While I sit here and enjoy Romania, Charles has begun his own adventure and took his first airplane flight headed, eventually, to Philmont Boy Scout Ranch in Cimarron, NM.
They were up early Saturday morning and at the Charlotte Airport at 06:00 AM. Landing in Colorado Springs they spent 2 days of “Altitude Acclimation” where they enjoyed a tour of the Air Force Academy and a trip up the Cog Rail to see the top of Pike’s Peak. These are Hearty Boy Scouts; so no wildfires can stop them!
On Monday, they will arrive at Philmont Base Camp to begin their 12 day, 73 mile (+/- depending on if they “turn right when they shoulda turned left”) adventure.
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| View From Pike's Peak Wow!! |
For the uninitiated, Philmont is 137,000 Acres of rugged Northwest New Mexico mountain territory. Each day, the Scouts will hike through some of the most unbelievably beautiful country ever seen and their only survival will be 8 Scouts and 4 adults working together with only what they are carrying on their backs!
Their Trek leads them from the Base Camp at an elevation of around 6,500 feet (for comparison, Spartanburg is only a measly 800 feet above sea level) towards Crater Lake, across the Black Mountain, winding around Lookout Meadow and Buck Creek to then be challenged by scaling the peak of Mount Phillips where they will climb some 2,700 feet in only 8 short miles to reach their highest point of 11,741 feet ("Hey, where did all the oxygen go!?"). After this, they have a steady downhill "stroll" of about 3,700 feet through Upper Sawmill where they will be rewarded with an enjoyable two day stay at Cimarroncito before the final push to traverse across the infamous “Tooth of Time” ridge and finally back into Base Camp completing their 12 days on the trail and ready for a much overdue - and well deserved - shower. This adventure is not for the faint of heart (I am quite jealous I didn’t get to go with him, if you haven’t guessed by now).
So enjoy the first picture he sent from Pike’s Peak above and then look at the itinerary below and follow along with them for the next two weeks while they conquer the majestic peaks and valleys of Philmont!
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| Itinerary of Trek |
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| Map of Trek Relative to Ranch Property |
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| You Can Track Their Daily Progress. Watch Out For Day 7! |
10 comments:
Enjoying your posts! Not sure if we ever talked on it but I went to Philmont with Andrew in 2004. It was a thrill and quite a challenge....a cherished experience that we shared.
... Dan E.
JAy is anouncing every day where he is. He wishes he was there too!
... Lucia S.
The real day to watch is day 8. The long slow slog downhill to Cimmarroncito and Day 11 with the tough climb up to Shaeffer's Peak and then along Tooth Ridge Trail! But Mt. Phillips is tough, no switchbacks. It is just straight up the side of the mountain! At points you are grabbing roots and rockss for handholds to keep going up.
That is GREAT! I missed my chance both at Philmont and to attain the rank of Eagle Scout. I'm counting on Charles to do both... and then, ok, head to Ga Tech, 720 Fowler Street, etc.
...and Charles - assume you are reading this: Look out for one of my peers hiking the same trail with his son's troop next week: John Ganley, ChE from Northeastern University and working with me up here in RI.
Be careful troops!
S.
I just got back from Philmont… I was one of 3 leaders to take my 15 year old son (Nathan) and 8 other boys. We drove out there (Uhhhg!), spent one day hanging out in the nearby ski resort town of Red River (@~9000 ft, with a side hike down to the Rio Grande), then hit the trail on 6/11. The boys had a great time, and we leaders held up pretty well. We had a “short” (68 mile) itinerary, pretty much South-to-North… We started near where Charles will (Rayado). We were supposed to side-hike to the Tooth of Time (but couldn’t- didn’t have enough water that day), but we did hike Baldy (12,400 ft) (after staying at our layover at Cimarroncito- I hope Charles gets to do the Tomahawk throwing and Black Powder Rifle shooting- that was a big hit with our crew), and we packed with burros. We did manage to get one shower during our time on the trail… boy, were we stinky! Overall, a fun, exciting trip.
Especially fun for me was the fact that we stayed at 3 camps where I stayed when I went 37 years ago, when I was 15. We camped on Mount Phillips back then… I remember my tent being next to some car-sized snow drifts… in June! We had a snow (ice?) ball fight with our leader. As a matter of fact, now that I look at Charles’ itinerary, it looks an awful lot like my teenage itinerary.
Oh, other fun facts about Philmont… they claim to be the biggest summer camp, both in area (>200 Sq Miles), and number of campers (23,000 this summer.) They told us that they have 300-500 campers arrive each day, and they hike out the next day, all summer long. They definitely have this thing down to an art!
Hope Charles comes away with the spectacular memories I have. It is a shame you couldn’t join him… I enjoyed watching my son experience the things that had meant so much to me. Still, you are to be applauded for supporting Charles in going to Philmont…not only paying for the trip and all the equipment, but presumably getting him to some training hikes (his crew *did* do training hikes, didn’t they?) Philmont was certainly one of the most memorable things I have ever done in my life. Of course, I have never been to Romania!
Keep on Bloggin’!
... Lamar G.
Lamar, long time no hear ...
I really, really wanted to go. He wanted me to go, but adult slots were filled. Been texting like crazy with him since he left. He has been a little emotional rollercoaster. They elected him crew chief yesterday (and he really doesn’t know these boys from Rock Hill) so very excited on that, then a bit low when he started figuring out all the work he had to do and didn’t know how to do it, so I just walked him through the thought process for organizing. He knows how to do all this - been doing it for years, but he hadn’t mentally prepared for being leader so the shock kinda got him for a while. They hit the trail about 11:00 AM EDT today, and then he’ll be Mr. High again.
They did do some preparation hikes, but high school exam schedule prevented him from attending the last one.
I went in ‘75 and ‘76. In ’76 we had a dry camp for one night we didn’t want to go to, so we studied the map and deviated to the next site where we decided to spend 2 days to stay on schedule. We got caught hiking along a highway and feigned being lost (that’s where the comment about “turned right when shoulda turned left” comes from). The Ranger who caught us made us do a 2 hour orienteering crash course, got us on correct trail, and left us. We sat around for 30 mins to wait for him to clear out, and then back where we came from and still avoided the dry camp. A famous story in my household.
I did Baldy both years. Tooth second year. Never did Phillips. I still have my yellowed and highlighted map of my itineraries which Charles has seen, so I already ordered him one from the Philmont store so it will waiting on him when he gets home (and won’t be wrinkled).
He has a two day layover in Cimarroncito, so if tomahawk throwing/black powder shooting is involved; he’ll be first in line!
What an adventure for Charles!! I am so proud of him and hope Mitchell will continue this story as Charles tells it to him.
Two questions about Charles' trip to Philmont:
First plane trip? You've kept the boy locked in a closet his whole life?? I think I heard about this on Nancy Grace.
Is he in Troop 1? Eric was in Troop 1 in Sptbg--a great organization. Very good experiences. As a matter of fact, he continued to join them for a few big events even after he moved here to Georgia. A big shout out to Maxy Lynn (I think that was his last name) and Walter Oates, two super scoutmasters.
... Dan N
First Plane trip indeed.
Actually, Elise has only had two, and Sam has zero!
Our travel circle is pretty much a 4 hour radius of Spartanburg. I ask often “lets go someplace far.” And they respond with “We like the beach. Go to the beach.” So we do.
Sometimes less is more!
Yes, Troop 1. Maxie Lynn and Oates are retired scoutmasters now. Ted Gage is now scoutmaster. Charles completed his Eagle Project and Board of Review before leaving for Philmont, so he is officially an Eagle Scout. Now we just have to schedule the official ceremony.
Hey I work at cito this year. Hopefully I'll get to belay Charles up a climb. It will be nice to see a fellow troop 1 scout not to mention a eagle scout!
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