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Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico is the Boy Scouts of America's premier high-adventure base. It is a national camping area owned and operated by the Boy Scouts of America. The Philmont ranch consists of 137,493 acres, or approximately 215 square miles of rugged mountain wilderness in the Sangre de Cristo (Blood of Christ) range of the Rockies. The ranch operates 32 staffed camps and 50 unstaffed camps ranging in elevation from 6,500 to 12,441 feet.

I left the house dragging Sam’s rear end out the door. I think we have it all. Either way we probably have more than we need anyway. Later we will find out we need less than a third we actually brought. We picked up Alex down the street and began our journey. It would be 580 miles before we unloaded our gear at the KOA camp in Cimmarron, New Mexico. All arrived at the church to load and say good bye to concerned parents. We knew we were off to do something big. One of those life changing moments.

Blake jumped in with us in the big white truck. Too many stops. We arrived much earlier than expected still. We took a drive by of Philmont and went to our overnight KOA camp called Camp Ponil. I assumed it was named after the Ponil Creek nearby. The boys built a fire, set up camp and soon regressed to cards. Uneventful evening outside a light shower. We ate some BBQ left over from Cooper’s Eagle Court of Honor the previous day.

We woke up like a kid on a Christmas morning. We broke camp at 5:45 am and headed to a nice restaurant for our last taste of civilized meals. We all ate like that too. We had a nice chapel service led by Mr. Bennett. He handed out St. Christopher’s to all the scouts and scouters. It worked too. We all returned!

We arrived at Philmont at about 9:30 am. We checked in and started the meetings from hell. First we met our new ranger-Ranger Ryan from Boston. He briefed us on the process. He seemed to have a good handle on things.

We met with sign in, more sign in, logistics, medical forms, lunch, advisors meeting, shakedown, crew gear, food, and gear and more shakedowns. And finally tent city assignments right before dinner.

It was interesting to watch the crews come in by our shakedown with the dirty gear, chiseled faces and silence. They look like soldiers off the battlefield. They simply sat down in the dirt and poured down the rest of what water they had and gelled oblivious to our presence.

The shakedown was interesting. We shed more items such as soap, toothpaste, mess kits, forks, knifes, clothes etc.

We had an advisors meeting led by a background advisor of Philmont. Warnings of weather, medical emergencies, how to handle etc.

We broke from this meeting to a Chapel service broken down into different denominations. The service overlooked the mountains. It was a beautiful sight. Deer ran through the background.

After Chapel we reconvened and went to campfire as a crew. The campfire told the Philmont story. We sang the Philmont Alma mater and enjoyed the stories.

After the hike back to tent city we brushed our teeth and soon hit the last mattress for 10 days.

Slept hard. Yesterday was a long day of meetings. Today we packed up and left tent city. After we choked down some classic Boy Scout cafeteria food we gathered our gear and headed to the check in. We brought our food to check in and began distributing the weight and losing the items of no interest. We filled water bottles and weighed packs. Somewhere between 40 and 50 lbs. mine was 43. Mr. Bennett’s was 53 because he took the dining fly. We prepared a pack line at 8:00 am. Immediately following we took a tour of Waite Phillips home that is now a museum. He gave a lot to scouts. It was an interesting tour. Beautiful place. He loved to hunt and fish.

We hiked back jumped on our bus and headed to Ponil Creek Turnaround to start our trek ------finally. We stomped our feet on cattle guards to rid the unwanted minibears. We saw buffalo and antelope along the way. We arrived at 10:30 am.We reviewed the map and pretended we knew how to use a compass and then discussed the hike for the day. We hiked to the horse barns and checked in. We ate lunch in the shade. It was pretty warm at this lower elevation. That is when we saw the girls. Oh yeah chicks at the Philmont Scout ranch. The trek soon took on a new meaning. Damien was beside himself since he was in withdrawal. We skipped the roping, branding and the horseshoes because we were anxious to get to camp and go through more instruction. That was a large part of the first few days while the ranger was in camp. Painfully slow but important.

Everything must be eatened or hauled out ( in the yummy bag). Dropped food-eaten or yummy bag. All dish soap down the nice sump hole through a Frisbee with holes punched in it.

Our first camp was Camp Sioux at 7600 feet elevation. We put up all smellables in a bear bag-including film, Chap Stick, tooth paste, medicine etc. Interesting to see the boys eat dirt, worry about food smell and pack so little trash. We cooked dinner for the trek in one pot. We went to a cantina show. There was root beer and a fun variety show. Oh yeah the girls were there. We hiked to in the daylight and back in the dark under the stars. The ground is still hard. That’s ok because we were tired. Thorns and roses stated we need to hike in the cool of the day. It was 10 o’clock and we went to bed. We agreed on 6 am start the next day.

We enjoyed the cantina show and the hike back under the stars. The boys are working well as a team under Cooper’s leadership. He sets a fine example and the boys follow. It is so pleasant to see them work together. The boy led trek with a good attitude.

We broke camp to get a jump start on what could be a warm day. We had to get our burro and get on the trail. All was for not. The Wranglers waited for all the treks to arrive so he could go over the detail only once. We laid around in the shade wondering if we were ever going to really hike. The wranglers went over saddling, packing, and handling your ass. It was tiresome but I think the boys enjoyed themselves. We all realized we were burning daylight and things were heating up.

It turned out to be a nice afternoon because a thunderstorm rolled in and just missed us. We received the cool air however. Cool breeze, cloudy skies equals happy hikers.

We had a time with the ass jokes. Alex was our ass man. We liked to grab his ass, kick his ass etc. Overall we did have a decent ass. It was a nice experience however it consumed several hours of each day. Best line, “Hold my ass while I Pee”.

We arrived at Flume Camp about 3 pm. Mr Flynn escorted the boys and our ass to the holding pens while I sat on mine and watched the gear for a small mini-bear invasion. The rest of the boys set up camp. We had rock furniture around the fire pit. The light shower was hidden by the canopy of the trees. It was a rather cool campsite.

That night we hoofed it over to Pobalano Camp for a campfire with a bunch of loggers. Blue grass music, lame jokes and sing along. We heard the piggy joke and the story of fat Sally. We listened to banjos, fiddles, harmonicas; guitars wash boards and wash drums.

Woke up at Flume Camp, broke camp, and said goodbye to Ranger Ryan. We picked up our ass and hit the trail on our own back through Poblano. We had activities at Poblano. We climbed spar poles while practicing pick up lines. And the lines were very manly lines at that. We ate lunch in Poblano. We got our itinerary stamped (boot print) and preceded up the road to Head of Dean. We learned at an advisor meeting why you do not take roads. They tend to be straight up- and it was. It was a tough hike. It was our first miss read. Damien was in charge of the map that day. He was getting bad advice from several. We arrived to a beautiful camp named Head of Dean with an awesome view. We took a picture with our ass. Great photo opp.

There was no program. We built a fire and the lightning began. The thunder rolled through the canyon of Dean. We timed the distance of the lightning. The rain slowly crept in and we retired to our tent to stay dry. The rain steadily picked up and we watched a wonderful light show through our tent wall.

We awoke after the rained stopped around 5 am. The sun appeared through the clouds around 9 am. We did a performance course with hoola hoops, trusted fall, and the spider wall and yes the great wall of shame. Great team building skills. The boys took turns being leaders. Jillian was the staff leader from the Head of Dean that was in charge.

We went back to camp dried our tents and gear, packed up and headed to Miranda via the Baldy Skyline Trail. It was cool to see glimpses of Mt Baldy as we hiked through Maxwell on Miranda. The clouds rolled in and the thunder rolled while we shot black powder rifles. We had a French staff from Quebec in charge.

After lunch we marched on to Ute Meadows after we dropped off our ass. Damien tried to take a short cut and fell in the water. He wore a blister ion his foot because of the wet socks. We set up in Ute Meadows literally on a stream. We talked about our hike the next day up Mt. Baldy. Mr. Flynn and I took a side hike to Baldy town to get the scoop on the hike up, provisions, showers etc. We hiked the road up and the trail down. Probably 4+miles. We were whipped. We ate a good dinner and slept by the babbling steam dreaming of the summit climb. The nights were getting cooler as we increased elevation.

July 21^st- Baldy Town, Mt Baldy, French Henry, Ute meadows 11 miles-12,441 feet elevation.

We rushed through breakfast to get on the trail and an early start on our trek up Mt Baldy. We were warned to start early before the thunderstorms arrive. They can be deadly on the mountain of rock. Forget the hailstorms etc. We hit the base of Baldy in Baldy Town. We refueled with water then began out hike to the summit. It was a half a mile elevation change.

It was everything we asked for and then some. Toward the top it was 25 steps and stop for the old farts. The boys motored on. No air and fairly straight up. We made it finally. It was windy cool and crisp. The sky was clear. We took pictures ate lunch and rehydrated. We had a nice break and enjoyed the feat of what we had been preparing for all spring.

We started down to avoid the hailstorms of the afternoon. The descent was loose rock and a lot of slipping and sliding. It a lot of ways it was worse than going up. It was easier on the lungs but harder on the knees. Finally we hit the tree line and were on our way to French Henry for some activities.

On the way we side trekked to a mine. It was called the Aztec mine. We took a tour inside pretty far. Cool and dark and cramped. We learned a lot about working in the mines back in the day.

After we got out we moved back toward our afternoon activities in French Henry. Along the way we were caught in a thunderstorm that soon started spitting marble size hailstones. You realize how vulnerable you were as you huddle and wait out the pounding as the hail piled up at your feet.

We arrived to a dry building in French Henry.. Some of the scouts panned for gold and blacksmithed. It was fun and we enjoyed the break. We hit the trail for Baldy Town with an extra lift in our step. We knew we were going to enjoy showers for the first time in 6 days.

At Baldy town we picked up provisions, washed clothes and washed off a layer or two of dirt. We received some fresh fruit. We ate it like it was candy. The provisions included food like before. Breakfast-granola, fruit bars, Gatorade, jerky. Lunch- canned chicken or ham, tuna, cheese, crackers, cookies. Dinner -chicken and rice with mash potatoes, green beans and pudding. The things the adults did not like the boys did. It all worked out fine. You were never really hungry. We had an extra meal.

The showers were pretty lame but the water was hot and the dirt did come off. The outside air was cool. Clean bodies, clean clothes, clean socks and underwear ---nice.

We all hiked back downhill to Ute Meadows with our largest feat accomplished. We ate a nice dinner by our fire and went to bed around 9 pm because we were whipped. We all slept well with clean bodies, full bellies and tired everything. The sound of the babbling stream also was nice.

It was Sunday so we had a Chapel Service thanks to Ryan. We went back to Head of Dean via the Baldy Skyline. We missed Miranda this time. We were supposed to land at Upper Dean Cow Camp but we had an unexpected stop. Damien twisted a knee. The staff at the Head of Dean radioed in and the medic requested we stay the night at Head of Dean and see how it looked in the morning. That made today’s hike easy and tomorrows a real……. Nothing could be done about it so we decided to start the beginnings of the “Great Pine Cone Wars of the Head of Dean”. It was the beginning of many more to come.

The adult leaders went to the staff camp for coffee and cookies early that evening. On the way back Ryan ratted out the crews proposed ambush. As we slowly walked back to camp I slowly picked up pine cones to properly arm myself. Once they saw me I charged and inflicted heavy damage by splitting the ranks. Several innocent bystanders were taken out accidently. The casualties of war. Those hard cones really sting.

The next morning we slept in because we could not check in Damien until 9AM. We left Damien at the staff cabin and waived knowing we would not see him until the end of the week. He was better, but not better enough.

The hike today was going to be longer, dryer and tougher than anyone to date. We hiked through Santa Claus. The water well was broken. Not good. We continued onto the Cimarron River. We went underneath a highway to enter the southern portion of the ranch. It was pretty wild to see cars. It was our first glimpse of civilization for several days. We purified water and took a long break. We had traveled 11 miles and we had several more uphill before we camped.

The current of the river was strong. The water was cool. Several scouts soaked their head in it. We all took off our boots and cooled for awhile. We used the water tablets and had to wait 30 minutes to drink. Pretty soon we were back on the trail. It was an uphill dry side of the mountain climb. This was a day to separate the men from the boys. We finally hit a shady trail after several miles. As we arrived to the Upper Bench camp a gentle shower began to flow. It was difficult to decide to keep dry because the water felt nice on our hot dusty bodies. The rain falling through the sun rays was beautiful sight. The meadows and the trees were an awesome view. We tried to wait out the rain but Mr. Bennett wanted the dining fly up along with the bear bags. It was a comedy of errors in the rain. We got a rope hung up on the bear bag line. We had to pull Blake up to the line on another rope to untie the first. We appeared pretty resourceful. Finally we crawled in out tents to escape the rain. Some of the boys crawled under the dining fly and played cards.

Cards and hackey sack were the major forms of entertainment. Finally the rained stopped and we moved out and built a great fire. We were wet and wanted to dry back out. We laughed and talked of our great hike that day. At one point we could see Baldy behind us and the Tooth of time in front of us calling us home. Deer came through our camp. We saw turkeys too. I stepped on a pretty good sized snake. My feet were especially sore. I pushed the limits of my body today. Slept good. The camp was peaceful .

We started late again so we could dry our gear and our tents. We had an easy hike today so that was ok. We stopped at the Ute Junction Commisionary and stocked up on some more gorp and grub. We ate lunch had some fresh apples and oranges. We watched our gear while the mini bears stalked our backpacks for a handout. The boys purchased post cards addressed them and mailed at the camp. Some I think addressed their first mail piece.

We were in CimarronCito about noon. We checked out the area and set up camp at the bitter end. What was to be a light day turned into a conservation project day? The crew decided to get that out of the way so we would have plenty of time for rock climbing and other events the next day on our layover day.

Our conservation project was clearing underbrush out of the water shed of the reservoir downhill. That means cutting Christmas tree brush and spreading around like mulch. Hot boring and tiring two hours. We were tired before we started. They got about 2 hours of work out of the 2.5 they had hoped for.

The good news there was showers in camp. Yahoo! We skipped the program since we were there for two days. We would do it the next night instead. We sat around the fire and chilled .Hackey sack and cards were the agenda for the next couple of days. We were still tired from the hike to Upper Bench and because of the conservation project. We hit that point where we all were a little sick of the trail.

We awoke to a beautiful clear day. We had some much needed rest. We met at 7:45 am to rock climb. We climbed to the boulders for rock climbing and repelling. They were exactly as I remembered 35 years ago. I slipped while I ran down the boulders when I was a youth and left a scar on my butt. It was weird because Sam was inadvertently bumped and he almost ate it at the same spot. The boys climbed and repelled and pretty much moved back down to camp. Not much to it once you climbed the cliffs they did the previous year at Camp Buffalo Bill. Ryan and I and Blake and I schooled Jonathan and Sam the reigning champions in Spades. Their winning streak was done.

Boredom set in. We stalked and threw rocks at mini bears. Then the great Pine cone wars of Cimarroncito began. It was a heated battle for immense pain. The boys needed to hurt and be hurt. They succeeded and we quickly squashed the game. Everyone seemed to feel much better.

The boys opted out of the evening activities. The adults went down for coffee and cookies. Shortly thereafter the evening activities began. There was a frolicking through the meadow, a hoola hoop contest and rock climbing on some manmade walls. The hoola hoop record of 103 minutes was beat tonight by a girl. We did have our only flag ceremony on the trail tonight. The staff celebrated Christmas today with a big party and a bonfire. Counselors from staff camps around hiked in for the activities a private party.

We awoke to the dying screams of an elk. According to staff, either a mountain lion or bear had the prey down. We hoofed out around 7:30 am in no particular hurry. We arrived at the hunting lodge about eight and waited for a tour. It was a pretty neat place. It looked like a real lodge. There were heavy doors to avoid bears coming in along with a massive sink for cutting up kills.

From here we hiked over to Clarks Fort. It was a beautiful hike near a lake and a nature trail. It must be a place to take folks on a mini tour. They had picnic areas and the like. At Clarks Fort we branded belts and boots and yes Nalgene bottles and caps. We signed up for chuck wagon dinner. The boys played hackey sack and cards. There was horseshoes and roping available. Some boys played chess. It was a short fairly level easy hike today. We still had a few more miles up Schaefer’s Pass to get to our camp at Ponderosa Park. We lounged a little longer then we packed up the hill to our campsite. We would be coming down the same trail for dinner. The boys knew this was their last night on the trail. You could feel it. That was ok. We were ready to go home. We set up camp for the last time. It was nice to see how automatic and efficient the crew was. We ate lunch and decided to head down early to our chuck wagon dinner. More chess and hacky sack at Clarks Fort. We sent a couple of helpers early to help with dinner. The dinner was served in an open air pavilion. It turned out that we needed it to avoid the rain shower. There was a big fire to heat up the cobblers. Awesome site of the Dutch ovens. They also made biscuits ad stew. Finally a dinner bell. All were worried there would not be enough. Instead we ate until we hurt. After dinner we help clean up .That evening there was a nice bonfire and a good variety of songs by the staff. There were the famous cat jokes. The guitars and the violins were nice.

Finally we hiked our full bellies up the hill to Ponderosa Park for our final night on the trail. We were not sad. We were glad to get back to civilization. The boys hike away from us in the dark. Scott and I took a wrong trail and proceeded to backtrack with a pen light. Needless to say we were not happy campers. We soon found camp and retired for the last time on the hard ground.

We were awaken by our sister crew leaving in the dark so they could watch the sunrise on the Tooth of Time. The Pittsburgh boys were noisy and as usual. We decided to wait for sunrise because of the rocky trail ahead of us. Couldn’t sleep. Ready to go. We broke camp at first light and began to look for water. Found a spring at Shafer’s Pass. Had to go off the trail to find it. We needed the water for a long and hot hike today. There was a spring in everyone’s step. We were like a horse headed toward the barn.

The pass hike was tough but we plowed through as the seasoned hikers that we were now. We were hardened and in shape. The ridge pass was fairly flat but very rocky. The climb to the top of the Tooth was a bear crawl. Thank goodness we could leave our packs down below. It was worth the hike. Great view of Baldy, Base camp and all of Philmont. Great time for pictures reflection and talk of home.

The remainder of the hike which appeared to be short was a track meet. The boys were on a slow jog. The switch backs seem to make it impossible to ever get back. It was hot and out of the tree line. After we hit base camp we had been on the trail about 6 hours.

We took a picture at the Welcome Back sign. We discussed again what were the first things we were going to do etc. The first thing was the check in process. It moved pretty quickly. Tent assignments ,equipment check in ,showers and the trading post. The boys piled on the ice cream, cokes, candy and chips. So did I. We bought more stuff. So nice to have ice, be clean, and wear clean clothes, wear flip flops, sit in a chair, eat junk and drink a coke. It had been awhile. We ate in the cafeteria that night. We attended the closing ceremony. It was all about being homebound. We soon found ourselves in our tent repacked and ready for the road.

The next morning we had a continental breakfast in the cafeteria loaded our gear and headed east back to the Lone Star State. We drove nonstop to Amarillo wear we ate our fist meal out of Philmont. Pizza and a salad bar. I missed those green veggies. After we refueled we drove straight home and arrived at 4:45 pm.

That evening we all went home and showered and met at El Fenix for a family gathering.

We all passed the ordeal. The boys grew up. The adults hung with them. We all formed a bond that will last. I never will forget this experience.