Philmont 2004
Editors Note: Due to space limitations, none of the linked
photos on this page connect the the full
pictures. Scouts can see these pictures
on the CD.
Scoutmasters Story
We stopped at the Air Force Academy and
the Garden of the Gods on the way down.
The first two days at camp scared me. My
and other scouts recollections of Philmont
in years past had been of hot dry days. The first night started with a great
thunderstorm and pounding hail just after dark. The next day, as we finished up
our tour of Via Philimonte another deluge let loose,
a real gully washer! Hanging out on the porch there was all right but a scoutmasters thoughts turn to raingear and concerns about
how we would hold up under such a weather pattern.
didn’t
see it, but the story went around about a couple of scouts running through what
they thought was a small pile of hail, only to have it be a three foot deep gully
flooded with cold rainwater and a floating pile of hail. The story goes, that
these scouts where just getting off their trek and running for the welcome
center shelter and ran straight into this gully and the momentum of their packs
just knocked them right down into this thing. Thankfully, it was the end of
their trek. What a finish!
Most of this day was full of briefings on
various topics and rounding up gear and making arrangements. A small surprise
to us was the strictness of the tent usage. We had visions of all going ultralight with just flys, this had come from our experience in the
A great feature of this day was the shake
down. Our ranger, Kevin Harrington got to review all our packs and make sure we
weren’t taking too much and had the stuff we needed.
On Wednesday, we got on the bus and got a
ride up to Six Mile Gate. These rangers are outrageous,
they had quite the guided tour program going with all kinds of crazy jokes and
commentary about every thing along the road to our destination. Once there, we
got a review on orienteering before hitting the trail.
Two words sum up this days hike, “Stream
Crossings”. We had to cross the stream at various locations with increasing
depth and degrees of difficulty. The first one we managed to step carefully
through with only a couple of wet boots as a result. Later we resorted to
throwing packs across then taking great running leaps across. Later that
evening we would look at the stream and see its water level so
high as to make it virtually impassable. We where fortunate
to get across when we did.
At camp that night, under a little
drizzly sky, we reviewed site selection and camp setup considerations. The three W’s Wind, Water and Wanimals.
Kevin was good enough to cook for us, showing us the Philmont
way. What a pro, I loved how he set up his camp chair, had everything within
arms reach, and spent the next two hours in that one spot, methodically
preparing, serving, dining and cleaning up dinner.
Thursday, as would come to be the norm,
we packed up, enjoyed a quick, simple breakfast, and where on the trail in
pretty good time. We had a short walk to Indian Writings where the program was
touring some ancient, Indian archeological sites. It was surprising to learn
that Archeologists have named these days the “Trustworthy” age after that
period of time where Boy Scouts inhabited these lands. Their contributions to
the writings on the walls however don’t seem that interesting to modern
archeologists. Perhaps Scout art is an acquired taste that only future
generations will appreciate.
That afternoon we continued our walk up
to the Cottonwood Camp with a couple more stream crossings then a turn up a
narrow side canyon. Again, we seemed to be in camp plenty early. A lot of cards
where played. I had a chance to try out a camp laundering technique Kevin had
explained. I wanted to keep a regular rotation of somewhat cleaner clothing.
Scouts tried their hand at dinner this
evening under Kevin’s supervision.
That evening, we scrambled a couple of hundred
feet up the canyon wall for a look at our distant goal,
I believe it was this night that the
throaty saying “Go to Bed!” was popularized and would be often repeated
throughout the trek.
Friday, like several of the mornings
early in the trip where very wet mornings, the ground and tents soaked from the
overnight dew. It made the tents a little heavy starting out. This day we chose
to get out of camp early and have breakfast later, on the trail. We picked up
fresh water at IW, then we turned west to Ponil camp.
It was an interesting day,
navigationally. We had a little trouble finding the right trail that headed to Ponil and once on it, got off onto one of these flash flood
creek beds that looked like a nice trail starting out but gradually faded into
the gully that it was. The going got a little tough as we headed toward the top
of a ridge, but we figured out where we where and a plan to get back on trail.
It was a great learning opportunity.
Back on trail, we quickly passed Harts
peak and double timed it down into Ponil because we
really wanted to catch the horse riding program there which was happening at
That evening we had a cookout with the
program staff. Pat Marrinan and I
where on cooking so we got to go help prepare this big feast. Pretty simple fair, but fun in large quantities. There where
gallons of Beef Stew (just open the can and dump it into a big vat on the fire)
Biscuits in about 8 dutch
ovens and Peach cobblers in as many dutch ovens as
the biscuits. The staff had a long steel trough for the fire. It was said to be
a US Air Force jet engine shipping container cut open for the purpose. A great
fire was stoked up then rows of dutch
ovens stacked up two deep and eight long nestled with coals. The great vats of
Beef Stew stood on the end. It was a fine dinner.
After dinner, and early the next morning,
they did branding. They could brand just about anything. Boots
where common. Playing cards, hats, packs, Nalgene’s, staff’s, anything but flesh.
I went down for the custom of Advisors
Coffee. A little tradition at
The evening program was in a packed to
the rafters cabin and consisted of songs, stories and
skits. I was outside for much of it. Got to see one scout run
out throwing up root beer. That gave it a real old western saloon feel.
Fortunately, no fights broke out.
On the advice of an old cowboy, I stayed
out late and watched the stars and moon in the valley. It was a wonderfully,
peaceful night. After some time I went to bed and was about to set my wrist
watch alarm, realized I had left it in my pants pocket and had to go back out
to get it. This was the Lords Encore I was called back for,
He had to show me a shooting star blazing from Cassiopia
right into the ladle of the Big Dipper. Thank You Lord.
Saturday, we had a nice pancake breakfast
then we picked up food at the commissary and two Burro’s,
Borris and Flalelanor to
carry our crew gear. We spent
These Burrows where
pretty finicky crossing the stream.
We started wondering if these beasts would be worth the hassle, but once on the
trail, they marched right along.
The trail to Pueblano
was beautiful as we rose through some Scrub Oak and switchbacks into some
beautiful ponderosa pine forest.
The Pueblano
camp “Porch Talk” was, ah, curious. Each of these camps have
their own distinct personality. This guy must have been looking for some kind
of reaction out of us. He as very distracted. I think he greeted us with a loud
“So, how you guys doing?” greeting about 12 times, each time being interrupted
by some other staff, scout or minor distraction. Finally he swung and ax
through the air to the porch deck and surprised even himself when he broke
through the board. He played along like he had planned to do that. Riiiiight.
Well that got him to get into the Porch Talk without further interruption.
The program there was Spar Pole climbing.
They had some pretty simple, but interesting rigging for the operation. Safe enough. Our guys strapped their equipment on and
climbed those poles, kissed the ‘Biners, complimented
their burrows and descended, sometimes gently, but, I recall Pat descending a
bit quickly causing some surprise.
As usual the afternoon clouds gathered
and threatened rain, thunder could be heard in the distance. We sent two scouts
to put the burros away for the night and walked the final mile and a half up to
our camp at Pueblano Ruins for the night. We setup
camp, had a late dinner. At cleanup, since it was the advisors turn, the guys
took off to head back to Pueblano for the evening
program, reported to be great. They where heading down there near dark and
didn’t get back till
Sunday, up and at ‘em none too early. We had conservation work that morning so decided not to break camp
till lunch. We hiked back to Pueblano and met the
rest of the gang heading out for conservation work. We got a
introduction into the art of trail building. Trevor had asked about a large
rock that another crew was unable to budge the day before. He signed us up for
that. That was a great bit of team work getting everybody digging and
poling and pushing on that great beast, but, we did it. We got it out of that
hole and off to the side of where the path would go. Did it
pretty fast too. So fast the Crew Bosses didn’t know
what else to do with us, so the told us to break it up. OK, We all took turns whacking at it with a sledge.
We saddled up the burros, had lunch,
broke camp, loaded up and hit the trail around
We descended into the next valley and
found our way to Miranda camp. Here we pretty much setup camp, had dinner and
got to bed early in anticipation of tomorrows early day.
As the boys where taking the burro back
to the corral, we managed to get Peter up on the saddle of one. We were a bit
hesitant having seen what old ’37 had done to a scout a few days earlier, but
one of the staff revealed that if you gently placed a boy on the saddle, it
wouldn’t feel much different than a pack to a burro. So up Peter went. He rode
him all the way to the corral.
Monday, was Peter Feltault’s
15th birthday. I was always amazed how these guys would get up and go so early
in the morning, when I think the norm would be to tend to sleep in. This day
the goal was to climb
About half the crew where taking stripped
down packs with just the essentials, plus we would fill them up later in the
day at a commissary stop.
The walk up Baldy was interesting,
passing through the distinct layers of
We passed several mining operation
remnants. A curious steel cable ran a great distance up an even grade though a
clearing cut in the trees that we switched back over many times.
We reached the summit about
This was a relaxing morning and an
interesting time to read our maps and locate the various peaks and valleys,
places we had been and places we had yet to go.
We had an early lunch, and then headed
down.
In Baldy town, the staff where delighted
that we where interested in their Porch Talk. Normally, they get some pretty
wiped out scouts who barely react to their most desperate ploy, the hand
puppets. They where moved to share a box of Girl Scout Peanut Butter cookies
with us. Here, some guys took showers, and we got our next few days grub. We
where also to fill up on fuel but hadn’t brought our bottles. We decided to
split up and have those without pack cruise the couple of K back to camp, get
them, then go back and fill up, while those with packs just made their way back
to camp.
The usual afternoon Thunderstorm blew in
for a little refreshment on the trail. The packers got to camp around
I took the opportunity to go up to the
staff cabin and use their old wood burning stove to back an apple crisp dish as
a birthday treat. It was interesting hanging out at the cabin for a little look
into the life of the staff. I caught these guys at a very quite, evening.
A lot of times you think of
I got back to camp just as dinner was
being served. We lit 15 matches in the apple crisp for candles.
That evening, just a couple of guys went
up for program, most went to bed early. The program was just a few songs and
stories around the porch of the cabin. I was most surprised how the
quietest old counselor came to life for this performance. I had chatted
with this guy the night before at advisor coffee where he had a simple sign
hung over his chest declaring "Coffee Wench". He quietly filled
peoples cups, brought out backed goods for treats and
used words sparingly, only when spoken to. Tonight, he was the fastest
talking story teller I'd heard. And like good children's movies, was full
of zingers that adults could appreciate.
Tuesday Morning, we had a lot on our
agenda for the day. We got right over to the cabin for a tour and stories about
the mountain man days then off to some Black Power rifle shooting. It was fun
to operate those old guns. Their accuracy was pretty good too; everyone managed
to put a whole in their bandana.
From the field in front of Miranda Cabin,
you could look back up at
With the shooting done, we hiked off to
Head of Dean. Not a long walk, but it was a traffic jam of crews going both
ways. The picture above is from a cleaing a couple of
miles south of Miranda looking back on Miranda field and Balky, If you look close you can see the TeePee.
We got there around
For the program there we built a human
pyramid to reach the New Mexican sun, Scaled a wall to escape from a prison
camp run by mini-bears, used logs to build bridges to escape an earthquake
devastated city with out falling into the molten lava, and use a rope to swing
to get our team and a nalgene of water across to the
other side. Just another day at Philmont.
In the afternoon we had another,
seemingly short, walk to the Santa Clause camp. This was a trail camp, meaning,
no staff or program, not even a candy stripped pole. We had a little dinner and
played cards most of the evening.
Wednesday we where going for a quick pack
out. We got up at
Along the way, during a trail game of Hearts,
Eric heard a rattling at the side of the trail, and, in fact, there was a
rattle snake just on the side of the trail. That brought is to a quick stop and
we diverted around it.
We where headed to a dry camp at upper
bench, so it is common to switch lunch for dinner on such days and do the more
water intensive meal where more water is available, in this case, the Cimarron
River Camp site.
As we started the meal, the usual
afternoon thunder could be heard, so, as a precaution, we setup our fly near
the cooking area. We where having a little trouble with one
of the stoves so switched to our backup. Peter and I took the faulty one
apart and put it back together to see it that would help. It worked for a
little while, put would need to be flushed later when
we had more time.
Meanwhile everyone made there way to the
well to refill their water. Using the First Need filter was popular for its
clarity and taste, sometimes we used Iodine to kill the germs, but that leaves
a bit of an aftertaste. This well was a pipe coming horizontally out of the
side of the hill running to a little stone pool in which he dipped our pumps.
Our campsite that evening was Upper
Bench. Though a “Dry” campsite, its focal point was a small circular marsh
surrounded by a rock rim that may rise 50-100 feet around it before dropping
away. It was lightly wooded with Ponderosa Pine and some fun climbing rocks on
the south side.
We had a few sprinkles as we where
setting up, but the usual, relaxing evening over dinner and cards. Our
Quartermaster, Ben and Peter, took the time to take apart and flush the failed
stove. It is now working well. They agreed that it is reassuring to have taken
that apart and fixed it in the field. That could allow us to not take a spare
in the future. We typically have only been using one stove for the meals and
the second stove has been spare.
Thursday Morning we had a short walk into
Harlan camp which had a Shotgun theme.
We got into Harlan around
Again, later that afternoon, we had a
card games. This one was built up as a Texas Hold’em
tournament. For chips, we picked up a box full of shells. It got down to
Charlie Carroll and Pat Marrinan for the finish.
I went up for Advisors Coffee and was
treated to a little fried rattlesnake. Not the one that we saw earlier, but one
caught by another crew and prepared by camp staff. Again, we had the usual
passing rain shower to freshen things up. The boys came up at
This was a curious challenge. Some staff
secretly advised water splashed on the rear was a good motivator. Our guys
preferred bright bandannas waved and yelling chasing it up and down the course.
Whatever it was, it worked. That burro was running like mad and our boys
struggled to hang on and keep up with it. In the end, we won two heats that way
and took home a pound cake and chocolate frosting as a prize. Back at camp, we
huddled under the fly and divvied up the booty.
Friday, we got up kind of early,
We made it into the Ute Gulch commissary
at
We had a nice little walk into Cimarroncito camp by like
After an early lunch, we did the short
walk down to Waitte Phillips Hunting Lodge. As we
waited for the tour, I had a chance to talk to a
That was a beautiful cabin that had been
repaired in the past few years. Most impressive was the thick solid build of
the cabin. The doors where built to be bear proof. The pantry in the kitchen
was built like a bank vault. The double sided fireplace that straddled the
living room and the bedroom was built of stones from the nearby river. We heard
more about Mr. Phillips great wealth, and generosity with the scouts.
From there we headed out for
We walked in to
We headed up the last couple of
Kilometers to Ponderosa Park Camp and the rain came down even harder. We where
patient enough to just stand around for half an hour and wait for this to pass
as it did. The sun came out and we had a chance to setup camp and have our
dinner. As planned, the guys actually had their next day’s lunch for dinner. I
couldn’t help but go ahead and prepare the Hawaiian chicken in my little mess
kit. Those meals for two cook up fast in small portions.
Looking out from a clearing, we could see
another storm cell approaching. We all got prepared for the following morning
and in bed by
Saturday was our last big day. The plan
was to be at the Tooth of Time Ridge by dawn. So we got up at
The first part of this hike was a hard
steep climb in some thicker woods that blocked the partial light from the moon.
It was odd just trudging along, not being able to see how far you had come or
where you had to go.
We found a good use for the GPS when, as
we entered the Shaefers Pass Camps, we had passed the
turn off for the Peak and Tooth of Time Ridge trail, and at least we could say
for sure that we had passed it not far back.
As we got toward the
top, the trees where thinner and the moonlight shined more brightly. We all turned off our lights and hiked along just
in the moonlight. That was a great hike.
We had walked quite a ways before
breakfast. I heard Eric say, not complaining, just matter of factly that he was hungry. As was I, and I presumed
everyone else. I had a Cliff bar in my pocket and opened it, had a bite and
passed it back. Those bars are so dense and tasty. I hoped it would hit the
spot until we stopped.
We got to a nice, rocky, northeast facing
clearing a few minutes before dawn and stopped for breakfast. The rocks where so thick and deep, someone tossed another guy some
part of breakfast but bobbled on the catch. You could here it hit a
couple of rocks as it fell deep into the rocks. We never saw it again.
Dawn was spectacular and solemn. The
bright pink tinged clouds accenting the deep greens of the surrounding valleys,
deeper still in the shadows. Mt Baldy had receded to a distant peak, but still
an up close memory from our climb not too many days ago.
Not far ahead we stopped again, left our
packs and went to play at the Tooth of Time itself. It was a great scramble to
the top over a boulder field. The peak provided stunning views and a heart
stopping edge that just dropped for hundreds of feet.
The trail down to Base Camp has legendary
switchbacks that you seem to walk for miles getting no closer to camp.
At camp we dropped our burdens and got on
with the business of wrapping up our trip. We did catch a bus ride into town
for Half Pound Burgers!
The closing campfire that evening was an
entertaining production. They had a funny video produced by a staffer, and skits. The heavens put on their own show with
great thunder heads closing in from the northwest and distant storm systems out
to the east and south. It was a great effect with stars above and a ring of
lightning on every horizon.
As we left camp Sunday morning, many
scouts where seen looking back over their shoulder at the arrowhead formation,
wondering if the legend will prove true that those who look upon it on their
departure, will return again.