Wow, even my hands are tired as I type after a weekend out with the Philmont crew and 20 miles of hard hiking. We’ve just finished our third and final shakedown before we head off to Philmont and boy was this great.
Despite a few grumbles early on Saturday morning (rain, unseasonably cool temps and elevation gain) I think to a man the boys enjoyed this.
We met up at the church at 7 p.m. on Friday and headed out 66 to 81 to Woodstock, swung a hard right and headed west about 30 minutes and eventually hit the trail head (not literally) at about 8:45. We parked up, loaded up with packs and headed up the trial to try and find our campsite. Luckily it was where it should be, habitable and high enough above the stream, swollen from the days rain, to be safe. We pitched tents, hung the bear bags (eventually) and turned in.
The stream was raging all night and to our surprise when we woke up we saw a beautiful waterfall right by where we hung our bear bags that was masked by darkness the night before. A real treat.
The aim of this trip was to for the boys to truly run the event, to navigate, to dictate pace and to learn to work together. They certainly exceeded my expectations. Pacing was a little off but overall they were great.
On Saturday we walked just under 13 miles, fully laden with pretty extreme elevation gains and only had one major navigation issue. At one point we really didn’t know exactly where we were on the trail! We were not using GPS navigation (as will be in Philmont) so the boys had to sort this out. Without fighting, shouting or any grumpiness they did. It was great to see.
The Halfmoon Lookout was the special day one treat about 8 miles in (but it was up an unreasonably and very rude steep incline!). We got an amazing view of one of the valleys leading north-south (up there with ANY view of any hike I’ve done in this area) that to me resembled the mold for the hull of a Viking long ship.
When our tired little bods eventually found camp (after a really horrible and rocky last mile) it was right by a spring and worked out really well. We ate and we slept. The boys decided it was too much work to light a fire (major disappointment for the adults) so we hit the sack early.
We woke, ate and loaded up and headed to Big Schloss. What an amazing view and an beautiful spot. We spent a few minutes looking around, took some pics, bumped into some girl scouts that lifted the boys spirits and then headed back down the mountain to the road and then the short ½ mile stroll back to the cars.
In total we covered, give or take an inch, 20 miles over the weekend. I know we’re all tired but the payoff from the overlooks was awesome and I know the boys enjoyed it (‘cos I overhead them saying it!!!).
Their work over the last year getting ready truly showed. They could not have done what they did without putting in the effort. It was great to have Will Fernau join us after his around the world adventure and I know all the boys (and the old men) will sleep well tonight.
-- The Commodore :-) --