[Philmont]: wet/warm

hu we came off trek 11 on 8/5 so things may have changed somewhat.. Our
first day was 7/26 and we were at Zastrow. It rained lightly around noon
as we were getting to our camp at Rayado River. Then about 3pm, while I
was visiting the "Red Roof Inn" there was a cloudburst for about a half
hour. Needless to say I waited it out in the relatively dry comfort of
the RRI:).. When I got back to the site we had developed a lake in the
tent area which required moving a few tents.. discovered some were not
as watertight as had been assumed..couple of wet sleeping bags as well
as gear. About 4:30 we went back over to the Zastrow camp for
activities,dinner and Cobbler-very good. Afterwards our crew and two
others played a rousing game of Zastrowball..lots of excitment! We
headed back at dusk-around 8 I recall- and there were very dark cloulds
gathering. Again it started to sprinkle as we hiked back upriver, then
it rained..rained harder..poured..poured harder..meanwhile the
trail/road was becoming somewhat soggy with rivulets everywhere.. we
almost made it back- maybe only a 100 yards or so to the turnoff when
the heavens really opened and within seconds the water was over our
boottops...the road had become a river!! We made a final mad dash to the
relative dryness of our tents..no ranger talk that night! It continued
to rain on and off all night. We had some rain the next day but not
quite so dramatic.And we were able to dry out our tents etc. The next 8
days were dry, sunny, but not hot. Evenings were cool but only one
morning was cold enough to warrant putting on gloves and really making
one wish for a fire and hot coffee!! Then when we got to Clark's Fork,
we were camping up at Ponderosa. The day was looking a little
threatening and we had several sick trekkers so we hiked the mile+ up
there first to set up camp then came back down(literally-close to 900')
to go horsebackriding.During the ride it was very pleasant but we could
see dark clouds gathering once again.Just as we got back to the corral
it started to sprinkle. We helped with the tack etc and headed to the
porch for R&R and very shortly it started to rain. It kept increasing in
volume along with the thunder & lightning and reached the point where we
couldn't see off the porch- we were wondering if we might need to find
boats!! After about an hour it finally slacked off- just in time for the
chuckwagon dinner. We hiked back up the hill at dusk and it rained a
little on the way back, but not too bad. It kept raining all night so we
had wet tents to pack the next morning on our hike to the Tooth. It was
cloudy and foggy so we were unable to see the views I remembered from
our trek in'02- sigh.The afternoon cleared for a little bit,but we hiked
down the switchbacks in the rain and thunder. It finally stopped as we
make our way thru the gate... So nice to get back & dry out.. after hot
showers of course. So we had a mixed bag with the rain concentreated at
the two ends of the trek.. hope yours is a bit drier!! YIS Zea Bauer
Crew 105 '02 '05

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Received on Fri Aug 19 14:08:45 2005