From: Bill Lentz (blentz@prodigy.net)
Date: Tue Jul 02 2002 - 17:40:17 CDT
Hope this isn't inappropriate for the list. Our trek was 618 A-2.
Just now have a chance to document our trek (if I can remember it all). We
had Trek 2 and were given Trek 5 - our Trek sheet was a pre-printed Trek 5,
and I haven't had a chance to see if it exactly matches the published Trek
5. We originally had a 50 mile trek and the new trek was 64 miles.
We were dropped at Lovers Leap turnaround and hiked the 2-3 miles to Lovers
Leap camp (unstaffed). Stopped at Lovers Leap on the way for a great view.
It was a good indication of what we were to face ( although most of us had
prepared for the trek, there was lots of heavy breathing - we live at 350
ft above sea level year around - one of the advisors who had not prepared
was pretty stunned.) We had to hike back down about 3/4 mile for water
(pumped, but very good). Our ranger taught the guys bear bags, cooking,
LNT, etc. - he was very good.
Left the next morning for Crater Lake. The crew really liked this camp,
and the staff here put on a great campfire. Ran in to some rain early
afternoon, fortunately we had already set up camp.
Left the next morning for Black Mountain. Again, the staff was very good,
especially one of the guys running the blacksmith forge (don't remember his
name, but he's a chemistry teacher from (I think) Virginia - we had to go
to this the next morning because we couldn't fit everything in the day we
arrived.) I managed to shoot a black powder rifle ball through my son's
bandana.
Left for Beaubien, and saw a bear just up the four wheel drive from the
trail a few hundred yards from camp. The bear took off about the time all
of us started pointing and exclaiming "Look there's a bear!"
After setting up camp, I took five of the crew to PJ for food pick up. We
barely made it before the 5 pm close, and hiked through a hail storm on the
way back.
The next morning we went up to the airplane crash site. Saw two dead
horses on the way (found out later they had been put down - one was half
eaten, and we ran in to a crew later that had taken pictures of a bear
dining on the horse.) Although we were on the correct trail to the crash
site, we didn't trust ourselves, backtracked and ended up climbing what we
were later told was the "old" trail - almost straight up. It was tough.
We found the right trail on the way down, and let out loud groans when we
got to the spot where we had turned around on the way up! Because of our
delays, we missed our 1:00 horse riding. Went to the branding section and,
although we got our boots branded, the staff here was pretty weak - didn't
really know (or seem to know) much about branding, nor did they seem very
interested.
The other half of our troop was on a different trek and came in to Beaubien
for their two day layover today. The two crews really enjoyed seeing each
other, and skipped the campfire in order to exchange stories.
Took off the next day for Wild Horse. Stopped at Crooked Creek to fix
dinner for lunch. Had to pump water. This was a tough hike for us, and we
were glad to get to bed.
Hiked the next day to Clear Creek - another dinner for lunch and water fill
up before we hiked to Mt. Phillips. This was (at the time) the toughest
hike, but the views were great at the top, and the crew was really proud of
themselves. We were able to find the marker where the mountain was
dedicated to Waite Phillips, and the boys left a note in the box. Hiked on
in to the (unstaffed) camp and again had an early night. It was really
cold when we went to bed, but surprisingly seemed to warm up during the
night. The next morning we saw our second bear. My son looked up and saw
a bear about 20 feet from one of the crew taking down his tent. This bear
looked a little scrawny and had apparently been hanging around this site
for days. It started to leave before we could really react, but just
sauntered away slowly.
Hiked a long day to Cimmaroncito. Stopped at Cyphers Mine and took the
tour. It was fun. Hiked the last couple of hours in the rain, but things
were just a drizzle when we finally set up camp. This was a first trek for
all of us and we were really surprised that Philmont has let the "Totem
Poles" at this camp site fall in to such a state of disrepair.
Did our conservation project the next day - helping rebuild an old (closed
13 years) trail to Cyphers Mine. I think the boys really began to
appreciate the amount of work that has gone in to the trail system and
everything else at Philmont. Rained later in the day, so the crew had to
do indoor rock climbing - they had fun though.
Left for Tooth Ridge. Stopped at Clarks Fork for dinner (didn't realize it
was so close - got in about 9:30 and had to kill a couple of hours before
eating). We all agreed that this was the biggest mistake of the trek. We
had killed our momentum, became lethargic after lunch and had to really
struggle with the rest of the day's hike. We had no choice though, we
weren't able to get enough food exchanges to do two lunches and their was
no water on the rest of the trail.
The hike to the Tooth Ridge camp was very tough because of the rocky
terrain. We finally made it about 5, but were too tired to go back and
climb the Tooth. That's probably a good thing, because we all got up at 4
the next morning to climb the Tooth in the dark and see the sunrise (with
about 100 of our closest friends.) It was great though.
Hiked on in later that morning - saw one rattlesnake on the way in - final
score: 2 bears, 1 snake, 1 lizard and lots of mini-bears.
If any of you want to ask questions, feel free to email me.
Best regards;
Bill Lentz
-------------------------------------------------------
Scouting E-mail Discussion Lists @ usscouts.org
Subscribe/Unsubscribe at http://usscouts.org/lists/
Listserv Commands at http://usscouts.org/lists/lc.asp
-------------------------------------------------------
Send listserv commands to: listserv@troop47.com
Send postings to: philmont@troop47.com
List FAQ found at: http://usscouts.org/lists/faq.asp
List Administrator: philmont_owner@troop47.com
-------------------------------------------------------
As you gather around this virtual campfire with fellow
Scouts and Scouters, do your best to be trustworthy,
loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient,
cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.
-------------------------------------------------------
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.7 : Thu Mar 13 2003 - 10:38:07 CST