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This photo is of the back side of Baldy. I think this is far prettier on this side of Baldy than on the ranch side. You can't see it in the photo but there is a lovely valley on this side. The lake you can see to the west of Baldy is at Eagle Nest. This is also a pretty little town in the valley. |
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He participated in what the ranch calls the backcountry scatter. This is when all of the staff goes out to the remote areas of the ranch to start getting things into shape before the campers start to arrive. Our man was assigned to Harlan where the scouts are introduced to shotgun shooting and reloading of shotgun ammunition. They also have a burro-racing event every evening where the adult advisors sip coffee or hot chocolate and watch the scouts try to race their burros by leading them the length of a meadow in front of the staff cabin. It is good fun for all. Anyway, the first order of business is to get tents up for most of the staff to sleep in and cleaning the Winter dust and mouse droppings out of the cabins. Sweeping them out was hot dirty work. Then they had to spray down all of the walls and floors with strong mix of bleach and water to kill any hanta virus that may be lurking within. This stinks something awful and the smell clings to your skin and took the color out of the clothes some of the guys wore. They chased a mouse out of one of the cabins with the bleach mix and then had a good laugh about it being one of the only bleached white mice on the ranch. Ha!
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Hart peak between Indian Writings and Ponil. |
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The hillside between Indian Writings and Ponil that was part of the ranch that burned in 2002. |
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Tom's stay there wasn't all work. After spending the night in the cabin, he hiked to Vaca and Deer Lake camps which are near by to check their condition and to see if water is available or not. That way things can get fixed or warn the campers about campsites that don't have water so they can bring it with them. This made for a long day on Monday but our guy enjoyed getting out in the woods. They are so quiet except for the wind moving through the pines. After eating a good pork chop dinner with the Harlan staff, our man hiked about 45 minutes down hill from the Harlan camp to the highway where one of the cars from the ranch picked him up and brought him in. Even though he was tired, he had enough energy to watch a movie on the lawn that they have every Monday night for staff - complete with free cold drinks and snacks too! |
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Burned out trees. |
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Check out this unusual hail storm at base camp. Most of us who have been to Philmont have seen this sort of storm in the mountains where the elevation is higher, but not like this at base camp. Just like in the mountains, the temperature dropped about 30 or 40 degrees in about 20 minutes and the rain lasted about 2 hours. Now at 6:30pm, the sun is back out and about 70 degrees outside. |
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Like we said, Philmont isn't all fun and games! Here's a training class, don't they all look wide awake? |
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Another look at base camp |
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Footprints in the hail! |
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