Philmont 2012 Trek 14
For 2012, they changed all of the treks! There are now some extra food pickups at Miners Park, Apache Springs and a few other staff camps. There are more programs that are side hikes instead of staying at the staff camps.
Day 0
We met at Orchard Hill Church. Final packing of the cars and trailer. A few last minute details and group photos. An easy drive to Fort Madison for the train. Stopped at Subway for supper. Once again, there was no staff at the train station. Unloaded all of our gear, put in pack lines and waited for the train. It was on time. The conductor had us put all of our gear in the baggage car. We were split into 2 groups. One was upstairs and the other was below.
It was a good ride except the air-conditioning didn’t work well in the lower part of the car.
We arrived at Raton at 11 am. One bus was there, half of our group had to wait for a second bus which was 30 minutes late. A quick drive to the other side of town for lunch, then a 50 minute ride to Philmont.
Check in was really easy and our gear was stowed in tents. Looked at Tooth of Time Traders and then a short walk to the museum. We set up a time to go to Villa Philamonte on Monday.
After supper, we went to church services. Some went to the Catholic, others the Jewish or the Lutheran service. For the Duty to God award, everyone in the group must attend at least one church service.
While those going out on trail in the morning went to the opening campfire, we still have another day. Downtime until bed.
I still really appreciate coming in a day early. It makes for a relaxing day, a good chance to look around and one more day to get used to the altitude.
Day 1
Up at 5:30 and no wait for the showers. Apparently they have not heard of cold water as they were near scalding hot. They have signs to conserve water – not a problem with them that hot!
Breakfast at 6:30.
After breakfast, we met our ranger Matt at 8:30 at the welcome center. Breezed through registration and logistics. We spent less than 15 minutes at the Medical Center. Dan (my son) took care of us at services and food. He did a great job with a fun talk about the gear and food. In the past, we have been able to swap out a supper for an extra lunch for the dry camps. This has apparently been against Philmont policy and this year they are enforcing it. So, we will have to be very careful with water at the dry camps with a full cooked meal at supper.
Lunch was at 11:30, followed by our gear shakedown. As it was warmer this year, I decided to leave the fleece jacket and the sweater in camp. Saved a little space and weight. Our ranger said Philmont does not suggest you bring a water filter, but use their tablets instead. They also do not want you using Turkey bags for cooking. ( Later, we found out this was our rangers bias and NOT Philmont policy. The micro-pur tablets were easy to use and tasted fine, so that was no big deal. Really missed the turkey bags for cooking and cleanup. )
Finished all of the check in stations by 3. This year they are doing all of the photos on the morning you leave.
Went to Villa Philamonte at 3:30. Another great tour. There are now 3 restored cars in the garage – 2 old model T’s, beautifully done. Except 2 have been converted to electric power. No reason was given for spending the money to restore the cars and then make that kind of change.
After supper, church services, followed by the Opening Campfire.
The Opening Campfire is different again this year. Really good, with a lot of history added into the skits.
In bed at 10.
I think our crew is ready. We leave at 9:30 Tuesday.
Day 2
Up at 5:30, no wait for a shower. Went to a different shower house. Water was a little cooler.
Breakfast at 6:30 and over to photos at 7:15. The sun was really bright and directly in our eyes.
Final tent cleanout, envelopes to security, and our carry-on bags into the lockers.
We were at the welcome center at 9 am and ready to go. It’s a very short bus ride to Lovers’ Leap turn around. After getting our gear out of the trailer, it was time for ranger training. Learned about maps, orienteering, red roofs and hiking.
Then off we go. Started off with 2 misadventures. In Iowa, you never go through a fenced gate, so we went past instead of through. We backtracked and took one other wrong turn. Came within 300 feet of a Mountain Lion! Very cool to see, and it saw us as well. Got back on the right trail. It is a really nice hike to Lovers’ Leap. Had lunch at Lovers’ Leap and enjoyed the view and took lots of photos. A short hike to our campsite. Matt discussed how to set up camp and the boys learned quickly.
After supper, more ranger training and first aid. Discussed more hiking. Matt said Philmont does not recommend “Caterpillaring” – this also was not true. I highly recommend this when going up steep inclines.
Started raining at 8 pm and looked like it might rain all evening. Everyone dove into the tents and stayed there. It rained off and on through the night.
Day 3
Up at 6 am – Wet Tents! Beautiful morning, but the sun is behind the mountains and the tents will not see the sun soon enough to dry. Packed up wet tents and camp was torn down quickly. Breakfast and out of camp by 7:30. Arrived at Miners Park about 9:30. Philmont has added a few staff camps as places to restock food and this was one of ours. We got 3 more days of food.
Had a short porch talk and got a time to climb. We had time and dried out the tents. We were hoping to cook supper here, where they have water and do lunch tonight. We were sent up to the climbing area at 11, so no time to do the meal. It was a 40 minute walk. When we got there, they were 2 ours behind! We would have had plenty of time to cook back at camp. Had lunch and finally got to climb at 2 pm. Finished climbing at 3:45 and left at 4 pm.
We filled up everything we could for water at North Fork Urracca stream as tonights camp is dry and we have a full supper to cook. We were hoping to get to Shaefers camp with time to climb Tooth of Time, not going to happen as we don’t have time. We debated on filled the 2 or all 3 extra water bladders we had. Finally decided on all 3.
It seemed like a long uphill hike to camp. The boys were awesome! Bearbags, dining fly and tents were up quickly and water heating in about an hour.
As we were just about to eat, a scout came walking up. He said, they messed up and were out of water. They had another 4 miles to hike to get to camp for the night and wondered if we had any we could spare. Everyone looked at the extra water bladder we filled – Yes we did have water to spare. He couldn’t believe we would give them 5 liters of water. Guess when we were debating how much water to bring, God had a plan.
After supper, we got everything cleaned up, had time for devotions, more teaching and “Thorns, Roses and Buds”.
It’s a cool evening, should be a good night for sleeping.
Day 4
We have short hike today, so a chance to sleep in until 7. Had a hot, cooked breakfast. Even with the water we gave away, we had enough to cook and top off everyone with water for the short hike.
It was under 3 miles to Clarks Fork. Got checked in and had a porch talk about 10:30. Dan had a few days off and met us here. He will be able to camp and hike with us for a few days. I am looking forward to this as we haven’t really done much camping together since our last time together at Philmont. Had time to play games and have lunch until they were ready to take us to our campsite. Bearbags up, and camp was set up quickly. Some went for horseback riding, others headed for the showers and a little laundry. It started to rain a little in the late afternoon. We had the Chuckwagon Dinner at 5 pm. This is a great meal and one that we didn’t have to carry. Beef stew, biscuits and pound cake – yum! I don’t know if we picked a quiet day, or if this camp is scheduled to have fewer crews stay each night. In the past, the Chuck Wagon dinner site has been packed. Tonight, it wasn’t even half full.
This is the first year that they have an evening program. It rained around that time fo the evening program and so it was moved to the porch. A really fun musical program. Don’t miss it!
Before supper, one of our scouts was having problems which were worse than the previous night. We talked with the camp staff about the problem. They were awesome and really helpful. The scout was able to call home and initially we thought the situation was better, but it wasn’t. Eventually, the scout was taken back to basecamp to be observed.
Had another night of thorns, roses, and buds and devotions.
There is still a complete fire ban, so no campfires and even the camp staff cannot do a campfire for their programs. However, our scouts were very resourceful. They quickly learned that multi-colored Nalgene bottles with water in them and red and white lights behind the bottles made a nice “campfire glow”. Not as good as the real thing, but really nice.
Day 5
Up at 6, breakfast and some of camp torn down. The tents were wet from the rain last night, and we left them up to dry. Dan moved them around to dry out. We were scheduled to do our Conservation project this morning. This time it is trail work. They did a really nice demonstration of how and why they build trails and explained what we will be doing. We spent 2 hours leveling some of the rough grading of a new trail. It was fun. We finished about 11 am. Nobody was really dirty, so showers were not needed this time.
We left around noon. The plan was to hike and have lunch at Window Rock. We hiked to the Demonstration Forest, took some photos. Looked at the trails and maps and kept going. We thought we should be close to Window Rock, came around a corner and saw a building. It was Hunting Lodge. Somewhere in the Demonstration Forest, we picked up a new trail that wasn’t on the map and ended up on the opposite side of the reservoir. We had lunch at Hunting Lodge. Their water is till about the worst at Philmont (avoid if possible).
After lunch, we hiked the short distance to Cito. We arrived at 2, looked around and left at 3 pm. It’s a very short hike up to Aspen Springs. This is a really pretty unstaffed camp. They have filtered water coming in from Cito! First I’ve ever seen this.
Some of us stayed and set up camp. Four went to Ute Gulch. After they left, we realized they forgot to bring the fuel canister to refill. They returned with 60 bags of food!
We started to put up the bear bags with the food and realized we were missing 2 bear bags. We were sure we didn’t leave them anywhere as we always police our campsites before we leave. Did the scout who left the trail take them with him? We improvised and were able to get everything up. Tomorrow we will stop at Ute Gulch and see if we can get more bear bags and more fuel.
We realized that the Mountain house meals, while different than the packaging that you can buy, could still be cooked in the bags instead of the large pot. This made clean up much easier. All but 1 or 2 suppers could be done this way. After supper and everything was cleaned up, we had downtime. Aspen Springs has great rocks around it. We climbed to the top of some flat ones and played cards for awhile.
Thorns, roses, and buds followed by devotions.
In bed early, as tomorrow will be our longest day and greatest altitude change.
Day 6
Beautiful morning at Aspen Springs. Up at 6, breakfast, camp torn down and out by 8. Stopped at the turn for Ute Gulch. Four of us went up and filled up the fuel can. We wanted to get 2 more bear bags, but could only get 1 bag. Better than what we had, but not what we wanted.
It was a long steep climb to Sawmill. About 6 miles and 2500 foot elevation increase. It rained on us on the way to Sawmill. Never hard, just enough to cool us off and make the steep part of the trail very slippery. We just entered lower Sawmill and were going to take a break when we looked ahead and saw a bar run across the trail. We thought it was a cub, and looked for the mom. It was about 300 feet to our side. Got some great photos and decided to keep going and skip the break. Hiked up to Sawmill and arrived at 11:15. Got the porch talk and filled out the bear report. Showed the staff the photos and found that it was a full size Cinnamon black bear. (Good thing we didn’t know that before).
Had enough time for lunch. What a beautiful view for lunch. It rained again and they let us eat on the porch – very nice of them as they normally don’t want anyone eating on the porch. We couldn’t have timed it any better. They had openings for reloading at noon and shooting at 1. “Mouse” did a great job teaching us to reload and then took us to the range. We left our gear at the cabin. Shooting 30.06 was really fun! It is a steep climb to the range, but worth the walk.
After shooting, we returned to the cabin to get our gear, load up on water.
From Sawmill is another 7 miles of steep uphill slippery trails. We gained another 1500 feet hiking to thunder Ridge. Arrived at Thunder Ridge about 6:15. Thunder Ridge is probably my least favorite camp at Philmont. Very small, only 3 campsites, and they are crowded. Luckily we were the only crew there. We put tents in one campsite and cooked in another. Quickly set up camp with bearbags up, tents up and the dining fly.
We knew this is a dry camp and there were only 2 options for water – carry it all the way from Sawmill, or hike to Cyphers Mine. We chose to hike to Cyphers. 4 of us went down with everything we could carry water in. It is 1.3 miles and 1400 feet down. We filled about 9 gallons of water (over 70 pounds) and carried it back up the hill. We needed all the water we could carry to replenish the water for cooking that night and the hike over Mount Phillips in the morning. That was a VERY long hike up the trail. I would have loved to stay there long enough to see the Stomp, but we really didn’t have time and I don’t think I would like the hike up in the dark.
We arrived back at camp at 8:15 – just as supper was about done cooking. After a long day – over 16.5 miles and a gain of 5300 feet, the chicken and rice tasted great!
Thorns, roses, buds and devotions around our “campfire”. Bed by 9:30. Everyone was tired after a long, but really fun day.
Day 7
Up at 6 am. Camp was torn down fast. Even with a snackt, we left camp before 7:30. We knew we wanted to get over Mount Phillips before the weather turned bad (if it was going to). We hiked about 40 minutes and found a scenic place for breakfast.
Continued hiking, it was about 5 miles to the top of Phillips. We gained 1000 feet by the time we reached Commanche Peak camp and another 400 feet to the top of Mount Phillips. A much easier hike than the day before. While hiking up this side is not easy, it is much easier than hiking up the other side as I’ve done in the past. The view from the top of Phillips is amazing! Got lots of photos and a few group photos. The clouds started to roll in and we thought we better get off the peak before the weather turned bad. If the weather was better, we would have stayed longer. Hiked down another 3 miles to Clear Creek. We lost the 1300 feet we had gained earlier that morning. The trail again was slippery when it started to rain.
We arrived at Clear Creek, had the porch talk. Waited for the rain to stop before we got our campsite and set up camp. The scout that had been taken to basecamp rejoined us here. It was nice to see him back. Got to shoot Black Powder rifles – really fun! And throwing tomahawks was also fun. There were several other crews there. One crew challenged our boys to tomahawk throwing. The other crew took it really serious and didn’t seem to have much fun with it – they had to win. Our boys just had fun and looked like they were having lots of fun. My hint – enjoy what you are doing, but don’t take the fun stuff too seriously, just enjoy it!
Last year the water purifier wasn’t working and we had to get water from the creek. This year, they have purified water again. Last year, we had fixed one of the bridges, it was nice to see it still there and just as good as when we built it.
Advisors coffee at 7 was good.
At 8 pm, they have a new evening program. It started with a demonstration of beaver trapping. This was followed by the staff telling “tall stories” which they stated were nothing but “the truth”. Last year, there was no evening program. This was a huge improvement. Another do not miss program!
In bed by 9:30. It rained off and on all night, again.
Day 8
Up at 6 am. The rain had stopped, but the tents were soaked (again). We are getting really good at packing up wet tents and finding time during the day to get them dried out. We have gotten good at getting camp torn down. With breakfast over, we were out of camp around 8. Today was a nice easy hike downhill to Crooked Creek. We crossed the same stream several times. The trail and the map didn’t quite match up, but we found the correct trails. A little uphill at the end before we got to camp. Arrived at camp late morning. A quick porch talk and off to get camp set up. We had time to dry out the tents and the few sleeping bags that were damp. Camp was set up, lunch eaten and then the dry tents put up.
After lunch, we went to the cabin for the tour. Had time to chop wood, do chicken races, throw horseshoes, play checkers and enjoy the view. Then the rain came again. The staff was really fun and let us come inside and play cards at their table. Two of the staff joined us. Another crew came during the rain. They got the cabin tour and a couple of their scouts joined our card game.
The rain slowed and we cooked in a slight drizzle and ate with only sprinkles for rain.
After supper, the rain stopped. The adults went to Advisors coffee. Only a few showed up from the 3 crews that were there.
The evening program is milking cows, and the highlight is a “Poo flinging” contest. Our crew was the only one to show up. They were divided into 2 groups and really had fun with it.
In bed about 9:30. More rain during the night.
Day 9
Up at 6 am. Another day with getting camp down fast. We left by 7:30. Hiked about 3 miles to Phillips Junction to get more food. A really easy hike. Our last food restock. We hiked through Bear Creek and Bear Canyon. Lots of really pretty scenery along the way. Arrived at Apache Springs late morning. I had not been here before. It is a really pretty camp.
The scout who rejoined us had missed the service project and wanted to do it here (if we got here in time). We did and he was able to get it done. One advisor and our Crew Leader had to go with him. It turned out that the other 2 crews didn’t show up and they were the only ones there. He was given the option of doing the project or not doing it and getting credit for it as everyone else had done it at Clarks Fork. To his credit, he wanted to complete the Conservation Project. The other 2 with him also helped.
We had wet tents and the rest of us dried out the tents and got camp set up. After lunch, we did 3-D archery. I guess I really wasn’t expecting much out of this, but it was really fun. I would do it again without even thinking about it.
They have 2 t-pees set up for tours, but we didn’t get to them. They also have an area set up to make arrowheads. I didn’t do this, but the scouts had fun making arrowheads the way Indians did in the past. They don’t have showers, but they have a sink to do laundry. It was an opportunity to get some of the clothes clean. The clothes almost had time to dry.
After supper and Advisors coffee, they have an evening program called a “Meadow Walk”. I had nothing better to do, so went on it. It is a long hike up to the top of the mountain by the camp to a meadow. It is supposed to be a beautiful view of the sunset. Too many clouds and no sunset. We did see the edge of Philmont and the start of UU ranch. I really felt this was a waste of time. Not that scenic. They have such a beautiful camp, an Indian theme, t-pees in the meadow and they can’t come up with a real evening camp program? Really a waste of a great space. All of the pieces are there for a great program, but it’s not there this year.
Thorns, rose, buds, devotions and the Wilderness Ghia book around our “campfire”.
In bed at 9:30.
Day 10
Up at 7. Those who did the Conservation Project yesterday were scheduled to do archery this morning at 7:30. Thank you to the staff for a special time for our crew! They were awesome. The rest of us stayed back at camp, had a late breakfast, dried out the wet tents and got my clothes dry. They returned about 9:30. Everything was dry by then. We had the rest of camp packed up, just waiting for the tents to dry.
We left by 10:15 and had a short hike to Fishcamp. Arrived there by 11:45. Overall, it was an easy hike. Fishcamp is another beautiful camp!
We had the porch talk then lunch. Once again, we got lucky with time. We were able to do fly tying at 1, followed by a fly fishing lesson. They did a nice job teaching the scouts how to tie a fly. Then, take the fly to the fly fishing lesson. Again, they did a really good job teaching the scouts how to fly fish. You must have a license to fish. Scouts are $2.50, but adults are $17. If we had a lay-over I might have considered it, but not for 1-2 hours. The scouts had fun fishing.
While the scouts were fishing, some of us did the cabin tour. This was one of the original cabins on the property. It is beautiful. Even has the original furniture.
We left at 3 pm for Lower Bonita camp. You have to go over Webster Pass. Even with the switchbacks, this is a very steep trail. We gained over 1100 feet over 1.2 miles. We arrived at Lower Bonita at 4:45. It is another pretty trail camp. However, you are in the middle of a pasture that the cattle use! Even the higher up campsites see cattle. It has a natural spring for water.
After supper, we had time for more cards.
Then thorns, roses, buds, devotions, and Wilderness Ghia.
Bed by 9:30.
Day 11
Up at 6:30. One of the few days we didn’t have rain during the night, but had a heavy dew and the tents were almost as wet as if it had rained. We set the tents in the sun to dry. One of the great things about backpacking tents is how fast they dry.
We packed up the rest of camp, had breakfast, and by then the tent were dry. We had everything ready to go by 8:30. We had to hike through the meadow and by the cattle. Today, there were 2 options to get to Zastrow. One hikes way up north and out of the way, the other seems more direct. We chose the latter. I didn’t recognize the trail as being the “Stairmaster”. In retrospect, the longer option was a better choice.
This trail was uphill, steep downhill and very strenuous. A lot of treacherous downhill areas. Very rocky. I do not suggest this route fi you have another option. We go to Abreau in the morning. This is another beautiful camp. Don’t miss the rootbeer at the cantina. Had lunch and a tour of the cabin. Several of our scouts did the “spicy pickle challenge” in the cantina. They had lots of fun. While our scouts didn’t do it, there is the option to make adobe bricks here as well.
We left about 2 pm. It is a really short, easy hike to Zastrow (about 30 minutes and flat). This is another really fun camp. We had the scouts do the orienteering course. They had fun. One team ws only 1 minute off the record time!
They also have hot showers! Really appreciated even if we will be back at base camp tomorrow.
Some of our scouts tried the flag challenge.
After supper, we had a light rain, and it quit. Went to advisors coffee and the scouts had Ultimate Frisbee.
Because of the fire ban, they couldn’t do a dutch oven dessert, but the scouts cooked cobbler in the oven instead. It was really good.
This was followed by a “rededication to scouting” ceremony. Don’t miss this. This was followed by astronomy. We had a great night for it. Completely clear night. The staff did an awesome job with this! Don’t miss it. He did about 30 minutes of general stuff, then it was opened up to questions for as long as they lasted. Way better program than I ever expected. We were all very impressed.
In bed about 10:30
Day 12
Up at 6:30. Breakfast, camp torn down and ready to go by 8. Finally, we had dry tents to take down. This has been a really rare event!
A nice flat 5 mile hike to Rayado turn around. Really easy, except the entire hike is out in the open along a road. There is no trail Not a hike I would want to do late in the day.
They have really improved the tour of the Kit Carson museum and added more buildings. The stables were now open as was the church. Very cool! After lunch, the scouts did more tomahawk throwing and “Stump tug-a-war”. The bus came to get us at 1 pm. A short drive back to basecamp.
Going through check in was really fast and easy. We were in Cimarron by 4 pm and eating pizza by 4:30. Yum! Simple Simon does a nice job with pizza. Of course, after 10 days of freeze dried food, anything not out of a plastic package probably tastes really good! Then to the galloria for ice cream. They had awesome malts. We had time to go to all of the stores in town and still get on the 5:45 bus back to Philmont.
There was time for laundry, evening worship services. The scouts did a second supper.
Closing ceremony was at 8:15. They have changed the Story line from “Homeward Bound” to “take everything you learned home with you”. While I liked the Homeward Bound story, this one is better.
Time to pack up and get ready to leave tomorrow.
Day 13
Up at 6 am. Another very hot shower. Breakfast at 7.
Time to get everything out of the lockers. We had the morning to goof around and enjoy. One last trip to Tooth of Time traders. Get the patches we earned.
Pack everything up. We were able to get a tent to put our gear in until we left.
At the welcome center at 3 pm for the bus leaving at 3:30.
We arrived at the train station at 4:30. The train is going to be late.
We had order pizza from Pizza Hut and they delivered. Others went to some of the restaurants downtown to eat.
The train finally comes at 7 pm.
Easy loading into the train and we have seats.
We are upstairs this time and the air conditioning works.
Easy trip back, but we never make up any time this time.
We arrive at Fort Madison 2 hours late – 1 pm instead of 11 am.
Easy drive back to Cedar Falls to unload all of our gear and get everyone home.
We had a great trip. 2 crews with different treks. Lots of great stories traded on the train. Nobody will forget this trip.
Once again, the scouts who left Cedar Falls are not the same scouts who returned from Philmont. This trip will change you. The scouts who return are more mature, more confident, more self-assured. They will never be the same, and that’s a good thing.
