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5 day snowshoe trip in Colorado
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Greenhorn
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Last week me and a couple Brothers did a 5 day primitive snowshoeing trip in Northern Colorado around the headwaters of the Laramie River. Each day we packed up in the morning and traveled to a different lake on snowshoes pulling our gear with toboggans. We were at around 9000-9500ft elevation, but there was not too much snow this year. The weather was pretty nice with the low being about 5F. We did not use any shelters, just slept out in the open with our wool blankets and buffalo robes and were mighty comfortable.


I just thought I'd share some sketches. Hope you all enjoy. Eventually these and more will be up on the http://www.rockymountainoutfit.com website.


Traveling across Lost Lake


Scott Walker pulling toboggan


Bedding of wool blankets and buffalo robes


Scott Walker, Steve Chin, Bradley C Bailey


Warming up while waiting for the sun to hit camp


Scott Walker


Steve stopping to enjoy the view


Your Most Humble & Obedient Servant,
Bradley C Bailey
AMM #1980, http://www.rockymountainoutfit.com
 
Posts: 21 | Location: Centennial, Colorado | Registered: 21 May 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Bradly,

Those pics reminds me of the dogsledding trips I used take into the Mentasta Mountains up here. Basically same type of outfits and gear, just accompanied by 5-8 sleddogs.

Good doings!

Regards, xfox


The forest is a wilderness only to those that fear it, silent only to those that hear nothing. The forest is a friend to those that dwell within its' nature and it is filled with the sounds of life to those that listen.
 
Posts: 532 | Location: Bitterroot Valley | Registered: 23 October 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Graybeard
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Looks like great time! Thanks for sharing!


Experience is the best teacher, hunger good sauce.
Osborne Russell Journal of a Trapper
 
Posts: 212 | Location: SW Montana | Registered: 17 December 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Graybeard
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Inspiring...

End of February, we are doing a hike in Winter encampment here in Maine. Any pics of a empty taboggan?
 
Posts: 238 | Registered: 08 August 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Keep them pictures coming please, very interesting.
Walk
 
Posts: 342 | Location: Alberta, Canada | Registered: 15 January 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Looks like good times. There's nothin' like being out in the mountains in the winter.
Thanks for sharing.
 
Posts: 330 | Location: Twin Falls ID | Registered: 29 January 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Very impressive!!! Thanks for sharing such an adventure!!!


"Don't Retreat, just reload"
 
Posts: 411 | Location: Oregon Territory | Registered: 26 February 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Free Trapper
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Shining times fer shore Big Grin


" You do with your scalp as you wish and don't be telling us what to with ours."
 
Posts: 158 | Location: lake champlain, vt | Registered: 03 January 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Greenhorn
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Thanks for the kind words everyone.

These moving trips are great. After 5 days I was still ready for more. If we had just packed in somewhere and camped for 5 days I would have been so bored. But having a purpose and somewhere to go keeps things interesting. We always come back from these trips with a new set of lessons learned.

If anyone has any questions about anything (clothing, gear, advice, ...), please don't hesitate to ask. I could go on and on about these adventures but I don't want to bore anyone.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Bradley C Bailey,


Your Most Humble & Obedient Servant,
Bradley C Bailey
AMM #1980, http://www.rockymountainoutfit.com
 
Posts: 21 | Location: Centennial, Colorado | Registered: 21 May 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Good doings. Shining times.

In the picture of Scott, Steve, and Bradley, each man has a different style of snowshoes. Can you tell me the names of each style and any advantages or disadvantages between the different styles?

I used to live in the North and have a pair of snowshoes similar to the ones that Bradley is holding. I know them as "Michigan style".

In lue of a toboggan I made a sled with wide wooden runners that I used to haul my gear through the snowy north woods. It worked okay, but I suspect a toboggan would have been better.

Now, I live down here in the land of the Cherokee. We don't get much snow here.


Know what you believe in. Fight for your beliefs. Never compromise away your rights.
 
Posts: 1296 | Location: Cherokee Land, Tenasi | Registered: 06 January 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Greenhorn
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Rancocas:

In the past I have used sleds I made out of elk rawhide and willows, but this year I didn't have time to make a new one and got a 6ft wooden toboggan from the local Bass Pro shop. It sure pulled nicely. I will not disagree that toboggans were used during the time period, but would a trapper in the mountains have made one in the field, I dunno?

I am far from an expert with snowshoes, but I'll try my best to give some answers. I am sure others can chime in with their experiences.

Scott has a "Montagnay" style shoe from Canada. I always joke with him that he is Canadian at heart. Being bigger they give better floatation but at the expense of being more awkward to walk in. They also have a tighter weave than the others, which I think is a disadvantage if it were wetter spring time snow, but an advantage in powder.

Steve has an "Ojibwe" style shoe, pointed on both ends. They are easiest to make since they don't require as much wood bending or shaping. They are a good all around snowshoe.

I actually have a "bearpaw" style. It is rounded on both ends. It is smaller than a Michigan, and does not have the tail. It is a good style when navigating through trees since it is smaller and easier to turn in them without the long tails. The disadvantage is that they do not track as well and can be more difficult when going long distances. They won't float near you as much in the powder snow, but I am a relatively light fellow.

Off hand, some visual references on snowshoes during the Mountain Man time period are Catlin who shows Ojibwe style. Bodmer depicts Mandans(?) pulling a toboggan across the frozen Missouri. Also if you look at museum collections (check out http://http://anthro.amnh.org/north), a lot of the Plains and Mountain Indians made real simple bearpaw styles, sometimes not even taking the hair off the rawhide. I suspect they were made out of necessity and not something relied upon as much as the fancy ones made up in the far North.

Anyways, just some of my thoughts on the subject.


Your Most Humble & Obedient Servant,
Bradley C Bailey
AMM #1980, http://www.rockymountainoutfit.com
 
Posts: 21 | Location: Centennial, Colorado | Registered: 21 May 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Okay, thanks.
I couldn't see the bottom of your shoes because of the snow.

Mine have a tail and are about 3' long overall, and about 10" wide. I'm told that my Michigan shoe is a good trail shoe for flat or rolling terrain. I did find them a bit difficult to use on steep countryside.
Your bearpaws are supposed to be good for manuevering in thiok brush.
As you said, your friend's Montagnay shoe should be good in loose, powdery snow, but I think you would have to walk like you had a pole up your nether part in order to use them. That would take some getting use to!
I have seen some people in Canada tie a cord to the front tip of those Objibwa shoes. Holding the other end, they could then lift the front of those shoes when needed for a high step, or to help dump snow off of them.

We had a big snowfall here today. We got all of half an inch. It is gone already.


Know what you believe in. Fight for your beliefs. Never compromise away your rights.
 
Posts: 1296 | Location: Cherokee Land, Tenasi | Registered: 06 January 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Your adventuresomeness is to be commended. Takes hearty guys to do that but I'm sure the enjoyment made up for the fatigue factor. I never did anything like that. Too old now to consider so I'll enjoy vicariously by enjoying your post.
 
Posts: 1487 | Location: Mountain Home, Arkansas | Registered: 08 October 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Great doings for sure. Thank you for sharing.

BC


"Better fare hard with good men than feast it with bad."
Thomas Paine
 
Posts: 649 | Location: Oregon | Registered: 27 June 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Great photos, looks like a great trip. Thanks for showing us all that!


Never flinch
 
Posts: 524 | Location: Surprise Valley, California/Nevada | Registered: 06 September 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Free Trapper
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cool man wish we were there


slow is smooth, smooth is fast
 
Posts: 197 | Location: the backwoods of Gunnison CO | Registered: 04 July 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Greenhorn
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quote:
Originally posted by Bradley C Bailey:
Rancocas:

It sure pulled nicely. I will not disagree that toboggans were used during the time period, but would a trapper in the mountains have made one in the field, I dunno?


If he were at all associated with the Hudson's Bay Company he would have. Larpenteur used his with dogs, and among Kurz field sketches are both a traineau (toboggan), and a dog drawn cariole. It's well enough documented.


“A good dog is so much a nobler beast than an indifferent man that one sometimes gladly exchanges the society of one for that of the other.” (William Francis Butler)
 
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Hivernant
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Those are great pictures, Bradley! Thanks for sharing.

Pare-
 
Posts: 104 | Location: Little River, I.T. | Registered: 06 February 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Hivernant
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I have a few couple questions, Bradley.

Are there any records of the Lachine blanket on inventory lists? I've seen "striped blankets" in both French and English, so do you believe the Lachine is what they are referring to? I haven't found the Ingenious blanket neither, but I own one simply because I believe the ywere had in I.T. Catlin painted Kotz-a-to-ah who wears one.

I haven't seen the mittens that de Pourtales collected from the Creek man around Ft. Gibson, so I don't know if they were wool or buckskin, so I created my own simple pair using plain ol' common sense. Do you have a pattern you used? Do you have one pair of each for different seasons?

As far as the sled is concerned, I believe it was more wide-spread than we think. Just like the bullboat; we used it in Florida from Bartram's time (1774) and continued to use it in 1836 according to Lt. Prince in 1836. I believe bullboats were used here in I.T. after the removal and doubt that that knowledge was left at Tampa during our removal.

Pare-
 
Posts: 104 | Location: Little River, I.T. | Registered: 06 February 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Greenhorn
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1) The red striped blank was called "Garanago" or something... at least that is what Northwest Traders sells them as. I have only seen a couple inventories that specifically listed "red striped blanket," but there are many in Alfred Jacob Miller paintings.

http://mtmen.org/mtman/html/rmo1836.html
http://mtmen.org/mtman/html/newlnote.html

2) I have one blanket wool mitten, and an outer "chopper" made of buckskin. I don't have much gear that I use in specific seasons. I made the pattern I use myself. Gene Hickman of the Manuel Lisa party wrote an article about them a few years back in the Tomahawk and Long Rifle. If I can find it I can scan you a copy.


Your Most Humble & Obedient Servant,
Bradley C Bailey
AMM #1980, http://www.rockymountainoutfit.com
 
Posts: 21 | Location: Centennial, Colorado | Registered: 21 May 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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