Philmont 2025 Crew 621-T  Trek 16

Day 0

Drove to Fort Madison.  An easy drive.  Had planned to have supper at Subway, near the train station.  It’s GONE!  Found a few other choices nearby and ate there.  A short drive back to the train station, dropped off our gear and waited for the train.  The train was only 15 minutes late. There were only 3 crews on the train.  Normally there are nearly a dozen.  Easy train ride to Raton.  Once we arrived, got all of our gear off the train and walked to the bus.  All 3 crews fit on one bus.  Stopped for lunch, then headed to Philmont.  One crew was spending the night at the NRA site.  We drive by it every time, but I’ve never been there.  Wow!  What a beautiful facility.  Talking to them on the way back, they had a good time there.

Got to Philmont, got our tent assignments and moved our gear to the tents.  This year, the adults had to go through registration before we could get our tents.  One less station for the next day.  With all of the Youth Protection concerms, I’m sure this was why we had to go through registration early.  Bill was paid in full.

I had called ahead and we had reservations to tour Villa Philamonte this afternoon.  Still an amazing place to tour.

Then back for supper and an evening church service.  The Lutheran service was done very well with many people being involved rather than just one person.

Bed about 10:30 and ready for the next day.

Day 1

Up at 5, showered and headed to breakfast at 6:30.  After breakfast, met our ranger at 8:15 at the welcome center.  Timmy seems awesome!  He’s going to be a fun ranger for our crew!  Straight to photos, then gear shakedown.  Got the most time consuming station out of the way early.  Easily got through the other stations.  Had lunch at 11:30.  Logistics at 1:30.  Seemed very well organized.  A quick trip through medical, no issues (yea).  We were finished early, so had time to go through the Philmont museum.  Previously, I had purchased a brick to be put in front of the museum as part of a fund raiser.  I found our brick!

Went back to camp to start final packing.  We have a lot of food for 4 days to pack.

Supper at 4:45.  Leadership training at 5:45.

Mark Anderson  (previous camp director of Philmont) was back for adult leadership training.  It was really well done.  One of the best I’ve been to!

Back to the tents to finish packing.  We leave at 8 in the morning, so no time to pack then.

Went to the opening campfire.  Once again, very well done and fun! 

In bed at 10:30.  Got to get ready for a busy next day.

Day 2

Up at 4:45, shower and do final packing.  Breakfast at 6:30.  Packs taken to the welcome center to wait for our bus. At the welcome center at7:30.  Bus arrived at 8.  Loaded all our gear and off we went.  We arrived at Zastro turnaround at 8:30.  Had time for orienteering training and other training.  Then hiked to Abreu.  Arrived at 10:30.  Played with the goats.  Then had rootbeer at the cantina, played checkers, played with the chickens.  Found out that tonights camp was a dry camp.  Changed our plan and did supper for lunch.  Filled several of our water bladders to have extra water for tonight and the morning.  Left at 3:30, arrived at Carson Meadows at 4:45.  Found our camp site, set up camp, bear bags up, dining fly up and tents up.

Had lunch for supper, then put up the Oops bags.

Did Duty to God, Wilderness Ghis and Thorns, Roses and Buds before bed.

Day 3

Up 1611

Could be a rough day, we gain 1611 feet today and hike up the “Stair Master”.

Up at 5 to get camp taken down.  Had a partial breakfast and left at 7 am.  Hiked about an hour, found a good spot to stop and finished breakfast.  We were by a stream and Timmy taught the scouts how to collect and purify water.  Left about 10:30.

 Headed up the “Stari Master”.  It lived up to it’s name.  Some very challenging areas with very steep steps, steep grades.  Eventually walked through a beautiful meadow.  The main entrance to the camp was closed, so had to hike around to the side entrance.

Found our camp site, set up the rainfly, bearbags and tents.    Rain started, then thunder and lightning.  Had to do the lightning pose and then the hail started.  Quit after 10 minutes, then started again in 30 minutes.  Repeated 3 times.  Some big hail and it hurt.

We were able to dry out tents between rains.  One of the tents had a broken pole, but we were able to put a metal pole patch over it and get the tent set up. 

Some of the scouts were very cold after the rains, went to their tents to warm up in their sleeping bags.

The rain stopped and we were able to have a camp fire which help warm up the scouts.

Did Duty to God, Thorns, Roses and Buds.

In Bed by 9:30 to be up early in the morning.  Tomorrow Fish Camp!

Day 4

Gain 1042, lose 1455 feet.

Up at 5:30, tear down camp, eat a partial breakfast.  The rain had continued through the night.  Packed up everything wet.

Left by 7:30.  A lot of uphill till we reached Lookout Point.  Did a lot of caterpillaring in the steep areas.  We stopped to finish breakfast at a nice vista.  One scout was starting to get a blister, so we got that treated. The others hiked to Lookout Point. Had a really nice view from there.

Then we hiked down to Fish Camp.  Sadly, this year it is a trail camp as they are redoing the main cabin.  It is torn down to the outside walls.  No floor and they were leveling it.  Should be nice once it is done.

Found out camp site and set up camp.  Still a really pretty setting.  Got oput water fille dup.  Tents, dining fly and bear bags up.  Then the rain started again.  Our tent was leaking, figured out the seam tape had come off.  Moved the tent under the dining fly, mopped it dry. 

Some skipped dinner as it was raining and cold.  Others ate.

Everyone ws in tents by 7 pm due to cold and rain.  We did do devotions and Thorns, Roses and Buds.

Rained for 7 hours straight with only a 30 minute break.

We were able to get a campfire going even with the rain.

Day 5

Up 1018, down 172

Knew we had a short hike today, so got up at 6:30.

A very pretty hike with great views. 14 stream crossings

Got to Apache Springs camp about 12:30.

Porch talk, then went to camp.  We were able to swap out 2 bad tents for 2 good tents.  THANK YOU!!!

Never had an issue with the tents the rest of the trip.

Camp was set up in under an hour.  Good job scouts!

Some of the scouts and adults got our food resupply,  The others did group laundry.  While we did this, the scouts did 3D archery.  Had a grat ime and really enjoyed it.

Had supper.  Adults did advisors coffee.

Went on the sunset hike.  What a beautiful view!  Definitely do this!

Walked back to camp, bear bags and oops bags up.

Did devotions, wilderness ghia, thorns, roses and buds.

In bed by 10.

Ready to get up early for another day.

Day 6

 Up 1356  Down 1108

Up at 5 am.  Clear night, no rain.  Had breakfast, pack ed up camp.  Out of camp by 7 am.  Great job scouts!

Beautiful weather for a hike.  Few stream crossing today.  Stopped at Crooked Creek.  Got a tour of the cabin.  Played with chickens, burrows, goats. 

The weather started to look bad, so we left to get back on the trail.  Bad markings on the trail as what we saw didn’t match with what the map showed.  Found the correct trail and hiked to Commanche Creek.

Found a great campsite and set up camp quickly.  The scouts are figuring out how to do this.

Got water and purified it.

Had supper.

Did devotions, Thorns , Roses and Buds.

In bed by 9:30, ready for an early morning.

Day 7

Up 2334, down 1704

Up at 4:30, packed up, ate part of breakfast and left by 6:30.

This should be our most challenging day and our peak altitude.

Hiked to Clear Creek.  Got the porch talk.  Threw tomahawks, then got to do black powder rifles.

Had lunch and left by 11:30.

Hiked over Mount Phillips.  Beautiful weather while we were on the peak.  Got pictures and enjoyed the view.

Left and hiked through Phillips camp.  Kept going and the trails were not well marked.  We hiked on what we thought was the correct trail.  Stopped, checked GPS and cell phone GPS.  Both showed we were well off course.  Hiked back and retraced our steps.  Decidied we were correct and kept hiking.  We passed through Commanchee Camp.   No idea why both GPS gave the wrong readings.  Kept hiking until we reached our camp.  Sadly the outside camps were taken, so we had to hike to the middle.  Clearly, some crews don’t understand leaving the outer campsite fore crews arriving later.  Got camp set up and did supper.

Dining fly, bear bags, oops bags, devotions, thorns roses and buds done.

In bed by 9:30

Day 8

Up 1165 Down 2120

Slept in till 6 and got camp torn down quickly and left by 7:30.

On paper, this looked to be mainly downhill after heading over Big Red.  We were wrong!

Hiked up to the top of Big Red.  Not an easy hike as there were few switchbacks and areas where you weren’t sure where the trail was or went.  Lots of catepillaring.

Stopped at the top of Big Red to finish breakfast.  We thought it would be mainly downhill from here.  Instead we had 3 more peaks to hike over before the downhill started.

Hiked over Bonita and 2 other peaks.  Bonita was very scenic.

From there, it was mainly all downhill to Beaubien.  Got our porch talk and headed to our camp site and set camp up quickly.  We got a great camp site, close to 2 Redroofs and 2 bear bag lines.  Camp was set up by 2 pm.

Did laundry in a ziplock bag and set up laundry lines to dry everything.

The next day we realized we should have had 4 people go to pick up our next food pickup that afternoon.  That would have saved us a lot of time the next day.

Had Chuckwagon dinner that night.  Chili, cornbead and cobbler.

Advisor coffee followed.  One of the advisors mentioned he had seen 2 badgers playing by the horses.  Walked down the trail and there were 2 badgers running around, having fun.  Watched them for 10 or 15 minutes.  I’ve seen badgers at zoos, but never in the wild.  Very fun!  Ended the night with their campfire program.  Very well done and worth going to.

At our camp at 9:15.  Time for devotions, thorns, roses and buds.

We have our conservation project at 8 am in the morning.

Day 9

Up at 6, got breakfast.  We have a layover day, so didn’t need to pack up camp today.

We hiked to the conservation site and arrived about 7:45.  We will be cutting down unwanted trees and moving brush to decrease the future fire risk.

We finished at 10:30 and hiked back to our camp.  Showers at 11:30, they felt SOOOO good!

4 headed to get our food restocking.  One of our whisperlites wasn’t working well, so I took it apart and cleaned it.  It worked well for a short time, then didn’t work well again.  (Side note, torn them apart when I got home.  There wasn’t dirt in the line as I had suspected. Instead there was corrosion on the inner line that blocked fuel flow.  Took an hour to clean the line well, but then they were back to working well).  Next time, the lines should be thoroughly cleaned before we leave, even if they are working well.

It rained hard for a while, so the crew getting food waited for the rain to stop.  They got back late enough that we no longer had time to hike up Trail Peak.  Had we gotten our food the day before, we would have had time.

Good day for a nap.

Had dinner, then advisors coffee.

Went to the campfire show again.  They had 2 additional members tonight and it was even better than the first night.

Back to camp, devotions, thorns, roses and buds.

Bed at 9:30.

Off to Miners in the morning.

Day 10

Up at 5 am, clear skies.  Packed up quickly, had a partial breakfast and left before 7.  Good job scouts!

Hiked to Black Mountain.  A good trail with lots of switchbacks until the last part of the hike.

WE would have to wait hours for Black Powder rifles, but we had already done it at a previous camp.  Instead, the scouts did panning for gold and had fun.

We finished breakfast and left by 10:30.

Hiked to Miners Park.  We counted and had 56 stream crossings, generally the same stream over and over.  We also had 10 trees that were down along the trail to climb over, under or go around. Made for an interesting hike.

Arrived at Miners Park at 2:15.  Got our porch talk and assigned a camp.  Climbing was full for the day, so we would be one of the first crews for the morning.

Looking ahead, tomorrow is a dry camp, so we did dinner for lunch today and tomorrows dinner for dinner today.  It started to rain and hail as we were cooking, so some went to their tents, others huddled under the dining fly.  Supper was very good.

The rain finally stopped, we cleaned up after dinner, put the remainder of the bear bags up, took the garbage to the garbage cans.

Day 11

Up at 5 am, packed up camp and had breakfast.  We met at the porch at 7:45.  Hiking to the climbing area was about a 45 minute hike, but it was in the correct direction, so we brought all of our gear with us to the climbing area.

The climbing and rappelling area is very nice.  However, they had 3 crews there to climb.  The scouts were able to one of the 3 areas, but there wasn’t time for the adults to do this.

After climbing, we continued to North Fork Uraca stream.  We had been told that there may be water at Schaefers Pass, but could never confirm this, so we filled 10 liters of extra water from the stream. 

Hiked to Schaefer’s Pass and had lunch.  We found they did have water there and topped off everything and filled the extra 4L bag.

Hiked to Tooth Ridge camp. Looked for our favorite campsite, but things have been moved around and there no longer is a campsite with a latrine that overlooks Base Camp.

Set up camp and had supper.  Left to hike the Tooth of Time at 6.  On the Top of the Tooth by 7.  A beautiful view.  Got all of our photos and left at 7:45.  Got off the Tooth still in daylight.

Hiked back to camp.  Finished putting bear bags up, devotions, thorns, roses and buds.  Hoping to see the sunrise in the morning.

Base Camp tomorrow.

Day 12

Up 858, down 2481

Up at 5, no rain, so everything was dry.  Packed up camp quickly, ate breakfast and left by 6:30.Just a 6 mile hike and mainly downhill, but lots of long switchbacks.

Arrived at the “Welcome Back” gate at 8:45.  Got all of our photos at the entrance.  Hiked in and got our tent assignments and stowed our gear.

Then headed to take back our crew gear.  We were the first crew in, so no lines anywhere.  Headed to crew gear first and cleaned the tents, flies and dining fly and our cooking gear.

Then to registration, logistics, return unused fuel.

Got all of our things out of the lockers and back to our tents.

Shower time, lunch and then laundry.

Some took the shuttle to Cimmarron.

The rest of us stayed and had supper.

Went to closing campfire.  Again, done well.

Looked like it might rain, lots of lightning and thunder, but never rained.

In bed at 10:30

Day 13

Up at 5:15.  Had planned to sleep in, but camp is packed.  We are on the Home Bound side and we had 3 Trail bound crews by us and they are LOUD. No chance of sleeping is, so up and showered.  Got more packing done and threw away what wasn’t needed to bring home.  Breakfast at 7:00.  Finished my packing.  Got our gear to the welcome center by 8:30, the bus is to arrive at 2:30.

Spent the afternoon in the Advisors lounge as was raining lightly.  Then really started to rain hard.  Moved all of our gear under the welcome center roof to keep it dry.  The rain stopped and the bus arrived at 2:30.  Got everything loaded in the bus.  We stopped at the grocery store on the way back.  We had ordered pizza to be picked up at 4, but now we would be late.  In the past, we have used Pizza Hut, but they are closed, so we used Brunos pizza, it is close to the train station.  Really good.

Due to weather, the train was late.  It was to arrive at 4:50.  Arrived at 7:15.  Got our gear on the train and found our seats. 

Day 14

The train was still behind.  We were to arrive at 10 am and arrived at 1:30.

Got our gear, loaded everything in the vehicles.  Had lunch in Fort Madison and drove back to Cedar Falls.  Arrived at 5 pm.

Another really fun trip. Every trip to Philmont is an amazing trip and this was no exception.

Photos to follow.