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Our man and 2 other were dropped off at a place called Six Mile Gate after work on Friday. This is a major drop off point for crews hiking in the northern sections of the ranch. The intention was to hike a couple of miles to a camp called Indian Writings and spend the night with the staff that runs the camp. They hiked about 45 minutes and then came to the only known fossil of a T-Rex track locate only a few yards from the main trail. Both Tom and his hiking partner had never seen it so they stopped to look and take pictures. Apparently a T-Rex stepped in mud which dried out to form a mold and then later filled with silt and sand which late became sandstone in the shape of the track. Then sometime in the distant past, the whole sandstone rock was flipped over to expose what remains of the filled in track. It reminded him of what a plaster mold of a track might look like, but it is in sandstone. Pretty neat stuff. |
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After resting a while, they took a walk to Ring Place which is another camp about 45 minutes away. This camp was named for the Ring sisters who were early settlers in the area. Since this was once an active ranch, there is a large pasture area near the old Ring home with beautiful views of the mountains on either side. One of the unusual things about this camp is that the National Forest service built a latrine on the property. Nothing unusual about that except they paid $30,000 for what looks like a glorified porta-john! Ah, your tax dollars at work! |
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Shortly after, they arrived at Indian Writings where there are petroglyphs all over the canyon walls. The staff greeted them warmly and invited them to sleep on their porch for the night, which theydid. Since there were no lights around, you could see a zillion stars in the sky. Sometime during the night he was awakened by thunder and then it started to rain. Every so often he had wind blown rain hit his face and wake up but managed to rest anyway. When he got up the next morning, he had to pour water out of one of his boots that was too close to the edge of the porch. Getting it dry enough for the hike that day was a challenge. |
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Philmont offers an astronomy program here and the sky is wide open for viewing with their telescopes. After their visit to Ring Place, they returned to Seally canyon Camp and spent the night in a spare tent. |
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On Sunday morning they were up early and off to another camp called Dan Beard on Philmont property. They had to navigate by map and compass. They passed through an absolutely beautiful meadow at Beatty Lakes. A large lake dominates the meadow with mountains in view to the north and south. An old windmill is at one end of the meadow and our man had to take several photos with it in the foreground and the mountains in the background. This would be a beautiful place for a home but since it is on National Forest property that can never happen Dan
Beard Cabin |
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They left Indian Writings about 8:30 after the morning rain stopped and headed for a camp called Seally Canyon Camp. This is not on Philmont property but in the Carson National Forest. The Forest Service has a good working relationship with the Scouts and permits us to have a few camps on the property. Unlike the Philmont property with all of its established network of trails, the Valle Vadal as the Forest Service calls it has none. All navigation is done by map and compass or GPS. You pick out the direction you want to go and then head out. To reach the Seally canyon Camp, they crossed another chunk of private land called the “XA Ranch”. Since the fires in this area two years ago, the private land owner of the XA and BSA have build an good relationship and scouts are now permitted to cross their land saving many miles of hiking to get into the Valle Vidal. They finally arrived at Seally Canyon Camp in time to have lunch with the local staff. Philmont is not permitted to erect any permanent cabin on the land so the ranch erects a Yurt which is something like a large semi-rigid tent. Inside lives the camp director and they have their kitchen and eating areas. Life is a bit primitive but the young folks who work here seem to love it. |
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It must seem like our guy never rests. Well, we can assure you he does - here's proof! |
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