Re: RE: [Philmont]: Clark Forks to Black Mountain Camp

Hi:

A couple of misc comments from Trek 14.

The trail between Black Mountain and the North Fork Urraca Camp runs down thru the creek bottom. As Brian said, don't expect to go fast. The Scouts enjoyed the hike (its nice and shady) and it's an interesting contrast to the next day when you hike up over Shaefers Pass enroute to the Tooth. I thought the big, high alpine meadows at Shaefers were great. The hike from the North Fork Urraca camp to base camp is incredible. A big mix of scenery, vegetation and altitudes.

The staff at Black Mountain said, "be sure to come back for the advisor's coffee, it's only an hour or so hike back from the North Fork Urraca Camp." Right, it's more like 2-3 hours.

If you're a pass-thru crew at Black Mountain, be sure to tell Moondog (the staff leader) if you want to participate in black powder rifle shooting and blacksmithing. Our sister crew arrived first and said they were eating lunch and then heading down the trail and werent interested in the program. When we arrived, Moondog assumed we were not interested in the program and scheduled two later arriving crews into the early time slots. It caused a several hour delay while we waited for the other two crews. Moondog and his staff did an excellent job with the programs.

Also wanted to mention that four of our Scouts had major nose bleeds the 3rd and 4th days on the trail. The first big nose bleed was a shock, the entire front of the Scouts t-shirt was covered with blood. Not good. Our crew is from the eastern seaboard and I think the nose bleeds were caused by a combination of altitude adjustment, low humidity and exertion. We asked the Scouts to use Vaseline or triple antibiotic ointment in their noses at the start of the day and in the afternoons. That seemed to fix the problem.

Thanks much
Mick Meyer
701-Q3
Trek #14

From: "Brian Gannon" <briangannon@cox.net>
Date: 2004/07/19 Mon AM 12:51:36 EDT
To: Multiple recipients of list philmont <philmont@troop47.com>
Subject: RE: [Philmont]: Clark Forks to Black Mountain Camp

As of three days ago, there were 47 stream crossings between Black Mountain
and North Fork Urraca Camps. I think there may have used to have been a few
more, but it looks like some work has been done recently to move portions of
the trail up a little more on the ridge - there are a ton of blowdowns along
the creek, though the trail is clear and passable. It's a pretty long
hike - plan on 2 to 3 hours for that stretch. I'm willing to bet that the
water will be fairly high as the last few days have seen a lot of rain,
especially Saturday afternoon and evening. As others have mentioned, going
over Black isn't exactly easy either. If you do go that route, make sure to
be extremely careful as it is very easy to lose the trail around the top of
Black.

Brian Gannon
  -----Original Message-----
  From: owner-philmont@troop47.com [mailto:owner-philmont@troop47.com]On
Behalf Of SusanBKewley@cs.com
  Sent: Thursday, July 08, 2004 7:58 AM
  To: Multiple recipients of list philmont
  Subject: [Philmont]: Clark Forks to Black Mountain Camp

  Our crew is on trek #1. On day 7 we go from Clark Forks to Black Mountain
camp. The crew is trying to decide if they want to go over the top of Black
Mountain or go around the side of Black Mountain. Looking at the map and
from a previous email we have been informed there are about 20 stream
crossings if you go around the Mountain. We were also informed that the
trail over the top is the toughest trail on the ranch. Has anyone been on
Trek #1 this year that can offer some insight. How Steep is the terrain
over the top and how high is the water in North Fork Urraca Creek. We will
be attempting this on July 23rd.

-------------------------------------------------------
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.
-------------------------------------------------------

 
Received on Mon Jul 19 08:58:31 2004