mimblr.com

It’s mid-day on Sunday along the shores of the Pemigewasset River and Padraic Bean is taking in a little sun like the many who flocked to the region for Memorial Day Weekend.
However, unlike many who head to the Lakes Region for some shopping or a cookout, the 22-year-old New Jersey resident looks more like a fur trapper than a tourist and the type of character you wouldn’t want to come upon during a canoe expedition whether it be 1828 or 2008.
Padraic is half naked save for some tasseled buckskin pants, he is drinking beer out of a 1800s-style tin cup and he is grimacing as he gets ready to make his final toss of a bag of hay in a “dead sheep” throwing competition that once saw more primitive people’s chucking disemboweled sheep stomachs for sport.
Sound a little out of the ordinary?
It may be, but for those attending this week’s Northeast Primitive Rendezvous the man known as “Pad” is a dime a dozen except that — unlike most males attending the event — he doesn’t have a long mangy beard littered with remnants of the day’s meals.
During the next week hundreds of amateur historians will gather in Sanbornton for a “Rendezvous” event that brings participants back to the early to mid 1800s when fur traders and Native American craftsmen would gather annually to stock up on goods before they headed into the woods for what could be extended periods of lonely work.
Groups around the country come together for modern-day versions of the gathering and they take the events seriously dressing in period garb, making homes in tents and teepees and foregoing showers for a more primitive experience that has them trading handmade goods ranging from buckskin clothing to jewelry and pottery.
Bean was among the many children and men who entered in the Highland Games event at this year’s Rendezvous, which say competitors throwing doing their best to throw rocks, timbers and bags of hay as far as they could.

citizen.com