Philmont 2000 Trek #33
Date: 6-21-2000
From: Gary Wright rightonit@aol.com
Trek 33 is the old trek 27 with a few adjustments. I hope this helps hikers in the future. This is a great trek with as much program as you can do, but you will want to have older, stronger boys and adults in top condition. The adults will be the weak link.
Day 1-Lovers Leap turnaround for ranger instruction. Hike is steep, but worth it. View from Lover’s Leap is spectacular. At intersection of trails and roads, our pathfinder mis-read the sign and we had a moment of confusion. All these campsites are pleasant. In the past, hikers have gone up the Tooth, it’s so close. But we weren’t allowed to for good reason. Mark Anderson, camp director, emphasized that he wanted the ranger to have our uninterrupted attention. And hikers are more susceptible to injury in the first few days. So we rested a lot.
Day 2-Miner’s Park. Very nice walk thru Ponderosa Pine. 3 miles or so. We signed up for rock climbing, but we got rained out and spent some time in a cave. Went back to camp and rested some more. One of our scouts tried the Pemmican challenge. (We dubbed ourselves the "Pemmican Crew".) We also signed up for the Environmental Tour. It was a fun way to kill an hour. We debated a choice of two routes to Beaubien. We had planned to go over Trail Peak where we could see the plane crash, but someone told us about going up thru Black Mtn Camp via North Fork Urraca. Since some of us had scaled Trail Peak two years earlier, we voted to go the other way. Advisors coffee was a good use of time. We got a lot of useful info.
Day 3- Miner’s Park to Beaubien via Black Mtn Camp. Absolutely most beautiful hike on the ranch. 53 stream crossings. Beaver dams. Huge aspens. Black Mtn camp was quaint. Did blacksmithing, but skipped gun shooting because the boys weren’t that interested, and they had inspectors there, which would have meant waiting. Got to Beaubien around 3 and did some branding. We were heartbroken that the showers were cold because of the fire ban. The agony was not worth the benefit. We enjoyed the evening entertainment, then played Frisbee til dark.
Day 4- BB to Commanche Peak via Bonita Peak with sidehike to Phillips. Definitely our toughest hike. Left camp at 6 am. Trail was in poor condition. Lots of fallen trees. Trail was straight up one hill, down another. We had planned to go thru Red Hills camp for water, but decided to go straight to Comm and then send 4 guys down for water. They were back in a couple of hours and we had plenty of time to sidehike Phillips. Comm is a very pleasant mountain campsite. Very rustic.
Day 5-CP thru Cyphers Mine to Aspen Springs. We made 4 miles in 1 ½ hours. Staff at Cyphers Mine was very cordial. Mine tour is a blast. We skipped blacksmithing, as we had done that at Black Mtn. We had trouble picking up the trail out of Cyphers. I had forgotten from two years earlier that the North Fork Trail is closed and that you have to take the middle fork trail. It took a while before my brain activated. We stopped at the Hunting Lodge and lucked into an unscheduled tour. What a treat! It was a complement to our tour of Villa Philamonte. Got into Aspen Springs and raced down to Ute Gulch for food pickup. Go up on rocks for a view of Tooth.
Day 6- AP to Santa Claus via Bear Canyon. Tough day. Left at 5 am. Made 4 miles and gained 1000 ft in first two hours. Deer Lake Mesa was a treat, but lots of trails in bad shape. Got to Cimarron River by 10:30. You don’t want to be in Bear Canyon in the midday heat. Vistas going down and back up were fabulous. We kidded about stopping a car for pizza or even hiking into town. We were feeling pretty peppy. We charged up and thru Bear Canyon. We had a leisurely lunch, and had a hard time making ourselves get up. Two more hours to SC. After a 14-mile hike, the boys played Frisbee in the open field.
Day 7- SC to Baldy Camp via Head of Dean. 2 hours to HD. We were rained out of our challenge event, so we kept walking. They were working on the trail, so we had to take the 4WD road. It wasn’t pleasant. We heard they closed the mountain to hikers because of the rain, and we were concerned. Got into Baldy for lunch and got shown to our site. Some of us hurried down for hot showers. Those who waited got cold showers. They have solar powered pumps. Neat campsite among the aspens. Loads of bear signs.
Day 8- Up & down Baldy & on to Pueblano. Woke up to see stars! We got up, but waited for light. 2 hours to the top. Toughest hike on the ranch, but we weren’t hurried. We were the first ones there and got lots of pictures. My son is acrophobic, so it was special for us. We hugged. On the way down we saw lots of crews coming up. We cavorted in the meadow along the way. We stopped at French Henry for lunch. It’s an old mining site, much like Cyphers. The trail to Pueblano should have been easy, but there were lots of blowdowns and it rained. By this point, our hiking skills are honed. The Rayado Rangers were having a hoedown, so they added to the entertainment. Good fun.
Day 9-Got up early and played Frisbee while we waited for our conservation project. We did all we were assigned and asked for more. They ran out of work so we had to go. While some of us ate lunch, others climbed the spar poles. We were determined to get to Ponil in 2 hours because the ranger told us it would take 3. We won. The trail was new, but already in disrepair. There were no signs, and it wasn’t on the map, so we were challenged to find our way. Ponil was great. The cantina was new and the root beer was good. Branded some more in the rain. We were advised taking the road thru Horse Canyon was as good as taking the trail. It was steep and rocky and muddy. Saw bear tracks. Not many vehicles can make this trip. Old Camp was worth it. Our favorite trail camp. Stayed in campsite 1 by the river among the cottonwood trees.
Day10-On to Indian Writings. Only 3 miles along the riverside. Interesting place. We built them a rock wall in exchange for some hotdogs and buns. They gave us a nighttime tour of the petroglyphs. Very dramatic. While we were waiting, we played Frisbee in the field and stumbled across a rattlesnake. It slithered off into the river, but boy were we excited.
Day11- We got up at dawn and made it to 6-mile gate for the 8:30 bus. We had negotiated to go to the Tooth after getting to Base Camp, but we aborted the mission. Pizza was on our minds. We went into Cimarron and chilled.
Be prepared for a great hike.
See our web site (Troop 764 Philmont Web Site) for a more detailed account and the latest Philmont news.
Gary Wright
Troop 764
Atlanta, Ga