Cordova is known as Alaskas Hidden jewel.Beautiful scenery everywhere you look. It's also a town populated by lots of great people. Alaskans.
Cordova is also known for its weather, on the moist side generally. Like much of Alaska ,Cordova was experiencing an extended period of rainy weather. We were hoping for the best, knowing full well that the shooters would persevere no matter what the conditions were.
ItsanSKS and I flew into town on Friday afternoon and the weather was pretty nautical, very rainy with some wind. We picked up the truck that had been left for us to use at the airport, thanks a million Taylor. Drove to our hosts Clay and Lila's home and set up camp and then went and looked at the Cordova Trap And Gun Club range. All good.
Saturday morning early we got set up in a light rain. Shooters arrived in full rain gear and helped set up.
Possibly because of the prolonged rainy spell the number of shooters was low,seven total, but they were enthusiastic and teachable. Two were experienced Appleseed shooters.
It's hard to say enough good things about the shooters. They cheerfully ran through the course of fire and the drills we put them through,and the history, all made good progress. They ate up the history and the message of liberty.
Saturday we got everyone's rifle in order went through the course of fire and history. The shooters seemed to catch on quickly. The rain didn't slow us down a bit.
Sunday after the brief morning refresher we started the AQT grind. By now there were only four shooters left. All the showed marked improvement.Teachable Toni went from total novice to the mid 100s,Stan and Clay were knocking on the 200s and Ryan shot 208,209 and 220 to qualify.
As soon as the shoot was over and we had cleaned up and put everything away, the sun came out and we all sat around on the porch of the gun club and talked. My guess would be that all will be shooting with us again.
Cordova is a beautiful place but I think the real jewel is the people. I look forward to coming back next year.
Many thanks to our host, Cordova Trap And Gun Club
A few pictures from Cordova
Thanks again Mike and Eric for all that you do. I had an absolute blast last weekend and am already looking forward to the next one! :~
Sorry for the delay in participating in the AAR. Life's been hectic...
When OldMikey says the weather was forecast to be 'nautical', what he means is that the weather report had been varying from anywhere between .25" and 2.5" of rain PER DAY, with winds forecast to be somewhere between 5 and 25mph. The weather guessers had no idea what the weather was going to be like in Cordova, but nobody thought it was going to be 'nice'...
The Summer of 2022 has been one of the rainiest summers on record here in Alaska, and Cordova has been getting positively soaked. The folks that live in Cordova are used to rain; but I think this was just too much rain, for too long. You could read it in everyone's faces- they were just *done* with rain, almost to the point where they were looking forward to snow.
That said, the weather was nice; sure it rained, but it wasn't the soaked-to-the-bone, gully-washing, frog choking rain[/] that had been coming down for what seemed like weeks on end, but more akin to the 'I guess I don't have to water the lawn today' kind of rain that is comforting to watch from the front porch with a cup of hot coffee.
All in all, it was a great event, and I'm looking forward to doing it again next year!