2016 reviews

Just got back last night (621-Echo, Trek 22). We did program at Miranda, French Henry, Dean Cow, Clark’s Fork, Miner’s Park, Crater Lake, Abreau and Zastro.  We side hiked Baldy and the Tooth.

As Nate stated, base camp was well oiled as usual.   The Clark’s fork music was OK, but not great.  The Crater Lake program was phenomenal-great music/acting with a view of Tooth Ridge at dusk.

We passed through Pueblano on the way west.  We didn’t do any program there, but during our short time there, it was obvious that Continental Tie group there was not trying hard to be in character (In 2013, Pueblano was probably our favorite camp due to the staff’s acting and the evening program).

Although not exactly fun, an experience we will not soon forget is the afternoon hail/rain/thunderstorm we encountered on Tooth Ridge after summiting the ToT.

As tired as I am now, I’m ready to go back.

Edit:  I also picked up some Sonic 1 gallon tea bags.  We tested them on a couple of our practice hikes.  They worked perfectly, so we used 6 of them on our trek.  We had two non-catastrophic failures.  One developed a small crack (1/8″ or less) where it was folded too tight.  Repaired halfway through the trip with tenacious tape and worked fine for the rest of the trip.  The other was hung on the outside of a pack by the handle to haul it up to Shaefer’s Pass before our side hike to the Tooth.  I knew it was probably going to fail, but kept silent just to see what happened.  The handle eventually ripped and the bag dropped to the ground.  The rip  and fall did not compromise the bag and we continued to use it for the rest of the trip.

Side note:  One of my local Sonics did not have any of the bags.  Another told me that they no longer had the gallon tea on the menu, but still had some bags left over.  I bought 16 of them at $0.75 each.

+ on the well-oiled machine…
613-R1 Trek 11
The guys wanted guns and climbing – they got more guns than climbing. Of the five shooting venues, they hit four – Harlan (shotgun), Sawmill (.30-06), Clear Creek and Black Mountain (muzzle-loader). The only one left was cowboy-action shooting at Ponil and we weren’t going to do that as a side-hike. The furthest North we were was Turkey Creek TA.

Climbing at Cito was great. Most climbers are on the East side on the mountain. Staffer asked for volunteers to go to the West side. Only our 4 plus one other took up the offer. They were glad they did! We had 5 climbers on two routes. Just about everyone got to do both routes. Happy faces! I’d bet, based on the numbers on the other side, the rest only got one shot each.

Cons at Whistle Punk was trail-building/finishing. Talked to Cons the night before and packs were brought along to avoid back-tracking. Water, supposedly a spring, was more “a muddy track flowing down hill”. Spring box was dry. Alternate purification methods were employed after the filter blocked up. The Cons day took a bit of planning and worked out ok. It was just a long day with morning Cons, a “short-cut” to avoid the back-track, and the climb up to Comanche Peak Camp.

Campfire shows were not as polished as I’ve experienced on previous treks. Of course, the season was barely a week old when we came through.

We had gallon water bags we used on a previous trek. The are similar to the Sonic bags but have some reinforcement in the handle. No one used the handle to hang the bag, all put them in their packs.

Also, one further bit of info – we were a short crew – 2 adults, 4 youth. I had a dad and two sons bail out one month prior to the trek. Philmont didn’t want to let us go as 6. The other crew on our trek was asked to hike behind us the whole way, but the advisor balked at that and Philmont then settled for communications nightly between the crews. Ironically, we hiked ahead of them on all but two days. The first when the other crew wouldn’t do Cons because of the “absurd” route/planning/etc. and the second when they blew off program for the day. I don’t know how they resolved the Cons issue.

Our guys had a great time and only missed program twice: they didn’t want to back-track to Crooked Creek on the way to PJ and Beaubien, and when we got in late to Carson Meadows (it was a mostly downhill day but Lower Bonita Canyon is about a 1400′ drop with a very rocky trail after going over Trail Peak with packs).

It was probably the most fun trek I’ve done.

Ed, you weren’t the only 6 man crew out there.  We ran into one outside of French Henry that started with 6 due to circumstances similar to yours.  Another (at Visto Grande) lost crew due to illness or injury.  Having done Philmont with a 12 and 10 man crew, I’m somewhat jealous of the smaller crews.

This was the smallest crew I’ve ever gone with. Next smallest was 7. I like smaller crews, things seem to work better. Philmont would rather have full crews, though. Full crews are likely a better use of resources.

I just got back on Thursday, July 7, 2016 from my first trip to Philmont.  Our crew was 13 total with five adults and eight young men (can’t call them boys after they accomplished their trek).  Our ranger was great and just so happened to be from our hometown of Birmingham and had even been to a party at one of the advisor’s homes before he came to Philmont, although none of us knew him.  He got us straight and we were ready to go it alone by the time he left.

The first day alone on the trail, we camped at Deer Lake.  There was an alert sign for bear activity, although we never saw one the entire trip.  Deer Lake was incredible.  Our future programs would include shotgun shell and bullet making, both of which were great.  A big buck actually walked through the shotgun range as we were blasting skeet.

The other programs were good.  Crater Lake was awesome, as was the farm where we milked a cow and shoveled poop.  We watched the sunrise at Crater Lake-don’t miss that.

We had a major lightning/hail storm that was intense and miserable.  I wish that I had had rain pants and gloves and I highly recommend those to anyone going.

We had two heath issues where the young men almost left the trail, but the staff kept them moving.  It seems to be that one must really be very, very ill or hurt to get off the trail.  I was worried at first, but both made it through the whole distance.

Our trek was 76 miles, I believe.  We walked a lot more than that, however.

Take a plastic waterproof baggie for your passport that you receive at the beginning of your trek.

Overall, it was a great experience.  I’ve left a lot out of this, but take rain pants and gloves if you have the room.

One last thing that happened to me-on the last day, our troop went to Cimmaron to get some real food at the St. James Hotel (great burgers and wait staff for 13 guys).  I went back to base and took a short rest.  I soon realized that I did not have my wallet which was just a small cuban envelope with my license, health insurance card, debit card, credit card and $175 cash.  I checked lost and found first and I went back to area where I may have left it and rifled through nasty garbage cans looking for it.  Keep in mind that base camp is huge with hundreds of people moving around.  The envelope did not look like a wallet and could easily be mistaken as trash.  I had thoughts of hitchiking back home because I had no license to get on a plane.

My son came running to me after a while and told me it had shown up at lost and found completely intact.  As I was walking out of lost and found, a man and his son asked me if I was the one who had lost the envelope.  They had found it and turned it in.  I had to force them to take a reward as they refused at first.  Scouting makes for some fine young men.

Have fun at Philmont.  It’s an experience that will never be forgotten.