Mountain Man Rendezvous have a long and rich history, these where often bi-annual events where trappers, mountain men and peddlers would come together to exchange their wears and enjoy some stories and swap skills. Well speed it up a century and you have the Modern Mountain Man Rendezvous in Warner Springs. The key word here is modern!
While we have been to mountain man rendezvous that focused on period specific equipment and roles this event takes on a decidedly different approach, gathering a diverse cross section of outdoorsmen ship. With everything from modern woodsmen to preppers regular families and everything in between this was a down and dirty fun event. Many of the people attending were also involved in the outdoor industry and provided a wealth of knowledge on top of the scheduled classes.
Speaking of classes the price of admission was well worth it, we started Friday afternoon and wrapped up Sunday. Between these days it was like adult summer camp. There was an archery range with coaches going all day for everyone. Between that where formal classes on everything from wilderness first aid to dressing game. If sitting around wasn’t your cup of tea there were multiple guided hikes to include a wild edibles themed one with some hands on grubbing.
I had a good view from my booth, yes booth Kit Fox Outfitters is now mobile and available for events, weddings and, bar mitzvahs, haha. I had an absolute blast offering our stuff and just hanging around and meeting people from all sorts of different backgrounds. The vender selection was pretty good too, we had plenty of gear and local outdoor small businesses on hand making it a great place to pick up some cool gear. It being our first event it was quite a learning process and I’m sure we will be others in the near future.
Like any event you can’t have it without the hard work of a few individuals, and a big thanks is owed to John Heffron of Wingman115 a local internet personality who posts some great instructional and review videos on YouTube and Brady Pesola of San Diego School of Survival a company based on promoting and teaching survival skills in San Diego. These guys did an amazing job of organizing this event and bringing together so many great people.
This was a great event and we are looking forward to the fact it is a Bi-Annual event. I will make sure I have some help at the “store” next time and look forward to getting out there and seeing you guys and gals there next time!
