For anyone interested in Trek 32, we completed it on July 20th. No mosquito problems, but lots of rain. We were first time Philmont trekkers, with one advisor who hiked very slowly. Age range from 13-52--all female crew.
We all survived, although we ran through all the tape in our first aid kit (5 rolls), three rolls of athletic tape, and nearly all the duct tape we'd brought, plus two rolls of first aid tape we bought at the Baldy trading post.
It was a beautiful and wonderful trek. We got a late bus to 6 mile gate, so we didn't get to Anasazi until nearly 6 pm, at which time the heavens opened, drenching us for the next 6 hours. The camp was overcrowded, but one crew offered us their campfire circle to fix dinner in. We all felt very proud the next day when we ran into the crew at IW, and their scoutmaster complemented us on how efficiently we'd set up and broken camp--without recriminations or arguments!
We thoroughly enjoyed IW, but our cons project had to be postponed a day because the deluge the day before had left the ground supersaturated. We spent a quiet afternoon and evening at Cottonwood (the only crew there) before hiking out the next morning to the cons site. A thoroughly worthwhile project (and our crew had enjoyed the lecture the day before). Still, given the project, we didn't leave IW until nearly 1:30, which meant we hiked the stairmaster and the burn area in the heat of the day. We finally pulled into Ponil about 5 pm (we had one advisor who hiked VERY slowly--fortunately she is well-liked by all the scouts so no one was tempted to push her over a cliff....).
The staff at Ponil was great--took us right to the chuck wagon dinner, and excused us from prep and clean up because of the cons project delay. The evening cantina program was great, and there were more stars at Ponil's campsite than I ever remember seeing before. I cooked pancakes for the camp the next morning (I worked my way through college cooking breakfast in a men's dorm), and am proud of not burning a single one. I even had time for a quick shower before we picked up our burros.
The crew members (the girls, not the adults) had voted unanimously to do burro packing--and to have no regrets about it. I'm glad we did it--just watching the girls pick and load up the burros was worth the price of admission. They stopped on the way out of camp to tell one staffer that they'd named their strongest, largest, and handsomest burro after him.
The 4-wheel trail to Pueblano made ME regret the burros. Hot and hard. There was no reason we couldn't have taken the burros on the pack trail--since we had to do that to get to Head of Dean and Miranda. That's my only complaint about the Ponil staff, who told us we HAD to use the 4-wheel drive road. We ran into another crew that lost a burro--it had run off during one of their rest stops, so we felt pretty good about arriving with our own.
We'd not sorted the food at Ponil, just threw it in the paniers and moved out. At Pueblano, we came up with a food sorting technique that served everyone well. We kept the dinners together, but tore apart the breakfasts and lunches. After sorting everything into piles, we gave everyone a bag and let them pick out what they would eat (or thought they would) over the days between commissary stops. Everyone had to carry what they picked. We turned back bags and bags of food, and lightened our packs enough that the burros carried all of the remaining food and all but one of the tents the next day.
We stayed at Pueblano and cooked dinner, attended the evening program (which was a lot too juvenile for our crew, but the music was good) and then hiked into Pueblano Ruins for the night with two crews who already had set up their campsites. We had practiced hiking at night, so we were pretty comfortable with it, but finally had to ask where the bear cable was, as we could not find the darn thing on our own.
The next morning, we did program (spar pole climbing) at 8, then headed off over Hart's peak into Head of Dean--our absolute favorite staff camp. They were welcoming when we arrived, offered us help in getting the burros watered, and were very friendly. I delivered the news that their purportedly female cat had testicles, and they renamed him "Biscuit." We took a longer break than we'd planned because they were so hospitable. Then on in to Miranda, where we had to make a difficult call. We arrived in time to shoot black powder, and set up camp in the daylight, but when we looked at the feet on three of the girls, it was obvious that two of them should not attempt to hike Baldy. Now, we had enough adults and scouts that we could split the group and still hike it, but the girls talked long and hard about being a crew, and sticking together. They voted to postpone Baldy till our next trek. I was both disappointed and relieved.
Instead, we took an R&R day--slept in (we'd been getting up between 4 and 6 most mornings), and then hiked up to Baldy camp with empty packs for food and showers. On the way back, we had terrible lightning storms, and torrents of rain. We cooked in icy rain that night and went to bed early, as the climb back up to Head of Dean was facing us in the morning.
We got up at 4 and headed out by 5 15, and arrived at Head of Dean before the staff was done with breakfast. They cemented their position as the best staff when one got me a cup of wonderful black coffee--my first in three weeks, as the girls made me swear off coffee for a couple of weeks before we left. And they had news of our other crew (doing trek 29). One girl from that crew had to be medevaced the night before with a high fever and nosebleeds, but they checked on her condition for us and told us if we waited around an hour or so, we could meet up with the remainder of that crew. Since my daughter was their primary adult advisor, I was really up for that. We spent the morning there visiting, drying laundry, and cooked dinner for lunch there in order to spend more time together. Sadly, we had to part after lunch, as they headed for Miranda, and us for Santa Claus.
Just as we arrived at Santa Claus, the rains began. We borrowed from other treks, and had dinner on the porch of the abandoned cabin, before putting up out tents and hauling them out to the campsite. It was a beautiful camp, and the rain eased by bedtime, so I enjoyed the stars again.
We got an early start again the next morning, and cooked dinner at Vista Grande before Upper Bench. The girls surprised me that night (my birthday) with a package of ginger snaps they'd caged from the staff at Baldy camp. The remainder of my "present" was the last two jalapeno cheese squeezers!
We got into Harlan early the next day, and two of us advisors spent the morning on the porch, while the girls and the other two advisors shot. (I grew up with a reloader on the dining room table, so I didn't feel the need to do it again). One of our girls set a new record for inverted sit ups and push ups in the reloading shack. Once again, the rains struck, and burro racing--something we'd been looking forward to--was cancelled.
On the way out of camp the next morning, we discovered a severely damaged pack frame, and had to do some field-expedient repairs involving extra straps and duct tape (the repairs held till base camp). That delayed us, and we didn't get as early a start as we'd hoped. By scouring the swap boxes, we'd come up with enough extra food to skip our Ute Gulch commissary stop, so we side-hiked Hidden Valley instead. The valley smelled better than anywhere else on Philmont we'd stopped, but it's beauty was over-rated. Still, Window Rock was worth the extra two miles, and we made Clarks Fork in plenty of time to horseback ride. (we'd missed out on the ride at Ponil as there were no reservations available when we went through logistics).
The chuck wagon dinner at Çlark's was pretty bad. 40 minutes late, burned buscuits, and no cobbler on the peaches. We should have just cooked the Hawaiian chicken we'd turned back to the swap box. We hiked up to Ponderosa late that evening, around 8 pm. Found a campsite with no problems, and carried in all the extra water we could manage. We were woken up about an hour after we got to sleep by another late ariving crew, who loudly commented: "Some one's camped here" as they blundered into our campsite.
We got up the next morning at 2, to see sunrise on Shaefer's. We nearly missed it. As we were hiking up the trail to Shaeffer's Peak Camp we encountered a 4-wheel drive road that wasn't on the map and a couple of the girls and one of the adults panicked, thinking we were on the wrong trail. Several of us dropped packs, and headed on up the trail to find the camp, and then hiked down again, collected everyone, and did it again We rounded the corner and saw the trail going up to the peak just in time for sunrise.
Much as I enjoyed the views, I would never hike in again over Tooth Ridge. I understand there is a line for those who want to shoot the guy who designed the new switchbacked trail. I don't want to shoot him; I just want to roll him down the ridge, through all the cacti, preferably wearing only his birthday suit in mid-day sun. As we watched the storms in the ridgeline to the north, we didn't know that our sister crew was in a flash flood in that area. They got out okay and back to 6 mile gate with all their gear, but they were covered in mud. As they explained it, in the scramble out of the flooding stream up the hill, the lightning strikes were getting closer. They dropped packs, and huddled down in lightning protective position, and while they were in knee deep mud and water, they decided to add some additional mud to each other. They were lovely when they returned to base camp (although their bus driver was not impressed).
The final campfire was absolutely wonderful and a great send off for the scouts.
Our wildlife sightings were limited to deer (large buck and two does at Miranda) and small herd of bucks (ranging from an 8 pointer to two spikehorns) at HOD, lots of geckos, two snakes, and a couple of turkeys. Lots of warnings about rattlers at Harlan, mountain lions in the Santa Claus area, and bear at Clark's Fork.
The funniest (in retrospect) thing that happened on the trek was one of the scouts waking me up at Upper Gulch about an hour after I'd gone to bed, telling me that we'd overslept. When I told her (and her mom) that they were mistaken, that it was 8:30 pm, not am, she asked me if I were sure. Thanks to a watch set to military time, I was able to answer definitively (and to go back to sleep). Apparently she and her mom had gotten up and dressed and were preparing to take down their tent....until they decided to check.
Denise Vowell
Crew 574
709B1 Trek 32
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Received on Tue Jul 27 12:06:30 2004
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