SoCal Hoodlum Gathering

We had a large group of Hoodlums and friends gather at the Wind Wolves Wildlife Preserve, in southern California, the weekend of August 20-23.  There were 26 folks, including kids...

We had well known instructors and authors Christopher Nyerges and Paul Campbell as guest instructors, along with our own Dude McLean and Alan Halcon.

The preserve has 96,000 acres of land, and protects an immense treasure trove of native American rock art and artifacts, as well as some unique plants.

Here are a few pics of some of the things we saw.
Lou, Alan & Brian talking about knives...
The other side of the table with Christopher and Mel.
Bill Qualls who drove out from Illinois...
and Paul with his bag of rabbit sticks... Note his "bunny"!  That was our target in his class on making and throwing the rabbit stick.
Rik working a piece of steel.
Rik watching Dude at the forge.
Some of the greenery was not too hospitable...  Check out these spines.
On the other hand, have you every seen so many rose hips ripened and ready to harvest?
At a rock outcropping on top of a ridge, there were these grinding holes, and a couple of grinding stones.  There was evidence of a tremendous population that lived and traveled through this area.
Below the ridge was a natural seep.  It captured runoff from the hills, and had a small artesian spring as well.  There is an elk in the middle of the light green section.  That gives you an idea of its size.
On Monday morning, one of the folks from the preserve gave us a tour of some of the ancient rock art.  Here is the first location...  Looking up at the cave from the road.  Note the two holes above the entrance...
Cheryl and Alan help people up the rock face.
Below the paintings, there was this grid that ran the width of the cave.  It is believed that the two holes above the entrance cast sunlight onto this grid, and it was used as a solar calendar...
The second location was this little "cave".  Cheryl is sitting in the entrance.  To see the art, which is on the ceiling, one had to sit down, and scoot in on their back.
The third location was a rock wall...

There was a buncha crafts making going on...  Here are a few things I brought back...  A fly whisk and a pot/rock scrubber made from Yucca, and the Hoko Knife, which is wrapped in Yucca cordage.

Here is a close up of the loop on the fly whisk.  That Yucca makes some great cordage.
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Copyright © 2005 by William Hay.