Lusk Creek Militia

The Adventurer, Vernon Wade

Vernon was born in the Pacific Northwest and still lives in the shadow of Mt. Hood, near the small town where he grew up. Vernon has spent decades wandering the hills, hunting mushrooms, camping and riding motorcycles into the remotest nooks and crannies to be found in the region.

Walter Dawg joined Cap’n Ron, Michael and me on a winter excursion into the Gifford Pinchot.

We drove north through thick fog. Eventually climbing out of the clouds we found ourselves in dense woods with blue sky overhead. There were a few drifts of snow under the trees and thick chunks of ice ringed the puddles in the road, but generally, the ground was clear.

We stopped at a clearing on Lusk Creek. Cap’n Ron made a fire and cut some poles which he lashed together for a cooking tripod. I made chili and hung it over the flames.

While our food was cooking we spent a couple of hours target shooting, firing semi-autos and revolvers in a variety of calibers.

My cap and ball revolver had several misfires which I am blaming on old Pyrodex, but my flintlock trade gun performed flawlessly. I was using .59 round ball with 90 grains of 2F Swiss and a wasp nest wad on top. I also tried a load of shot for the first time and was quite pleased with the resulting pattern. I used 90 grains of powder followed by a wad, equal volume of #6 shot and more wasp nest on top.

After we finished plinking, we turned our attention to food. The chili was ready. I put the cornbread in the Dutch oven for about half an hour and Cap’n Ron shared some Blackberry Jack Daniels. After supper we put the fire out, policed our brass, packed up and were home before sundown.