[philmont] Trek 30 (713-N)

Just returned home from Philmont on Wednesday. It was truly an awesome
trip. This trip differed in many ways from my last trek in 2004, mainly
because it only rained on us one time, but also because we got to see the
other half of the ranch which I didn't get to experience in 2004. The
following is a trip report for your enjoyment...

Left from base camp on the 1pm bus to Ponil Turnaround. From there, Ranger
training, a short hike to Ponil for horseshoes and roping, then on to Sioux
for more Ranger training. We returned to Ponil that evening for their
cantina show. The show was very good, and all of the staff at Ponil were
awesome. We also had to pick up a hip belt buckle for one of our boys who
had broken it when trying to tighten his pack at the turnaround. He was too
skinny for his hip belt and had to wear his fleece around his waste for the
entire trip. Uncomfortable, but workable.

The next day (Day 3) we hiked back to Ponil to pick up the burros. This was
my only major heartburn with the trek. I didn't mind the burros so much,
but the two-hour training session was a bit much. It caused us to be 13
minutes late at Pueblano and unable to do cons there until the next day.
Anyways, our crew leader picked the biggest burro in the pen, and, as luck
would have it, the fastest. Our boys really enjoyed "Spaniard", or "Speedy
Gonzales", whichever they decided to call him at the moment. He stayed out
front and even ran most of the way to Pueblano. The boys had to run to keep
up with him and try and slow him down. If he got going too slow, all they
had to do was lightly thump him on the rump and he was off to the races. It
was kinda nice to have him carry our food and some crew gear, that got our
packs down to an average of 30 to 35 lbs. each. Would liked to have hike
over Wilson Mesa, but that may come with another trek or Autumn Adventure...

The hike to Pueblano was very easy, simple walk on the road. At Pueblano,
as we said, we missed the afternoon cons session, but we also missed the
opportunity to do spar pole climbing. They only had two poles going and not
enough time that afternoon to put another crew up. We could've scheduled
cons for the next morning, but the crew wanted to leave early and do program
at Miranda. The boys did participate in Logger ball that evening and we
attended our crew's favorite show, the "Company Meeting". The staff at
Pueblano were outstanding, they were funny, nice, talented, and worked hard.
Nothing but praise for that camp. It says a lot that our crew voted
Pueblano their favorite camp even though they didn't get to do spar pole
climbing.

On day 4, we loaded up "Spaniard" and headed to Ewells Park, where we setup
camp, then headed to Miranda. The boys said goodbye to "Spaniard" and
headed off to Tomahawk throwing and then black powder shooting. I offered
up my cap as a target, not thinking anyone would be accurate enough to hit
it, and got it back with three holes in it. The boys decided not to stay
late for mountain ball, and we headed back up the mountain to Ewells Park.
The trail from Ewells Park to Ute Meadows is relatively steep and very
rocky. It was actually much easier going up than down.

Day 5 had us summiting Baldy. We arrived at Baldy Town at 7:30am, some took
showers, then we picked up our food at 8:00am. Three boys had brought empty
packs to carry the meals in and by 8:30am they had received the meals,
loaded them in the packs and we were on our way up Baldy, carrying the food
with us. It took us right at two hours to reach the summit, where we
lingered for about 45 minutes or so. Two of our boys reached the summit
first, actually running the last 100 yards or so, dropped their packs, went
back down and took the packs of some of our slower hikers. I thought that
was an awesome act by them. After we ate an early lunch, we headed down the
north side of Baldy to French Henry. There the boys made a screwdriver at
the blacksmithing shop while we filled up and treated water. We then took a
tour of the Aztec Mine. For the most part, the staff at French Henry were
pretty boring. This was voted the least liked camp. After the mine tour,
we hiked back to Ewells Park for supper.

Day 6 we hiked to Santa Claus, stopping at Head of Dean to participate in
the challenge events. Just before we arrived at Head of Dean, we met our
council contingent (711 - trek 29) on the trail. It was nice seeing some
familiar faces. Head of Dean has some awesome views from their porch, they
also have a basketball goal which we used to play "horse" and a couple of
games of "21". The challenge events were fun, similar to the ones we did at
Urraca Mesa in '04, but these came at a good time to help bring our crew
closer together. The hike into Santa Claus was pretty easy, and we setup
camp, ate supper, then some of the boys played capture the flag with a crew
across the camp.

Day 7 was actually one of our toughest, mainly due to the heat and the long
hike, even though there wasn't any climbing. From Santa Claus to Deer Lake
Mesa, going through Visto Grande to top off with water, was over nine miles.
The sore feet and heat made some irritable, but we still made it to camp by
12:30pm. Logistics had indicated that Deer Lake Mesa was a dry camp;
however, there was a water tank with adequate water available. It was
non-potable, but there was water. After we setup camp and ate lunch, six of
us made our way to Harlan for shotgun. We made it there just in time for us
to reload and head down to the range to shoot. The camp director there was
very nice to allow us to still do program even though we got there a little
late. We didn't stay for the burro racing, but that was a highlight from
our 2004 trip. If you get a chance to participate, it is very fun for the
boys.

Day 8 we left early to get to Cimarroncito by 7:30am to participate in the
8am cons. The conservation project was meadow encroachment, which meant we
acted like fire and removed trees which fire would normally remove in a
healthy forest. We cut down a tree, then cut it into firewood for use at
camps around the ranch. It was pretty tough work with bow saws, but you got
a sense of completion by the end of the project. Cimarroncito really looked
like a nice camp, wish we could've stayed longer, but the chuck wagon dinner
at Clark's Fork was calling. We left Cimarroncito and went to Aspen
Springs, where four of us took empty packs back up to Ute Gulch for our food
pickup. We arrived at Ute Gulch at 12:07pm (they are closed from 12:00pm to
1:00pm for lunch), but the staff took pity on us and issued our meals. I
can't thank them enough, they were outstanding. We hiked back, met up with
the rest of the crew and hiked through Hidden Valley on into Clark's Fork.
Due to the very dry conditions, Hidden Valley didn't look all that great to
us. It was a dull green and very, very dry. The views from Window Rock out
over Cimarron Reservoir are awesome. The hike down into Clark's Fork is
rocky and you are exposed to the sun. Clark's Fork is pretty nice. The
chuck wagon dinner, beef stew, was great. It was so nice to eat real meat
for a change, although I probably ate too much. We branded everything in
site, then attended the campfire program. This campfire was voted our
crew's second favorite.

Day 9 we hiked to Cypher's Mine. The hike is all uphill, not much up and
downing at all, just a steady, gradual uphill hike. We did stop at the
Hunting Lodge for breakfast and a tour before heading up river. You cross
the creek a total of 48 times on the way up, my wife counted... Very
little water this year, so not much of an issue, but I can imagine some
semi-wet crossings if it had been raining much. At Cypher's Mine, you are
assigned an Adirondack to sleep in. This was a welcome change from setting
up tents, especially since this was the one day it rained on us. We didn't
have to put up wet gear the next morning. The program at Cypher's was
similar to French Henry, but the staff did a much better job. "The Stomp"
was good, but we didn't think it was as good as advertised. This was
supposed to be the best show on the ranch, at least that was what we were
told, and it just didn't live up to that billing, although it was good.

Day 10 we went from Cypher's Mine uphill to Comanche Peak Camp, where we
hung bear bags and dropped our packs. We hiked from there up the north side
of Mount Phillips with just day packs. We were actually disappointed by the
ease of the climb. In 2004 we hiked from Clear Creek up Phillips with full
packs, and that was a very difficult climb, but from Comanche Peak, the
climb up Phillips was unimpressive. Still, the views from the top were
great. We stayed on top for about an hour, taking pictures, eating lunch,
playing cards, and generally being lazy. We headed back down about noon to
pick up our packs, then hiked down to Red Hills. Pretty steep downhill
stretch to Red Hills. The camp we ended up with at Red Hills was not very
good, but there was a stream for water, so all was good.

Day 11 we left Red Hills for what is supposed to be the toughest day on trek
30, the climb up Red Doom and Black Death. Well, our crew renamed Big Red,
"Red Dame", as it was a pretty easy climb. The trail off the summit was
another story altogether. The trail just disappeared half way down Big Red.
There was a crew ahead of us which lost the trail and bushwhacked straight
down the mountain, then we lost the trail and bushwhacked more easterly, and
finally our sister crew reported they had also lost the trail and had to
bushwhack to the road, which resulted in a member of their crew getting
banged up quite a bit after several falls. The hike from the road through
Comanche Pass on into Black Mountain Camp was pretty easy. We arrived about
9:45 am and the staff were still not up and around. We ate supper for lunch
then skipped the black powder shooting and blacksmithing offered at Black
Mountain Camp since they had already done them. We then headed straight up
Black. This was the toughest climb of the entire trip. At times the trail
was so steep you were literally scrambling up the mountain with your hands
and feet, with full packs. I had read on this group that there isn't a view
from the top of Black, but we were able to see quite a bit, both on one of
the rock outcroppings half way up and again from the summit. The thing that
struck me most from the top was the number of lady bugs. They were
everywhere. Anyways, we made it to the top in 1 hour and 21 minutes. It
was an awesome feeling. The hike down was still pretty tough on the knees,
but our elation carried us on into Shaeffer's Pass Camp pretty easily. The
spring at Schaeffer's was dry, so three of us made a quick water run to
North Fork Urraca. This isn't too bad of a hike, it only took an hour and a
half to get down there, fill up with water and get back to camp.

The last day, Day 12, we woke up early, hiked to the top of Shaeffer's Peak,
watched the sunrise, then hiked on into base camp. We didn't go all the way
to the tooth in the dark due to the difficulty of some of our crew hiking in
the dark. Immediately after sunrise, we headed to the tooth, then down the
Pasture Trail to base camp. We heard a lot of staff members telling us and
other crews that the Pasture Trail was too dangerous and should be avoided;
however, we found it to be the third or even fourth steepest trail we had
been on during our trek. The north side of Baldy was much steeper, as was
the hike down Black Mountain. Even the bushwhacking down Big Red may have
been steeper. In reality, the Pasture Trail only saved us about half an
hour, but it didn't seem to be as torturous to us as what we had heard about
the oven.

In summary, Trek 30 was an awesome itinerary. Combined with Trek 23 we did
in 2004, we have seen roughly 75% of the camps at Philmont and all but a
small portion of the ranch as a whole. Summiting the major peaks is
something our crew will remember forever, and will be proud of their entire
life.

I apologize for such a long post. Please let me know if you have any
questions and I will answer them as best I can.

IWTGBTP,
David Wheeler
2004 713-L2 Trek 23
2006 713-N Trek 30

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Received on Fri Jul 28 09:15:24 2006