[Philmont] Exp#727-h2 Trek 21 Journal

*This is a fairly lengthy e-mail with my Philmont journal from this past
summer. I’m sending it to family and friends and the troop 47 e-mail list.
Hit delete if you are not interested in reading. Thanks.

Troop 55 High Point NC left Greensboro, NC PTI Airport on July 26, 2006 for
Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico. What follows is the Journal of one
advisor, Dave Ritter. We had two crews and our crew had 8 Scouts and 2
advisors. The boys selected trek 21 as their first choice and this was all
our first experience with Philmont.

July 26-

Both crews met at PTI and said our goodbyes to our families. No problems
going through security. This started off an exceptionally smooth travel to
Philmont. We flew from Greensboro to O’Hare Chicago and on to Denver after
switching planes. This was the first time flying for some of the boys and
judging from my son’s experience they loved it. In Denver we met up with our
shuttle bus, Rambling Express. We were very pleased with the air conditioned
bus, the driver, the price and the general experience. I would recommend
them to anyone. After a stop at the Golden Arches in Denver and Arby’s in
Raton, NM we rolled through the plains of NM to Philmont. We pulled into
Philmont about 7pm and our two crew leaders stepped off the bus to check in.
I was impressed with the fact that the staff at the welcome center spoke
directly to the crew leaders and gave them the paperwork needed for
check-in. The two crews put their gear in trailbound tents which are two
beds with a mattress in a canvass covered tent, the official scout camp
tent, only these were on a cement pad. The first night it rained in base
camp and became a sign for what to expect the rest of the trip.

July 27-

Up at 650 am breakfast in the chow hall of scrambled eggs, hash browns,
biscuit, sausage, cheerios, etc. We met at the Welcome Center at 8am to be
introduced to our ranger, Patrick. He took us through registration and
logistics. Jordan, our crew leader, worked with the trek coordinator at
logistics to map out our trek. (Make sure you take a blank overall map to
logistics to map out on.) He was shown the big trek board, water board,
showers board, etc. At a desk the coordinator had the itinerary sheet,
sharpies, pencils and highlighters. He showed Jordan each step of our trek
and Jordan marked the overall map. Each mark showed where to get water,
food, programs, conservation project, showers, staff camps and trail camps.
The coordinator also had the crew leader highlight dry camps and suggested
we eat dinner for lunch and lunch for dinner when we come to this point.
Next, we hit medical recheck and all passed. I had questions about my blood
pressure since I was on medication, but it check as normal as home. Our one
scout who was under weight had no problem as the doctor had sent a note and
I had sent a note on my experience with him as well. The boys decided to go
through services before lunch to get our trail food and crew gear. We got 45
bags of food and 2 rolls of TP. We were amazed at the volume of the pile of
food. Our ranger recommended two 8 quart pots, the Frisbee, spatula, etc as
our only cook gear. We stored the 4 qt pots in the locker. All the food and
gear were put in 5 bear bags and put in our tents while we went to lunch of
hot dogs, etc. It started raining right after we did our shakedown with the
ranger. For the benefit of the families copied in, the ranger had us dump
all our personal and crew gear from home onto our beds. He went down a list
and each boy moved that item to the other end of the bed. Patrick then
looked at the items left after that. He suggested leaving behind camp shoes,
long underwear and any other extra un-needed items. We really never found a
need for the camp shoes on the trail. I guess it depends on individual needs
or comforts. I took my long underwear but left my fleece behind. At some
points I wished I had reversed that decision. At security we were issued 2
lockers and given keys. We decided not to double lock these lockers because
security required a copy of our key and we didn’t have anything of high
value to put in them. It was still raining at dinner, chapel (moved to
services shelter) and opening camp fire. At dinner our ranger was told that
we would leave at 10am in the morning instead of the 8am previously assigned
to us. The road at Ponil Turnaround was flooded. Camp fire was held under
the Welcome Center shelter. The staff did a skit where they portrayed
historical figures from the area telling about them. Some of us ran for the
phones afterwards to call home. Their seemed to be about 10 phones at
Philmont where you can make collect or calling card calls. But, there must
be 5 lines to get out on. If there are people on all the phones you had to
keep trying to dial “9” to get a line out. I would suggest bringing a phone
card to Philmont as they seemed to sell out quick.

July 28-Day 1 on the trail-

Up at 530 and took showers. As the sun rose a rainbow appeared over Tooth
Ridge right beside the Tooth of time. The Ridge and the Tooth are great back
drops to base camp and we didn’t really get the significance until we hiked
in. We finished up all our doings in base camp including turning in all of
our valuables and tickets to registration to be held until we got back or if
someone came off the trail. Our crew made a pack line and filled water
bottles at the Welcome Center. There were maybe 20 crews there hitting the
trail that day. Our ranger loaded our packs on the back of a school bus with
one other crew from Ohio doing trek 21 as well. The two rangers stood at the
front of the bus and told jokes, stories, history while we drove from the
main gate through Cimarron and up to Ponil Turnaround. Off the bus, across
the creek and up the trail we went 1-2 miles to Ponil. We began something
here that was one of the highlights of our trek, the Porch Talk. Some staff
camps put more of a show on but the staff seemed to always have a joke or a
show to put on. They got into character for the camp they were at. As we got
ready to leave for our camp, Sioux, one of the guys having trouble with
their pack discovered the frame had been broken, probably at the airport.
Patrick had Jordan ask the staff if they had a rental pack on-hand to
replace this one. Some of the staff camps keep extra gear for this purpose
and the gear was switched over to the rental pack. It was a Kelty Tioga and
similar to the one the scout was carrying. We filled out a slip to pay ($20)
when we returned to camp and tagged the pack to go back to be held at “Packs
and Gas”. Being lunch time now we ate saltines, canned ham, dried pears,
Hoohah bar and Gatorade. I noted here that it wasn’t bad but by the last two
days we would have a different view of various items on our menu. Half mile
up to Sioux we set up at site #5. Our ranger instructed us on campsite set
up and we hung bear bags. Our first dinner the boys decided to get Hawaiian
chicken out of the way. We did one pot cooking the whole trip and mixed
Hawaiian chicken and rice with raman noodles, peas and corn in one pot and
rehydrated it. It was pretty bad but we ate it all, thanks to one scout who
ate several servings and our ranger trying a little. We experienced proper
Philmont clean up including licking our bowls clean. All our smellables up
in bear bags we took our trash down to Ponil to dispose of. Jordan and some
others stayed back at camp because Jordan wasn’t feeling well. The rest went
to the cantina had root beer and played cards. We returned back to camp a
short time later with a request to send staff because Jordan had vomited.
Two staff members checked out Jordan and relayed information and requests to
base camp. He was given Ibuprophen and Gatorade and he lay down. This
experience taught us that all smellables are packed out, including vomit.

July 29-

Up at 6am, Jordan feeling fine and we slowly broke camp as we let the boys
lead. We ate breakfast back at Ponil with a 9am appointment to get our
burro. I got good pictures of the humming birds at Ponil staff cabin. They
swarm around the feeder and will land on your finger if you hold it out. The
burro experience was great for our boys. They all loved it. None of them
have had much experience with horses and definitely not burros. The wrangler
demonstration and actually corralling the animal and packing it up took 3
hours. They had 4 crews there and turned all the boys loose in the corral to
select one burro for each crew. The boys named the burro Durka, something
from a movie. The burro hauled 50 pounds of food for us. Not long after
being on the trail one of our crew stepped of the trail to water a rock and
came up on a rattle snake. We kept everybody back and it crawled off after
checking us out. Made it on to Flume Canyon our second camp site and set up.
The boys corralled Durka down the trail and cooked dinner of Mac and cheese
of some sort. It was pretty good. Patrick surprised the boys with 2 pound
cakes with vanilla icing. He packed it in and said it was for our boys being
a good crew. We did Roses, Thorns and Buds and off to bed. Our site was
beside a creek and was good sleeping music.

July 30-

Our ranger left us as we were heading out of camp. With burro in tow we made
it to Pueblano and breakfast. The staff at Continental Tie and Lumber was
our guy’s favorite. Dom did the porch talk and was real funny. He was in
character for the 1914 set up. A guy who identified himself as Patty did the
spar pole demo. He was hilarious and did a great show. Most of the boys made
it to the top and had a blast doing it. While eating lunch we met a crew
from Charlotte NC. The boys were real proud to introduce Julian Love who
they said had been to Philmont 10-11 times. We had a short discussion about
the Troop 47 e-mail list and the recent thread on cell phones. We took the
4-wheel-drive road to Head of Dean which was mostly up hill, steep and
rocky. Did the porch talk and were assigned site 15. This was a real nice
site under the pine trees and across from a field where we saw mule dear
close up later that evening. We continued to let the boys lead and do the
set up. They were real unorganized and afterwards the advisors got all the
guys together and identified some areas for improvement. Advisors coffee on
the porch gave us opportunity to talk to some other adults. We talked with
the Ohio crew and a crew who had hiked Baldy Mtn. They said a crew coming up
with them had a crew leader with one leg and doing the trek on crutches. The
boys played basketball in the dark and talked to a Cavalcade crew. My first
experience with a red roof inn was one with the hole cut out a little too
jagged. You had to be careful sitting down. We were also instructed to carry
a small tree limb in to clear out any spiders just under the seat. We had
good weather and great views form Head of Dean. I believe it was here, at
least for me, where it starting sinking in to me how special Philmont was.

July 31-

Up early but still 8am out of camp. As we were going by the staff cabin they
were dealing with the aftermath of a bear in camp 20 minutes earlier. A crew
had made a pack line and while they went up on the porch. A bear had come
down and drug off one of the advisor’s packs and tore into it. The staff
chased it off. You could still see where the pack had been drug through the
dirt. Our crew was advised of the increased bear activity and that our next
camp, Ute Meadows was worse. Two boys had been eating in one section of
their site while the rest of the crew was in the other section. They saw a
bear coming up behind the boys and ran it off. The bear doubled back around
and got their food anyway. A tent beside theirs had claw marks on it. We as
advisors took a lead in this aspect making sure all bear and smellable
procedures were followed. We took the trail to Miranda where we dropped off
our burro. After corralling him just before coming up on Miranda it started
to rain. The boys stopped to use the side-by-side red roof inn. My son who
wouldn’t use a public restroom before coming to Philmont found the need to
set aside their hang ups. He said it gave them someone to talk to. When we
set out it continued to rain and then switched to hail. We must have made a
good picture with the aspens to our left, the Miranda cabin ahead and hail
sticking to the ground. There was enough room for us to stand on the back
porch until the weather slowed a little. The staff did our porch talk from
the back door. We made it around to the front porch and hung out until they
did the talk inside about fur trading. The boys shot the black powder rifles
and put some holes in their hats. We hiked up to Ute Meadows in the rain and
took awhile to get a site as most were occupied. We were all wet and cold
and decided that we need to adjust our meals. Our water source, the Ute
Creek, was flowing heavy and was brown so we decided not to boil water. We
had a dinner, lunch and breakfast left. We decide to eat our lunch meal that
evening so we could get dry and warm quick. One scout started showing sign
of hypothermia so we put up his tent under the tarp first, put it in the
field and got him and his tent mate inside to warm up. We did each other
tent this way and it stopped raining by the time we got to the two advisor
tents. All dried and warmed up quick.

August 1-

We were slow getting up and the boys decided not to hike to the top of Baldy
Mtn. They cooked our dinner meal for breakfast; it was some sort of mashed
potato gruel. Each person took their stripped down pack, stuff for a shower
and dirty clothes to Baldy camp. Here we ran into the other guys form our
troop. It was good to see them. They had just came down from Baldy and said
it was a hard hike and they couldn’t see anything due to the cloud cover.
They didn’t give our guys a hard time for not going. We signed up for a
530pm shower and took off for French Henry. French Henry, in my opinion, was
the prettiest staffed camp we went through. It sits down in a tight valley
and the cabins are on the hill sides. The boys enjoyed the Irish lady who
did the porch talk, the panning for gold and the forge. The staff here did a
great job. The swap box at this camp was the best in Philmont. We still
enjoyed sunflower seeds and squeeze cheese at this point. The hike to and
from Baldy and French Henry is a good one and mostly on a level smooth dirt
road. We sent postcards, bought chocolate, got our food for 3 days, took hot
showers and washed clothes at Baldy Camp. I found that you can buy items on
credit at the trading posts on the trail as I wanted a clean shirt and socks
to put on after my shower. Since I only carried a few dollars with me I was
able to pay my debt when checking out at registration. Back to camp we
cooked and cleaned up. There we had corn nuts with dinner and my son had to
laugh because what his uncle had told him. He said that when he went to
Philmont back in the 70’s he carried corn nuts to supplement his diet. The
staff from Baldy came down through Ute Meadows that evening to inspect for
bear bag compliance. They said that two bears had recently been trapped with
one being relocated and one having to be put down. We put clothes and any
nalgene that had Gatorade in it up in bear bags. The previous night a bear
had chewed a nalgene a previous crew had left at our sump. One of the scouts
took it home as a souvenir with teeth and claw marks.

August 2-

On to Upper Dean Cow via Upper Dean, The boys were going to do the challenge
course since it was full when we went through previously. As a side note, I
had a gout attack that day due to the tuna fish and high protein foods. I
hadn’t had an attack in months but brought my medication just in case. This
is just a warning for anybody going that has gout. I struggled through that
day but was fine the next. The hike form Ute Meadows is straight up the
mountain and overlooking Miranda. We had breakfast at the top which included
Pop Tarts making most of the boys happy. Made it to Upper Dean in the rain
and the challenge course was full again. They had told Jordan we would get
priority if we can back through but crew’s double dipping had prevented
this. We ran into the rest of our troop here again and we hiked on to Upper
Dean Cow in the rain. Not long after it quit we made it in to camp, set up
and ate. It rained off and on the rest of the night.

 August 3-

Seventh day on the trail. Up and out of Upper Dean Cow camp early. The first
part of our trail was up hill and then down across the Cimarron River. Seems
like I remember stories of river boats on the Cimarron? It must have been a
lot bigger back then as it looks like a creek now. We crossed a highway and
saw civilization for the first time in days. I guess this is where the pizza
people must do their thing? Back up the hill and a crew headed to Upper
Bench camp with us was cooking a dinner meal for lunch. The lake at Upper
Bench has been dried up for some time so there was not going to be a water
source there. We decided to fill up 3 nalgenes each and push on. We had
spaghetti for dinner that night and were looking forward to it. We were the
first into Upper Bench and had a great level site. One scout couldn’t find
the latrine so he went deep into the woods and dug a hole. We found the
latrine when he got back. It was where he was looking, but the wooden box
sitting there wasn’t what he was looking for. Turns out it was pretty full
anyways. We all donated a nalgene for dinner and only used a small part for
it. We didn’t use the dinner for lunch technique at all on the trail. It
turns out that the good meal coupled with the good weather was what we
needed. We were all tired and getting short tempered with each other. We sat
around after dinner and talked. Conversation started out with our other
Advisor telling a good story and then turned to some heavy topics and then
switched to jokes. I had been carrying a bag of Jolly Ranchers and broke
them out at this point. My son had been questioning the pack reading “bear
bag” since the first day.

August 4-

Up early as we were going to try to beat the other crew to Cimarroncito or
at least get there early enough to some of the programs that day. We
followed the other crew down the hill on the wrong trail. This taught us a
lesson to check the map and compass first and not trust other’s mistakes.
It’s good to know the night before the trail head for the next morning. We
lost an hour and ended up eating breakfast where we started. On the trail we
got a good sight of the Tooth of Time before we went down the switch backs
to Ute Gulch commissary. Here we restocked for the last time with food and
TP. We took a break here for candy, beef sticks, post cards, water and the
red roof inn. Nobody felt like lunch so we hit the trail up hill to
Cimarroncito. This camp looks to be the biggest, spread out like a scout
camp back home. There were a big crowd of crews around playing volleyball,
etc. We did the conservation project here with an hour long talk on forest
fires and prevention. All around the staff area they were cutting down trees
to protect from forest fires. We were assigned to cut down a pine and cut up
limbs on the forest floor to smaller pieces. We did this for 2 hours and
didn’t get the tree down. The boys went after the tree with a big bow saw
but didn’t get their wedge right. After 2 hours sawing on it we were told to
stop. Back at the staff cabin we were led to our site to set up camp. We had
two days here and it hadn’t rained for the last two days.

August 5-

We slept in to 700 and had oatmeal for breakfast. The boys were scheduled
for 945 to do rock climbing. A short hike from the staff cabin up to the
cliffs we and two other crews suited up. They had boys go two at a time up
the side of the small cliff and over to another station and repel down. Each
had one shot at it. The boys seemed to really enjoy this activity. We went
back to our camp and took cold showers and washed clothes. It started
raining just as we had finished washing clothes, so they never really dried.
I took my son’s Zeus EXO tent. My son shared my Coleman Exponent with
another scout and had no problems. Mine leaked every time it rained but the
other Zeus did well, it was seam sealed better. I wouldn’t recommend a
single wall tent for anybody. We learned that one of the other crews there
at Cimarroncito had done the side hike to the Hunting lodge and Hidden
Valley without their rain suits and suffered through a downpour. We didn’t
go anywhere without rain suits. By this point on our trek 14-15 year old
conversation was getting old for us two advisors as they were challenging
each others manhood and life style.

We turned in early as we weren’t sure of the hike-time to Clarks Fork and we
had a 9am time for horse riding.

August 6-

Day 10 on the trail and off to Clarks Fork. Apparently extensive trail work
has been done starting at Cimarroncito towards Clarks Fork as it was a
smooth trail for the first section. We realized we were going to make good
time so we stopped at Window Rock and ate breakfast in the shelter there. We
spent a little time there enjoying the view of the Cito Reservoir and Window
Rock. With day breaking this was the most beautiful site I had seen and
Philmont. We arrived at Clarks Fork at 8am and figured it is no more than an
hour hike from Cimarroncito to Clarks Fork. The staff at Clarks Fork was
excellent. They welcomed crews as they came off the trail, maybe a small
thing but it was nice to be welcomed that way. The camp director can’t
remember his name because he was wearing a name tag that said “LUCY”,
competed against four of our boys in chess. Playing all at once he beat the
first in 5 moves and the last hung on for a little while. It was good fun to
watch. He gave them each a couple cookies after they came off of the horse
trail. Three crews were there for horse riding and each person was matched
up with a horse up at the corral and we rode in line for about 1 ½ hours
down the hill and along Tooth Ridge. Back at Clarks Fork we got our packs
and hiked up the long hill an hour to Ponderosa Park. This camp is kind of
stuck in a thick grove of Ponderosa Pines. There is just enough room to set
up tents and not much else. It worked fine though as it was our last night
out. Here we ate lunch and went back to Clarks Fork. We sat on the porch
during the rain and got some things branded in between. Advisors talked to
several people on a Cavalcade. We didn’t ask but it seemed like these people
were not involved in Boy Scouts but had come as a family.

At 5pm we walked down the muddy road to the shelter for Chuck Wagon dinner.
We had beef stew and bread sticks and plenty for everybody to have 3rds.
There had to be 100-200 people there. It was wonderful. Most couldn’t handle
the little breadsticks as we had them for most dinners, but still it was a
great meal. We all stood around and talked awhile. For dessert we had pound
cake and peaches, again great. Everybody filled up and no problems with real
food after being on the trail. At 7pm we had advisor’s coffee with brownies
on the porch. The cook was a great guy who tried to come across as a gruff
old cooky. Back up the hill to Ponderosa Park and our last night. The rain
stopped and the sky cleared. Philmont was saying goodnight to us.

August 7-

Last day on the trail. We were woken up all night by crews, starting about
230am packing up and heading up the hill. What each crew does is their own
thing but I would ask that if you are leaving early, be quiet. Crews were
beating their boots together and shaking out tents. Several of us got little
sleep that night. We didn’t feel comfortable hiking in the dark as some had
bad ankles, bad knees, fell in the daylight and got lost in the daylight.
Besides, we were told the rule was no night hiking and we advisors felt this
was a good opportunity to teach a lesson in following the rules, not
deciding which to follow and which to “wink-wink” not follow. But, to each
his own. We got up at 450am and were on the trail as day broke. We had some
really great scenery coming up the mountain 1000 feet to Schaffer’s Pass.
The trail from there to the Tooth was very scenic but rocky. At the base of
the Tooth we took a vote and climbing up to the top. It was well worth it as
the view was great. Back down from the Tooth we made the switchback down to
camp. As base camp came into full view we saw a storm moving in and got our
rain gear on before it hit. We could see it moving down the plains from
miles away. The switch backs seem to go on for ever as you go miles to one
end and then back. It was a great sense of achievement as the boys walked
together under the “Welcome Back You Made It” sign. We checked in, made
calls home, spent money in the trading post, got mail and cleared out our
lockers. Showers and flush toilets were great. Dinner of chicken fried
steak, mashed potatoes, salad, etc. Patrick, our Ranger joined us for dinner
and closing campfire. The closing campfire is a great experience fitting for
closing out a great Philmont experience. A full moon was over our shoulders
and the Tooth of Time was in front.

August 8-

Up early and on the bus. Again. Rambling Express was a great mode of travel
back to Denver. Bacon and eggs at MCD’s in Raton was wonderful. We went
through the Garden of the God’s in Colorado on the way back to Denver. Our
plane trips were mostly uneventful and we arrived back in NC around
mid-night.

For a first time group of guys we felt fortunate to experience Philmont. We
did it as a team and left with no regrets. Philmont is an experience that
will shape the young men who went and was a great memory for the advisors
who accompanied them.

Dave Ritter

High Point NC

727h-2 trek 21

2006

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Received on Thu Aug 24 11:02:00 2006