Our fourth Strenfest SW has wrapped! We’re getting quite good at putting these on. Once again we held several fun and difficult events, and I’m proud to say that our membership tackled them all with grit and honor - and enjoyed doing it!

In attendance were: Garret Walliman (@gwalliman), Alan Chintis (@achintis), JT (@trottier), James Cole (@mtjcole) and Cody Bro (@danishbro). Each of these gentlemen have attended at least one Strenfest prior - it seems that they didn’t get scared off, and were excited for another five days of doing hard things.

For the fourth year in a row we held this event on private property in the Blue Range Primitive Area in the Apache Sitgreaves National Forest. Unlike previous years, for this year we traveled to several nearby places - indeed, we drove away from camp to another location on the Blue for three of our events!

Read on to review the great deeds that were accomplished at Strenfest SW 2023!

As with our other events, Day 1 is scheduled for people to simply arrive onsite. I had arrived a day early and spent the morning and afternoon prepping the path to the campsite - clearing some brush and a large felled limb, and setting stepping stones in the river for people to cross. In mid-afternoon people began to arrive - first Alan, then James, and soon enough all attendees were present!

Everyone set up their tents. Alan worked hard to set up a nice shade tarp and porch for his tent! James also spotted a visitor to the campsite.

Once darkness fell, we built and lit the first fire - as per tradition, James the Fire Master got it going using his flint and steel! Soon we had a roaring campfire.

This was our first meal together for the trip, and this time around we did something special for our group meals. Each meal was assigned to two people, who would collaborate to cook something good for the rest of us. I think we hit a real winning formula with this idea, because every meal we had this trip was fantastic - so good that I made sure to record them!

For Wednesday evening, James pulled out his massive iron pan. This pan would get plenty of use over the next several days! On it he cooked side pork, potatoes and onions, and I supplemented with campfire corn. A great meal to start the event!

We all turned in shortly afterwards, full and happy. The night was cool and peaceful and we slept well, resting up for our first big day.

Our first full day was spent working on a single badge. In fact, for the first time, we had a full day-long event instead of two half-day events. The badge in question was Scout badge, and our goal was to earn as many requirements as we realistically could!

First though we had to hang the TSL flag. Alan and I cooperated to hang it in a nearby tree:

Breakfast was collaboratively cooked by Alan and Garret. Alan cooked breakfast burritos while Garret fried bacon in a cast iron skillet. A hearty meal!

The first half of the day was spent on the educational aspects of the Scout badge. This included “Know Your Environment” - finding north, telling time using natural signs, estimating distances and heights, etc.. - along with “Compass Work”. We paid close attention to this, because we’d be using it later that afternoon!

We also tested our fitness with some sprints. The Scout badge requires you to run 50yd in 8 seconds, and 100yd in 17 seconds. We challenged ourselves to do this, and several of us found the grit to beat the timer!

Following this intense education we took a break for lunch, and after lunch we piled into a car and drove 30 minutes to a nearby lake area.

The lake area - Luna Lake - had been selected specifically due to the large amount of contiguous forest land, and its relative openness and flatness. This made it perfect for our afternoon challenge.

Before Strenfest each man had been given a topo map of the Luna Lake area and were asked to plot MGRS coordinates on the map, enough to make a 16km hiking distance. Plotting the coordinates was one thing - now it was time to actually travel to each one, using only your map and compass as a guide!

(Map)

We set off at 1PM, each man traveling to his own point, and we hiked for 4 hours. I am quite happy to report that the skills we learned in the morning worked very well! I was astonished when, upon cresting a hill on the way to my first point, I found that I had managed to follow my bearing perfectly and the distance tracked by pace was exactly the amount it should have been. Then this happened again, and again, with each point I traveled to. These skills really work!

For many of us this was our first time really hiking off-trail. We saw far more wildlife than we normally would on a trail hike - multiple people saw herds of deer, elk and more. It turns out that navigating through the woods like this is quite a fun way to hike - I plan to do it more often!

Each of us made it back to our starting position at the designated time. Pleased with our successful Scout badge accomplishments, we drove back to camp, arriving just in time to get dinner started before it got too dark.

For dinner, Alan made fajitas while Cody made jambalaya rice. What a hearty dinner! It was sorely needed after all the miles we put on our feet today.

The night was not over! We scheduled a Debate event for that evening.

Prior to the event, topics had been selected and each man was told what topic he’d be debating. He was not told, however, which side he would be on - and so he was required to arrive ready to argue either side!

We held three debates, the sides determined shortly beforehand by a coin flip. Each debate took roughly 20 minutes, and following that we voted on who the winner was.

This sort of exercise is a great way to test your persuasive / rhetorical ability, and it also tests your ability to truly understand an issue. By sheer luck, multiple times men were asked to argue on the opposite side of their actual personal opinion on an issue - really putting their skills to the test!

After the debates wrapped we kept going for a while longer, talking about the interesting issues that were raised. Finally, though, we turned in for bed.

The second full day saw us eating a delicious breakfast of chorizo burritos and french toast, cooked by Alan and James! Once again our enormous iron pan served us very well. I genuinely cannot overemphasize how well the meals turned out.

Following breakfast we shifted to our first event of the day: a sequel to last year’s “Before the Fight” event!

In 2022 we held a class called “Before the Fight” that focused on all the steps leading up to a violent conflict - situational awareness, verbals, managing unknown contacts, etc. That class was taught under the assumption that no weapons were involved. We returned to the topic this year and discussed what changes with the introduction of deadly weapons (knives, firearms, etc.)

We started class with a long discussion of the way that your legal rights and responsibilities change either when you or your opponent brings a weapon into the fight. We also discussed the related but separate differences that weapons make on your practical behavior. It did not surprise anyone that the involvement of deadly weapons changes how you approach a violent scenario!

We then moved on to practice some basic scenarios with weapons. Of course, in lieu of having training guns, we made our own:

Using these training weapons, we practiced what it feels and looks like when someone pulls a weapon on you, or when you pull a weapon on someone else. How do you handle it? What are your defenses?

One thing we discussed throughout was the relative wisdom of attempting to perform weapon disarms. Is it a good move? Is it necessary? These are context-dependent questions. The skills are good to know - and each man walked away knowing that these are the sorts of things that require far more practice in order to actually employ them.

Following the class we broke for lunch, and after lunch it was time to do some building!

The Rangers have gotten into a nice habit of building large woodpiles at the end of each Strenfest, for our own use at next year’s event. However, these piles currently simply sit out in the weather. We have nowhere to store them - but for our afternoon event, we changed that by building a woodshed!

We intentionally built the shed using primitive construction technology - lashing poles together and weaving walls from saplings. Part of the fun was getting to explore building with these methods!

Cody and JT began digging out the foundation and laying down a stone floor for the shed:

Meanwhile the other members gathered sticks of proper size to make up the frame. By the time the sticks were gathered, the floor was complete:

We cut the poles to length, dug post holes and sunk them in the earth:

Once the vertical poles were in place, we began lashing them together, starting with the walls:

And then, the roof!

Once the frame was together we began collecting saplings and weaving them to make walls. This technique is called “wattle”.

The plan was to use a similar wattle technique to create the roof, and then to daub it with mud to make it (somewhat) weatherproof. Regrettably we ran out of time, and so our roofing project will have to wait until next year.

Regardless, we were quite proud of the woodshed we had built!

A structure like this is both a permanent improvement to the campsite, and was also educational and fun to build in its own right. We hope to continue building and improving on the site every year hereafter!

Following the building project, we built up our fire and had dinner - Cody cooked jambalaya and Alan cooked fajitas. It was a hearty meal after a long day of hard work!

We had hoped to do Astronomy work this evening, but it was cloudy. As such, we turned in a little early, because we were getting an early start the next day!

After driving for an hour and a half we arrived at a local shooting range. This range had targets out to 500 yards, which was great, because our subject today was precision and long-range shooting!

After a brief overview of firearms safety and the fundamentals of precision shooting, everyone worked on sighting their firearms at 100 yards.

Once sighted in, we began working out to longer and longer distances - 200yd, 300yd, 400 and finally 500yd, the furthest target at the range!

Thanks to good fundamentals, everyone was able to score at least one hit on a 16” square target at 500 yards. It’s fun to ring steel at long distances!

TWe only had enough time to spend two hours at the range, after which we had to load back up and drive back down to the Blue. We had to get back quick in order to make our appointment at the Blue Library, to which we were returning to volunteer our services for our yearly good deed!

We believe that every Strenfest should include an event meant as a good deed. For our good deed in 2021 the Rangers visited the one-room Blue Library and applied a new coat of finish to the logs - a task that each man found very enjoyable and fulfilling. Thus we were all quite happy to return to the library in 2023 to do some more maintenance work on the building!

This time around our primary job was to help reseal the gaps between the logs using caulk. The Rangers took to this task with gusto:

While some men worked outside, other men worked inside the library, setting up a new heater and even fixing the internet! We were pleased to help with any problem the librarians had.

After the event was done, we took a photo with Jay, one of the residents who helped show us how to apply the caulk:

Back at camp we spent the remaining daylight hours chopping wood to top off our woodshed.

With this much wood, we won’t need to chop any wood for Strenfest SW 2024!

We took a well-deserved break for what was left of the day, with many men electing to bathe in the creek. We also visited the neighbors, who treated us to some beers and conversation, and even a game of horseshoes!

Finally, that evening we had our final dinner for Strenfest SW 2023, our traditional hot dog cookout. Jay Kerger, who helped at the library, joined us for the cookout and regaled us with stories of his interesting life.

Once we were all full, we had one final event! The sky was clear and we still wanted to do some astronomy work. With JT’s help we set up a telescope and gazed into the night sky.

We were able to see the rings of Saturn, and got a very impressive closeup of the moon!

All good things must come to an end, however, and we finally turned in. The final full day of Strenfest was over - tomorrow we would depart.

On our final day we woke up and began packing up the camp. After several trips across the river, the campsite had returned to its empty state, ready to wait another year for us to return.

On our last trip we did a final group photo in front of our woodshed:

We also, belatedly, took a photo of the challenge coins. Only two men remembered their coins this time - we’ll have to improve that next time!

Once packed up, we all drove up the canyon to our traditional breakfast spot, the Bear Wallow restaurant in Alpine, where we had a delicious breakfast and some final conversation.

Upon finishing, we shook hands and said our goodbyes. Another Strenfest completed! I feel that we’ve gotten pretty good at organizing and arranging them - we’ve worked out how to make them run smoothly, and how to maximize the strenuosity involved. I’m proud to have spent another five days in camp with these gentlemen, and I very much look forward to seeing them again at Strenfest SW 2024!