Philmont Day 12 - July 28, 2014

Today was our last day on the trail. We got up at 5am and hit the trail just after 6am. We had a 6-mile hike ahead of us and we wanted to give ourselves a little room for error.   We ended up reaching our destination in about 2 1/2 hrs.   

The bus picked us up early at just after 9:00am. This was great as this gave us extra time at base camp to return crew gear, clean up, wash clothes, visit the trading post, and go into town (Cimarron) for a pizza dinner. Mr Newton and I told the crew that we weren't taking any scouts home who were dirty or smelly. A scout is clean!

The closing campfire was at 8:15pm. It lasted about an hour until it was cancelled abruptly due to an approaching thunderstorm. The skies opened up shortly thereafter and continued for about 1 hour. 

You could see the crew relax and the excitement build throughout the day. I'm not sure the full measure of the accomplishment has set in just yet, but it will soon. 

Wake up is at 6am tomorrow morning. Breakfast is at 7am and then we have to get ready to board the bus at 9am. It will be a 4-5 hour bus ride to the Denver airport, followed by a flight at 5:30 pm (7:30 est)‎. It is time for the crew to de-compress a bit and savor the moment. 

Philmont Day 11 - July 27, 2014

Today was a pretty relaxed day. The scouts decided to sleep in a bit to 6:45. We didn't leave camp though until about 9:45. The crew had a little bit of fun-n-games in the campsite this morning. This was probably the first opportunity for them to goof around a little bit. 

We had an 8-mile hike from Miranda to Santa Claus. We stopped halfway at a camp called Head of Dean, which is a staffed camp. We spent almost 3 hrs there and they played wiffleball, badminton, and volleyball. We also ate lunch during this stop. 

We resumed our hike around 2:45 and made it to Santa Claus around 5pm. Today was probably the strongest hiking day of the trek, which was surprising given the Baldy summit the day before. The pace was steady and strong with just a couple of routine water stops. 

The crew got the campsite set up pretty quickly which was good since the skies opened up around 7pm while we were eating dinner. The rain stopped about 7:45 which gave the crew time to get everything cleaned up. The thunder started again around 8:15 so we quickly secured personal gear and got into our tents around 8:30. This gave everyone a good night's sleep and made our 5am wake up call tomorrow morning a bit easier. It rained all night long.   

We had to be at our pick-up point (Bear Canyon Turnaround) by 9:30am. It is a 6-mile hike and no one wants to miss the bus.

Philmont Day 10 - July 26, 2014

Our human alarm clock (Brockton) got us up at 4:30am. We were on the trail to Mt Baldy around 5:25am hiking in the pre-dawn hours. 

The total elevation change was 3,500 ft from 9,000 to 12,500. It was a tough climb the entire way. Once we crossed 10,000 ft a couple of us started experiencing a headache from the altitude. The last 1,000 feet of the climb was insane. Basically, a trail going straight up on nothing but slippery rocks of shale and sandstone. 

The first scouts reached the summit around 9:10. The entire crew was on the summit by 9:30am. The view from the top of Mt Baldy was nothing short of breathtaking. You can see mountains about 50 miles into Colorado, along with the surrounding areas of Philmont. 

As soon as you summit Mt Baldy, you notice the 20-30 mph winds which makes you quite cool. Everyone carried their cold weather and rain gear to the summit. 

We remained on the summit about 30 minutes and then started our descent. The climb down was treacherous since it was difficult to find solid footing. We had several slips and falls but fortunately no injuries. 

We returned to our camp at Miranda via Baldy Town, which is where we stopped to re-supply food one last time! After arriving at our camp, I decided to bribe the scouts and offered to cook dinner in exchange for them working on their backpacking merit badge. There were a few grumbles but they accepted the deal. Mr Newton supervised their efforts and made sure they worked on the pertinent tasks. He's their merit badge counselor for both hiking and backpacking and had the final say on whether or not they were successful. Jetta jumped in and helped with dinner and by the time the merit badge work was complete the dinner was ready to go. 

The crew finished the evening with a game of mountain ball with a bunch of other scouts who were camping there that night. The scouts get to sleep in a bit tomorrow since we hike to Santa Claus camp tomorrow. It is a trail camp with no program activities, so no real timetable to get there. 

Philmont Day 9 - July 25th, 2014

Today was a fairly challenging hike from Pueblano to Miranda. The distance was only 6 or 7 miles, but we gained 1,000 ft to 9,000. We also still had Paco and he continued his pattern of intermittent refusals to walk. Carter and Sean worked hard to keep him moving.

We arrived at Miranda mid-afternoon and returned Paco first thing. With the exception of one scout we were all happy to see Paco bye-bye.  

Our first activity was black powder rifle shooting. These are long rifles weighing about 12 pounds. They fire from the action of the hammer hitting the detonator, which ignites the black powder and ejects the bullet (ball). These rifles are loud and emit a plume of smoke. Everyone really enjoyed this activity (because it was shooting). 

Following the shooting, the staff assigned our campsite and we finally got there about 6pm. We had dinner (chili mac) and went to bed early. Our wake up tomorrow morning is 4:30am so that we can depart for the summit of Mt Baldy by 5:30am.

The earlier you leave for the summit the better off you are. You have to be able to visualize the summit before making the attempt. This is to ensure safety and to keep crews from getting into bad weather.

The crew was filled with anticipation at what tomorrow would have in store for us.

Philmont Day 8, July 24, 2014

Today was another interesting day. We woke up at 5:15am to get ready to be at breakfast at 6:30. The camp staff overslept and so breakfast didn't start until about 7:30. It was worth the wait though as we had pancakes, sausage, and orange juice. This was the first hot breakfast since leaving base camp. 

Following breakfast we went to visit the commissary to re-supply our food and then visit the stables to pick up our burro. Yes, we took ownership of a burro that the crew named "Paco". Paco's job was to carry part of the crew gear to the next 2 campsites. He had a saddlebag on either side that could carry 25 pounds each. The burro pick-up was very slow and we didn't get on the trail until about 11:00, which had us hiking in the heat of the day. 

We arrived at Pueblano camp at approximately 3:45. We dropped Paco off at the stable for the night and then headed for our "porch talk". We got our campsite assignment and headed there to get set up for the night. The crew decided to forego the evening activities so that they could go to bed by 9:00pm. Brad and I thought this was a wise choice given we will be climbing Mt Baldy in 2 days. Dinner was some sort of fettuccine that was actually quite tasty. The crew had their nightly meeting at 8:00pm and got to bed at 9:00pm. 

We are off to Miranda camp tomorrow. We will climb another 1,000 ft to 9,000, which will be our highest elevation so far in the trek. Paco had a mind of his own when it came to walking. We learned he didn't like to walk uphill and would protest by just stopping and refusing to move. Our burro whisperers, Carter and Sean, did their best to keep him moving along. 

We've seen Mt Baldy several times throughout our trek off in the distance. It seems impossible that we will attempt a summit in 2 days.

Philmont Day 7, July 23, 2014

Today's hike was about 5 miles from Dan Beard to Ponil camp. We descended about 1,000 ft from 8,000 to 7,000. We pay for it tomorrow though as we will climb back up to 8,000 and then 9,000 the day after next. So, very easy hike today, which was welcome given the tough hike yesterday. 

Ponil camp is the original base camp for Philmont. They moved it from Ponil to its current location sometime in the 60's. The staff told us that back in those days the crews would leave from Ponil with a burro for their entire trek. They would reach a campsite where they would remain the entire time. The crews would then take side hikes from their camp. I'm not sure when the format changed to the current form. 

The program at Ponil was really good. The scouts got to horseback ride and then shooting with pistols and shotguns. Shooting is always a favorite with this group. 

The other nice feature of Ponil is that the staff cooks dinner and breakfast for the crews. Everyone enjoyed not having to cook that night. 

The evening ended with a cantina cowboy show followed by lights out.

Philmont Day 10 - July 26, 2014 - Short Version

‎I'm running out of battery, so a complete report will come later. 

We reached the summit of Mt Baldy at approximately 9:15 this morning. To say it was a challenging hike would be an understatement. 

Two days left!!

Philmont Day 6 - July 22, 2014

‎Today was our long hike. We went from Whiteman-Vega south to Dan Beard camp. Dan Beard serves as one of the camps you pass through when entering the Valle Vidal area. 

We left Whiteman-Vega around 7:45 am and arrived at Dan Beard just about 5:45. We successfully navigated the entire way using map and compass, increasing the crew skills in this area. We had such an excellent opportunity to develop these skills. When we selected our trek we had no idea how important land navigation skills would be in the Valle Vidal. We turned this unexpected challenge into an opportunity to train.

It was certainly an interesting day from a wildlife perspective. We encountered a western rattlesnake, elk, and an angry bull‎‎. The rattlesnake was the most significant event. We were climbing a steep hill where all of the trees were fallen, so we were using our training in how to cross logs in snake country. You step on the log and then step off the log, never step over the log. Bob was in the lead position and about half way up the hill he came to an abrupt stop as he saw the rattlesnake at the base of the log from about 3 ft away. We diverted our course and all got a good look at the snake. The angry bull is a story for another day.  Just ask Brockton. 

The Dan Beard campsite sits in the Ponil Canyon, which is where there was a tremendous fire a few years ago. The hillsides in this area were barren of any trees, so it provided a good view of the surrounding area and an unbelievable view of the stars at dark.

‎We had high temps and hot sun the entire day.  Everyone was pretty tired from a long hike. The adults are still alive but hurting a lot. We've also got some sore feet / knees and rashes in the scout ranks. 

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Philmont Day 5 - July 21, 2014

‎We had a great day today. Our trip from Sealy Canyon to Whiteman Vega was pretty straight forward. Our map & compass skills improved from the previous day. No one wanted to get lost again. 

We stopped at Ring Place for a food and fuel re-supply. The staff at Ring Place had a special treat for everyone. There was milk (chocolate, strawberry, white) as well as a piece of fresh fruit (apple, orange or pear).  

We arrived at Whiteman Vega at 11:30 and got our "porch talk". We continued to learn that the Valle Vidal is unlike Philmont proper. During the briefing we were told that bears were common along with western rattlesnakes. They also told us we might hear the mountain lion up on the ridge. He said they sound like a screaming woman. We were also co-habitating with hundreds of cows (and a few bulls...more on that later). The entire area was contained in the pastures of the cattle ranch that is part of Valle Vidal. It seemed a bit odd at first to be sharing quarters with the cows but we had fun with it. There's a rumor that one of the cows took a special interest in Bob and charged at him a bit. Bob doesn't get too worked up so took it in stride. 

Philmont Day 4 - July 20, 2014

‎Our ranger left us this morning. He was hiking back to the pick up point for a ride back to base camp to pickup his next crew. He was really good with our scouts so we were sorry to see him go. Had he remained with us any longer though he would have become a crutch for the scouts. Time to leave the nest. 

The day did not turn out exactly as planned. We were hiking from Metcalf Station Camp to Sealy Canyon camp. We got on the trail early but got lost (I mean temporarily disoriented) on two separate occasions. This extended the hike from what was supposed to be 7 or 8 miles to about 12 miles. We knew that water was going to be tight, so we all left with 4 + liters. We started running low after we got lost the second time. Fortunately, we found a creek (thanks Bradley) and were able to filter enough water to get us to our destination. When you are running low on water in a desert environment, you realize very quickly the number one priority is water, followed by shelter, followed by food. You get back to basics really quick.

This portion of the trek took us into an area called the Valle Vidal. This is not part of Philmont Scout Ranch proper, but rather an adjunct property that gave BSA a long-term lease to use the property. This area is truly remote wilderness, even more so than PSR. We weren't fully aware of this when we selected our trek as it requires a heavy reliance on map & compass skills as well as land navigation and orienteering. Most of PSR is hiking on well marked trails. Many parts of the Valle Vidal are going "bushwacking" from point A to point B. This was a lesson learned for us but we turned this challenge into an opportunity over the coming days. 

Once we arrived at camp the rest of the evening went fine. Everyone was tired and I ended up pretty dehydrated with some altitude sickness (splitting headache). Seally Canyon camp is at approx. 8,000 ft as compared to base camp at 6,000 ft‎.  I figured I consumed 8 or 9 liters of water that day, but still not enough. 

I was impressed‎ at how well the crew held together through the adversity of the day. Nothing sinks morale quicker than realizing you are lost and have to backtrack to your last known spot and start over. 

Tomorrow's hike should go much better. We are anticipating 5 - 6 miles to Whiteman Vega camp via our food pickup at Ring Place camp.

Philmont Day 3 - July 19, 2014

‎We are hiking to our next campsite which is Metcalf Station. Metcalf is a "staffed" camp which means there are Philmont staff members living there full-time during the summer. Staffed camps are nice as there are always program activities and sometimes other goodies for the scouts. 

Following wake-up at 5:30, the crew broke camp and we were on the trail at 6:45am. We ate breakfast while hiking since we wanted to get on the trail while it was still cool. The breakfast consisted of turkey sticks (sort of like a slim Jim), fruit puree in a tube, trail mix, and graham crackers. 

We hiked about 1 1/2 hours and arrived at our first program for the day. The crew got to practice spear throwing with a device called an Atlatl. It's an ancient device designed to give the spear thrower additional leverage in throwing the spear. This device is apparently still in use in some African cultures. 

We then departed the program area and continued on the trail towards our final destination for the day. We arrived at Metcalf station around 11:30. We met the staff members who run the site and got our campsite assignment. The crew decided to eat lunch and then they got the campsite set up. Once the campsite was set up we went to the program area for activities. The first was blacksmithing where the scouts got to try their hand in making things the old fashion way. They really enjoyed this activity. 

Next the crew prepared dinner, cleaned up, put up the bear bags, etc. The staff had a campfire program that night which turned out to be the highlight of the day. The staff members at this camp were musicians and singers. They played for about 1 1/2 hours. Their music was folk and based on historical railroad events. They had a violin, guitar, mandolin, banjo, and harmonica. See the short video clip. 

Went to bed pretty late but it was well worth it.

Philmont Day 2 - July 18, 2014

Mr Newton and I are going to tag team on recording our Philmont trip. He is going to take all of the pictures and I'm going to do the daily summary. When we return to Atlanta we will match up the pictures with the correct day and add them to our blog. 

Anyway, day 2 started with breakfast at 6:30am followed by our final in-processing. We boarded a bus at 1:45 and traveled to our drop off site called 6-mile gate in the "backcountry".  We had a fairly short hike from the dropoff point to our first campsite called Anasazi. Philmont starts crews off with fairly short hikes on day 1 and day 2 in order to allow time for altitude acclimation. There's not as much oxygen at 6,000 ft above sea level as there is in Atlanta at 900 ft. I'm not sure about the scouts but the adults noticed a difference. 

One of the sights along the way was a T-Rex footprint. It became encapsulated and hardened in the sandstone. It is the only known T-Rex footprint in the world. 

Our ranger, Alex, did training with the scouts on: map and compass, map reading, bearmuda triangle, bear bag management, cooking, and clean-up. He also helped the scouts with campsite set up and tear down. 

We had a thunderstorm kick up around 7pm. There was lots of wind and clouds, but only a few drops of rain. 

It was a long day and the crew didn't have all tasks complete until about 9:30. They had their crew meeting (roses, thorns, and buds) and went straight to their tents to sleep!

Wake up early tomorrow at 5:30am.

Philmont Day 1 - July 17, 2014

We arrived at Philmont around 10:30 this morning. The bus ride down from Denver went well. 

We spent most of today in-processing going from station to station. Philmont does a very good job keeping things moving along. We went through medical re-check, admin (the money part), gear issue (tents, dining tarps, patrol cooking gear), and logistics. The logistics stop was the most important and was where we marked up the map with all of our stops along the way. Just to make things interesting, our trek involves the use of 2 separate maps. We are hiking the north side of the ranch and into an area called the Valle Vidal. Philmont does not own this area but has a long-term lease to use the property. 

Alex Barnes is our ranger and he'll be with us for another two days. He is a rising junior at NC State in the mechanical engineering dept. He's very knowledgeable and the scouts really like him. 

The evening ended with a church service at 7pm and the opening campfire at 8pm. We learned a lot about the history of the Philmont area going back to the Pueblo Indians. We also learned that this is the 75th year for scouts to come to Philmont for the backpacking adventure. The first year they had about 200 scouts the entire summer. This year there will be 22,000 before the summer is over.   It is an impressive place for sure. 

Crew Photo: Tooth of Time in background

Will

Sean, Bradley, Mr Newton

Bob

Alex - our ranger

Jetta

Brockton

Ben and Raymond

Sorting food bags

More food bags

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Arrived Safely at Philmont

The crew has arrived safely at Philmont.

-brad

Sent from my iPhone

Philmont Day 0 - July 16, 2014

JFBC Flagpole: Carter, Mr Newton, Bradley, Will, Brockton, Ben, Raymond, Sean, Bob, Mr Roeser

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We arrived in Denver this afternoon without any glitches. Thanks to our drivers Mitzi, Nancy, and Cathy.   Jetta is returning from Europe and will be here later tonight. It's chilly, windy, and rainy in Denver which is quite a contrast to Atlanta. 

The bus picks us up at 5:15am tomorrow morning for transport to Philmont in Cimarron, NM. We expect a 4 to 5 hour drive tomorrow. 

The crew members are all excited to get started.

Trek Map With Dates

For Robin's and my Mom's benefit, I marked up our Philmont itinerary to show the specific dates that we staying at campsites during our trek.  I thought that the rest of you might also like this.

Brad Newton

Crew Send Off Dinner

Back Row: Bradley, Ben, Bob, Brockton, Will
Front Row: Sean, Raymond, Trey, Carter

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What a great time we all had together tonight. The food was great and it was nice getting all of our families together.  

The crew is finally ready to travel to Philmont this coming Wednesday!