RE: [Philmont]: Trek 21 Diary

Didn't create a diary, but here is a short highlights. Trail ratings are
based on year spent packing in Northern New England. Bugs were nonexistent
in August of 2004 and we got the typical afternoon showers. Haled three
times. Water was no problem except as noted below. Everyone carried two
quarts minimum unless noted below.

Day One: Base Camp

Day Two: Base Camp (Ponil Turnaround) to Sioux (Easy Hike)

            Bus to Ponil Turnaround rather bumpy and waved as we passed two
other council contingent crews heading up North Ponil Creek for Indian
Writings. Bus drop at Ponil Turnaround. Hiked into Ponil Camp for short
break which actually turned into a long break with horse shoes, etc. Don't
miss the trail junction through the barbed wire fence. The crew started for
the horse corral before we stopped and realized the mistake. The turn off
to Sioux was easy to find. Set up camp, had ranger training and dinner.
Nice spot with some limited, but excellent views. We had to purify water
even though Ponil's water supply is at the trail head. Walked back to Ponil
for evening songs and rootbeer. Kid's loved it and staff was great. I sat
on the staff porch and listened since the place was packed to the rafters.

Day Three: Sioux to Flume Canyon (Moderate to Hard)

            Out early to climb over Wilson Mesa. Crew voted to ditch the
Boro's and go for the views. It was more than worth the climb. Between the
burn areas with all of the wild flowers and the meadows with almost 360
degree views. This spot rivaled Baldy for the views. Our ranger had us
stop in a burn area off of the trail that overlooked South Ponil Creek to
finish up our Ranger training. Obtained some excellent shots of the scouts
amid the wildflowers with Baldy, etc in the background. I would definitely
do it again. The climb up was moderate and coming down into Pueblano was
steeper, but easily doable. Make sure you stay on the main jeep trail while
up on the mesa. No hand over hand stuff.

Stopped at Pueblano for Spar Poling and lunch. Also signed up for Cons
Project the following morning. Then headed to Flume Canyon for the all
inclusive bed and breakfast. Not a very impressive site as it sits in the
river bottom close to the creek. Would get pretty muddy in we weather.

Day Four: Flume Canyon to Head of Dean: (Easy with a bit Moderate)

            Up early for Cons at Pueblano. Building new trail from Pueblano
to Baldy Skyline which include brush hogging and taking out a 1.5 diameter
tree with stump attached. Ate lunch and headed for Head of Dean. Got in
early and did the Copes Course. Not to fancy of a course, but the crew had
a great time. Probably the best staff on the whole trip. Nice views from
in front of the cabin and sites were good. We were in early afternoon even
with the Cons project.

Day Five: Head of Dean to Ute Meadows (Easy with a bit of moderate)

            The trail along Baldy Skyline was great with lots of views, then
we dropped down to Miranda. There was a side trail (marked) to a meadow
with nice views worth the stop. Had a bit of a time finding the trail we
wanted until we realized it skirted around the horse corral. The trail then
entered the meadow below. The meadow was a lot further with a lot more up
hill than it looked, but we made it for black powder, tomahawks and lunch.
Then headed over to Ute Meadows after the afternoon shower and set up camp.
Go past the early ones around the Beaver Pond and camp at or near the old
tailings pond. The water is better, the views are better and it's a bit
closer to Baldy. Had a really nice sun set here as we watched the leading
edge of a tropical storm way off to the South East.

Day Six: Layover with climb over Baldy (Hard)

            Out at the crack of dawn with breakfast at Baldy Town. It was
just starting to get light out when we left Ute meadows. Took 3 Empty
backpacks for resupply at Baldy Town. Everyone also carried a day pack for
water, lunch, extra clothes for the assult. Moderate to steep climb most of
the way up Baldy from Baldy Town. We stopped at the Saddle for a break.
This was one of my favorite spots lounging on the grass. Then the final
assult which took the wind out of this flat lander. Spent quite a bit of
time on top with the spectacular views and headed down before noon. We took
what we thought was the main trail down off the North Side but ended up on a
goat path that was steep and nasty with a lot of loose scree. Then ended up
in the stream bed and had to bushwack up the other side to the trail.
Stopped at Copper Park for lunch and then stopped at the Mine for the tour
since there was a ranger there already. Tour was good and it rained while
we were in the mine. Great timing. Then headed for French Henry via the
wall. The wall wasn't that impressive even taking into account the fact
that we were going down. Did all of the activities at French Henry and then
took the most direct route, which wasn't all that direct back to Baldy Town.
Made it back about 30 minutes before they closed up for resupply. Headed
back to Ute Meadows for dinner. Very Long Day, but nobody complained. It
was well worth it.

Day Seven: Ute Meadows to Upper Dean Cow Camp (Easy with some Moderate)

            The climb back up to Baldy Skyline was the hardest part, but was
over early in the day. Again nice views but in the opposite direction.
Stopped at Head of Dean for lunch. They wouldn't let us do the Copes Course
a second time, so we played volleyball. Headed out mid-afternoon and just
as we got to Upper Dean cow, we got caught in the Monsoon with Hail.
Everyone headed for cover and waited out the storm. Most of the sites here
are on sloping hill side, so it wasn't the greatest campsite, but I've seen
a lot worse.

Day Eight: Upper Dean Cow Camp to Upper Bench Camp (Easy with a very little
Moderate)

            I thought this would be our worst day with the elevation drop
and distance, but it was rather nice even with the heat. Headed out
relatively early with nice walk through the wild flowers in the
burn area. Don't miss the trail junction into bear canyon. It comes up
fairly quickly after the junction to Santa Claus and isn't marked well, but
is obvious once you see it. The trail down to the Cimarron river was long
but the views made up for it. We stopped for a break for a break at the
river. The water was flowing clear at that time and would most likely not
have clogged up the filters, but we saved some weight and waited until Visto
Grande for water. Hit Visto Grande for Lunch since we wanted to get out of
the canyon before it really heated up in the afternoon. Visto Grande had an
excellent spring with clear, cold water. Definetly the best tasting water
on the trip. We tanked up with 5 quarts each and headed for Upper Bench
which is a dry camp even with the pond. I would vote Upper Bench as the
nicest camp site we had. Even though there were not long distance views,
we camped on the edge of the pond in the ponderosa pines and were the only
ones there except for a couple of staffers on the other end of the site.
The ground was so soft from the pine needles that you could have gotten away
without a mattress. We explored the rock formation on the other site of the
pond and just hung out for the rest of the day.

Day Nine: Upper Bench Camp to Cimarroncito Camp (easy with a couple of
moderate sections)

            Stopped by Devils Wash Basin which is another nice camp site on
the way Ute Gulch to resupply. The drop into Ute Gulch has some really nice
views of Tooth Ridge, etc. Ute Gulch was the first place we ran into any
real trail traffic, but we still managed to clean out the swap box. We had
lunch here and then headed to Cito via Grouse Canyon. The Canyon is on the
narrow side and well worth taking this route since it's a bit cooler with
the stream and high walls. We arrived at Cito only to have the staff take
us all the way back (almost 10 minutes) to the first site we had passed
coming into camp. We hung out for the rest of the day and were entertained
by the deer wandering into camp the crew in the site next to us who managed
to drop and smash a watermelon directly under the bear cable. I suspect
that they had some insider help with transporting the melon up to Cito.
Also, I more than a bit peeved at the crew who had been out for two days and
had used up all of the hot water in the shower. All in All we had an
excellent site away from the hustle and bustle. Also tried the climbing
wall. Only saw one older scout do the whole wall and he had brought
climbing shoes in order to do it. The hard parts are friction points and
sneakers or boots don't cut it.

Day Ten: Cito Layover (Easy with one Steep Section and one Moderate
Section)

            Rock Climbing in the morning. It was a bit disappointing from
the standpoint that there were so many people and the climb which is about a
30 foot friction climb was over in at most 5 minutes. The views including
the overhanging rock pinnacle that the staff climbs on were spectacular and
made up for the actual climb. We then picked up our day packs and did the
Hidden Valley Loop. We stopped by Aspen Springs first. We couldn't find
the springs, but saw plenty of fresh bear signs. The hike through hidden
valley was impressive with this long narrow meadow with ridges on either
side. We then stopped for lunch on some cliffs overlooking the plains.
Thunder in the distance told us it was time to get moving. Of course, we
got to Window Rock about the same time the storm came closest to us. This
was also worth the hike with its view out over the plains through the rocks.
The drop down to Cathedral Rock was steep and we cut over to check out
Cathedral rock which wasn't very far down the road. We then stopped at the
Hunting Lodge for the tour which impressed everyone. The hike back to Cito
was a moderate continuous up hill through a series of meadows which was
rather hot in the afternoon sun.

Day Eleven: Cito to Ponderosa Park (Easy with some Moderate to Steep)

            Early out to get to Clarks Fork for Horse back riding. The hike
over was a lot faster than what the staff told us. The ride was cheek to
cheek, but the views were worth it. We then ate lunch and headed for
Ponderosa Park. This was a moderate to steep climb (more moderate) to the
site. There was plenty of water in the stream at Upper Clarks Fork. We set
up camp with limited views, but the deer visited us here also. I would also
pick a remote site over staying at Clarks Fork because of the traffic plus
we were closer to the ridge. We then headed back to Clarks Fork for Dinner
and entertainment. We also brought all of the empty water containers so
that we'd have 5 qrts each for the hike out over the Tooth. Dinner was
nothing to write home about. Canned beef stew with biscuits. The peach
cobbler was stewed peaches with left over biscuits if you could find them.
I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. Our other contingent crews had a similar
but much better meal at Ponil. Has another hail storm while everyone was
under the tin roof for dinner. After dinner, the crew split into two groups
with one heading back to camp and the other staying for the entertainment
which I was told was very good. We sat out at the campsite for a couple of
hours to watch the meteor showers and the lightening on the horizon.

Day Twelve: Ponderosa Park to Base Camp (Steep then Easy)

            We got out early but I would have preferred to get out even
earlier. The climb up to Shaefers pass was steep. There was a side trail
(unmarked) part way up to the right with some nice views down to Clarks Fork
and out toward the West off of a small minor summit. We blew through
Shaefers pass without checking out the spring, but word was that it was
flowing. It was again a steep climb to Shaefers peak. We stopped for the
side trail to the summit but were rewarded with a view of the clouds. The
trail along the ridge to the Tooth was impressive with all of the rock
formations and wasn't to hard. We ended up hiking in the clouds all the way
to the Tooth because the hail storm from the previous day had left so much
hail that it looked like there were still pockets of snow melting in the
woods. We had lunch and lounged on the Tooth in time for the clouds to
break and get some awesome views. The trail from the Tooth to a ways past
Tooth camp also had some spectacular rock formations with some minor ups and
downs. After that it was several switch backs down to Base Camp at which
point we were being chased by a Thunderstorm that was splitting Tooth Ridge.
The decision at that point, since we were out of the trees and on the
exposed ridge was no stopping until we hit Base Camp. The last adult made
it in about two minutes before the hail and rain hit. The switch backs
weren't as bad as everyone makes them out to be, but it does add some time
and mileage.

Any specific questions, email me below.

John Geyster

Scoutmaster, Troop 15

Shelburne Falls, MA (Elevation 500 ft)

johngeyster@comcast.net

  _____

From: owner-philmont@troop47.com [mailto:owner-philmont@troop47.com] On
Behalf Of Bob Gardere
Sent: Wednesday, June 29, 2005 3:27 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list philmont
Subject: [Philmont]: Trek 21 Diary

I have read several Trek 21 Diaries that are several years old. I was
looking for one from this year and if someone has one, please e-mail it to
me. I wanted to see if there had been any changes.

Thank

Bob Gardere

ASM - Troop 895

Richardson TX

Trek 725 B II

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Received on Wed Jul 6 22:01:52 2005