From July 12th to the 27th, I went to Philmont Scout Ranch, a Boy Scout owned high adventure trek in Cimarron, New Mexico. Philmont is the southern part of the Rocky Mountains. I had many doubts heading into this 12 days, 10 days out on the trail of 56 miles. I did not know what to expect. Heading into the 12th, I had mixed feelings about going. Half of me wanted to go and the other half wanted to stay. But I went anyways and here it is, a day by day recap of what we did. My crew consisted of Matthew/Mark Chern, Eric Prana, Andrew Choi, Brian Hsiang, Eric Cho, Victor Peer, me, and our two advisors that made it possible, Mr. Prana and Mr. Hsiang. We were 714-J-1.
Sunday, July 12th to Monday July 13th
These were the travel days. We left the Fullerton Amtrak Station around 7:30 PM Sunday night for a 23 hour train ride. The Amtrak train wasn't too bad. There was A/C on the train which was nice. The food was expensive but thats typical train prices. IT was a bit hard sleeping cause it was like airplane seating. We played cards in the lounge as we passed through Arizona and New Mexico. We turned our clocks one hour ahead when we got into NM. We stopped @ Albuqurque for a bit. I bought some magnets. Finally at around 5:30 PM MT Monday, we arrived at Raton, NM where a bus picked us up into Philmont (40 min drive). We spent the night at base camp of Philmont. We got a nice little rain the 1st night. Base camp is about 6600 feet in elevation.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009: Day 1
Our trek officially began today. We were 714-J-1. We met our ranger Matt, from Mission Viejo, in the morning. He led us to the tables where we filled out some paperwork. Got some info on First Aid and a medical recheck to make sure we were fit for Philmont. Everyone passed. We played some games and got to know our ranger better. Matt looks like Adam Morrison. We took our group picture of Philmont and had our meals in the dining hall. Overall, it was a pretty straightforward boring day 1. After the opening campfire, in which we got to hear the story of Philmont, I took a warm shower. Also, since I forgot to bring my hat, I bought a $25 full brim one with the Philmont logo.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009: Day 2
Day 2 of our trek, 1st day of hiking. Checked out of tent city in the morning and hit the bus. The bus took us to Turkey Creek Turnaround. There, Matt conducted more ranger training. He told us what to do in case of bear, lightning, and other scenearios that could happen out in the backcountry. We started hiking and it was 3 miles that day. We took our time, 3 hours, and saw the town of Cimarron. I had to adapt to the high altitude a bit, but I kept drinking lots and lots of water. Reached our campsite, Vacca Campground, in the afternoon. Our ranger taught us how to do things, setting up dining fly and bear bag. He also told us about the Red Roof Inn. Learned how to cook dinner and wash dishes the Philmont way. Set up camp and played some cards. 1st night out on the trail, it wasn't too bad. The trail was pretty easy. I weighed my pack when we left base camp and it weighed 48 pounds. That includes 3 days of food, water, and the other things. It was the heaviest of my crew.
Thursday, July 16, 2009: Day 3
2nd day in the Philmont backcountry. We tore down camp in the morning and hike 1/2 mile up to Harlan. There, we played baseball with our sister crew, 714-N from Tennessee. In the 1st inning, we were down 7-0. I batted in the bottom of the 1st inning and hit a 3 run home run. The next inning, I came up to bat with bases loaded and cleared it with a triple. 6 RBIs, not bad...We won 12-11 as Mr. Prana hit a walk off home run. That was pretty cool playing baseball @ Philmont. We used rocks as bases. We did some reloading which was tight. IT is recycling bullets. Put in the powder and capped it off. We shot the bullets that we reloaded. It was 12 gauge shooting. We had 5 shots and we had to shoot this clay moving bird. I hit my 1st one but missed the last 4. 12 gauge shooting was a cool 1st time experience. We decided to cook dinner for lunch. After lunch, hiked about 1.5 miles up to Deer Lake. Set up camp there and came back down for burro racing at 7:30. Me Matthew and Mark teamed up with a burro named Coach Jr. I was the back person, the person who pats the burros butt to go. It was cool as our burro got 2nd place in our heat. Immediately after that, we hiked back to Deer Lake. It was getting dark so we hiked as a clump. IT was a bit scary as mountain lions roamed the night but we got to camp safely when it was almost dark. That night hike back to Deer Lake was dangerous but another cool experience. Also, we got to experience what a pilot and bombadeer was, back to back toilets out in the open. Red Roof Inn can be pilot and copilot (next to each other)or back to back.
Friday, July 17, 2009: Day 4
Day 4 was a scary and tough day. We broke camp at Deer Lake and headed towards Ute Gulch Comissary, where we got resupplied with 4 days of food (beef jerky for breakfast, crackers for lunch, dehydrated food for dinner, and snacks to go along with it) and toilet paper. Then, we hiked down to Cimarroncito, where we were gonna do rock climbing. But when we got there, the staff told us that no more time slots were available. So as a compensation, we got to shower. The shower felt great and the best thing was it was warm. I was in charge of cooking dinner that day and cooked Mexican rice with tortillas. Right after I finished my 1st bowl, I sneezed. Blood started coming out of my nose and it kept gushing. I applied some napkins to try to stop the bleeding. I pinched my nose and let it sit for about 10 min. I changed tissues and bam it was still coming down. I walked up to the staff cabin where they gave me more tissue. I held it there for 10 more minutes and changed another tissue. Blood was still gushing out of my nose. I was scared. I thought I was gonna bleed to death as my other nose was bleeding too. I was brought inside of the staff cabin, where the medic radioed base camp. He asked for my information and so on. But my nose stopped bleeding and I was ok. My nose was bleeding for 45 minutes!!! That was my longest ever. Thank goodness it stopped. After that, we hiked up to Websters Parks. The cause of my nosebleed was most likely cause I did not drink enough water after my shower. I made a big mistake. IT was a scary moment for me that Friday. I seriously thought I was about to die but I didn't.
Saturday, July 18, 2009: Day 5
Up to this day, we had not gotten rain yet. Starting around mid July is monsoon season for Philmont as it will rain everyday in the afternoon. We finally got rain today. We hiked about 4 miles today to Sawmill from Wesbsters Park (had to set up camp in the dark cause of my nose bleeed delay). It took about under 4 hours. Had lunch at Sawmill, our first staff camp, and wrote a letter home. Sawmill is 9280 feet in elevation. We got to reload and do 30 .06 rifle shooting @ Sawmill. The reloading was a completely different method. We shot our targets laying down instead of standing up like the 1st time. Again, it was pretty cool shooting. We got our campsite after that. By that time, the clouds had moved in and it was really grey. All of us knew rain was on its way. So we set up our bear bags, dining fly, and tents real fast, in about 20 minutes. THEN, it started raining. Thunder rumbled up in the sky and we all gathered under the dining fly. We started cooking our dinner. All of a sudden, it started hailing. That was all of our first time seeing hail. IT was hailing the size of a marble and hailed for about 20 minutes. I covered my head a bit and thunder kept rumbling. Soon, the hail stopped and it rained. After about another 20 minutes, the rain stopped. We ate dinner and then quickly went in our tent and called it a night. IT rained after that too. Day 5 was really cool as we saw hail for the 1st time in our lives.
Sunday, July 19, 2009: Day 6
Day 6 was our hardest day. We climbed up from 9280 ft and then down and then back up to about 10,660 ft. 9 miles. We rised at 4 AM to catch the sunrise at Sawmill. WE waited about 30 minutes for the sun to rise fuly. It was cool as I never saw sun rise before. I always see sunset back home. Took down camp and our longest day began. The trail started gradually and then when we hit the 4 wheel drive road, it was steep uphill. That was tiring and we took many breaks and took it easy. It was a bit difficult but we flattened out and reached Thunder Ridge camp. 6 other crew members plus me decided to head down to Cyphers Mine to fill up on water. Going down 1.5 miles was easy. Cypers Mine had no potable water so we had to borrow someone's filter. When we came back, it rained on us. It hailed and we all took cover under this shed. Thunder roared above us and there were some flashes of lightning which was farther away. We climbed up the 1.5 miles slowly in sets. Went one by one and then stopped under a tree. We did this and reached Thunder Ridge. Rain had stopped by that time. We finished the final leg of the day which was gradual uphill to Commache Peak. We were happy that rain didn't hit us while we were carrying our backpack that day 6.
Monday, July 20, 2009: Day 7
Day 7, the day we climbed Mt. Phillips. Broke camp at Commanche Peak and hiked out to the viewpoint. Saw the city of Cimarron. IT was pretty cool. Then, we elevated through rocky terrain. It was a pretty gradual uphill though. Kept going and we reached the summit of Mt. Phillips, 11660 ft in elevation. The view up there was pretty fascinating. Saw the other mountains around Philmont like Mt. Baldy, the tallest summit in Philmont. I took a lot of pictures up there. It felt like I was on top of the world. The sky was clear too so the view was spectacular. After 40 minutes up there, we started hiking down. And we thought going down would be EASY but no, it was challenging. The slope was at a 45 degree angle and the hill was rocky. I took it easy and used my hiking poles to my advantage. After that downhill part, we reached Clear Creek. Had lunch there and I had to stand in the pond water for 30 minutes because I was crew leader and it was a tradition there. The plus side, my stinky feet were rinsed off. It started sprinkling a bit as we were hiking to Commanche camp site but it was a gradual downhill. The rain wasn't that serious. We had to hike up to our campsite and that last portion was hell. But we got to our campsite. We were on high bear watch that night as we spotted portions of bear poop.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009: Day 8
Day 8, we woke up early at 4:30 AM. We had a 1:00 PM horse riding @ Beaubien to catch. Hit the trail at 6:30 AM and we went down. It was all downhill or flat for 5 miles and we finished that in about 2 hours. Picked up food at Phillips Jucntion, our last one of our trek. We stuffed it into our packs and headed up 1.5 miles to Beaubien. Reached our campsite where we stayed 2 nights around 10:30 AM. We had extra time to spare so I decided to do branding. Philmont has 2 brands, a cattle and horse brand. I decided to brand one on each side of my boots and on my hat. IT looked pretty darn good. They take this medal thing and put it in fire and then press it down on my boots and other things. So we were planning to do horse back riding at 1. We got all the instructions and rules and put on our helmets. But then it rained and then the rain turned into hail. So they called the horse back riding off for that day. Boy we were all furious with mother nature. Bad timing. That day, it rained from 1:00 PM to 8:00 PM non stop. The rain stopped as we set up our tents but it kept sprinkling and some downpour. That night, we had our chuck wagon dinner. I volunteered along with Eric Cho to go make it for our crew. So around 3:30, we headed down and made the cobbler and biscuit. Stirred it in the pot and that was it. That night, we all gathered for the dinner. It was beef stew with biscuit. I got two scoops into my bowl which was nice. Afterward, the peach cobbler tasted great too. We finally got decent food that night instead of trail dehydrated food.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009: Day 9
Our layover day at Beaubien. Got to sleep in and got 10 hours of sleep. Not bad. We had our conservation project from 8-11. The first hour was mainly instructions and then we started. We went to this campsite and cut the logs into stumps. I also help cut down this small tree. Cutting down a tree is pretty simple. Make a triangle cut and then one from the back and bam, it will fall. I also help cart this wheel barrow of dead scrubs and weeds do this dumpster place. So we got 3 hours of service working with the saws and other pieces of equipment. In the afternoon, we hiked the 8 mile trail peak. We saw this dead deer bone on the trail and I took a picture with it. It was pretty tight. We reached the peak after 2 hours with no packs, only a day pack. Up on trail peak, there was the Bomber 24 plane, a plane that crashed April 22, 1942 as they were doing a training flight. All the plane pieces was all there. As we climbed up, we saw more of it. The wing was up on the peak and there was a small memorial there. We hiked back in 2 hours too and the weather became all cloudy. We started preparing dinner and suddenly it rained. Then we saw lightning and we all ran under the dining fly for cover. The lightning was right above us as we counted 2 seconds and then thunder rumbled. Boy that scared us and we all prayed for 45 minutes. Rain kept pouring and lightning and thunder was in the sky. I was personally scared. After that moment, the rain stopped and the sky cleared. It was a scary experience with lightning right above us. We were lucky we weren't struck. We survivied day 9.
Thursday, July 23, 2009: Day 10
Day 9 was mostly downhill for 7 miles. And we hiked down after a late start. As we were hiking down, it started raining. And it was a steep downhill. All rocky and we kind of got lost with the trail. The trail disappeared on us. We put on our rain gear and continued hiking even with the rain. The rain increased in its strength and we all were in a bad mood. My pants got wet as I didn't put on rain pants. The trail was all muddy and slippery. I almost fell on this log but my hiking sticks saved me. It was just a slick nasty last 3 hours of hiking. I hated it. Mr. Prana fell twice. Nathan's hiking poles broke. Eric Cho fell a few times too. We missed a turn and I had to lead our crew back and up to Carson Meadows. Once we got there, we were all happy. We changed our wet clothes and let it dry as we drank hot chocolate to cool up. Thank you Carson Meadows staff. My feet were all wet and my boots were filled with mud. We decided not to do program that day and set up camp. I dried my socks and my hat and shirts. That night, we created a campfire and we all held our socks next to it. It was pretty funny scene. I got to tent by myself that night and got a really good night sleep. It was really relaxing by myself.
Friday, July 24, 2009: Day 11
Last day of hiking. We did the Search and Rescue program @ Carson Meadows. We learned what it was like for the staff rescuing people. The activity was pretty fun. We hiked about an hour down to Abreu (2 miles). There we dropped our packs and did some program there. We did Adobe brick building, the old fashioned way of making bricks. We dug dirt from the big hole and dumped it into this shaker. Then, we mixed the dirt with water and it became muddy. We dumped it into this square shape perimeter and mixed it with hay. There we did it, the making of bricks. We also toured the cabin there which was home to people back in 1912. It was a pretty cool house with most of the stuff still in tact. We did some tomahawk throwing. I almost hit someone but was able to chop down the wood. After that, we drank root beer at the cantina. They have a mini trading post there. I drank one cup which tasted the best ever. I also ate some peanuts there as we played cards and chilled around there. IT only sprinkled that day so we were lucky. Rain didn't hit us as we hiked the last mile (30 minutes) to Zastrow. At Zastrow, we set up our campsite for the last day. Cooked dinner. After dinner, we ate some more cobbler, this time an apple one. We shared ours with our sister crew. It was tasty. So that was it, our last night out in the backcountry.
Saturday, July 25, 2009: Day 12
Last day at Philmont. We woke up and broke camp and hit the trail at 8. For some odd reason, we got everything packed away that day in one hour instead of the normal 2. The hike was about 1/2 mile. IT was uphill and then flat. We reached Zastrow Turnaround in 20 minutes and the bus came. We were all happy on the bus back to base camp as we all sang "Na Na Na Hey Hey Goodbye" and "We are the Champions." We were all excited to exited the back country. Once we got our tent assignments, I went to go shower. The water was again warm and I applied 2 times the amount of soap and shampoo. Boy was I dirty. But I was finally clean. Called home and saw the package I recieved from my family. They sent over some LA Times Sports newspapers along with this hat they made that has my name, expedition, and Philmont on it. In the afternoon, we all shopped around at the Tooth of Time Traders trading post. I spent most of my money. I bought the Philmont belt along with belt buckle ($30) bronze one. IT looks tight. Bought a neckerchief slide along with many T-shirts. Also bought some smaller things like magnets and etc. We had pizza for lunch which was awesome again. I went to go tour the Philmont museum along with Waite Phillip's Villa Philmonte, his summer home. His house is huge. I took many pictures of it with my battery dying. At night, there was the closing campfire where we were all happy we were on the home bound side. We received this "We all made it " plaque. So that was our last day in Philmont.
Sunday, July 26, 2009 to Monday, July 27, 2009
Our travel days. Left Philmont on the bus at 9 and said goodbye to it. The bus took us back to Raton where we boarded our Amtrak Train around 10:30. The train chugged through New Mexico and we stopped by Albuqurque for over an hour. I went to this Japanese store and bought a chicken bowl with miso soup. I finally had rice. Ate that on the train. We got back to the Fullerton Train station Monday morning at 6:30 AM. All of our parents and family siblings were all there. They were extremely happy to see us back home safely.
Overall, Philmont was fun. It was a trip of a lifetime. I will not forget the experience, 7 days of rain, hail, thunder, lightning. It was a cool experience being back in the backcountry. I probably won't see that place again but the pictures will bring back the memories, whether it was good our bad. Thank you mom and dad for signing me up for Philmont. I didn't want to go at first but now I can have the cool honor of "Philmont veteran" and can show off to the other scouts my belt, neckerchief, and much more. Philmont, I had a great time.
