Walking
through the woods, a light breeze rustles the tops of the trees as you
slip silently through the old growth forest making your way west. Just
down the trail, you come upon an ancient rock shelf that has been
blackened by a thousand fires and you realize that you are not the
first to pass this way. As you examine the site and make a mental note
of its location, you hear the soft rustle of leaves just behind you. A gray squirrel searching for nuts for his winter cache? No, the sound
was too large. Darting quickly behind an oak that was just a sapling
when Lewis and Clark passed this way, your heart races as you lay your
eyes upon a handsome bobcat. In your excitement at this chance
encounter, your moccasin feet knock a stone loose and it begins to
slide to the stream below. The cat stops at this sound and looks right
at you in a questioning way, turns and then disappears into the forest
behind him. This experience will not soon be forgotten. That night as
you sit by the fire describing your encounter to your trekking
companions, the fire seems to crackle and pop with the same excitement
you feel. A deep sense of satisfaction washes over you as you drift
off to sleep, the feeling that you are a true frontiersman.
You have just
experienced a taste of what our American forefathers saw as they made
their way west, a chance encounter with nature as wild as it was in the
mid 1700’s. Frontier Trekking can offer such a glimpse into this as no
other experience can. Wearing your FCF outfit as a true frontiersmen,
taking only what you can carry, building a new fire with flint and
steel each night. Using the skills that you have acquired during trace,
rendezvous, and outpost Royal Ranger meetings. No other event can
compare to a Frontier Trek.
When many think
of Frontier Trekking, the image of a Colonial Long Hunter usually comes
to mind. Not only is there the Colonial Long Hunter that made his way to Cantuckee. But in the westward expansion of America, the edge of the
frontier changed many times. One could portray the Southwestern Beaver Trapper that took his plews to Santa Fe, or the Rocky Mountain Fur Trapper that rendezvoused on the Wind River Range or the Coeur
deBois of the Old Northwest.
Frontier
Trekking can have many looks from many times, but the mission is the
same: To find adventure in the company of men and boys as we explore
God's creation and recreate a lifestyle of days gone by.
Our goal in FCF
when trekking is experimental archeology. Many of the day to day chores
and events of the period have been lost to history, and in recapturing
that history, we will find adventure! Will you find it with us?
