[Philmont]: Returned from Trek 12

Our crew 727-N just returned from Trek 12 through the
South and Central Country of Philmont. I'll post a
journal of our adventure shortly.

Briefly, we had a good trek, largely free of any
really bad weather. The worst weather was the two hail
storms that have been publicized on this list that hit
Base Camp on July 26 and July 27. We had short rain
storms each of the first two days we were on the trail
at Old Abreu and Crags; light rain the night of August
5 at Cimarroncito; and some rain the afternoon of
August 6 at Clark's Fork; and a pretty good electrical
storm the evening of Aug. 6 at Shaeffer's Pass.

I don't think I swatted at half a dozen mosquito's the
entire trek.

I was not sure, based on info I'd heard on this
discussion list, if we'd be dropped at at Rayado or
Zastrow - but it turned out that we were dropped off
at the Zastrow Turnaround.

Temperatures were very mild, just a few hot days.
Chilly in the mornings and at night.

The trading post at Phillip's Junction was
well-stocked, even with Powermax fuel if that was a
need. My Scouts who went to Ute Gulch for our other
resupply tell me that that TP was also well-stocked.

The Trading Post at Base Camp was also well-stocked.

We had a great Ranger - Stu McCollum - a first year
Ranger. He suggested a cooking method which we readily
adopted, using the much-discussed Fair Share mugs. We
were going to use the roaster bag method. but we saw
the ease of the mug method right away. Just pour the
contents of the trail food in one of those mugs -
either split or together, add the requisite amount of
water, screw on the lid, let set, then eat. Use a
spatula to clean the sides and bottom, pour in a
little hot water, screwon the lid, shake, then drink.
Sterilize at the next meal. Very quick and easy.

The wildlife we saw consisted of mule deer does at
Black Mt. and Cimarroncito; mule deere bucks at
Cathedral Rock and Shaeffer's Pass; and turkeys at
Cimmaroncito and Cathedral Rock. Saw a skunk run under
the porch at Abreu. No bears, cats (other than
domestic ones at Cypher's Mine and Cimarroncito), or
snakes.

The mini-bears are prolific at some places and absent
at others. And it's not always related to camper
population density - for example, at Lambert's Mine, a
relatively isolated place, the mini-bears were
everywhere. At Cimmaroncito we saw very few in our
campsite. None at Cathedral Rock or Shaeffer's Pass
either.

We were unable to catch any trout at Fish Camp - had a
few strikes, but none brought in. Had to buy licenses
at Fish Camp because the Base Camp trading post
could/would only issue a one day license for the NEXT
day - go figure....No ID needed - just had to put your
SSN on the form and pay the $9.

Plenty of water. Most all of the staffed camps have
solar-powered well pumps and chlorinators. Black Mt.
does not. We took along an MSR pump/filter and
filtered out of the amply-flowing creeks when we were
at trail camps. We never broke open our Polar Pure.

We took along the 42-oz collapsible Nalgene canteens
for everybody to add to our water for the long,
possibly waterless hike from Clark's Fork to Base Camp
over Tooth Ridge. We also filled our Fair Share mugs
with water at Clark's Fork and put the lids on them.
That worked well. I had 1.5 quarts of water left when
we got to Base Camp, and I was drinking a lot.

The spring at Shaeffer's Pass was flowing well, my
Scouts tell me. They pumped/filtered water from it. We
got there in late afternoon and got hit by an
electrical storm, so my plans to personally visit this
famous spring were dashed.

I did not see anyone camping at other than designated
campsites at Shaeffer's Pass. No rangers checking,
either.

We left Shaeffer's Pass about 4:40A to hike toward the
Tooth. Even that got a little hairy with the rocky
trail conditions we encountered during our 60 minutes
or so of using flashlights or so. Our lead guy was
using the Super Peli-Lite flashlight I took accoring
to Dr. Bob Klein's recommendation - that is an
extremely powerful light and it worked well for this.
We got to the base of the Tooth about 7:30A or so - a
long hike.

We left the Tooth about 8:45A and got back into Base
Camp right at 12:00Noon.

The chuckwagon dinner at Beaubien was very good - they
ran short of seconds for all on stew, but there was
plenty of cobbler. Hint - the cooks get to eat as much
as they want.

We had to schedule our horse ride at Clark's Fork, and
that went well, even in the intermittent afternoon
rain.

Best Advisors' Coffee, by far, was at Black Mt. Good
coffee, along with donuts and cookies.

Base Camp processing at both ends of the trek was
uneventful and pretty easy.

If you can't fit all your gear in your two lockers,
the Security Office will store some gear for you in a
room they have - they were very accomodating.

Jamie Cook - I tried to find you at Cypher's but was
unsuccessful - sorry!

Our crew's biggest point of contention, other than
normal adolescent issues, was, believe it or not,
raingear. When to take it, what parts of it to take -
some adults did not want to take rainpants on a side
hike - and when to put it on. I would not have guessed
that prior to the hike, but it turned out that way.

I'd be glad to answer any questions.

YIS,

Matt Cole
Lead Advisor, Crew 727-N
Troop 32
Bedington, WV

                
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Received on Wed Aug 11 09:05:41 2004