Trek 616-R consisted of 5 scouts and 4 advisors from Troop 340, Roadrunner District, Longhorn Council, Hurst, Texas.
Day 0 - Travel Day. We met at Academy Sports parking lot at 6:30 AM on the 15th and left at 7:00 AM. We stopped by Capulan Volcano along the way. We arrived at Raton, NM around 6:30 PM.
Day 1 - Getting ready at Base Camp. Clearing out of the hotel in Raton, we met "Philmont Phil", who has hiked Philmont 7 times and just finished a week-long hike in the mountains around Raton. Unfortunately for Dennis, he can hike better than he can drive. Ole Phil drove over Dennis' day-pack, smashing his eyeglasses and pager, even though the day-pack was in the grass and not on the pavement next to Ron's car. We arrived at Philmont Base Camp around 9:00 AM, after a hearty breakfast and the chance to see some more antelope and a herd of bison. We unloaded the cars, set our packs in a pack-line and were asked if we had been out of the country within the last 2 weeks because of the concern for hoof-in-mouth disease. We met out Ranger, Mindy, and started in-processing. We drew our gear, had lunch, and did a shakedown inspection. Once all of the work was done, we visited the Trading Post. After dinner, everyone went to mass/service, followed by the opening 'campfire'.
Day 2 - Starting Trek, going to Anasazi Trail Camp. Our bus didn't leave until 1:30 PM, so we had plenty of time to checkout of the trail-bound tent city, have our pictures taken, and do any final prep. After lunch, we finally hit the trail. We got to our campsite rather late, eating and cleaning up in the dark.
Day 3 - Hiking to Indian Writings Staff Camp. This was a short hike. We arrived around 11:00 AM and were escorted to our campsite around noon. We signed up for the 3:00 PM petroglyph tour, so we would have time to set up camp and have lunch. After dinner, the advisors went to the "advisor's coffee" at 7:00 PM.
Day 4 - Hiking across Harts Peak to Ponil Staff Camp. Ranger Mindy left us this morning. Our sister crew was supposed to be in Ponil at 8:00 AM for their conservation project, but one of their scouts had altitude sickness, so they hit the trail after us. Just after breakfast, an adolescent cinnamon colored black bear crossed our path and ran in fear when he saw who we were! We played leapfrog along the trail with our sister crew, with them arriving ahead of us. One of our scouts was walking slow, so Kyle and Ron walked with him so the others could make the horse-back riding program. But they arrived too late. We had the Chuck-wagon dinner and a hail storm.
Day 5 - Taking the Burros to Pueblano Staff Camp. After the chuck-wagon breakfast (pancakes and peaches), we drew meals for 4 days and went to get our burros. It took us all afternoon to make it to Pueblano, so we missed the program. After dinner, there was a campfire, which was really fun.
Day 6 - The long trek to Ute Meadows Trail Camp. Since we missed the program, we decided to do it in the morning. We climbed the poles, but did not try making railroad ties. We had a long hike to Ute Meadows. By the time we got to Elway camp, it was 4:00 PM, and we stopped to re-group, use the 'red roof inn', and wait out the rain and hail storm. We got to camp around 5:00 PM. It took a while to find a campsite. Ron stayed with the burros and got some scouts from MN to help unload the burros. The others finally showed up to take the gear and then Ron, Grant, Kyle, and Josh made the 4 mile round-trip hike to return the burros to Alpine Meadows.
Day 7 - The long-awaited hike to the top of Mt. Baldy! One father/scout pair stayed in camp. The others headed out at 7:00 AM. We made it to Baldy Camp by 7:40 AM, had breakfast, and headed up the trail. Along the way, we met the resident geologist. It took us 4 hours to hike up to the top. One advisor got winded 300 feet from the top, so his scout-son stayed with him and also missed making it to the peak. We spent 40 minutes on the the top, and headed down. Counting the stop for lunch in the meadows at Baldy's shoulders, it only took us 2:40 minutes to hike down. We drew 4 more days of food at Baldy Camp and went back to our campsite for dinner.
Day 8 - To Head of Dean Staff Camp for our conservation project. We were really loaded down. Some of the boys did well and loaded themselves down with food bags without being asked, knowing that we had a lot of food to haul and we didn't have the burros to count on. We made it to Head of Dean, got a nice campsite, set up camp, and did our conservation project - thinning the forest area. Our sister crew, along with several other treks joined us.
Day 9 - The Challenge Events and on to Upper Dean Trail Camp. We did the program in the morning, before heading out. This was time well worth spent. We were on the trail by 11:45 and did good time for a while. Two hours into the hike, we were hit with some rain. The mud on our boots added a good 4 pounds to each boot. No, it was 6 pounds each. No, it was 10 pounds each. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!
Day 10 - Rock Climbing at Dean Cow Staff Camp. This was an excellent program! Half of us climbed the 5.4 level of difficulty climb, and the rest did the 5.7 climb. Both were about 45 feet straight up. When that was done, we had a lazy day, preparing for the longest hike of our trek.
Day 11 - The long hike to Harlan Staff Camp for shotgun shooting. We were up by 4:00 AM and hit the trail by 5:30 AM. After a long, hot 7.5 hour hike, we finally arrived at Harlan. We quickly set up camp, had lunch, and went to load our 3 shotgun shells and go to the range to shoot them. The boys really liked it, paying money to keep shooting (Texans and shooting guns - go figure!). The masters were Russ, shooting 5 for 5 and Ron, shooting 8 for 8.
Day 12 - The final hike to Webster Lake to be picked up. Our final hike! We were up early (but not as early as the previous day!), and hit the trail. We made excellent time. We hit the pick up point over 2 hours early. We were just in time to see the previous bus pull away with our sister crew. They tried to get the bus to stop, but the driver had a schedule to keep. We got our gear cleaned up and turned in. Then we showered, had lunch, and went to tour the museum and Villa Philmonte. After dinner was the closing 'campfire'.
Day 13 - Travel Day home! We had a long drive home. We loaded up before breakfast, then hit the road right after breakfast. We stopped by the Cadillac Ranch near Amarillo, and had lunch then on the road again. Home by 8:40 PM.
Other links:
Russ's site
