SEQUIM — Vickie Shurr has attended the annual Green River Mountain Men Rendezvous for 30 years.
She even met her husband, Mike, at a rendezvous when it was in Ravensdale, and now they bring their 9-year-old son, Daniel, who loves to shoot along with Mom and Dad.
“He’s been shooting black powder since he was 3 years old,” she said proudly.
“It is a real family,” Vickie Shurr said of those who participate in the annual event, which moved to the Olympic foothills south of Carlsborg and southwest of Sequim last year.
The Shurr family will be among an estimated 100 or more rendezvous-goers expected this weekend at the Green Mountain Men Rendezvous at the Peninsula Longrifles camp up Slab Camp Road today, Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
The Shurrs are the event’s trade chiefs.
“As trade chiefs, we sell the period clothing,” Vickie Shurr said. “Other people sell gun parts, accessories and cookware.”
The re-enactment of the annual fur trappers’ gatherings of the early 1800s is held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day.
“The biggest day is Saturday,” Vickie Shurr said, referring to children’s activities and shoots.
Event admission is free for those who want to come up and look around, but there is a $20 shooter’s fee for ages 13 and older.
“If someone wants to drive up the dirt road up there, we’re not going to turn them away,” Vickie Shurr said.
Period-dressed re-enactors will tend historic-style campsites.
The shoots are varied: rifle, pistol, trade gun and squirrel gun shooting, as well as old-timers shooting, a candle shoot and derringer and black powder shotgun shoots.
Primitive archery and knife events are planned along with woods trail walks and children’s activities.
A Dutch oven cookoff and council fire are scheduled.
Seminars will be presented on a variety of fur trade skills and lore.
To get there from U.S. Highway 101, turn south on Taylor Cutoff Road toward the Olympic Mountains west of Sequim for 1.6 miles, then turn right on Lost Mountain Road for another 2.6 miles up Lost Mountain Road.
Make a slight left onto Slab Camp Road at Forest Service Road 2870.
A sign will mark the Peninsula Longrifle property on the left.
The Green River Mountain Men is a nonprofit organization of men and women dedicated to educating the community about the pre-1840s fur trade era.
For more information visit www.greenrivermm.org/rondy2011.pdf or contact Lance Mertz at 206-384-9496 or lance.mertz@gmail.com.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
