Jeremy Edelstein's Philmont Web Page
Day 1
Today is the day. We finally get
to head out to Philmont Scout Ranch in Cimarron New Mexico. After waiting for around fifteen minutes in the blistering heat, we finally packed our stuff under
and inside the bus, and began our journey North and West to Philmont. The bus
ride was pretty uneventful, the crews mainly kept to themselves without too much
interaction between them. Many people read books, listened to iPods, or just
fell asleep. We stopped for dinner at a shopping center where there were some
fast food restaurants and other places to grab a bite to eat. I, along with a
few others, decided to go to Subway. When everyone had eaten their dinner around
forty-five minutes later, we headed back onto the bus and continued going
towards Philmont. After we crossed over into New Mexico, we stopped for breakfast at five
in the morning. No one was very happy to have to wake up that early, but
everyone got off the bus, ate, and got back on the bus quickly. We rode for a
while longer and then we finally arrived at Philmont Base Camp.
Day 2
The camp was bustling with scouts even though Philmont had only been open for
two days before we got there, three days total. We got setup in tent city, which
for some reason reminded me of an army camp by the way the tents were setup and
colored, and headed to logistics to meet our ranger and go over procedures that
we would need to know, such as lightning positions. We went back to tent city
and relaxed and played Frisbee until it was time for lunch. After lunch, we went
to get the gear and food, provided by the ranch, which we would need to survive.
We then went back to tent city and our ranger, Jimmy, helped us cut down on
things that either we wouldn’t need or that we would only need a few of, not
more than ten. After that, we relaxed and played Frisbee until it was time for
dinner. After dinner, we attended a chapel service. Later, we went to the
initial campfire and learned the story of Philmont. When we headed back to the
tents, we were all anxious for our trek to begin the next day.
Day 3
The next day, we woke up at five-thirty to lots and lots of wind. Dust
was being kicked up into our faces and it was well over ninety degrees. After we
had breakfast, took showers and brought all our gear to where we were going to
be picked up, many of us decided to weigh our packs. Mine was the lightest,
weighing in at thirty-four pounds. Also, many people went to the trading post to
get souvenirs and last minute things that might be needed. The bus that would
take us to the trailhead arrived and we were loaded and on the bus by
ten-thirty. On the bus, we learned all about “minibears” or squirrels/chipmunks.
Every once in a while, we had to pound the bottom of the bus with our feet to
get the minibears off, making sure they didn’t get into camp via the bottom of
the bus. We finally got on the trail at around eleven and headed out on our
long, arduous journey. When we reached Abreu, we dropped our packs, took our
lunch, and headed up the road to a pavilion. After lunch, we went to the trading
post at Abreu and had root beer, and encounter with a goat, and toblerone. We
hiked on until we reached Old Abreu, our first camp. Jimmy led us through how
everything was to be setup. We learned about the “Bermuda Triangle” which is the
bear bags, the fire pit, and the sump. The sump is where you put your food
remnants. The Bermuda Triangle’s importance is that no tents and the fly can be
inside the triangle formed with those three points. After going through all of
that and setting up our tents, we made dinner and washed up. As a crew, we sat
down together and had thorns, roses, and buds, which was how we reflected on the
day, pointed out the good and bad things, and what we hoped to see in the
future. After that we went to sleep at around nine-thirty.
Day 4
We woke up at around five-thirty again and didn’t get out on the trail
until six forty-five, but we made our goal of leaving by seven. At
seven-fifteen, we arrived at Carson Meadows. There, we ate our breakfast and
participated in Search and Rescue, an activity where our ranger is led off
somewhere and we have to try and find him using techniques we’ve learned. Once
we found him, we headed off on our way at around ten-thirty. Most of the trail
was switchbacks, which we decided we hated after the first few. Once we got to
the top of the set of switchbacks we first starting climbing, we were all very
impressed with the view we had, and how hard the wind was blowing. After a
little break to rest a bit and take pictures, we headed down the other side, the
windy side. We were constantly blasted with wind until we got further down the
mountain. At around twelve-thirty, we arrived at Crags, our second camp. After a
little more instruction, we took the rest of the day to relax. Some people went
fly fishing, since we camped right on a river, while others such as me decided
to take advantage of this time to take a nap. At around six-thirty, we had
dinner, washed our clothes and cleaned up. We had thorns, roses, and buds again
and after that we all went to sleep, again at around nine-thirty.
Day 5
Today is the day we really start our Philmont journey. Jimmy left us
around five minutes before we set out on the trail. We headed back up the
terrible switchbacks we had to go down yesterday, and surprisingly, we made it
up them quickly. We headed up the trail going up, as opposed to the trail back
down to Crags. After a few hours on the trail, we reached Fish Camp. While
there, we toured the cabin, ate lunch, and went fly fishing. We hiked along the
river and had to cross it more times than we could remember. Crossing rivers
became very annoying and time consuming because to cross, we had to unbuckle our
packs from us, go one at a time, and walk across the bridges. This was in case
someone was to fall in, we could take off our packs faster, and we wouldn’t drag
anyone else in with us. After a while of river crossing and flat ground, we
reached a large set of switchbacks. Here, we stopped to refill all our nalgeines
and everyone’s platypus/camelback. While here, we also washed up with water from
the river we heated up by leaving it out in the sun in one of the water
containers that we used to hold water that we would be using for cleaning
ourselves. When we got to camp, a little later than we had hoped for due to
cleaning up and replenishing our water supply, we got every setup fast and had
dinner. Tonight was Larry’s birthday. Jimmy had brought up a pound cake with him
and gave to us yesterday and everyone decided today would be an appropriate day
to eat it. Everyone was very happy to eat something other than the food that we
were given by the ranch. For some reason, we had a hard time getting the bear
bag back up after dinner. It must have taken thirty minutes before we finally
got it up. After that, we had thorns, roses, and buds, which at this point, we
were calling Guns and Roses and new beginnings, thanks to Reid. After Guns and
Roses, we went to sleep, earlier than normal. It was around eight went we all
got into our tents.
Day 6
Today, we left a little bit later than we had hoped for. We ended up
moving on the trail at about seven-fifteen. Because of this, we decided to skip
going to Apache Springs, where we could have done 3D archery. We ended up
getting a little bit lost, due to construction on the trail. We walked right by
the right trail because it looked like it was closed off, which is sort of was.
There were logs all across the trail so it looked like we weren’t supposed to go
that way. So we hiked by it, thinking we were going the right way. Going along
this trail that we thought was the right one, we saw our first bear of the trip.
It was on the other side of a huge field, and we only got to see it for a few
seconds before it disappeared into the woods. We continued down the trail until
we realized we had gone too far. We took a reading from my dad’s GPS and found
out that the trail we had passed was indeed the right trail. So we went back to
that trail and followed it as best as we could. When we got to a point where the
trail became visible, we finally found out that the trail was under
construction, the reason we thought we shouldn’t on that trail. We had reached
Bear Canyon.
There, we stopped for a bathroom break and to get off our feet for a few
minutes. We got going around thirty minutes later, and headed to Phillips
Junction. At Phillips Junction, we completely restocked our food and fuel before
heading up to Beaubien. Here at PJ, there was a trading post where many of us
decided to get something. Most things bought were toblerones, pickles and
postcards. We also had lunch here. During lunch, many of us organized our food
for the next five days to make sure we had what we needed. Once this was done,
the tent groups split up what they were going to carry and we got back on the
trail to Beaubien. We arrived at Beaubien at three and got shown where our
campsite would be. One problem we faced right off the bat was that we could only
see one bear line within continuous walking distance. It was also being used by
two other crews. Luckily, one of the crews was leaving so they took their bear
bag off. Once we finally got the bear bag up, everyone was very happy to go take
hot showers. Some people decided to clean their clothes, and we all just relaxed
until dinner. After dinner, we went to the campfire. At the campfire, the five
staff members at Beaubien performed skits, played music, and told jokes. One of
the jokes was about Ted Turner and was quite a long joke. The campfire was
probably one of my favorite parts of Philmont so far. An added bonus was that I
saw one of friends and got to talk with him after the campfire was over. We all
went to sleep happy that we didn’t have to pack down and pack up the next day.
Day 7
Today we got up late since we didn’t have to hike today. Everyone was
happy to be able to sleep in a little bit longer than usual. We got out of our
tents at around six-thirty, and had breakfast. At around seven-thirty, the Rabbi
came over and we had a memorial service for my brother and the Daniel’s brother.
At eight, we rushed over to meet our appointment to go horseback riding. Those
who decided to not go horseback riding instead helped clean up the camp. At the
coral, we all got horses that matched our size. On the trail, we were supposed
to lead them left or right, but the horses knew the way so we didn’t have to do
much leading. When we got back from horseback riding, we went over to do our
conservation project, which was cutting down trees, cutting/sawing wood, and
spreading out branches that fell. For three hours, we did that and then went
back to camp and relaxed. For dinner, we had a “chuck wagon” dinner. This
consisted of beef stew, biscuits, and cobbler. Once that was done, we went to
see the campfire again, which was a repeat from last night. We went to sleep,
this time knowing we had to hike tomorrow.
Day 8
Today we had short hike, only 3 miles, to Black Mountain Camp. Before we
actually got into the camp, we saw a large metal bin that had lots of coal.
There was a sign that said to carry down some coal with a trash bag reel next to
it. We put a bunch of coal in the bag and gave it to Layne to carry, since he
didn’t have any poles and didn’t mind the extra weight. As we arrived, we could
hear the blast of black powder rifles, something we were all looking forward to.
Black Mountain Camp had a very army like theme, and so the activities were
called “training programs”. Once we had been shown to our camp site and set
everything up, we headed to the firing range to go shoot the black powder
rifles. Everyone got to shoot two shots, once a bullet that’s just looked like a
little ball, and once with a more bullet-shaped bullet. Out of 12 people, 6 hit
their targets. After that, we had our hand at blacksmithing. We ended up making
a J hook, but not without something funny happening. The rule was that if you
hit the anvil three times, you had to kiss it. Of course, Layne hit the anvil
three times and had to kiss it. We relaxed for the rest of the day until after
dinner we went to the flag ceremony. In addition to the flag ceremony, there was
a really funny military-like drill which ended with all of us cracking up. We
went to sleep not too long afterwards.
Day 9
We left camp at around 7:30 and had a very hard hike up with no switchbacks to Red
Hill Junction. Amazingly enough, we found some snow when we made it to the top
of the trail, which was not the summit. There was enough snow to make a small
snowman and even have a little snowball fight. While we were having lunch up
there, we talked about what everyone would have liked to have and what people
would have left behind. For most people, leaving behind some warm clothes and
rain suits were all they would have left behind. We left on our way to camp and
after not going to far, we reached a gulley with pockets of snow. Some people
had trouble getting down this. However, after a few gulleys like this, we
reached the camp. We set up camp along Comanche Creek. Later in the day, we got
our first bit of rain. We thought it was going to be a storm since we saw
lightning but it turned out to only be a sprinkle. Lucky for us I guess.
Day 10
Today we hiked to Cypher's Mine. I led today, and of course, went off track by
enough to make us not have time to go to Mt. Phillips and do the activities at
Cypher's. We saw some more snow along the way to Cypher's and took a picture at
the top of Comanche Peak. We got into Cypher's at around noon and had lunch. We
found out that we had to wait a while until we were able to go on the mine tour,
so some of us went to pan for gold, and others played card games in the shade.
Originally, we had wanted to stay at Cypher's Mine to see their campfire, but of
course, we weren't allowed to stay at Cypher's and had to set up where we were
told to in the first place. It wasn't that nice of a campsite, but oh well. We
relaxed for the rest of the day, like most days, until dinner and then headed to
bed after cleaning up.
Day 11
Today we got out of camp fast and got to Cimarroncito early. My dad, Layne,
Daniel, and Ryan ran to Ute Gulch to go get the food we would need for the next
few days. While they were gone, I took this opportunity to read my book and
sleep. I think I've gotten enough sleep this trip. When they got back after a
while, half of our crew went down to the reservoir to go fish, while the others
went rock climbing. We caught enough to eat for dinner that night; I and
everyone else thought the fish tasted great. Down by the staff cabin, there was
a rock wall that if you could boulder all the way across it, you would win food
of some sort. From what we were told, it was that your entire crew would get
doughnuts. Layne and Ryan went down to try it, and came back empty handed. It
was apparently incredibly hard, which I wouldn't doubt. Not much keeps Layne
away from food. For dinner, we had a change of pace in terms of what we had to
eat. Fish, tacos, and pudding. All things we haven't had before. That was
definitely the best meal we've had the entire trek. We went to sleep knowing
that tomorrow was going to be our longest and hardest hike of the trek.
Day 12
We broke camp early, since we had a long hike ahead of us. Our trail took us by
the reservoir we had just fished in the day before. What a sight it was when we
saw it. The sun was coming up over one of the rock formations, there was mist on
the water, and the fish were jumping out of the water all over the entire
reservoir. It was incredible. Since Tooth Ridge was a dry camp, we had to carry
a lot of extra water. We ended up carrying around 40L of water between us. We
filled up those water containers about a third of the way through the hike. We
made such good time, we ended up passing a couple crews that were ahead of us.
As we hiked along for a few hours, we finally reached a point that seemed like a
reasonable stopping point. It had some places to sit and there was a trail that
went to the top of Shaffer's Mountain. I along with my dad, Daniel, Mr. Broodo,
Ryan, Dr. Alexander, and Reid went to the top and took pictures. We got back on
the trail quickly and expected a smooth hike into the camp. We were very wrong.
The trail was incredibly rocky, steep, and slick in some places. The weather
didn't improve the situation either. It started the rain, there was thunder, and
even hail after a little bit. Once the rain stopped, we made our way to the
tents to relax a while until it was about time for sunset. Before sunset, we
headed towards the Tooth. We thought there was going to be a trail going up, but
unfortunately for some, there was no such trail. It was a lot of climbing up
rocks. Only Reid, Jonathan, Ryan, my dad, and I made it to the very top. When we
started to head down, we called a Guns and Roses and new beginnings to order on
the side of the Tooth. This one was probably our most emotional moment of the
trek. We all talked about how this trek has had an impact on us. Once we
finished our last Guns and Roses and new beginnings, we headed back down to camp
and worked on the map. After working on the map for probably 30 minutes, we all
went to bed.
Day 13
We woke up to a foggy morning, but it wasn't too thick. This was our last
morning at Philmont. Later, we would be leaving to go back to Houston. Fueled by
that thought, we made it down to the entrance of base camp early. We took
pictures outside the gate and then walked into base camp together and all went
to go take hot showers. Once everyone was cleaned up, we went to the trading
post to go see if there was anything anyone wanted to get. Most people got belt
buckles and belts. After that, some people went to Villa Philmonte to go see
what a multi-millionaire's house looked like back then. When we got back from
that, we went into town to go eat lunch and have a snack. The place we went to
eat had people such as Jesse James way back when they were still around, and
there were bullet holes to prove it. After just hanging around for a while, we
headed to the closing campfire, Homeward Bound. After the campfire in which
there was a very long slideshow showcasing the wildlife that can be found in
Philmont, we loaded up the bus and headed back towards Houston and to our normal
lives.
