[Philmont] Just back to civilization...

We got off the train in Ft. Madison, Iowa at around 1:10 PM yesterday (7/1) after our 2 week adventure on itinerary 11 (Vaca, Devil's Washbasin, Aspen Springs, Cypher's, Commanche Peak, Clear Creek, Porcupine, Beaubien x2, North Fork Uracca and in over the ToT.)

Here are a few notes.

1- No fire ban on the ranch (at this time) as there has been plentiful rain so far. (we were asked not to burn anything that we couldn't pack out as ashes the next morning and to spread our ashes off the trails at least 1000' from the campsite.)

2- plentiful rain this spring so far has helped with water, the spring at Shaefer Pass is flowing well and it was nice not to have to carry full water load for the 11 mile hike in over the Tooth all the way form North Fork Uracca.

3- plentiful rain has everything green and very beautiful.

4- We had a green-horn ranger, a great kid though. We were his second crew and his first was his or one of his home town troops so we were his first 'strange' crew (and I do mean STRANGE!!!) We got along well and I think he'll have a great summer.

5- We were very happy with all the camp staffs with few exceptions. We were disappointed in the group running the climibing gym at Cito as they didn't really interact at all with our guys until the last few minutes we were with them. Highlight staff folks for us, the guys at Black Mountain camp were great when we hiked through on our way from Beubien to North Fork Uracca, Cypher's Mine was all I'd heard of it and more, the Stomp was a blast! The guy that taught fly tying when were at Fish Camp on a side hike from Beubien was awesome and all of our guys thoroughly enjoyed learning to tie a fly, the shotgun shooting and reloading crew at Harlan was also very good on our hike through there. If I had my choise (and was 20 years younger) I'd have to say I'm most jealous of the Black Mountain Camp crew as they are really out there on their own and living on their own.

6- I have to say that the Beubien staff went out of their way for us, expecially Cons guy Jeremy and cook Kristina when we had a minor injury that required icing down (with somthing cold, not something sugary) and a little later bed time than they were expecting. Ron and the rest of the staff was also very good to us there. They have some fine musicians and our guys thoroughly enjoyed the campfire there.

7- At least half of our mornings were sub-45 degrees and we had 2 mornings below 40 (at Clear Creek and at Porcupine.)

8- We were still able to find snow drifts on both Commanche Peak (near Commanche Peak Camp where we stayed) and on top of Phillips.

9- We saw tons of mule deer but no bears, cougars or rattle snakes.

We got in to Raton on time on the way out (unusual when travelling by train) had lunch at Arby's/DQ/McD's, got almost all of our check-in stuff done the afternoon we got in, brought almost all our gear so very little time required at QM and toured the Villa on the morning of Day 2 as we had a 2:30 PM bus to Turkey Creek. After returning to CHQ, the advisors did laundry, collecting travel clothes and any other clothes needed for the trip home, visited the med bldg for a re-weigh (I dropped 11 lbs on the trail) and then showered. We ate dinner in base that night and breakfast the next morning, toured the Kit Carson Museum (which our guys really liked) and then back to base for lunch prior to catching the bus to Raton at 3 PM. We ordered pizza from Pizza Hut to have on or before the train and ended up finishing up prior to boarding.

We had a great trip and we all made it!!

Good luck to those that are still heading out and I hope those that are also back had as good of a trip as we did!!

I wanna go back....

Kevin Mineart
2007 618-E2 (the green shirts) Lead Advisor
2003 802-B3 Co-advisor

PS. PhilSearch-Jim, I took about 800 digital pictures of our adventure, I'm sure I have something that you need!

       
____________________________________________________________________________________
Choose the right car based on your needs. Check out Yahoo! Autos new Car Finder tool.
http://autos.yahoo.com/carfinder/

-------------------------------------------------------
Scouting E-mail Discussion Lists @ usscouts.org
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
-------------------------------------------------------
To Unsubscribe send text email to:

     To: listserv@troop47.com
     Subject: unsubscribe
     Body: unsubscribe philmont@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 2 16:22:51 2007