[Philmont]: Stream crossings

Pete Swiggum writes..

A couple of you mentioned a trek that involved several stream crossings.
Two mentioned crossing the stream(s) 50 to 75 times. Assuming those numbers
are slightly exaggerated, there are still probably quite a few crossings to
deal with on that trek.

Besides the obvious method of trudging straight through, what precautions or
techniques did you have to use in order to cross these streams? Were they
ankle deep? Knee deep? Waist deep?

Comment..

I have done all the trail described the past couple days regarding stream
crossings, except the North Fork of Cimarroncito Creek from Cyphers Mine to
Hunting Lodge. (side bar - we WERE going to take that trail in '99 until we
realized that while it was on my crew leader son's map, it was NOT on the
new map one of the other Advisor's had, and we took the Middle Fork from
Lambert's Mine. When we got to Cito, we mentioned the trail being on one
map and not the other while chatting with the staff checking us in for
program. His comment was to the affect using the old map cost crews a full
day because the trail was virtually impassable because of fallen trees.
That trail has since been rebuilt / re-opened.)

Anyway, I have never put my boots in a stream at Philmont where the water
was more that a couple inches deep. All crossings I have been across have
had rocks, log bridges, and even a true bridge in a couple places. Or the
stream is so narrow you can step across it.

50 crossings of the North Fork of Urraca Creek between Black Mountain and
North Fork Urraca Camp an exaggeration? What's your definition of a
"crossing"? In 2002, we decided that if you went from a bank to an island
in the center and back to the same bank, that was NOT a crossing (some might
say it was two). With that definition, we counted 47. If we had come from
Miners Park to the creek rather than down from Schaefers Pass, it would have
been 48. And at Black Mountain we had the choice of staying on one side of
the creek or doing a couple more - we passed on more.

Al Thomson, Troop 236, Schooley's Mountain, NJ
1999 - Trek 9 (now 4)
2000 - Autumn Adventure
2001 - Trek 21
2002 - B&B and Autumn Adventure
2003 - Short Trek
2004 - Autumn Adventure
2005 - 711D Contingent Support
2006 - Autumn Adventure

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Received on Tue Mar 15 07:42:36 2005