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Show add 10/ off the trophy deer's horns he shot with his black powder gun. Pokiee, who lead a group of mountainmen enthusiasts on a week-long winter survival test, last winter, commented that life was really tough in those days. "Those men had to be tough. We learned that out there with no one around, trying to survive on hardtack, jerky and the little bit of food we could get. But we also learned that a man could survive. You became your own person out there. "There were other types of people participating in the survival trek ~- back packers and outdoor experts -- but the mountainmen fared the best," he bragged. Shooting matches are held monthly to sharpen skills. Mountainmen worth their salt will come appropriately attired even to a hometown shoot. "That's part of the fun of it. You look like a mountainman, talk like one, act like one and pretty soon you almost believe you are one," Pokiee pointed out, a mischievous smile on his face. Spinning off into a tale, mountainman-style, he recalls the deer hunt the fall before. "We were coming out of the hills wearing our full sportin' regalia. We'd been hunting for several days and I guess I looked almost as bad as we smelled. Well, we stumbled on some easterners out camping. "We got off our horses and started joshing with them, pretending we'd never seen a car before, let alone their fancy camping equipment. We carried on for most of an hour. Don't know if they ever found out the truth," he chortled. "We just |
