The Trek to Hart Canyon 1996 A Journal Entry by Shaun Bielman

The Trek to Hart Canyon 1996

A Journal Entry by Shaun Bielman

*Written as if it was 1830*

D

ay 1 March 30th Thursday

  The day started out fair and sunny, the vehicle was loaded and fueled. 

  Walked my two young ins down to the school house. As me and my squaw made our way back to camp, we talked of my trek and the excitement I would have.

 Double Thunder made his appearance around 10:30 am, and we loaded his gear and we will be on our way.  The trail was clear and the traveling was fine, upon reaching the pass to Hart Canyon. There was a message etched into a log telling us which way to travel. After passing the first deviation to our trail we had to make another trail change to keep our journey safe.

 Arrived at rendezvous around 3:30 pm found a safe camp site and set up. Be the time camp was up and the ribs were spitted it was near dark. We sat around waiting for the food to cook. The smell of the meat made my stomach move in anticipation. The trek was long and I was very much hungry.

 When the meat was ready my knife was the first to move. I do admit it was fatty with only the smallest amount of meat but my hunger was satisfied.

  The night was cold I made my way to the blankets.

Day 2 March 31^st Friday

  The morning is much cooler than the night before. The ground was covered with frost, but the day looked promising.

 Double Thunder was already making coffee when I entered the day. The morning meal was salt pork and coffee, a meal well worth starting the day with but the noise coming from my partner about how salty it was and how I was going to die early only made me laff (laugh).

 As I was sitting there enjoying my meal the call came up from the north end of camp calling “Indian Attack! Indian Attack! Get your guns, move to the east side of your camp!”

 Well to say our faces were quiet red, our weapons were still packed up. By the time I had my gear out, most of the attack was over. I got off one shot and Double Thunder got two.

  On the way back to camp Thunder said he was going to try his hand at trading. Well, I told him good luck and headed for the walk through. The soonest I could get through was 1:00 pm. So to fill my time I went shopping.

One trader I met at the Golden Eagle Mountain Man rendezvous near Lucerne was here. He still had a collection of pipe stems and were a mere $6.00 American. I had a fine walnut stem; the only other treasure I found that day was my first new pair of buckskin trousers. $ 190.00 is a most fair for that much elk hide. I broke them in on the walk through.

 1:00 pm was at hand I made my way to the start and met my traveling companions. My group had 6 in number, small but fierce and ready to fight. I shot 9 out of 25 not real good but not bad for me first walk through, besides it was the best in the group.

  By the time I made it back to camp it was all most dark. Thunder already had two small fowls on the spit cooking.

  I sat a spell and told the tale of my trek. This brings me to the tale of Squirrel Killer. This is the name of my hawk and all its glory.

 Last spring Thunder wanted a large pine squirrel something fierce. He chased one around the top of the mountain for near 2 hours. Well this year he made plenty a comment to the effect that the need was still there. Well after settling down next to the fire this Friday night and having a nice chat on the finer art of hitting the target your shooting at, I saw a large squirrel some 20 feet away to my right. Not thinking I said to Thunder, “Look there that must be your squirrel coming to see you”. Next to Thunder on the ground laid the so to be named “Squirrel Killer”. He grabbed the handle and with a back handed throw, let the hawk fly. Not to change the story but to add I must say he could never hit the broad side of a buffalo let alone stick the hawk. Well, this hawk of mine passed within 2 foot of me on its deadly journey and found its mark square on the head of that squirrel.

Thunder leapt to his feet and I making the most controlled talk I could told him to dispose of our kill before someone saw it and we were kicked out. About that time 3 women from the camp below us were on their way to camp meeting pass by Thunder admiring his squirrel.

 Non to say they were quiet upset at the look at a squirrel with one ear doing flips at the feet of Thunder. Well, Thunder told these poor women that the squirrel was sick, may even have the plague and to stay away. Well the sick mess was caused by a crack in the head from my hawk. They turned out to be good friend of some of the club members and had one come down and have a look see for that squirrel.

*Squaw was not always considered a bad term. A hawk is a tomahawk. A walk through is a place to practice your shooting skills much like the courses police use today to hone their skills.

Rendezvous Names Part One

Now, Let's see, trying to come up with the easiest, most correct way in sharing how a person received a Rendezvous name.
Burnt Wood
There is the short story of  "Burnt Wood", a young lady in her teens was asked by her dad to gather wood for a fire, I guess I should mention that it was twilight and not much of it. She went about gathering wood and she had found a lot of it. Well, her dad not being real aware himself at that time of night, tried and tried with all his might to build a fire to warm his daughters, cook a meal and relax. But no fire, along came Doug and looked about with his lantern, chuckling, Doug said, "White Horse, I know that you know better than to start a fire with burnt wood". The next camp meeting the Young Lady was thus named "Burnt Wood"

Mole'
Now on to "Mole' ", You see Kenny was very good at carving and crafting wood Indian Love Flutes. One day he walked around camp boosting about this beautiful flute with a carved head of an eagle on it.  One by one people went to see and to compliment Kenny on his art. When along came Cindy, she in her sweet and innocent way came over to look at Kenny's wares. She picked up the flute, Kenny anxiously awaited to hear what Cindy would say about his art, she looked at it from every angle and when she placed it back down on the table she said "Nice Chicken". These words spread through camp like a wildfire. Within moments of her comment, people in the camp would walk by, saying " Hello Chicken Flute or Chicken  Kenny". He was given his official name at the camp meeting and all was ok, well sort of. Kenny really did like being called "Chicken Kenny", I can't say that I blame him, it was pretty long as well. Now, you are probably wondering how we went from Chicken Kenny to Mole'; for those of you familiar with Chicken Mole'; you might have already guessed.  Several traders (vendors for you flat landers) would travel all over the country attending different events. During one of these travels Kenny mentioned that he really enjoyed Chicken Mole'; Well, by the time they reached the west again, Kenny was no longer Chicken Kenny, he was Mole'.


LP Mournful
 LP started out simply as Bill the Moccasin maker. Bill was with Eleanor, they were traders, she wove, sewed and talked.  In the evening after supper, Bill and Eleanor would visit different camps, or gather at "music camp", to play songs, share stories and jokes.

I can not tell you how many nights that we sat around the camp fire at music camp our boys sitting between us and the fire at the start of camp and by the end of the evening, they would be sound asleep in the same place.
Always a favorite memory!

Bill received his name shortly after composing several songs. For everyone in his song, you usually died as part of the story of the song, they were also very long songs. Someone once asked how come he played such long songs and he said that he was a fan of the old 33 1/2 lps. Then he said, " You know what lp stands for don't you?" no answer..."It stands for long playing".  People in camp combined the mournful stories in his songs with the lp and came up with LP Mournful. LP for short.

Tehachapi Rendezvous ~ "Well, I dreamed I saw the silver Space ships flying"

Driving up it seemed like an eternity, but it wasn't, back then there wasn't as many homes on the side of the hills as there are today. Tucked up in the rolling hills of the Tehachapi Valley on a privately owned Ranch our good friend Cliff put on this event.
The scenery was beautiful, golden hills, some trees, boulders and lots of fun friends.
Lets see, Rusty & T; Deanna & Terry, LP Mournful & Eleanor, Dave & his gal, Doug, Clifford, Mole', Dennis, Turtle, Double-Talk and Our good friend Bill from New York.
We had a central fire pit for gathering around in the evening, when there was this secret plan to pull a prank on a good friend.
You see my sweet friend Rusty had arrived early at camp with her guy and in the evening they sat around with LP, Turtle, Eleanor and Mole, watching the stars shoot across the sky. The subject soon changed to satellites. They all talked and shared which ones each could see. That was all it took to get the guys heads turning the gears for a great prank.
The next evening, we all sat and looked for stars to shoot across the sky, looking for the "satellites" to appear when all of the sudden, Turtle who started the whole satellite thing started talking that those things were really UFO's trying with all his might to get Rusty to agree with him. Soon every one was jesting with her that they were really UFO's and that satellites could not be seen with the naked eye. The conversation lagged.
LP started playing tunes of his own and some others that most had come to know. He played and played, and then he started on a Neil Young song titled "After the Gold Rush", when he got to the line "Well, I dreamed I saw the silver Space ships flying" out from behind Rusty came this UFO! It came right over her head and sat stationary for a moment or two....Before everyone including Rusty had a hardy belly laugh that many had tears streaming out of their eyes.
Mole' had rigged together a clear glass lid, a flash light, some fishing line and a fishing pole. When ol LP started on the song, Mole' got everything ready so that when that line was just about to be sung, he turned on the flashlight, spun the lid and then lowered it in front of Rusty.
   As if on cue, we saw these lights approaching in the night sky. 5 or 6 huge military airplanes (C130's?) buzzed overhead as if on landing approach. Talk about hair-raising!
Great Memories at that Rendezvous! This just gave me an idea....I think I should write about times at Rendezvous...before family(quiet) time was implemented. You know the ol days when the kids, and adults alike would yell "R E N D E Z V O U S" at any time day or night and no one would complain!