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Our man chose Baldy as one of his last hikes at Philmont. Here are some of those pictures of crews that he met. Baldy Mountain is approximately 12, 400 feet and one of the tallest mountains in the state of New Mexico and one of the more difficult hikes on the ranch. The trails are very rocky and in many places go straight up The Rocky Trail to Baldy
Base Camp
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Here are some pictures from Crater Lake. |
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You may have heard about the Cavalcades treks. These are groups who pack up burros and take them out on the trial. Our man happened to meet up with one of them. |
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Baldy Mountain was heavily mined in the 1800s and early 1900s for gold and silver. There was a small town located at what is currently our Baldy Camp where you can still see evidence of the old Baldy Town. The views from the top can be spectacular on a good day. Fortunately, during our man's visit, the weather was great. Baldy Town |
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Our man and a friend decided to take a last minute hike to a camp called Miranda. It is accessible by road so you can drive to within a few miles of it and walk the remainder of the way. It also sits a couple of thousand feet higher than our base camp does so you first notice the thinner oxygen which makes it harder to breathe. Miranda camp sits on the edge of a very pretty meadow and up against the mountains. The program theme here is about the fur trapping and mountain men who lived here in the 1830s. The staff dress in clothes of the period and put on a pretty convincing show for the scouts. After they get a brief talk on what life was like, they are sent to a rifle range to shoot black powder rifles. For many of the boys, this is the first time they have ever tried this and they love it. The staff also has an area for throwing tomahawks at some old wooden blocks. They love this as well. The staff that lives here survive
pretty much as the original settlers in the area. They have a big
log cabin with an old wood burning stove for heat and for all of
their cooking. The cabin is filled with hand made furniture and
with skins and pelts from buffalo, beaver, mink and bear. They bake
pies just for fun and give them away to the crews that pass through.
This is a real treat to some of the kids that have been on the trail
with nothing to eat but trail food for a week or more. |
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The weather at philmont
during the summer of 2004 has been unusually wet. In particular,
two days that our man saw were most unusual. In the late afternoon
they had very severe thunder and lightning storms with lots of rain
and hail. They had so much rain one day that the staff lounge flooded
and several walkways washed out. In one of the culverts near the
welcome center, hail piled up to about 2 feet deep after washing
down from higher points. At night it was pretty cold as well. Our
man felt sorry for the campers in the backcountry.
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The unusually wet weather hasn't been all bad. All the rain has produced a bumper crop of wild sunflowers everywhere. In fact, all of the fields along the highways are covered with wild sunflowers all over the state and they are absolutely beautiful. Finally, what pictures of Philmont would be complete
without some showing some buffalo? |
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