RE: [Philmont]: Double H Ranch

It will be interesting to see what the trek planners can come up with. Ive
traveled in that area, and I think many of us remember the scenes of the
large radio telescopes in the movie Contact. The land is very rolling
there, If you havent already done so, you can see some photos at their
website: http://www.doublehranch.net/ .

Some of the images of the hills remind me of west Texas in the Hill Country
west and north of San Antonio. I remember driving down to Socorro one night
and it seemed as I watched the lights of the city off to the east, I dropped
a good bit in altitude until I got to I-26 along the river basin and looked
for a motel for the night. From the looks of other images there is a fair
amount of low flat lands, and from what is written there are some large
swaths of agriculture and grazing land.

You can view a topo map of the area at
http://terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?t=2&s=16&x=20&y=295&z=13&w=1
<http://terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?t=2&s=16&x=20&y=295&z=13&w=1> . At
the upper left of center you will see North Lake which there is a photo of
at the ranch website. Hopefully they can do some of the treks in the
mountains that border the ranch on the NE and NW. The ranch website says
there is 100,000 acres of land dedicated to wildlife where ranch animals
have been removed from. I would think that land is in the mountainous areas
where treks could occur.

One of our Sam Houston Area Council camps is west of San Antonio near
Bandera. Hamman camp was once the Hamman Ranch and most of the trails used
there now by Scouts are old jeep trails. I would imagine this would be
similar on a ranch like the Double H and I assume most treks would be along
old jeep roads to begin with.

Does anyone know what kind of program is to be offered? Without a good bit
of planning and infrastructure it seems like it would be geared more towards
trekking then backcountry programs. And I would imagine with the elk hunting
being a big draw for the ranch, their will only be a summer program.

YOF
Chris in Houston

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Received on Fri Aug 15 09:31:04 2003