cc: file, Grandma Hafen via Tony Hafen, Pauline Nelson via mail, Sara and Des Penny, Claude and Katherine Warner, Lloyd and Luana Warner. and Diane Cluff.
"Everyone knows the Marine cadence count:
Imagine my suprise to hear Rob shouting from the top of a Spar Pole at The Continental Tie & Lumber Company at Philmont's Crater Lake Camp:
I realize this was my third trip to Philmont, and that Roice has been twice, Ben and Paul each once, and now Rob once. However, I doubt if we have done a very good job of describing Philmont Scout Ranch to the rest of you. And so I am going to document Rob and my hike through Philmont in some detail, to give each of you a feel for what the experience is like. Sarah, hopefully it will help you understand a little better when the boys and I take off for a week backpacking trip without you, some week in the future. Roice expressed an interest in doing this sometime next summer, although I havn't talked to Ben about the idea.
Philmont Scout Ranch consists of about 140,000 acres or 220 square miles of mountain land in northern New Mexico. The first known human settlers on the ranch were the Anasazi Indians. Philmont was about the far north east extent of their tribe. Just as was described in the novel I read (A Thief of Time), they disappeared as a culture a few hundred years before Columbus. Later a tribe of Apache Indians moved into the area. These were followed by the mountain men, who trapped out beaver in all of the beautiful streams in Philmont. Eventually some Spanish/Mexicans settled the town of Cimarron as part of the Mexican Maxwell Land Grant. This was then purchased by a French trapper and a Mexican businessman and became the Beaubien and Miranda Land Grant. There were several squatter's during this time, and a lot of the settlement at this time was due to a mini-gold rush due to a discovery of gold on Mount Baldy. Some Englishmen came in and purchased the flat lands for running cattle, and there was a period of several years in the late 1800's when there were serious range wars in the area. There were a lot of murders in a hotel in Cimarron, and there are numerous ghost stories that are told at firesides at the various camps related to these times.
In the early 1900's twins were born in Iowa, and when they were 17 they headed west. One of the twins died a couple of year's later, and the remaining brother, Wade Phillips, returned home, which was now Oklahoma, to study business. He went into business with two older brothers and they formed Phillips Petroleum Company. Wade sold his interest out after a few years for a lot of money ($25,000,000?) and formed his own oil company: The Wade Phillips Oil Company. He sent his lieutenient out west to look for property for him, and ended up purchasing Philmont. Wade built a mansion, Philmonte, and used the property to run cattle, hunt, play polo, etc. He loved the land and wanted to share it. So he invited groups like the Boy Scouts to use it. He liked what he saw and tried several times to give them parts of the ranch. Finally they took a small part, which if I recall right was Ponil. Because of the overhead and taxes the scouts were not interested in the entire ranch. Eventually he convinced them by giving the Boy Scouts an office building in Oklahoma, from which they could derive enough rental income to cover the fixed costs of the ranch. The initial gift was about 100,000 acres, and this was expanded to the current size with a gift of Mount Baldy from another donar a few years later.
Shortly after my second Philmont trek, with Roice, Ben, and Paul, I learned that Penzoil owns some 250,000 acres adjacent to Philmont, which they had no idea what to do with. I encouraged the senior executive I was talking to to get the property donated to the Boy Scouts. I never heard any more about this conversation, and this trek with Rob reminded me of the opportunity to follow-up. It might be too much for the Boy Scouts to assimilate at once, and I still think they should be given the opportunity to say yes or no.
In terms of Philmont 1999, the Nottingham Country Ward (and our `dependent' Branch in Dubhi) sponsored three crews and about 28 people. Rob and I were on the central and southern Trek 5, which went from Tent City to Vaca to Ute Springs to Cyper's Mine to Comanche Peak across Mount Phillips to clear creek to Crooked Creek to Beaubien for two days to Bear Caves via Crater Lake to Urraca then down in the valley and up to the Tooth of Time and finally down to Base Camp. With the sidehike from Beaubien to the airplane crash on Trail Peak we covered about 60 miles of hiking with 40-60 pound packs. The numbers on each section below are probably about 1/3rd longer than I list because the estimates are only based on horizontal map distance and do not take into account switch backs not shown on the map. The other two crews were sister crews on Trek 23. They went from Tent City to Rayado River to Aguila to Miner's Park to Clark's Fort to Ute Springs to Cimarron River to Head of Dean to Miranda over Mount Baldy to Miranda again to Pueblano and then to the Ponil Turnaround. They went somewhere between 65 and 80 miles, depending on who you talk to and whether you believe their stories about hiking 24 miles in one day because they got lost. At least our crew had an old guy who knows how to read a map.
The advisors on our crew were Doug Hastings, Gary Jones, Jim Conners, and myself. I am the old man by about 4 years. The scouts consisted of Seth Jones, James Conners, John Hastings, Paul and Craig Slack, Brandon Miller, Steve Kelly (from Katy Ward), and Rob. Rob was the life of the party, and several scouts and leaders independently told be how glad they were we switched to their crew because of the fun Rob brought with him to Philmont 1999. Our Ranger was Erik Simonton from Michigan. (The other two crews both had female Rangers.)
We left Tent City at 7:30 on Friday the 25th of June on a regular school bus (missing a few back seats so the packs can be placed in the back). We were dropped off at the gaging station on Cimarron River just inside the Philmont property line. The first day hike was a killer. None of us were really in shape, and we only hiked about 2 1/2 miles. However, we climbed from 6600 feet to 7600 feet, and our sea level bodies were not ready for the hike. I have not read Rob's diary, and he told me his first few days were nothing but words about how much he hated being at Philmont. We got into Vaca Camp, set up our Dining Fly for the first time, set up our tents, pulled all of our smellables up 20 feet in the air in Bear Bags, and rested and ate lunch. Note, there are bears at Philmont, and two years ago Brent Weber's water bottle and tent was damaged by a bear cub at about 3:00 in the afternoon. There is a major effort to leave each camp site the way it was having minimal impact, and to make sure there is nothing in the tents or in camp which would attract a mountain lion, a bear, a skunk, a racoon, or even a chipmunk (affectionately known as a mini-bear).
After recovering from the climb a little, we hiked 2/3rds of a mile to Harlan camp, got clean water, loaded shot gun shells, and shot skeet. Rob hit 2 of his 3. I hit 1 of mine. Rob took a picture of me shooting. Rob also had the staff shoot his hat with the shotgun. It was funny how they stuck it over the end of the gun so it wasn't completely distroyed. During the waiting time to shoot, Jim Conners and I continued an ongoing conversation about deriving sound from nature, specifically keyed off of the banded Maximum Flooding Plane Boundaries on the hills across the canyon which was cut by Cimarron Creek. Gary Jones and I talked about when we were stuck in China and used our interpretation of three alluvial fans as the mathematical basis for writing a musical score `Three Fans in A minor'. We took a short-cut back to camp, and fixed a trail dinner by boiling water and reconstituting dried stuff. After dinner I read the last chapter of the Book of Mormon to the crew. It led to a good discussion.
Saturday morning we got up and broke camp. After breaking camp the adult's sang our first barbershop quartet: `Brightly Beams Our Father's Mercy' Hymn #335. Doug Hastings had lead, Gary Jones tenor, Jim Conners was baritone, and I was base. It really sounds neat to sing like this and have it echo across the valley and hills. We hiked about 4 miles, climbing up to 8200 feet and dropping back down to 7600 feet to get to Ute Springs. We were tired. And yet Doug Hasting's was not too tired to make sure he did not have to eat any green peas. Here is where we loaded up with 4 days of food, and that adds a lot of weight to a pack. The boys spent the afternoon in the culvert surrounding a spring. I was reading Leviathan, published by Thomas Hobbes in 1651.
Sunday morning we were up early, hiked up over Aspen Springs Camp (elevation 8000 feet) down to The Hunting Lodge (elevation 7700 feet) up the Middle Fork of Cimarroncito Creek almost to Lamberts Mine Camp (elevation 8800 feet) and then up and over the ridge to Cypers Mine Camp (9400 feet). This was about a 4 1/2 mile hike. I was exhausted. We went on a tour of an underground mine, and I led the entire crew out of the mine in complete darkness. It was fun. We also had wood heated showers available, and took the oppurtunity to shower. We decided to have our Sacrament Meeting on Monday. Erik, our Ranger, had left us Sunday morning, and he showed up Sunday evening to get some signatures he forgot. He also brought some pie filling and Oreo's, and the crew really liked his gift. We went to what they called the stomp that night, and ended up leaving early because of a bad taste joke about the Pope. It gave us a good opportunity for an in depth discussion about morals with the boys back at camp.
Monday morning some of the adults did wash and had showers. I read from Leviathan. It is amazing to me the depth of thinking way back in 1651. It was wonderful to spend the morning on a swing, over a mountain creek, with woodpeckers and birds singing all around me. Some of the boys went panning for gold. Rob went to the Blacksmith Shop and built a really neat twisted metal eye. It was a wonderful morning. We hiked from Cypers Mine Camp straight up to Thunder Ridge (elevation 10,400 feet), ate lunch, and hiked on into Comanche Peak Camp (elevation 11,000 feet). This was only 1 1/2 miles horizontally on the map, and I thought I was going to die. Rob was doing pretty good with his hiking by Monday. Comanche Peak is a dry camp, and we had to hike water into it. This is the same camp we stayed at on our first trip to Philmont, and it is where we had the Testimony Meeting that Matt Reynolds bore his testimony at and which, from my perspective, helped him find a relationship with his creator. We also had a church service here. Rob blessed the sacrament. It was a peaceful and good experience for me. I did lose my Book of Mormon out of my jacket pocket and we had to go back out into the woods in the dark to where we had our meeting to find it.
Tuesday we hiked 3 miles to Clear Creek Camp. On the way we went over Comanche Peak (elevation 11,326 feet), down a draw (11,100 feet elevation) and up and over Mount Phillips (elevation 11,710 feet). Rob led the crew to the top of Mount Phillips. When we got to the top, I borrowed Doug Hasting's walking stick, which he got in Japan and had used to climb Mount Fuji 3 times, had Rob kneel, and using the stick as a sword christened Robert Llewellyn Nelson as a man. He liked it. He proceeded to take off with the guys and to play in the snow. The male quartet sang `High On A Mountain Top' and `Brightly Beams Our Father's Mercy.' There were two other crews on top of Mount Phillips the same time we were. It was the most crowded stop on our trip to this point. At Clear Creek Camp (elevation 10,200 feet) we had a neat tour of a cabin and detailed description of the fur trapping trade in the area back in the early 1800's. Then we hiked up to the shooting range and shot 50 mm caliper black powder rifles. Rob donated his hat again, and I donated my red neckerchief as a target. I had 4 holes in the neckerchief when I got it back. Rob had another hole in his hat, if I'm remembering right.
Wednesday we hiked down four miles to Crooked Creek Camp. We went from 10,200 feet down to 9,300 feet elevation. It was a nice hike and we were all getting pretty well accustomed to the hikes. Our little hikes certainly helped me appreciate the pioneer's 10-20 mile days, and particularly those who pulled handcarts to Utah. Crooked Creek Camp was the most beautiful camp we visited, in my view. There is a nice log cabin on a hill overlooking a beautiful meadow which is surrounded by pine trees. It reminded me so much of Calf Springs Ranch. Even though there were none of the beautiful flowers Grandma used to have at the Ranch, nor the strawberry's Grandpa was always picking. My mind kept going back to the discussions Andrea and I had on our honeymoon (../9921.html) about how we are going to buy a place like this and turn it into a Grandchildren's paradise. It will happen! There were 3 scouts and 2 young ladies as camp staff. They told a great story about being brothers and sisters and coming out west after the Civil War to start over. There were chickens and ducks and sheep and cattle and donkey's. They helped the scouts make candles and log ties. There was a teater-totter and a rope swing the guys loved. There was a porch swing, and a checker's game out front. It was a wonderful afternoon. Some of the guys milked the cow in the evening, and we helped haul water up for the animals. The toilets were pilot to bomardier open to the world out-houses. The camp next to us was half girls and half scouts. We sang `Brightly Beams Our Father's Mercy' just before breaking camp on Thursday morning.
Thursday we 3 miles to Phillips Junction (elevation 9,000 feet), where we picked up food again and Rob bought another camera. Then we hiked up the hill about 1 mile to Beaubien Camp (elevation 9,400 feet) and set up our camp. The hike was a breeze. So after lunch we were ready to go do our conservation project. We hiked about a mile to where we worked. Unlike my first visit to Philmont, where we just pulled roots out of a trail, we worked really hard. Collected rocks to fill in big holes from tree roots, broke the rocks with a sledge hammer, halled in dirt to fill in over the top, smoothed everything out, cleaned off a big tree for a flag pole, and definitly put in our three hours of work. Then we hiked a mile to the 1942 experimental radar airplane crash on Trail Peak (10,000 foot elevation). It was a tough hike even without packs. We took a long way back, which on the map looks like it was about 2 1/2 miles. We were all tired. Especially Rob because he had worked especially hard at the conservation site. I guess it was worth it to be able to say, when someone asks us what we did this summer, that we stood on the wing of an airplane at 10,000 feet and took a leak (and I wonder why Rob says I act so adolescent).
Friday we slept in. Doug and John Hastings got up at 4:30 AM and hiked into Base Camp so John could go to a wrestling camp at BYU. I got up about 8:00 and went and helped start a fire so we had hot water for my second shower and my only clothes wash during the trek. It had rained pretty hard just after we went to bed Thursday night, and so it was hard to find dry wood for the fire. We worked it out. I spent most of the day reading Leviathan, and thinking about stuff. I thoroughly enjoy these kind of days, which seem to happen way too rarely. I didn't go with the guys when they went down to brand shoes and hats (../9926.html). We all went over by the horse coral for a chuckwagon dinner. Only meal on the trail not rehydrated. It was sooooooooo good. Then there was a campfire, which included story telling, singing songs, and was very good. I was particularly impressed with one of the conservation leaders, who sounds like he had studied under Henry David Thoreau at Walden Pond. This is even though he was really down on any scouts from Texas (referring to us as loud, obnoxious, rude, etc.).
Saturday morning we woke up early and hiked to Lower Bonita Camp for lunch (elevation 8,900 feet) then back up over Fowler Pass (elevation 9,189 feet) and down to Crater Lake Camp (elevation 8,400 feet). As we were leaving Beaubien Camp someone mentioned to Rob that there was a Denny's at the next camp. Rob took off like a bullet, and I got shin splints trying to keep up with him. Then they started singing. Their song went something like:
The first few times it was funny. As it was reapeated 40 or 80 times and at the very top of their voices, it got old. I came to realize I was with a Texas crew, as defined at the campfire the night before. Crater Lake Camp is where the spar pole climbing happened, and where Rob let out his Marine call out at the top of the spar pole. We ate lunch there and had a brief rainstorm / hailstorm come down on us just after we ate. Once about 5 of our crew finished spar pole climbing (I didn't this time because I did it the first time I came with Roice and because I am older and fatter) we mounted up our back packs and took off hiking. We dropped down to 8,150 feet elevation and then climbed back up to 8,400 feet to Bear Caves Camp. We hiked a total of about 5 miles for the day.
The sunrise Sunday was absolutely gorgeous. We took off early and ate breakfast at Stonewall Pass (elevation 7,903 feet) Then we climbed to Urraca Mesa, dropped our packs and walked a mile to overlook the valley and the Tooth of Time (elevation 8,594 feet). It was beautiful. Maybe as the trek started to come to an end, the scenery because more beautiful. Maybe this is because the most prominant topographical feature in Houston is the horizon. We hiked on to complete the 5 miles to Urraca Camp (elevation 8,000 feet). As we got to the switch backs another crew came up and gave our guys a bad time about yelling:
They said they had heard it for over two miles, even though Rob and his friends had not been `singing' it for more than about 10 minutes, which was maybe a half a mile for each crew, if they were walking directly towards each other. Rob and the guys did stop their chant. In camp we ate lunch, set up camp, and participated in the COPE Challenges. It was fun. We had to get all 8 of us on an 18 inch square block with only 8 points of contact. We had to get us all though a tire hung vertical about 4 feet off the ground without knocking a rock off of the top. We swung across a `lava lake' on a rope and landed on plywood saucers (and Roice, I didn't get rope burns this time). And we took the crew over a 16 foot wall. I ended up with a pretty bad bruise on my right arm, and it was all in all a lot of fun. We had a sacrament meeting after the COPE Challenges. It was nice. I was a speaker and talked about how we are given weaknesses to make us strong (Ether 12). In the evening we hiked up to these rocks where the staff put on a great program. It was the best campfire program of the trek. They had four guitars. They told the story of Philmont I summarized at the beginning of this Thoughtlet in great detail, interspersing it with a variety of songs. Again, I could help but `cite my mind forward' (Alma 13:1) and think of Roice and Andrea's Ranch for for Grandkids. It was the fourth of July, and we kept waiting for fireworks from Cimarron. They never really happened. We were plenty tired when we finally got back to camp and got to bed.
We got up extra early the next morning for our 6 mile hike to the Tooth of Time and back into Tent City. We dropped down to 7,050 feet elevation and climbed back up to 7,200 feet at Camp Stockton for breakfast by 9:00 AM. Then we had the killer hike of the trek, climbing up to the 8,500 foot saddle just beneath the Tooth of Time. As we were making this climb Rob turned to me and said:
It made the effort worthwhile. Roice, Ben, and Paul, thanks for calling and encouraging Rob to go with me. We were all tired when we reached the pass. We dropped our packs, ate lunch, and climbed up to The Tooth of Time (elevation 9,003 feet). It was really crowded. There must have been 5 crews on top at the same time we were. When I got back home I laughed at an article in Time Magazine called `Peak Season' (pages 50-51 on July 12th 1999). The article was about how more than 200,000 people are expected to climb the 54 mountains in Colorado that top 14,000 feet, and how anyone who makes the climb has to share the wind torn precipice with other groups of climbers. They are trampling the fragile ecosystem and disrupting natural drainage systems. At least Philmont has good trails in place and does not trample the environment much. However, we definitly did not have the opportunity to enjoy either of the major peaks we climbed with any sense of solitude. Oh well! It was still pretty, and the pictures turned out good. Eventually I will get all of the pictures we took scanned and tied into the web page for this Thoughtlet.
We got into Tent City about 3:00 on Monday. We were very tired. We got cleaned up. Rob took a nap through dinner. He woke up and showered for church. It started raining as we went to church and rained hard most of the night. We had a nice church service. Brother Jurinak replaced Doug Hastings as singing the lead in `Brightly Beams Our Father's Mercy.' As the thunder and lightening came down around us, I asked the congregation to think of the little chapel at Philmont as a lighthouse, and those in the surrounding storms as a lost seaman. The words we sang were:
We were up late waiting for Steve Kelly's parents to pick him up. They didn't come and so we went to bed. We got up early Tuesday morning, showered again, packed, cleaned out the tents, ate breakfast, met Doug Kelley, loaded our stuff on the bus, and closed the chapter on Philmont 1999. Grandma Hafen tells me that taking that this long of a hike is not keeping the word of wisdom. I understand her concern, and I think it is a wonderful experience for me. Matt, I am already looking forward to Philmont 2002 with you. Hopefully each of you will find something as physically and mentally challenging as Philmont is, which you want to do 4 or more times over the extent your lives."