The crew in relaxed mood before one of our shakedown hikes

Day 1: After a long, two-night train ride, the Rockies slowly came into view. We finally got off the train in the morning in Denver, which was a big relief.

Alex making the most of his time on the train

Sprague Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park

We got into our vans, and toured Rocky Mountain National Park. Everyone hiked around Sprague Lake, with a breathtaking view of the mountains. There was a video about the park in one of the visitor's centers, and we visited another that had information about the formation of the Rockies. While driving over the mountain passes, we started our series of rounds of the word game "ghost" in the van. There were some amazing views, especially of Long's Peak. We encountered a moose, and some people played with the chipmunks right in front of the "Don't feed the chipmunks" sign. While we were on one of the highest peaks, it began to hail. We spent the night at a campsite in the park, and had steak for dinner. The night was very cold.

K2 holding out an empty hand to a friendly chipmunk

Day 2: We drove from Rocky Mountain National Park to Pike's Peak, and took the cog railway up. It was a long ride, but the view was unbelievable, and we could definitely feel the low oxygen. After Pike's peak, we toured the Garden of the Gods, with its huge red rock formations, and saw a few climbers. We went to the western-themed Flying W Ranch for dinner. They served good chuck wagon food and put on a good western show. The campsite was rather disappointing, as we were the only group with tents camped in the middle of many camper trailers.

The Cog Railway Depot

The Garden of the Gods

Day 3: We got up for a long drive from Garden of the Gods campground to Mission: Wolf. We passed the time with more rounds of "ghost" in the car. We saw Cheyenne Mountain, and the famous chapel at the nearby Air Force Academy. At Mission: Wolf, we saw many wolves in the enclosures, and got to see them get fed. Also, we got to make contact with one wolf. Then, we took the vans to the head of a trail and hiked into the Great Sand Dunes campground through a valley. It was a great hike, as we could see the dunes in the distance through the valley for much of it. We climbed the dunes for an hour or two and saw the fiery sunset over the peaks, then went back to the campsite and made dinner (polish sausage, peppers, and onions).

Philmont Scout Ranch

Day 4: The crew got up and drove for several hours to Philmont Base camp. We spent most of the day going around base camp getting registered and checked with different departments and services, such as Logistics and the medical office. We also got to meet our ranger, named Alex. For the first few days of the trek, she was responsible for teaching the crew what we needed to know. The evening closed with a campfire program, which centered on describing the history of the Southwest, Wait Phillips, and the land that became Philmont.

The official expedition photo

Day 5: We left base camp to get on the trail at Ponil Turnaround. When we had gone over some of the trail rules with our ranger, and finished petting the horses, we started on our first part of the trek. After we'd gone about a mile, the pack of one of our adults broke. We quickly rigged a fix and we started on again. Not too long after, we missed a turn and started to follow the wrong stream. We figured this out fairly quickly and found our way back to the trail. We hiked the rest of the two-and-a-half miles to Ponil Staffed Camp. We rested there and tried to rope some cattle (or "rattle" some cattle, according to one of our members). After the short rest and some root beer, we started the rest of our hike to Sioux Camp. When we got there after about a mile, our ranger showed us how to put up bear bags, take care of KP, and cook at Philmont. The cooking instructions were, "Boil the water and put everything in." We had macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, and chili; an odd but amazingly good dinner. We hiked back to Ponil after we had set up our tents and we had eaten. At Ponil, we listened to a wonderful show and watched some great skits. After the show and some more root beer, we hiked back up to Sioux in the dark. On the way, we learned about rangers and campers that had been attacked by Mountain Lions and we learned that Ponil Canyon, the one we were hiking down, was known for its many lion sightings. We got back to camp with nobody missing and went to bed after we set up the "oops bag," the bear bag containing things like toothpaste, cameras, and the first-aid kit.

We saw lost of wildlife, including a Moose

Day 6: The second day we learned how to take down the bear bags and take down camp. After the camp was all taken care of we started our 5-mile hike up to Flume Canyon. On the way our ranger told us what bugs to eat in case of an emergency, namely ants and grasshoppers. One of us tried an ant; apparently it tasted a little sour and a little spicy at the same time. At Flume Canyon (a steep narrow gorge cut deep into beautiful red sandstone with a base flattened from flash floods) we set up camp and began the short hike to Pueblano. We headed out before dinner and we were planning to have dinner at Pueblano, but we forgot the fuel for the stove. So we waited for a half an hour while 4 guys ran/walked back to Flume Canyon to get some fuel. We made it to Pueblano without further problems but we were a little late so we missed Spar Pole climbing that afternoon.

Day 7: The day started out on a frustrating note, as we got up about a half-hour late. However, the crew recovered and only took just over an hour to get ready to go. Our ranger, Alex, left us as we got ready to go, and gave us a farewell of pound cake and icing. The entire crew enjoyed very much the time she spent with us.

We made it to Pueblano just in time to do conservation work. Our crew was assigned to take turns sledge-hammering a large rock on a new trail. After that, we did spar pole climbing, which most everyone enjoyed. One of our leaders even did it with just his arms and not the belt around the tree.

Our next stop was at Head of Dean after about an hour of hiking. The low copes challenge courses were a ton of fun for everyone, and our crew was evidently one of the best cooperating to complete the tasks. We worked together extremely well. We also camped at Head of Dean, and got to bed earlier than the previous few nights.

Day 8: This was the first day with a fairly large amount of hiking. We got up and out of Head of Dean much slower than before yet still in a reasonable amount of time. The views on the trail were excellent, and we could see all of the major Philmont peaks (Phillips, Baldy, and Touch-Me-Not) plus the Tooth of Time.

French Henry Mine

We went straight from Head of Dean to French Henry Mine. The programs were excellent. During blacksmithing, six of our nine members were voted by the rest of the crew to have to kiss Annie the Anvil after allegedly striking her face with a hammer. French Henry also included a mining museum, a tour of a huge gold mine and the opportunity of panning for gold. No one got any gold.

The site we stayed at that night was Ute Meadows. The portion of the site we chose was annoying for us to deal with, however, because there was hardly enough room to pitch all of our tents. Everyone went to sleep excited about hiking Baldy the next day.

Day 9: We got up and didn't have to take down our camp because we had a layover at Ute Meadows. We went through Baldy Camp just after 8:00, and started hiking up Mt. Baldy. Ian dropped his rain gear part way up, and some of us had to go back to get it. By the end of the climb, almost everyone was worn out. The last face was especially difficult because it was very steep and very rocky. Everyone was elated to make it to the top. One of our leaders passed around his cell phone and everyone called home to say hello.

Celebrating at the top of Mount Baldy

After eating lunch, we spit into two groups. Four of our members hiked down the extremely steep northern face of the mountain and then around to Baldy Camp, while the others went back the way we came. The crew picked up food in Baldy Town, cooked dinner back at Ute Meadows in the rain, and got to bed relatively early.

An interesting thing we kept track of as the trek went on was what one of our leaders was craving. He started out craving prime rib and steak. At French Henry, he really wanted pizza. And on this day, he was desperate to get a pickle from Baldy Town, yet they were out. It became quite clear that the quality of what he craved was continually dropping.

Day 10: The next morning we hiked to Miranda. After eating lunch, we went down to the black powder range. The staff gave a firing and safety demonstration, after which we each got to load and fire one round. When everyone had had his turn, we put a pair of boxers up on the target and took turns blowing holes in them. When we had each taken a few shots we walked back to the main area. We put the boxers up on the hatchet-throwing target, but only a couple hatchets ever hit them. Then we hiked to Upper Dean, by way of Head of Dean, where we picked up more water. After supper a storm began to come up, but fortunately it did not hit until we had cleaned up supper and gotten in our tents.

When it rains, it pours

Day 11: The next morning we set out for Upper Bench. We ate our lunch while cooling our feet in the Cimarron River. Several of us dumped water on our heads, while one of us took a little swim. After lunch we packed up and hiked about a mile and a half uphill to Visto Grande Camp. We treated water at the spring while enjoying the view. Afterwards we hauled the water up to Upper Bench Camp. Upper Bench is a very pretty un-staffed camp next to a little pond. After setting up camp, we wandered around the pond, and found some very inviting rock piles. After dinner we hiked about half a mile back towards Visto Grande to a knoll, where we hoped to have a good view of the sunset. Bushwhacking up the hill proved to be a little painful, but the view was well worth it, as we witnessed the Cimarron Range light on fire.

Day 12: In the morning we ate breakfast and packed up. We hiked about four miles to Ute Gulch Commissary, where we picked up the last of our food. From there it was about two miles to Cimarroncito Camp. We arrived in the middle of the afternoon, unfortunately too late to do rock climbing that day. Instead we set up camp and washed some of our clothes at the shower house. We couldn't really see a difference in the clothes, but the water certainly was dirty. After supper we went down to the program area, where Jesse tried to complete the climbing wall and the entire crew played volleyball.

Day 13: We got up at 7, ate breakfast, and put all our smellables up in the bear bags. We had time for some exciting rock climbing on nearby cliffs and then we packed lunch, diner, stoves, water, and rain gear in our packs and headed for Harlan. After about 3 miles of the 4-mile trip we stopped and ate lunch. When we reached Harlan we loaded shotgun shells and headed to the range to shoot clay pigeons. After shotgun shooting we cooked mac and cheese for diner. At 7 pm burro racing started. You can imagine how wild things got with a bunch of city kids trying to race donkeys across a field. After a few races it started to get dark and we began our hike back to Cimarroncito. We hiked back in the dark using our headlamps to see the trail, and got back to Cimarroncito at about 11 pm.

Day 14: We packed up all our gear at Cimarroncito and left for Ponderosa Park. The hike took us through Hidden Valley to Window Rock where we ate lunch. After lunch we hiked past Cathedral Rock and through an educational forestry trail. We reached Clarks Fork Camp were we branded our boots and hats. We ate a chuck wagon diner and witnessed an impressive hailstorm. After dinner we went to the Clarks Fork campfire, picked up water and hiked a half-mile to Ponderosa Park in the dark where we camped for the night.

Day 15: We got up a 5:30 am to watch the sunrise and we ate breakfast while we waited. After the sunrise we packed up our tents and headed for Shaefers Pass. We hiked up Shaefers Peak and began our hike down Tooth of Time Ridge. About a third of the way down the ridge we ate lunch and climbed up the Tooth of Time. After climbing the Tooth of Time we continued down the ridge. After 11 miles of hiking for the day we finally reached base camp at about 3 pm. At base camp we returned the gear we had borrowed from Philmont and ate dinner in the dining hall. The day concluded with a campfire program to reflect on the great times we had at Philmont.

Almost finished, on top of the Tooth of Time

Here comes the train at Raton, time to go home