Other 625-CV youth crew members included Mitch Benbow, Nick Benbow, Peter Christie, James Davis (Chaplain Aide), Brian Jennings, Tom Montgomery, Ian Parisi, Todd Sarnoski, Daniel Stephenson and Matt Voss (Crew Leader). Adult crew members were Monty Ma Gill, John Montgomery, Lou Parisi and Dan Voss. The crew got their first choice of treks, #5A, Philmont's longest Cavalcade trek. The crew covered at least 50.3 miles. Listed below is where they camped each night.
June 25 Base Camp June 26 Base Camp (at Cattle HQ during the day) June 27 Bonita Cow Camp 10.3 miles June 28 Beaubien 10.8 miles June 29 Clark's Fork 14.3 miles June 30 Clark's Fork layover day July 1 Harlan 6.4 miles July 2 Base Camp 8.5 miles
Crater Lake - The Crater Lake area is about 3/4 of the way to Bonita Cow Camp. It has a small pond that looks like a large crater that was filled with stagnant water. While we were at Crater Lake, Eric Perry pulled out a violin and started to play it, then handed it to one of the people (Tom Montgomery) in our group who was pretty good at it. Then my father having made a comment about a banjo was then handed a banjo. He actually played pretty good for not having his picks, which are a crucial part of playing the banjo. Another thing we did at Crater Lake besides getting fresh water was learning how to spar pole climbing. The person who taught us to spar pole climb was Crazy Dave. His favorite thing to say was, "(censored by Wesley's Scoutmaster)". He was talking about falling.
Bonita Cow Camp - The remaining one forth of the way to Bonita Cow Camp was probably one of the hardest parts of the trip on the horses. With the very steep incline all the way to the trail peak, then down into the camp. That night was about 25 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit, which we weren't expecting in the middle of the summer.
Fish Camp - After such a cold morning we were ready a little warmer afternoon, and it was a warm afternoon. At fish camp we had a funny Russian fly tying teacher. So obviously we tied flies. The same guy also gave us fishing lessons.
Beaubien Camp - When we arrived at Beaubien we set up camp. We went down to the front yard at the main cabin, threw horseshoes and ate dinner. Later we went to bed and the adults visited a while longer and had camp coffee. The next morning was the first time we saddled the horses without the wranglers’ assistance. This was when we found out what an early morning was really about. We woke up at 3:00 AM; it was really cold. This was the first time our packhorse called Pepper did not blow up on us and throw our gear everywhere. I thought that was a pretty big accomplishment especially at 3:00 AM.
Cyphers Mines - We arrived at Cyphers Mine about mid day. It was nice to get off our horses for a change. We had lunch then got to sit on the front porch at the large log cabin. Later we decided to do a little bit of prospecting so we panned for gold. I actually found a little bit of gold. After panning we went to the blacksmith shop. The blacksmith told us about the tools he uses. He made a hook that screws into the wall. After the blacksmith shop we went to a gold mine. The ceiling in the mine was very low. We went all the way down the mine and turned our flashlights off. It was really, really dark. It was so dark our eyes would not adjust to be able to see anything. Just about then a large hunk of rock fell and nearly hit or guide. We immediately evacuated the mine. Once we were back at our horses, it looked like it was going to rain for the first time since we started on the trail. That was nice; it really cooled every thing down abit.
Clarks Fork Camp - There is not a lot to say, we got up at 3:00 AM and left for Clarks Fork. We get there, we set up camp and went to bed after fixing a short meal. People call it Clarks Fork because the near by river forks in two places. This was the first warm night thus far. Clarks Fork has its own reservoir that looks pretty big, but in comparison to other lakes of Philmont is actually pretty small. Deer Lake is about four times as large when it’s full then it also has its own marsh and its all natural. Clarks Fork is mostly covered in Ponderosa Pine. It's also at a pretty high altitude. Clarks Fork was where we had our lay over day, when we did our conservation project.
Conservation Project - The conservation project was done about four miles away from the camp and we couldn't take our horses. So about half of us had to do the conservation project in boots. The project was located on the North Fork of the river where there was a landslide. The trail was still functional but because of the landslide they were able to close it so that people could do service projects and improve the condition of the trail. We made some major improvements in the area by making it flat instead on rocky. The first thing we did was to build a retaining wall because the existing wall was starting to erode. We did this by digging holes to drop rock with a flat surface into the hole to make it more walk able. We also made a footbridge to the other side using one large piece of rock and smaller pieces to wedge under the corners to stabilize it. I removed some ugly trees from the opposite bank that had been cut down by one of the previous groups that came through by cutting them into individual logs and stacking them were they wouldn't be seen. As a shared effort we made many different pools of water for the baby trout they are going to import. We also cleared over grown brush from the stream a little bit farther down. After finishing the two-hour long service project that was actually kind of fun, we returned to camp and had a lot of time to do anything we wanted to do. We talked for a while and decided to go to the chuck wagon dinner. The food was great and we didn’t have to cook or clean anything except our bowls. We didn't get up to early that morning because that day's ride was going to be pretty easy.
Deer Lake Mesa - This was a stop we made. Actually it was a side trip we made so we could practice for the gymkhana but while we were up there we had lunch. Deer Lake Mesa is an absolutely massive place; it's a wide-open plain that seems almost tropical. While we were up there we practiced barrel racing for the gymkhana.
Harlan Camp - I have to say Harlan was one of the most fun and eventful camps. While we were at Harlan we reloaded 5 shotgun shells each. Then we walked down a 4x4 road where we got to shoot Rugar Red Label shotguns. I'm not sure about that, but that was the highlight though. At Harlan they have something called Burro Racing. So we went. There was going to be three rounds. They only had six donkeys but there were seven teams and none of us where going to be forced to share donkeys. The objective was to try and get your donkey to run around the large rock that was about 75 yards away and make it back to the starting place first. We won 1st place then decided to let the team that hadn't raced yet race. They to won 1st place. After that we got our donkey back and won 1st place again. The prize was a tub of icing. That night someone knocked over our food so we didn't get much to eat. Back at base camp we had the gymkhana. We won all but the steer herding because the judge stopped the clock too soon because nobody noticed that there was a stray steer, which would halve about an extra 10 seconds then a 5 second penalty but we let them keep it.
Note: Wesley didn't mention that the crew they were competing against in the gymkhana was our other crew (625-CW) composed of members of Venturing Crew 405 and older Scouts from our troop.
This Web page is maintained by Selden Ball
at Wilson Lab.
Please send any comments or corrections to
seb@lepp.cornell.edu