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Philmont - The Plan
No longer years in the future, but now in just a few days, nine Scouts from the troop will leave for Philmont. Those soft, chest-high kids of '96 have grown into rugged teens, many of whom now overtop me by several inches. That's good because we are setting off on a real man-sized adventure this time. Philmont Scout Ranch is near Cimmeron, New Mexico in the northeastern corner of that state. Waite Phillips, an Oklahoma oil tycoon, gave the ranch to the Boy Scouts in 1938. In addition to over 100,000 acres in the heart of the rugged Sangre de Christo Mountains, Philips also gave the Scouts his Philtower office building in Tulsa The rents from that help offset the operating costs of the ranch. How's that for a good deed! Ever since those early years, one of the most exciting things that a Scout could strive for was to be part of an expedition to Philmont.
Now we are about to depart for this high country of the Boy Scout experience. Let me tell you about the plan. First of all, you should know that we have been training for over a year. Last summer, we did a weeklong 50-mile hike in the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania. After that I knew for certain I would die at Philmont if I didn't get started with some serious exercise. Since then we have had five rugged weekend training hikes, and I have taken to mowing my lawn with a 30-pound pack full of bricks on my back. I also wore that pack everywhere I walked during the week, and gradually I have gotten comfortable with the weight. Still, on my twice weekly midnight walks up and down the river hill, I can tell that no amount of training is going to get me as fit as the rest of the crew. I will turn 55 while on the trek. Clay Williams, the other advisor on Crew 2, is 45 and a firefighter/track coach kind of a guy. The Scouts range in age from 14 to 16 and have the natural advantages and disadvantages of youth. Their biggest advantage is that they don't wear down the way I do on an extended steep climb.
Next Saturday we will drive to Cleveland, where we will spend the night sleeping on the floor of the local U.S. Marine Reserve Center. At 4 a.m. Sunday morning, we will get up, get ourselves into Class A Boy Scout uniforms and head for the Cleveland Airport. Our flight leaves at 6:45 a.m., and after a transfer in St. Louis, we will arrive in Colorado Springs, Colorado at 9:40 a.m. There a bus will meet us to begin two days of touring that will let us get a look at area attractions and will also give us a chance to acclimate ourselves to the mile high altitude of the Colorado/New Mexico region. We stay in Colorado Springs the first night, and the big attraction of the day will be a visit to the Garden of the Gods. I am interested in seeing just what this might be, but I have this suspicion that it may just be big rocks. Still, the old-timers say it is a great place, so we shall see. That evening, we will eat and be entertained at the Flying W Ranch, and that sounds more promising. Rope tricks? Cowboy songs? Square dancing? Bareback riding? Who knows? I can hardly wait. The next morning, we re-board the bus and start drifting south toward the New Mexico border. Along the way we will stop at the Royal Gorge. Again, a well regarded if unknown quantity to me. Sounds like a hole in the ground. Later that day, we arrive at the Koshare Indian Museum and Kiva. We'll have dinner, watch some Indian dancing, and then rack out there for the night. Tuesday is the beginning of the real adventure. We arrive at Philmont HQ at about 9 a.m. and spend the remainder of the day drawing equipment, undergoing medical and gear checks, and doing other orientation activities. That evening we go to a welcoming campfire, and then it's off to Tent City to sleep away the night, no doubt dreaming of the next day's adventures. Day 1 of the trek, we walk a mere 3 miles to Cathedral Rocks and spend much time being trained by a ranger who will be with us for the first couple of days. His primary job is to show us the Philmont way of doing things like eating, sleeping, hiking and surviving. We will hear of bear bags, where all "smellable" items are placed each night. These are hung from high steel cables so that the bears cannot get at them. As the ranger teaches us the basics that first day, he will also be deciding if we can continue the trek. Totally unprepared crews are not allowed to range the hills of the Scout Ranch; Philmont is too dangerous for that. Instead, unprepared crews get to spend two weeks in Tent City. What a bummer that must be!
Day 3 is another lung strainer and our first without our ranger. The hike will be all up hill, to a height of 11,000 feet and the top of Mount Phillips. Here we will stay at an unstaffed trail camp called Red Hills. I hope the view is worth the climb. Day 4 we start down hill. Now, instead of the lungs, it will be the calves and toes that take a beating. Dropping to 9000 feet we will arrive at Porcupine Camp. Here we will visit a working homestead and try our hands at rail splitting, shingle making, primitive farming, log house construction and caring for farmyard animals. That should keep us out of mischief. Day 5 starts with a short, more-or-less level hike to Beaubien, a major camp where we will sleep for two nights. There we will eat a Chuckwagon dinner and take part in a western lore program that includes horse riding, branding, roping, and an evening campfire filled with songs, guitar playing and stories of the old west. This sounds like a great day, but I wonder how beat up we will be by then. They say that the kids hit the wall on day three, and the adults a few days after that. Day 6 we hike to the top of Trail Peak and then return to Beaubien for the night. So, no packs. That's good. But all up hill in the morning, and all downhill in the afternoon. That should be enough exercise for one day. The thrill at the top of this particular mountain is the plane wreck. I will have to find out more about this, but I do know that we are expected to pee off of the wing while enjoying the view --- what a thrill. Day 7 we up packs and do a nice five mile walk to Agua Fria, where we will do a little fly tying and fishing, and, perhaps, tour Waite Phillips' old fishing lodge. Day 8 looks like another nice hike, this time for 8 slowly descending miles, at the end of which we arrive at Abreu, another highpoint of the trek. Here we visit a Mexican homestead, perhaps fish a little, and then enjoy a Mexican dinner. Day 9 we hike up to Crater Lake and enter the exciting world of the loggers at the Continental Tie and Timber Company. There will be spar climbing, log tossing, crosscut sawing and log tong races enough to satisfy all our woodsy dreams. I will feel like my grandfather, who was a lumberman up in the Fryburg area in his early days. Day 10 we will walk about 6 miles, the last two of which will be brutally up hill. At the end of the hike we will reach Shaefers Pass, a dry camp that positions us for the last morning's hike.
The following morning, we get aboard a bus and drive to the Colorado Springs Airport, with a stop along the way for our first fast food in two weeks. Our flight leaves at 2:35 p.m. on that Sunday afternoon, and puts us in Cleveland at 9:21 p.m. that evening. We will get home sometime after midnight, and no doubt I will be ready for some bed rest and solitude.
So, how's that sound to you? I am excited, as you can no doubt tell,
but I am also mildly apprehensive. Just how many things might go
wrong? Can I actually do all this heavy hauling? Certainly this will
be a great adventure, but it’s also the toughest thing I have done
since Vietnam, and that was half a lifetime ago. Assuming, just for
the sake of argument, that I do survive, I will write again to tell
you how it went --- once I
start to heal. |
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Way
back in February of 1996 I wrote my first newspaper column dealing
with the Boy Scout troop here in Clarion. The piece was called "The
Ultimate Game for Boys" and gave a lot of reasons why a boy of about
11 might want to join the Scouts. My words live on at the troop web
site and I reread them a few days ago, just to check up on a promise
that I remembered making back then, a promise that is about to come
true. The article reads, "In just four years, you could be with me
on a mountaintop in New Mexico, starting the adventure of a
lifetime."
Over
18,000 Scouts hike Philmont's trails each year. There, in a high
country of canyons, meadows and mountaintops, you can find geology,
wildlife and plants completely different from what we are used to
here in Pennsylvania. As you hike along, you may see a grizzly bear,
ancient Indian writings, or even the track of a T-Rex. Along the
rugged way, staffed camps provide interesting diversions and
training on such topics as Jicarilla Apache village life, old-time
gold mining technology and western ranch life. 
Our
crew is made up of 12 people, 10 Scouts (3 from Erie and 7 local
lads) and 2 advisors. The leader of the crew is not Clay or me as
you might expect. Nate Cyphert, who is 15, and nearly an Eagle Scout
will lead us on the 58-mile hike through the rugged mountains of
Philmont. . It is he who will find the best path from one camp to
the next, arrange for the re-supply of our food and fuel, and deal
with the problems we encounter along the way. Clay and I are just
along for the walk; the Scouts themselves will make it all happen
once we hit Philmont's trails.
Day
2 we hike 8 miles, all up hill, with the elevation going from 7500
feet to 9500 feet. At the end of this death march we arrive at
Sawmill Camp, half way to the top of Comanche Peak. There we will
hear about wildlife management and get tips on safe and successful
shooting. Then we get to pot away at metallic silhouette targets
with 30-ought-six rifles using ammo that we have reloaded ourselves.
Day
11 will be a wondrous march over the Tooth of Time and down into
Philmont HQ. There we will return our gear, get a nice shower, visit
the museums and then attend a closing campfire.