AFTER ACTION REPORT -- KIFARU RENDEZVOUS NEAR GREAT SACANDAGA LAKE, NY

[Firewall99]

Date:  Thursday-Sunday, Feb. 10-13, 2011

Location: A remote camp in the Adirondack Mountains of Northville, NY, which is 23 miles from our friends in Lake George, NY

In attendance:  Firewall99, Andy in NH, Patrick, founder of Kifaru International, plus about a dozen wild and crazy guys

Purpose:  For the Appleseeders in attendance, this was a way to explore the outer reaches of Winterseeding and surviving cold weather operations.  For the Kifaru guys it was to party with old friends and to see, use, and discuss the latest in Kifaru camping and survival equipment.  Many of the participants took the opportunity to show off and let us shoot an amazing number of unusual firearms.  There was also an undeclared heater competition (See below.).  

The weather was nearly ideal, as there was very little wind to cause potentially dangerous wind chill.

  Thursday: Cold & Sunny / Low -8° F / High 15° F
  Friday: Even colder just before dawn (-12° F), then Warmer (20° F) & Partly Sunny
  Saturday: Warmer Still (28° F) & Cloudy

Thursday afternoon a few of us early birds met at the trail head to begin the trek up to the camp.  Andy and his friend Robbie both had sleds all packed and ready to go.  Andy was completely self-contained and could have operated without any of the extras provided by the camp.  He had a Kifaru 8-man tipi and the bare minimum for a gourmet camping and shooting experience.  His friend Robbie, a colorful Navy Chief, brought a very useful kitchen sink, which did include a marvelous Belgian Browning tube-fed 22LR carbine that fed through the rear and was the cutest little thing.  (I am sorry that I didn't discover it until Sunday morning while we were packing to go home.)  I had essentially a day pack, as I was the rookie of this operation and was there to observe and learn.  I couldn't bring my LRB because NY is a slave state, a point I made several times that weekend while contrasting what it's like to live in the FREE state of NH.  But I digress.

In traditional rookie fashion, I was over prepared for the cold.  The first thing I learned was that my Arctic mittens and King of the Mountain heavy wool coat were intended for people who have to stand around doing nothing in -20° F and below.  Since we were exercising moderately in +10° weather, I almost boiled away!  Once I got to the camp, the mittens and coat were stowed, as the 5 layers of long underwear and shirts were more than enough.

Since Patrick had all the Kifaru gear, he took advantage of the snowmobile train that ran up and back several time to bring in all the supplies for the rest of us.  Once at the camp, we all started putting up the tipis.

Erecting a 24-man tipi is quite an experience, one that we will be repeating this coming weekend at the Winterseed in Peterborough, NH.  Patrick showed us all the tricks to do it, and Andy and I are now well-trained in this arcane art.  The most unusual thing about a tipi this big is that is uses not one but two stove/heaters and two support poles.

Once up, the task began to split enough wood to get through the night and also have enough kindling to start the stoves in the morning.  Robbie and others did a wonderful job.  

Here is where one of the themes of the weekend entered into the picture.  Chaos theory.  Everyone is running around helping everyone else.  That was the good part.  The bad part was someone who shall go unnamed here--but we all know who he is--grabbed the morning kindling we had prepared and threw it into fire before going to bed.  I saw it happening and was too slow to stop it.  

Anyway, in the morning we were freezing, and had no kindling.  This became a perfect opportunity for Patrick to show off how well he had designed his sleeping system.  Next thing I see is a giant sleeping bag walking, yes, walking around collecting wood to split.  Patrick's bag has a section at the bottom that can be removed.  He was wearing special light weight booties with a no-slip surface that he had slept with.

I, on the other hand, had neglected to sleep with my slippers.  I call them slippers, because that what they did!  I got up to go out, and whoosh--bam!  I was flat out on my side.  The floor had turned to ice.  And Patrick was a comfy as a butterfly in a cocoon.  I paid dearly for that lesson.

After breakfast Andy and others set about installing some steel plates at various distances to shoot at, and new arrivals began pouring in.  

At some point in the evening the heater wars began.  Chaos reentered the picture, and the temperatures in the cabin and the 24-man tipi began to rise.  The cabin got to 112° F, while the tipi was pushing 100°.  Yowsah!  It was good to cool off outside!

The next day was beautiful, and we saw some really interesting firearms.  The theme at the short range seemed to be how much energy could a firearm shoot if it had shoot a bear.  Gregg showed us his 500 S&W bear gun.  This is a revolver with an orange handle, indicating that it is a piece of emergency equipment, designed to stop a bear in one shot.  That is a good thing, because you only want to shoot it once.  If your wrist isn't broken, you count yourself lucky!  In all fairness, if one had to use it against a bear, the last thing you'd be worried about would be the recoil.  You'd probably not even notice it.

Gregg also had a new 45-70 govt Winchester rifle.  Jesus.  With the normal ammo it was another handful.  With his special, super high-powered ammo, it was brutal.  It needed new sights, as it was about 20 MOA off.  What an experience, though.

William showed us his 10mm compact, the Glock 29.  Again with the super high power ammo and a special barrel modification to handle it, this baby was a show-stopper.  I would not want to be on the other end of that sucker!  This version of a bear gun was a little more manageable, however.  You could actually shoot a whole magazine from this one.  And then the regular ammo was a breeze.  I might actually get one of these, but I'd get the full-size version, the 20, because I would want to get a full grip on this cannon.

I missed out on the long range shooting due to a time miscalculation.  I won't miss it next year, by geesum.  But the long range targets were set up at 200 and 350 yards or thereabouts.  A broad selection of 308 700's were in use, and two Enfields showed up.  No MBR's or DMR's because of the slave state issue.  I really didn't want to install a muzzle break this time.  Maybe next year.

The food was awesome!  Great work by Kevin, Jeremy, and Larry made sure that we never lost an ounce of weight despite all our exertions during the weekend.  Kevin kicked off with some great linguicia and onions.  Jeremy returned the ball with fantastic game chili and breakfast eggs and pancakes the next day. Someone produced those marinated moose steaks, which disappeared almost instantly.  Damn, those were good!   Larry served up some spicy venison sausage that was dy-no-mite.  And finally, my Indian Candy seemed to disappear every night, so I'm grateful for that.  Thanks to all the chefs for doing a wonderful job!

There were a lot more goings on than I could cover, but this was truly an experience for the record books.  Thanks to everyone who worked to make it happen.

And a special thank you to Patrick.  Kifaru is a great outfit.  Go buy his stuff--it is the pinnacle of quality and American ingenuity.

For more, including lots of pictures and videos, see the ECR 2011 thread over at Kifaruforums.net:

http://www.kifaruforums.net/showthread.php?24710-Ecr-2011