Twelve members of Boy Scout Troop 115, chartered by the Community United Methodist Church in Crofton, recently returned from a high adventure trek at the Philmont Scout Ranch, the Boy Scouts of America's premier high-adventure base located in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains near Cimarron, New Mexico.

Our crew spent nine days away from home - six of which were on the trails in the back country. We had nine Boy Scouts and three adult advisers on the trek. Jonathan Brown, a Life Scout and a senior at South River High School, served as our crew leader.
- Steve Rose
Scoutmaster, Troop 115

Our journey began as we said goodbye to our loved ones in Crofton and were dropped off at BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport at 6:30 a.m., which should have been plenty of time to make an 8 a.m. flight. But with the long lines at the airline check-in counter and security, we just barely made the plane. But make it we did, and we were soon winging our way westward. We landed in Denver, marveling at the circus tent-like roof on the airport terminal.

After some wandering around and a few phone calls, we then caught our Ramblin Express bus for the five-hour ride to northeast New Mexico and Philmont. As we headed southward along Interstate 25, we began to see some of the spectacular scenery of the American West. There were mountain ranges that appeared to leap up out of nowhere, as well as major cities like Colorado Springs and Pueblo that contained all the usual malls, restaurants, and trappings of what we were used to seeing in the Baltimore-Washington-Annapolis corridor.

After stops for food and gas, we arrived at Philmont right before dinner time, at which time we began the "hurry up and wait" process of making final preparations to go out on the trail. We got ourselves checked in, then began discovering how to deal with life as a temporary resident of Philmont's Tent City. Tent City consists of rows upon rows of literally hundreds of tents with campers either returning from the trail or getting ready to depart. After stowing our gear in our tents, we then made our way to the dining hall to enjoy the best dinner since, well, lunch. We even had some time to start searching for souvenirs in the Tooth of Time Traders trading post before turning in for the evening.

At Philmont, every crew is assigned a professional ranger, who stays with you for the first two days of your trek. The ranger's primary mission is to teach you how to keep from getting yourselves into bad or unmanageable situations in the back-country. We met our ranger, Paul Morrison, at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday. Paul is from a town near Anchorage, Alaska and attends school at the University of Minnesota. After meeting with Paul and introducing him to the crew, the rest of the day was spent going through the remainder of the registration process - medical rechecks, finalizing our route, and stowing our extra gear that we wouldn't need on the trail.

We also received our initial food rations and crew gear (tents, dining fly, and cooking gear) that we'll need to begin our trek. This took up the entire morning and most of the afternoon. After another fine dinner in the Philmont dining hall, we took part in the opening campfire, which told the story of Philmont - from the history of the land itself to how the camp came to become the nation's premier Boy Scout high adventure camp.

Day 3 of our journey began with us making final preparations with our backpacks - including packing food for the first four days of the trek, along with as much water as we could carry. While waiting for a bus to take us to the starting point of our trek, we found a large scale that allowed us each to weigh our packs. Against our better judgment, each of us weighed out our pack. The "winner" was Matt Hokanson, whose pack topped 55 pounds. Somehow, John Saunders managed to keep his pack weight under 40 pounds, but almost everyone else's pack weighed between 40 and 50 pounds.

At 9 a.m., we boarded the bus to take us to the beginning of our trek. The bus dropped us off at the Turkey Creek turnaround (about 20 miles from base camp), then left us to begin our own adventure. After Paul gave us some basic instruction on orienting a map with a compass and learning how to take a bearing, we were off. The first day on the trail was not a long hike (less than 5 miles), but the experience of toting 50 pounds on your back, uphill, for any appreciable distance is something that has to be felt to be believed - especially for the over-40 crowd.

The first day's trail lunch consisted of graham crackers and squeeze peanut butter, which was actually pretty good. After compacting our trash and repacking it into our packs (no trash cans on the trail), we were off once again. By mid-afternoon we arrived at Vaca, our first night's destination, and set up camp. As part of setting up camp, we learned how to hang a bear bag, which contained all of our "smellables" - food and anything else with an odor that is likely to attract bears.

After camp was set up, we took a quick side hike to nearby Harlan camp to learn how to reload shotgun shells. Everyone got to load and shoot three shells, and most of the boys managed to hit at least one clay. By the time we got back to Vaca, made dinner, and cleaned up, we were all completely spent.

We left Vaca at 8 a.m., hiking uphill for most of the morning. This was our first opportunity to see some absolutely awe-inspiring views of the entire valley, including the Tooth of Time Ridge in the far distance. Amazingly enough, given how far away it seems, we will be hiking along this ridge in just four days. We found a nice shady spot at the juncture of two trails to make our lunch stop.

Patrick Johnston's epic "battle of the bees" over his lunch will be remembered for a long time. At least he kept the bees away from the rest of us. Although the morning hike was mainly out in the open, the afternoon was spent hiking along a gorge in lush, shady forest. We had to stop along the way to refill our water bottles from a stream - it was a good thing that they gave us lots of water purification tablets.

We reached Sawmill Camp around 4:30 p.m., and boy were we tired! We arrived at camp too late to shoot the .30-06 rifles, and had to hike about 100 yards straight uphill from the main cabin to reach our campsite. But after dinner, Ranger Paul had a pound cake and icing for dessert for us - a delicious treat to cap off a very exhausting day.

Several of the more adventurous (or insomniac) of us got up in the wee hours of the morning (okay, it was only 5:30 a.m.) to watch the sunrise over the valley. Even though it was cloudy, the sunrise was still breathtaking. After breaking camp, we had to say goodbye to Paul, as he was due to leave us right after breakfast.

Everyone agreed that he was the best ranger we could have hoped for, teaching us the skills that we'll need to survive the rest of our trek. Our goal for today is Lamberts Mine Camp - not a far distance (less than 10 miles), but we have to go up and down in elevation quite a bit to get there. We hit the trail by 8 a.m. We continued to gain altitude (and lose our breath many times) all the way up to our peak elevation of 10,500 feet, after which we began our descent.

Along the way, we were hiking along trails that were both narrow and rocky - and you couldn't stray off the side without going on a rock sliding adventure, which one or two of us did - fortunately, no one was seriously hurt. During the day, we had some rain and even some hail, but overall the weather was very pleasant.

We arrived at Cyphers Mine around 3 p.m. - unfortunately, the mine tour and blacksmith were both booked through the rest of the afternoon. So after taking a rest to pan for gold (everyone came up empty, to the disappointment of our retirement accounts), we proceeded to our camp at Lamberts Mine. As we were preparing dinner, a very curious deer strolled through our camp - it came within about 10 feet of us and appeared to be totally unafraid, unlike some of our adult advisers.

Today's hike is along a mainly downhill slope beside the Middle Fork of Cimarroncito Creek. We saw lots of lush vegetation, along with several waterfalls. After crossing the creek for what seemed to be the 20th time, we arrived at Cimarroncito Camp by 10:45 a.m., which allowed us to do our conservation project at 11 a.m. We were helping the Philmont conservationists return an overgrown pine forest to its original meadow state, in order to help relieve the stress on the groundwater aquifers.

After three hours of sawing, stacking, and spreading, we set up camp for the night. By this time, we had begun to wonder why our packs seemed like they were getting lighter when we realized that we were out of food. So, half our crew (the lucky half, as it turned out) had to go up to the Ute Gulch commissary in order to get the rest of our food for the remainder of the trip.

Since the commissary was in the process of shutting down for the season (we were the last crew to get food), they were having a sale on just about everything. The commissary staff taught the guys how to turn a boxed apple juice into an apple "shotgun" - what a way to get an apple juice rush.

After the "food run" group returned with our food, we made dinner and then went down to the main Cimarroncito lodge for evening activities. They had an outdoor climbing wall and an indoor climbing adventure as well. While at the lodge, we celebrated Casey Shea's 15th birthday with brownies and milk - a very welcome treat provided by the camp staff.

We left Cimarroncito Camp by 7 a.m., in order to get to our next destination of Clark's Fork and our horseback trail ride as early as possible. The journey was mostly downhill and along a very easy trail. As we approached the camp, the specialty of Clark's Fork became apparent, as we were constantly dodging evidence of horses along the way. We arrived at Clark's Fork by 8:15 a.m., were introduced to the camp staff, who then showed us to our campsite. We quickly set up camp, then proceeded to the corral so that we could take our scheduled trail ride.

Our crew got to ride some horses with very interesting names (Tonto, ChoPo, Apache, etc). It was on this ride that we discovered that "Tonto" (my horse's name) actually means "stupid" in Spanish (look it up!) The ride began on a rocky trail through the woods, then opened up into a meadow with some great scenery. There's nothing like experiencing the great New Mexico outdoors on the back of a fine horse - even one with a "stupid" name. But Tonto really was a wonderful horse - he seemed to always know what to do, even if his rider did not. After the trail ride, we returned to camp and chilled out for the afternoon - playing chess, branding hats.

We had a very fine chuck wagon dinner - it beat the pants off of our "one pot" dinners of the past few nights. We had beef stew, biscuits, and peach cobbler - yumm!

For our last day on the trail, we were left with the greatest challenge. We need to hike all the way from Clark's Fork back to Base Camp by way of the Tooth of Time. "The Tooth," as it is known, is the rock formation that is most associated with Philmont, as it is visible from Base Camp and many other places along Philmont's many trails. This day was to be both the longest (around 12 miles) and the greatest elevation change (+1,500 feet, followed by -2,500 feet) in our entire trek.

In order to get back to Base Camp at a reasonable hour, we started on the trail before 7 a.m. Immediately, we began to climb a series of switchbacks to gain altitude. After stopping for pictures and rest several times along the way, we reached Sheafers Peak camp, where we found a natural spring to refill our water bottles. Our goal was to reach the base of the Tooth of Time in time for lunch. Well, several "false Tooth" sightings later, we finally reached the base of the Tooth by 1:30 p.m.

One of our Scouts, Tyler Wates, was so full of enthusiasm that he just bounded right on up the series of boulders - practically straight up - that you need to climb to reach the summit of the Tooth. About half of the rest of our crew were right behind him. When we reached the top, in addition to the most spectacular 360 degree view of our entire trek, we were greeted by swarms of gnats and ladybugs - the protectors of this lovely vista. While several of the boys had lunch, those of us with cameras filled them with all the images that our digital memory cards could hold.

After topping off our minds and hearts with views that will last a lifetime, we knew that we had to continue our trek if we were to make it back to Base Camp by dinner time. So we sadly descended from the top of the Tooth and rejoined the rest of our crew that had used this opportunity to rest and eat. We then began the long journey back to base camp.

This so-called "Trail of Tears" is named because you can see Base Camp for about 3 hours before you actually get there. We descended along switchback after switchback, but each time the camp never seemed to get any closer. Finally, when you realize that you really are getting close to ground level, you can see that Base Camp is just over the next ridge. After passing through the "You Made It" arch, we quickly unloaded our packs, turning in all of our crew gear just as the office was closing up for the season.

We got to the dining hall just in time to enjoy one more fine Philmont dinner when we realized that we still needed to retrieve our valuables (including our return airline tickets) from the safe in the administration building, which was now closed up tight. After surviving a minor panic attack, we got ahold of Mark Anderson, Philmont's program director, who was able to get us into the building and return our stuff.

The closing campfire was particularly moving, both for participants and staff, as it was the final campfire of the 2007 Philmont season. We were all sad, tired, and relieved that we had survived and thrived upon returning from our week in the back-country.

Tuesday, Aug. 21: Day 9 - Philmont to Home

The final day of our journey dawned early, as we were on a 6:30 a.m. bus from Philmont back to Denver. There is an old saying at Philmont that - as you leave - if you look over your shoulder at the arrowhead-shaped rocks in the side of the mountain, you will someday return to Philmont. We all looked. We'll all return someday.

I would like to thank all the Scouts in our crew - Jonathan Brown, crew leader; Michael Anderson; Sam Durfee; Andy Johnston; Patrick Johnston; Mark Rose; John Saunders; Casey Shea; and Tyler Wates - as well as my fellow adult advisers - Cheryl Brown and Matt Hokanson. We truly shared an experience of a lifetime.