Rocky Mountain Outfit — American Mountain Men (AMM) party of Colorado
Winter quarters camp was called by Bill Gantic on the weekend of January 29-31. It was located on the Uncompahgre Plateau south west of Montrose Colorado. The camp site itself sat between Wildcat and Happy Canyons. Members present were: Bradley C Bailey, Steve Chin, Bill Gantic, Tom Karnuta, and invited prospect Nathan Blanchard. This was the camp of the wolf moon, so called, for this was when the wolves howled for being hungry in the deep of winter. This meant clear and bright cold nights with sunny warm days. While we were not hungry, we did howl at the moon! We had plenty of snow in which to snowshoe and to try out two styles of elk rawhide sleds, put together by Brad, to pull in our gear as well as for wood gathering. On the walk into the site a large herd of elk was spied. Tom brought along a beaver tail which was rendered down for its oil and divided with those present to be used for their rifles, traps, &c. Good vittles, good times, and good compadre's made this a prime winter emcampment!
