Philmont: Day 2 - On the Trail
On the trail! Day 2 of Philmont means leaving base camp as each of the three crews hit the trail for the next ten days in the Philmont back country. The last of the base camp activities was taking the traditional Philmont crew picture, grabbing some food and clearing out the tents for the next inbound group. We found that over 600 people hit the trails of Philmont each day, so the logistics of pumping that volume of scouts and adults on the trail is no easy feat. Each crew has a different itinerary and makes different stops along the way. For that reason, we’ll break out each post to show each group’s individual journey.
Crew 1 (715-J-01) – Itinerary 25
Crew 1 started their morning by reviewing their itinerary then headed off to Rayado Turnaround. Once the bus dropped them off in the hot, breezy campsite the ranger set to providing them training on basic first aid and the use of the Red Roof Inn’s, which are make-shift bathrooms that are around camp. For those who haven’t been to Philmont, the biffy’s are arranged in two ways: Pilot to Bombardier (back-to-back) or Pilot to Co-Pilot (side-to-side … or as they like to call it – “cheek-to-cheek no peek”).
At the turnaround they took a tour of Kit Carson museum and took in some of the homesteading games the area had to offer. In addition to the games and the tour the museum is home to some local livestock. In particular there was a large, fat goat which Erik was able to make “purr” through his prolonged attention to the animal. Everyone from crew 1 and 2 gathered to marvel at Erik’s channeling of Dr. Doolittle before leaving for the trail.
Once hitting the trail, Crew 1 headed to Olympia which was three miles away. This was a trail camp, so the group focused on training on bear procedures and camp setup. The campsite was set upon a ridge and the sights were wonderful. As the sun began to set, the crew reviewed their plans to hike to Bear Caves the next day, beginning their Philmont trek for the next 10 days.
Crew 2 (715-J-02) – Itinerary 14
Right after lunch Crew 2 took the afternoon bus to the Rayado River turnaround and started at the Kit Carson museum. The museum consisted of a restored home and the surrounding areas. There were plenty of activities outside of the home tour for the crew to enjoy including tomahawk throwing, blacksmithing, playing with livestock and other local back country games.
From there Crew 2 hit the trail, heading to the Rayado River camp. Each crew assigns a daily “navi-guesser” who attempts to navigate the Philmont back country trails with the maps provided. On the way to our field camp we stopped by Zastrow which had a wonderful evening program including cake and horseshoes. Some of the advisors took some time to play a quick round of horseshoes with the scouts, but quickly it was time to get back on the trail to set up camp for the night at Rayado River. We arrived at our trail camp shortly before dinner and received some trail training from our ranger on sumps, bear bag procedures, campsite setup (avoiding the “bear”muda triangle). After our first freeze dried meal of the trek we set up our tents and called it a night, eager to get our first day of hiking under our belt and ready to tackle the hike to Uraca Mesa.
Crew 3 (715-E) – Itinerary 10
After a late start in the afternoon Crew 3 was transported to the Lover’s Leap turnaround. Upon arriving the crew started their backcountry training with the ranger, which involved everything from cooking, cleanup to how to use the bathroom properly at Philmont. After a short hike of 1.5 miles, the crew arrived at Lover’s Leap and hiked out to the rock’s edge.
There are 24 locations in the United States which carry the name “Lover’s Leap” and like all of the others, the one at Philmont has an interesting story. As the legend goes, a Local Native American village was nearby and one young star-struck man proposed to a young lady from the village. He said that he would wait at the location until she made her decision. After a few days without an answer he surmised that her decision was no and they would not be married, and in his grief he hurled himself off of the cliffs to the valley below. The young woman came shortly afterwards to give her answer of yes, only to find her love had taken his own life. In her sorrow, she followed him to his grave on the very same cliff as others from the local village watched in astonishment. From that point on the location was given the solemn name it carries today.
Once the crew explored the area and had their fun it was time to get to work setting up camp, hanging bear bags, cooking dinner. The group camped in the meadow that night on the side of the hill. As the night grew later, many of the scouts felt as if they saw coyotes up the side of the hill before they went to sleep awaiting the next day’s adventures.