(Story by Parker)
Our trek started on July 4th, 2025. We arrived at the Amtrak station in Kirkwood at 8:30. We said goodbye to our families before boarding the train with our gear. On the first train, some played cards and others chatted. After what was a five-hour train ride, we arrived in Kansas City. We had an eight-hour layover before we boarded once more. We stayed at a Fourth of July party, which had food trucks, live music, and fireworks to come later. We ate dinner, then waited until the fireworks began. Once the shows of many colors concluded, we hurried to the train to board. The next day, we had breakfast on the train. Once we were in Raton, New Mexico, we deboarded and boarded a bus with all of our gear. We arrived at Philmont Scout Ranch a little bit later and met our ranger, Drew. We then checked in and got our remaining troop gear, and then headed to our temporary tents. We unpacked and went off to do our things. We met for dinner, and after we had eaten, we went off to the opening campfire. At the campfire, they told the story of how Philmont came to be. Some people got attacked by mosquitoes during the show. After that, we headed back to our tent and went to bed. The next day, we got up, ate breakfast, and began to do our gear shakedown and checkout. After we had eaten lunch, we boarded our bus to the backcountry.
When we got to our trailhead, we got our packs and began to orient our map. We headed to our first campsite Cimarron River. Once we were there, we learned how to set up bearlines and the dining fly. After that, we set up our tents and had dinner. After that, we went to bed. The next day, we took down camp and got our day packs and hiked back to Cimarroncita for archery. After archery, we headed back to our camp, put our day packs away, and began hiking to Black Jack’s, our next camp. The climb up to Black Jack’s was very steep and took us a while due to the grade of the trail. Once we got around three hundred from the end, one of our members had to stop. We stopped on the side of the hill for three hours, treating him and cooking dinner due to the delay. We ate dinner, and once he was alright to walk, we finished the hike up. We then learned how to purify the water with the tablets. We set up camp, and we had a bearbox, so no bearlines (yay). The next day, two members tapped out, and we continued our hike on. We made our way to Elkhorn and quickly set up camp and had lunch. We then headed to our conservation project, where we were making a trail down to Flume Canyon. We ended up connecting the trails. Darren, Arin, and I had the most difficult section of the trail because all we had was rock, rock, and you guessed it, rock. After we finished the conservation project, we cooked dinner and went to bed. The next day, we headed to Ponil, the original basecamp. On our way down, we crossed a bridge that was rotting. As we walked across, we heard it creak and crack. We all made it across and continued. We made it to Ponil and had our porch talk, and went up to our campsite, which was on the cliffs overlooking Ponil. We took showers and picked up our food, and some people went horseback riding. We then went down for chili that evening and an evening campfire. The campfire was very entertaining, and Dr. Laddu won best worst joke (good on him). The next day, we took down camp and headed to Metcalf Station. We took a different route from what we were supposed to. The route led us up Hart’s Peak, across the ridge, then down into Metcalf Station. This was our first bigger distance hike, which totaled around 6.8 map miles. The sun beat down on us as we walked. When we got to Metcalf Station, we signed up for blacksmithing and track laying. We made a butter spreader and got to ride the pumpcars, which was everyone’s favorite thing up to that point, except for Ponil’s root beer. We had dinner, and some people went down to Metcalf’s evening program. The next day, we packed up and headed to Dan Beard, where we had another bearbox. We then did COPE or low ropes. We ate dinner and went to bed. The next day, we got up at four, packed up camp, and began walking to Pueblano Ruins. This was our longest hike at 8.6 miles. We stopped in Rich Cabins, and some people played guitar or piano while we waited for their commissary to open. We then picked up our food and went up Wilson Mesa, which had a beautiful view of Baldy Mountain. We then went down into Pueblano, where we did railroad tie making. We then headed to Pueblano Ruins in the rain. We got a little lost, but, still around the campsites. We then found our campsite and set up camp, and made dinner. The next day, we headed to Ewells Park, which is where we would start our trek up to Baldy the next day. Speaking of, the next day, we headed up Baldy Mountain. On the way up, the rocks were slick and unstable as we summited Baldy Mountain at 12,441 ft. of elevation. As we called our family and friends, we looked out on the expanse of Philmont. On the way down Baldy, the rocks seemed much more unstable as they slid out from under our weight. One of our members ran down Baldy, somehow not falling, and he made it down to the base of the ‘bald’ part of the Mountain. We followed soon after, stopping at the meadow right below the peak. We ate lunch and then continued our descent back down to Ewells Park. We stopped in Baldy Town and picked up our food and bought a few things at the shop before continuing down. When we got back, some took naps and others sat around a fire. The next day, we headed down to Miranda, our last camp in the backcountry. When we got to Miranda, we went rifle shooting. The rifles were blackpowder rifles and old, so they were a little finicky. After that, we headed to tomahawk throwing, we threw for twenty minutes before heading down to our campsite. We set up our camp and ate lunch. After dinner, the kids decided to use a mess kit, and we played ultimate frisbee because our campsite was shaped like an arena. After that, we headed up to the evening program. The next day, we packed everything up and headed to the trailhead. Once we got picked up at the trailhead, we headed back to base camp.
Troop 344 