Category Archives: philmont

Philmont ’98 707-P2 Days 3 & 4

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It was around 4:30/5am on Friday, July 10 when Dad woke me up stirring around in the tent. Ben, our Ranger, and our crew leader had decided the night before that we would wake up before sunrise and hike a quarter mile or so to a place called “Inspiration Point.” It was Ben’s final morning with us and he fully discussed the “Wilderness Pledge”, (Phimont’s version of LNT) something I really didn’t understand at the time, and wouldn’t fully comprehend for another 5 years.

We sat out at the point until the sun poked it’s head over the horizon and then headed back towards camp to pack things up and eat breakfast. We didn’t have very far to go, maybe 6 miles, to the days final destination. Bear Caves.
We were up and out of there before the staff at Urraca Mesa were even stirring. Making our way up and over the mesa the way we came the previous day, almost back to Lover’s Leap camp, we eventually got headed on a different trail.


Somewhere between Stonewall Pass and Bear Caves camp. From here you can see Grizzly Tooth (left) and Betty’s Bra (right).

We got to Bear Caves before lunch and setup camp, found water and hung out for a bit. The days activities were to be had at a staff camp a few miles away at Crater Lake. We ate lunch and headed off to do some spar pole climbing. Most of the staff camps are set in a certain period in time, with the staffers dressing and playing their part. Obviously, here we have mid to late 1800′s logging era. I wish I had pictures of the staff and of our crew climbing up a the pole. Climbing to the top was no small task and once you made it to the top we were supposed to shout something. Probably something about a hot chick at the time I think. Not really sure. The afternoon was winding down and we headed back to our camp to make dinner and settle in for the evening. I think several members of our crew went back to Crater that evening for advisers coffee and the evenings campfire. I don’t remember going.

The next day we again woke up before the sun was even remotely shining. We had a big day ahead of us. We would summit our first peak. Trail Peak. It was a beating getting up so early two straight days. I had just turned 15 some 10 days before and getting up early wasn’t really my thing. Actually, backpacking was still new to me.

We loaded up and head back towards Crater Lake to eat breakfast and and fill up on water.

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Philmont ’98 – 707-P2 – Days 1 & 2

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(originally posted 7-1-2009)

Having arrived at basecamp on the 6th, we were still a day early. Not all of the crew had yet arrived; they would show the following day. We were able to rent a few tents to stay in an extra night and hauled our gear into them for the day.
The day consisted of touring the Rayado Camp. It is more or less a staff camp. I would never call it a backcountry camp as it sits on the side of a paved road. It is situated close to where the Abreu Family settled along the Santa Fe trail.

 

Kit Carson ran the place for a few years as a trading post and Inn for travelers on the trail. Today, after being rebuilt some 50 years ago, it houses roughly 5 staffers during the summer months giving tours and greeting hikers. The Abreu family cemetery can been seen a few hundred yards to the west.

The rest of the day was spent at the trading post @ base, playing basketball, and I’m sure other things that I cannot remeber.
Finally, on the 7th, it began. The rest our crew arrived and we started the check-in progress. Dad called it “hurry up and wait”. Our ranger’s name was Ben we found out and we immediately went to hang out at Logistics. This was where the final trip planning occurred. Our crew leader, Scott and an adult advisor went in and the rest our crew sat outside and learned a few basic things from Ben.

Itenerary for the next ten days:
Basecamp – basecamp procedures
Lover’s Leap – trail camp – Ranger Training
Urraca Mesa – staff camp – Team Building – Ranger Training
Bear Caves – trail camp – program @ Crater Lake camp – Spar Pole climbing
Beaubian – staff camp – horseback riding – westerlore
Beaubian – staff camp – conservation project – trail work – chuck wagon dinner – food pick up at Phillips Junction
Crooked Creek – staff camp – homesteading
Clear Creek – staff camp – blackpowder rifle, mountain man,
Cypher’s Mine – staff camp – Climb Mt Phillips on way, gold mine tour, pan for gold,
Cimarroncito – staff camp – rock climbing – p/u food at Ute Gulch
Tooth Ridge – trail camp – Climb Tooth of Time
Basecamp – hike in, unload, Closing campfire.

We went to lunch(your normal summer camp dining hall food) shortly after, then it was off to the Health Lodge lodge for medical rechecks. Basically they check your weight and take your blood pressure if your an old fart. If you too fat or something they basically tell you that you can’t go hiking. Mainly for emergencies if you gotta be carried out and such.
Aftwards we went to the commisary and got the food and gear we would be carrying for the next few days. Back then I was still on the small side and it seemed like a lot. We hauled all this stuff back to our tents. Somewhere in here we did a final shakedown of our gear and what were going to be taking with us.

By then it was time for dinner, or very close. Afterwards, I’m guessing we just hung out the rest of the evening. TJ and I went to play basketball. There was the opening campfire that I’m sure we were supposed to go to, but I don’t think a few of us did. Dad had me come with him to the advisors lounge so as to say bye to mom before we hit the trail the next morning.

After breakfast on the 7th, our crew took the offical group shot with NPS. We loaded up on the bus that would take us to the trail head at either 8 or 10. Hard to remember exactly. We got the Lover’s Leap turnaround and we found some shade and Ben did some more instruction on hiking etiquette and river crossings and the such. Ben would be with us until our third hiking day.

At Lovers Leap camp, we went over proper campsite setup, the “Bearmuda” triangle, and took a nap, and played with the sump Frisbee. Ben made some fudge that ‘chilled’ in the South Fork Urraca Creek. Dinner was this disgusting concoction of everything. Ben was going for the one pot method.
The next day we headed off and learned about triangulation. We finally got on the right trail and proceeded up Urraca Mesa via Stonewall Pass.

The wildlife was sparse; a few deer and chipmunks. At Urraca Mesa camp, our first staffed camp, we did a “sort of” COPE course, some ropes obstacles and a wall. More for the crew building for the next week. After dinner there was advisers coffee then a campfire put on by the staffers. They sang a few songs and told some ghost stories about the haunted mesa and the ‘eye’ on top. Though mostly exaggerated, the mesa does have a lot of magnetic properties and caused a WWII test plane to crash into the nearby Trail Peak after flying over the mesa.

….to be continued…..

Philmont ’98 – Travel to Taos

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(originally posted 6-26-2009)

It was Saturday. July 4th of ’98. I had turned 15 just 3 days earlier. After many months of weekend hiking trips, multiple shakedowns, and a few trips to the old Birdville Stadium to climb the stairs, it was time. Time for my longest excursion in the wilderness. Dad and I got the road early that morning. I’d say sometime around 3am or so. We drove until the sun came up and then filled up somewhere. Probably Childress. Then kept on driving. We were in the old ’89 blue F150, that had its share of war wounds from the ’95 hail storm, and a questionable A/C system. I’d like to say that dad made that trip without a speeding ticket, but ol’ Smokey in either Claude or Clarendon probably got him. We passed The Big Texan in Amarillo and made our way north through Dumas(dad proceeds to tell story about back in the day when he and mom and my uncle came this way to Red River to ski and their car broke down in a “blizzard” and they call a tow truck from the CB radio and spent the night here) and Dalhart, finally crossing the border and made it Clayton. The famous outlaw ,Black Jack Ketchum, was hanged in Clayton after getting wounded and captured during a train robbery. By this time the weather had cooled down. Not alot, but still noticeable. The next 80+ miles to Springer has got to be the longest, most boring part of the drive. Nothing, absolutely nothing to look at but the emptiness of the dried up land. Arriving in Springer, we headed up I25 a few miles to fill up at the truck stop and proceeded east down 58. Dad tries to point out certain features of the mountains from when he came as kid to Philmont. We make it to the village of Cimarron and had lunch at Heck’s Hungry Traveler.



We didn’t hang around town for long as we still had to make it Taos.

We loaded back up and took the windy and curvy road that paralleled the Cimarron River up through the canyon, taking the north part of the Enchanted Circle through Red River and down into Taos. I was mesmerized at the views and just didn’t know what to think of it. We made it to the Sage Brush Inn, on the south end of town,  and checked in. There was a small group, from the two crews, that wanted to arrive early and go rafting down the Rio Grande on the 5th. They arrived shortly after us and we went swimming and hung out in the hot tub. I’m not sure if dinner was at the Pizza Emergency or if it was downtown at this bar/restaurant. I’m not sure the name of it, but they had a shuffleboard table. Either way, they next day for dinner we had the other.

On the 5th we got up and had the complementary breakfast(eggs bacon biscuits gravy etc) and made our way down to Pilar where the rafting took place. There were a few charters that launched out of the same place. Far Flung is the one they had chosen. We loaded up in a bus and made it to the ‘put in’ area. They showed us the in’s and the out’s and what not to do. We were on the water i’m guessing maybe 2 hours or so.


The rest of the day we just chilled around town. Did a little shopping and site seeing. A few people, dad included, drove down to the Taos ski valley and then to the Rio Grande gorge bridge.

The majority voted to stay back and we ended up watching Sex in the City on HBO. I’d never heard of the show before, but the episode was titled “The Power of Female Sex” I believe that was/is the only episode I have ever watched.

The next day we got up and headed back through the canyon and finished up the Enchanted Circle and made it to base camp.

to be continued…..

End of Year Goals

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By December 31st:

Pass all classes with A’s-
Okay, so if you didn’t know already, I’m officially a student again, taking 10 hours of courses this fall. Eventually, I plan to apply to the Respiratory Therapy program at TCC, and eventually a BSN from UTA. In years past, I didn’t really have the drive to finish college and ended up dropping my classes in 2004 all together. My GPA back then was 1.25. Crap! I’ve got my work cut out for me. To even be considered, I need no less than a B in all my core classes, but it would be best for A’s.

Go camping twice-
I say twice becuase we already have a trip planned for Memorial Day weekend at Dinosaur Valley State Park. Early in the year we had planned on going in April, but with Ashleigh still in the hospital, we cancelled. Then the heat hit and its just to hot in the summer months to go camping.
So really I just gotta plan for another weekend, probably sometime after Thanksgiving.

Learn how to knit-
This may prove to be the most difficult of the three. I can crochet.
When I was young my grandmother taught me the basics and then it got filed far away in my brain. In 2003, my first summer at Philmont, I noticed a lot people crocheting and knitting, so I decided to try my luck at making a beanie. It fit my head. Very snug. I would later pick up a hook every so often, but it was until late 2008 when the growing season of the garden had ended that I became interested again (more of a time filler than anything). I’ve only really made hats. I tried my luck at a produce bag but it gets no use.
So I’m trying my luck at making a lady bug and frog. Crochet, of course. After that I’ll try my luck at knitting. Something simple.

Sweat. I like it.

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Went for a nice run with my sister tonight. It was nice having her as a running partner. I haven’t seen her since Ashleigh’s funeral, and she is a bean pole. I guess that’s what hiking 2000 miles does. After my last summer at Philmont, I was probably 160.
She has her trail legs still, but she held her own. I’m hoping we can make it an every other evening thing.

2.1 miles ran:

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After she left, Stephanie wanted to go for walk. We are both eating healthier and working out, so I was more than happy to with her. We put Zoe in the stroller and off we went. It was nice and refreshing to have an evening that wasn’t lingering in the triple digits. Zoe loves going for stroller rides. She points out the barking dogs and the cats that run across the street. Tonight she even dozed off for a few minutes, that a far cry from those months long gone where she would actually fall asleep in the stroller for hours on end.

1.6 miles walked:

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Cold showers. I like it.

(side note: If you actually find yourself clicking the Philmont link then click on “About Philmont” over on the left. Scroll down and click on the photo album link, then click on Camping Headquarters. The last picture on the right, click on it.)

Jealous!

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From Adam currently at Philmont working Autumn Adventure:

holy cow, a wild day…SAR to Copper Park in snowshoes and sleds, 20″+ of snow, cold and awesome
Crew was taken by a surprise blizzard last night, all of them were freezing cold and soaked through. The first attempt to get them by suburban failed when it got stuck in the snow. So we hauled up dry jackets and gloves and hats, 4 sleds, and enough snowshoes for everyone and hiked them from Copper to Miranda, hauling all of their packs in the sleds.

Copper Park to Miranda in snow shoes and sleds? Awesome.

Here are two photos courtesy Christine Salisbury, also currently at the ranch. These were taken at Crater Lake

autumnsnow
cratersnow

Its stuff like this that makes me miss those summers in Colfax County.