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 advisors coffee then a campfire put on by the staffers. They sang a few songs and told some ghost stories about the huanted mesa and the ‘eye’ on top. Though mostly exaggarted, 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…..