — Joel H. 2^nd — "Waits to Shoot" 3^rd — "Many Scars"
Open Rifle Shoot 1^st — "Long Shot" 2^nd — "Waits to Shoot" 3^rd — Mark B.	Men’s Pistol Trailwalk 1^st — "Hands" 2^nd — Joel H. 3^rd — "Pack Mule"	Pistol Duel 1^st — "Strawstalker" 2^nd — Joel H. 3^rd — "Waits to Shoot"
Bill Thieman Shoot 1^st — Guido G. 2^nd — "Pack Mule" 3^rd — Ron D.	Women’s Pistol 1^st — "Tatonka" 2^nd — "Gone Again" 3^rd — Andrea Y.	Long Gong 1^st — "Pack Mule" 2^nd — "Timber" 3^rd — "Waits to Shoot"
Bow Shoot - Men 1^st — Guido G. 2^nd — Ron Door 3^rd — Mark B.	Bow Shoot – Women 1^st — Martha G. 2^nd — "Does It All" 3^rd — "Gone Again"	Bow Shoot - Juniors 1^st — Marin M. 2^nd — 3^rd —
MM Run 1^st — "Pack Mule" 2^nd — Joel H. 3^rd — "Hands"	Fusil Match 1^st — "Stands on a Rope" 2^nd — Joel H. 3^rd — "Pack Mule"	Women’s Knife & Hawk 1^st — "Does It All" 2^nd — Martha G. 3^rd — "Blows Hard"
Best Primitive Camp (human) 1^st — Brad Paul W. 2^nd — "Stands on a Rope"	Best Primitive Camp (Simpler Lifestyle) Bret & Cassandra’s little dog took best camp in the simpler lifestyle category. The little mutt set up a pretty fair lean to.
So that pretty much wraps up McGaffey for this year. Missed seeing a few folks from down around El Paso, but that’s the way it goes sometimes. Saw quite a few new faces, which is always a good thing. Hope to see them again. Yup, pretty much a good time.

To Preserve the Heritage of the Fur Trade Era

New Mexico Mountain Men

McGaffey Lake Rendezvous - 2004

McGaffey Lake Rendezvous Results