On July 2nd, twenty one scouts and advisors left Kirkwood station for Raton, New Mexico. We arrived in Kansas City for a layover around 4:00. We ate BBQ at Jack Stack’s Barbecue and watched the new Indiana Jones movie. The train to Raton arrived on time and we were off around 11:00. This year, we had two different crews going to Philmont. I will tell you about the trek that went to the north country. Itinerary 12-23, 66 miles. We arrived in Raton on the 3rd and took a bus to base camp. We met up with our ranger, made preparations, and went to the opening campfire. The day after, in the afternoon, we began our trek. We took a bus at 1:00 and started at Chase Ranch. We took a tour of the historic grounds, only the outside though, as the buildings were unstable. Following that, we hiked (with a slight navigational mishap) the 4.8 miles to Little Twin. In the evening we learned (or re-learned) how to set everything up in the midst of on and off rain showers. Despite the mosquitoes it was a nice camp with a beautiful view for the Fourth of July. We concluded our first day, and started anew with a hike to Chase Cow, where we ate breakfast and climbed for some time. Following the fun at Chase Cow, we set out for Indian Writings, completing the rest of the 9.4 miles for the day. When we arrived in Indian Writings, we signed up for atlatl darts and the petroglyph tour. The first up of the two was the tour, in which we got to see rock carvings from many hundreds of years ago created by the Ute and the Jicarilla. It was very informational and interesting, especially the native symbolism and how symbols have changed over time. Second was the atlatl darts, which if you don’t know what those are, are practically huge arrows that you throw with a special type of handle. I don’t think I have to explain why that was a fun activity. That night the dinner was rice (awful) and the water tasted like sulfur (not fun.) We talked about other techniques and rules with our ranger, before going to sleep. In the morning our ranger left us, and then we set out on another hike, 8.9 miles, with 2,400 feet of elevation gain, the most difficult yet. In the morning we climbed Hart Peak and continued on to Ponil, a staff camp themed like the 1867 Southwest. We ate lunch there and resupplied. After relaxing in the cantina and getting root beer, we set out to Horse Canyon. It was a grueling hike up to the camp. Something else that didn’t particularly help us to love the campsite was that the water buffalo where we were supposed to resupply was about a mile away. After that experience, we had a slightly less difficult hike into the Valle Vidal, 6.6 miles. We were going to be camping in Beatty Lakes with a layover in Dan Beard. We made great time going to Dan Beard and arrived before 9. We signed up for the challenge course, which we certainly did not complete the events in the most optimal fashion. But, we had fun, and that is the important part. Following the course, we ate dinner for lunch because the camp that night was dry (even though it really wasn’t.) We set out around 1 and made it to the campsite around 3, all while rain was threatening us. We set up and relaxed for the rest of the day. In the evening after lunch-for-dinner, some scouts and adults went down to the lake and saw around 45 elk, five or so deer as well as three mountain lions, and prairie dogs. As I hinted to earlier, the campsite actually had water, a windmill with a pump. That was the closest thing to a shower many people took. The sunset was beautiful and it was my personal favorite campsite. In the morning, we set out for our shortest hike yet, 2.6 miles to Iris Park, another campsite in the Valle. We hiked quickly and made it there well before lunch. We relaxed and talked for much of the day, as there is not much to do activities-wise in the Valle. That day, we saw less, but we still saw bearded dragons on the trail and more prairie dogs. It was beautiful there as well and at night we watched lightning over the horizon. That night, we had our first campfire. Also that night we steeled ourselves for the long hike tomorrow, and went to sleep.We woke up early in the morning and set out for Rich Cabins, a staff camp back on Philmont property. The hike was the longest one left and as the day continued it only got longer. The plan was to hike over a large hill, then find a trail that ran along a creek. We found the creek, but we did not find a trail. We continued on and found a road, which our navigator used to help ascertain our location. After going over a few large hills, we ate lunch around 2:00. We continued on and reached a windmill which marked that Rich Cabins was about a mile and a half directly south. After more elevation we finally reached the ridgeline overlooking the camp. There was an issue though, since we were going off of a bearing, we were not following any trail. This meant that we had to find a safe way down the ridge, which extended things. After a while, Mr. Del Cid found a spot where we were able to go down and reach the trail. It was extremely steep and more of the way down was sliding rather than stepping. After around thirty minutes (which felt like more than an hour–at least to me) we made it to the trail. We continued on and reached the camp after 5:00. Going to the program was out of the question with how late we arrived. We picked up food, got water and a porch talk and went over to our “campsite.” There weren’t really any real campsites there though, it was just a meadow with tall grass and bear cables. We begrudgingly set up camp and went to sleep right after dinner. We woke up early the next day as we had our conservation project that day–7.6 miles away. Due to mistakes the previous day when resupplying, as well as getting water and all, we did not end up leaving until after 8:00. Despite the extra weight from the resupply, we made good time and arrived at Flume Canyon for lunch. We ate lunch and hiked on to the conservation project, which conveniently was over a mile away. We were practically running there, which became a common theme for hiking the rest of the day. The project was trail building, which went decently for the limited amount that the conservation staff allowed us to do. We made it back in the afternoon and set up the rest of camp. We ate dinner as early as possible. Although, the fact that we had to boil the cooking water for it to be safe, (it was creek water) that extended things. Because, our goal was to make it to the campfire at Pueblano as we had missed all of the program the previous night at Rich Cabins. We ate and left the dishes uncleaned there, and left again. We left later than we should have, and I don’t think anybody felt especially good after 7.6 miles plus the hike to conservation. We went quickly though, and it feels in hindsight that it was longer than we thought. We thought it was only a little bit over a mile, but it took around an hour even at a 3-4 mile an hour pace. Along the way, a few scouts saw a bobcat. When we arrived, the show was nearly over, there was only one song left in the actual show, but they sang a few after. After it was finished, it was dark and we still had to get rid of some garbage and meal bags, which proved to cause more issues for the next day. After filling water, we left at an even faster pace than we came. It proved difficult to keep a cohesive group which is especially important for night hiking. We arrived back a little bit before ten, completed roses, buds, and thorns, collected and stored smellables, (there was an active bear, so we had to use bear boxes) saw a U.F.O (It was starlink satellites) and then we promptly went to sleep. For, the next day was a decently long one as well. We packed down camp, and left. That was not without issues though, Mr. Holzer’s smellable bag was missing, which prompted a search. We did not find it, which led us to believe that someone put it in the bag with the garbage that was thrown out the previous night. First, we were returning to Pueblano before setting out for French Henry. It was 6.1 miles and 2,100 feet of elevation gain, the second most elevation out of any of the days. We arrived at Pueblano early and Mr. Holzer’s items were found along with other smellables mistakenly put in with the garbage. We got our porch talk and signed up for the spar pole climbing. The staff described it well, “climbing up a telephone pole with knives on your feet.” I don’t have much more to say about that besides that it was very fun. We did not sign up for anything else because we wanted to have plenty of time to set up and do the program at French Henry. We hiked to French Henry, eating lunch along the trail. The elevation gain was slow, but still not fun. Once we got close to the campsite the trail was more like a creek, which slowed us down. There were about a trillion flies as well. We reached the camp and were welcomed by the staff. We signed up for all of the program there, some the next morning and some that day. As the entire campsite is a slope, there are adirondacks there to sleep in, nothing cushy though. We set our things down and left for our first activity, gold panning. I did not strike any gold and the swarms of flies there did not help my mood. A few people struck gold though, Mr. Del Cid got the most out of all of us. One thing that was nice was that there were porta potties called honeypots, which were surprisingly nicer than any of the other styles of latrines (In my opinion.) We got back and ate dinner, some of us went to the night program following that. It was mildly annoying that they did though, because it extended the time we had to wait to put up bear bags. It also didn’t help that the cables were a five minute uphill climb away. After a less than comfortable night, we packed up quickly and left for the morning program. First was blacksmithing where we all helped to make a butter knife. Following that, we took our packs (as the mine was in the direction we were headed) and left to go to the mine tour. We arrived in front of the mine where there was a beautiful view. We set our packs down and grabbed helmets. We started the tour, it was both informative and fun. We went about ¼ of a mile in. It was also nice that the mine was cold, it was the closest thing to a/c since we had begun. We left the mine and grabbed our packs, we only had about three miles left. The remaining hike was not without any difficulty though, there was still 1,600 feet of elevation gain. We stopped in Baldytown for a myriad of things, which I will go through. First, we got our porch talk and resupplied food. We cooked dinner for lunch because the camp was dry, and we wanted to save plenty of water for Baldy. We took showers–at least some of us did. And we had decided that we wanted to do gold panning again. My luck was no better, in fact everybody’s was worse, and still with plenty of flies. After that everybody resupplied water and made final preparations. Also, before we left, we saw Troop 362 from Maplewood-Richmond Heights. We set out mid-afternoon for our final destination, Black Horse Mine. It was a slow hike up, but we had plenty of time to set up and get ready once we arrived.We had dinner and prepared to wake up at 4:30 to climb Baldy. The other crew in the campsite was going to wake up at 2:30 which did not really help us sleep. At 4:30 we left our tents and got out breakfast. We put the oops bag back up, ate breakfast, and made final preparations. We set out around 5:30, right when it started to get light out. We went quickly, only taking 3-4 breaks on the way to the summit. On the way up, some of us saw a bear, which quickly ran away. We made it to the top around 8:00. The winds were extremely fast, at least 20-30 miles an hour. It was quite cold at the top. The view was amazing and it was well worth the climb, even though the path at the top feels more like walking on a landslide. Something that we noticed was that as we were nearing the top we saw parts of the crew that left from our camp at 2:30. We actually passed a few of them. I could talk about this longer, but for the sake of brevity, I’ll spare you. Once we reached our campsite, we packed up and prepared to hike to Miranda, the final camp before base camp. The hike was short, only 5.6 miles with a bit of elevation gain, but mainly we lost elevation, 3,500 feet of it. Parts of the trail were pretty much just a creek going downwards. Before passing the shooting range, there were three bears, a mother and her cubs. We moved on quickly as stopping was not the best solution, especially dealing with a mother and cubs. We arrived in Miranda in time for lunch. We got the porch talk and signed up for tomahawk throwing for that day and muzzleloader shooting for the next day. We set up camp and ate lunch, before going to tomahawk throwing. Everyone got one to stick, and Fernando even managed to Robin Hood one of his. We relaxed in camp for a while as the only other program was after dinner. When dinner came again, it was rice for the 4th time, so most people opted out. The evening program had multiple activities, it was called the “Fur Trapper Rendezvous.” Some scouts went to that, while others opted to stay and have a campfire. Once the evening program was done, it seemed like a storm was coming. The people who had gone to the Rendezvous had left out their things, so it was impossible to make any progress on bear bags or roses, buds, and thorns. So, when they returned, after roses, buds, and thorns, everyone was in a rush to get everything covered and set up the oops bag. It had been a very dry trek, which is unusual for Philmont. Following the conclusion of getting the campsite prepared for the night, everyone promptly went to sleep. It had been a very long day. In the morning, everyone woke up and ate breakfast. No-one really had a large appetite for trail food. It was evident that the storm was a false alarm though. We went to the muzzleloaders right after breakfast. Some people used personal items as targets, everyone shot three times. On the last shot, you reload the gun. Most people hit all three shots, everyone hit at least one. We went back to the campsite and took down camp. We prepared for what was obviously the hardest hike left. 1.9 miles and 41 feet of elevation gain, how scary. We arrived at our pickup spot, the Maxwell Trailhead, around 11:00. Our bus was set to arrive at 1:45, so we had some time to kill. We ate lunch and played cards until the bus arrived, which was surprisingly early. After a bumpy bus ride, (I think some of us went airborne) we were back at base camp. We were assigned tents and dropped our things at them. Then, it was time to clean and return equipment, yay. On our way to outfitting, we saw the other crew. After returning the gear, we took showers and relaxed, then went to dinner. Having real food was pretty nice. We waited some more, then went to the closing campfire. The skits and songs were alright, but compared to the opening campfire, it was not very good. Our crew got our Philmont patches and we did our final roses, buds, and thorns. We slept on cots that felt miles better than the ground. Once we woke up, we got breakfast. After breakfast we packed up and made a packline by the welcome center. The plan was to go to the National Scouting Museum and the Villa Philmonte, return to base camp for lunch, and then go to the train station. First we went to the Scouting Museum, it was very interesting, especially seeing all of the different patches and reading about the history of scouting. Next was the Villa Philmonte, which is the historic vacation home of Waite Phillips. He was the man that donated most of the land to what is now Philmont. It was interesting as well, learning more about the man and how Philmont came to be. We returned and ate lunch. After waiting for a while, we caught our bus at 2:30. We arrived at the train station and got ready to wait. There was bad weather and the train kept getting delayed. Around 4:00 most people went out to get dinner, others went later. We were outside under an awning, because all of our people and things would not fit inside. It began to rain, it started slow, before picking up. After an hour or so of continuous rain, the sewer began to flood, and the train station was downhill from everything else. This led to water pouring in from the sidewalk. We had to move our bags inside. Before it all began to drain there was two inches of water collected under the awning. After more delays due to high winds, it was set to arrive after 7:00. It finally arrived at 7:30. We quickly went to sleep after two or three hours. When we woke up though, there was another issue. The train was late to the point where we would miss the train to Kirkwood station. So, some of the parents assembled and rescued the crew after lunch, at Union Station.The drive was slow, but after 4-5 hours, we had finally made it.
(credit: Nathan King)
Troop 344 