Troop 2 at Philmont in 1997 Troop 2 at Philmont in 1997Last Updated: March 4th, 1998(click on patch for a better view)
It had been 31 years since I visited Philmont in 1966 when I was a 16-year-old scout from New Hampshire. That year I traveled with a contingent of Scouts from throughout the state. We traveled to Philmont by bus and stayed at military bases and gymnasiums on our way through New Jersey, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Tulsa, and Armarillo. I thought that Philmont was going to be a desert; I found out that it was some of the most rugged forested mountain terrain in the country. I vowed that after Philmont I would live in the West. In 1972 I moved to Oregon and never left.
Troop 2 of Corvallis, Oregon has a tradition of visiting Philmont every 4 or 5 years. I have been Troop Committee Chairman since 1992. When the opportunity arose to visit Philmont in 1995, I jumped at it having fond memories of my trek in 1966. We phoned in our reservations in July 1995 for our trek on July 15-28, 1997. We trained hard those two years; a fifty-mile hike in the Oregon Cascades in 1995, a thirty-mile hike in the rugged Eagle Cap Wilderness in 1996, and several training hikes in 1997 before Philmont.
The trek we chose at Philmont was a combination of the trek taken by Troop 2 in 1992 and the trek I took in 1966 through the mountainous south and central part of Philmont. The following was our itenery:
Day 1 - Leave for Philmont
Day 2 - Training at basecamp
Day 3 - Hike to Rayado River Camp
Day 4 - Rayado River to Toothache Spring Camp
Day 5 - Toothache Springs to Miners Park Camp
Day 6 - Miners Park to Lower Bonito Camp
Day 7 - Lower Bonito to Apache Springs
Day 8 - Layover at Apache Springs
Day 9 - Apache Springs to Crooked Creek Camp via Phillips Junction
Day 10 - Crooked Creek to Clear Creek Camp
Day 11 - Clear Creek to Cyphers Mine Camp over Mt. Phillips
Day 12 - Cyphers Mine to Shaefers Pass Camp
Day 13 - Shaefers Pass to Basecamp
Day 14 - Return home
In 1966 I visited Rayado River, Lower Bonito, and Shaefers Pass. In 1992 Troop 2 visited Rayado River, Cyphers Mine, and Shaefers Pass. Our trek in 1997 would be more ambitious; we planned to hike over 11,500 ft. Mt. Phillips with full packs and hike over 70 miles in 10 days.
Our crew in 1997 consisted of 9 people; 4 adults and 5 scouts:
Mr. Gregory Filip, Head Advisor
Mr. Thomas Spies, Advisor
Mrs. Kaye Berggren, Advisor
Mrs. Leegh Wyse, Advisor
Scout Reid Wyse, Crew Leader, Star Scout, Age 16
Scout Jeremy Filip, Life Scout, Age 16
Scout Eric Berggren, Life Scout, Age 16
Scout Jack Spies, Second Class Scout, Age 14
Scout Kurt Spies, Second Class Scout, Age 14
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We arrived at Portland International Airport at 5:00 and had breakfast at Wendy's. We left Portland at 6:45 for Albuquerque on Reno Air. We got a real good deal on airline tickets; $181 round trip. Our packs were enclosed in plastic bags or packed into bicycle boxes for added protection.
We arrived in Reno, and the scouts gave me a few quarters to play the slots in the terminal. Our stay was short so we reboarded for Las Vegas where we changed planes for Albuquerque.
We arrived in Albuquerque on time AND with all of our luggage. We had about an hour before the scout troop from California was scheduled to arrive. We arranged to share the cost of a charter bus with them to Philmont at about $41 apiece roundtrip. I had arranged the ride share with Steve Buchinski, Scoutmaster of Troop 765 in Thousand Oaks, CA. He had originally called us by getting our names from Philmont Headquarters. We loaded our packs on the bus, and Steve's troop arrived at about 3:00 pm.
We traveled to Philmont via Rt. 25 through Santa Fe. We had dinner at Las Vegas, NM at 5:15 and arrived at Philmont at 7:30. We unloaded our packs, checked into the Welcome Center, and set up our tents in the meadow between the incoming and outgoing Philmont tents. Because many of the Philmont tents were empty, we thought that we should be given these tents to avoid setting up our own tents. Although there were many troops coming in well into the night, we got a good nights sleep. We would need it for tomorrow.
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That afternoon we had a big duststorm but no rain. It had not rained at Philmont for about two weeks. Certainly a bunch of Oregonians would change that. In the evening, we hiked to the opening campfire and saw a few skits by the staff.
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We hiked a short distance to Zastro Training Center where we had a lesson in orienteering by our Ranger. Everyone assembled around a picnic table except Eric and Jeremy. They were drinking water from a water fountain behind the Training Center. The Ranger yelled, "That water is not treated. You're going to get Giardiasis!" We had a long talk about drinking water at Philmont and how to prevent Giardiasis. In 7 to 10 days our two scouts may need more toilet paper than usual.
We hiked a mile or so to Rayado River Camp and set up our tent near the river under ponderosa pines and oaks. We were told about the bear triangle; the lines formed by connecting the sump, bear cables, and eating area. Our tents were to be at least 10 feet from the triangle boundary or risk a visit from curious bruins.
After pitching camp, we hiked another mile to New Abreu Camp where we had ice-cold root beer in the Cantina. The Scouts made adobe bricks from mud and straw that they mixed with their feet and hands. They dried the bricks and placed them on a new wall that would extend the Cantina. We went back to camp for dinner but returned to Abreu in the evening for the burro races. Our scouts got second place, but only three teams raced. We returned to camp, hung our bear bags (all food and smellables, including Jeremy's pack), and were in bed by 9pm.
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We hiked to Abreu and then on to Toothache Spring Camp at 7700 ft. We hiked a short distance through scrub oak and pinyon and then up a steep rocky slope in 95 degree heat. We topped out at a big meadow below the cliffs of Uracca Mesa where our campsite was located. We found a nice place to camp at the edge of the meadow with an impressive view of Uracca Mesa.
By noon it clouded over but no rain. For our daily adventure, our Ranger was bit on the foot by a 3-foot rattlesnake. Fortunately, he had just put on his boots where the snake bit him. We all had a chance to see the snake that was still in the meadow.
Water from Toothache Springs empties into a large water tank. The water was green from algae, and it quickly clogged our water filters. Mine never worked again after that although I tried to clean the cartridge. Tom and Kaye's filter fared much better, but we decided to use our iodine just in case. We began to appreciate how clean our water is in Oregon.
Our Ranger gave us a good lecture on environmental awareness by reading excerpts from Dr. Seuss. The Scouts also were told to remove all charcoal from the fire pit after a campfire, crush the charcoal, and spread it in the forest. We also heard stories about how Uracca Mesa was haunted, and how "blue orbs" are often seen on the Mesa. Our Ranger gave us a pound cake that he was carrying for our dessert. This was the last day with our Ranger; we would be on our own to face the rattlesnakes, giardia, lightning, bears, and "blue orbs".
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We woke to clear skies again and began our 6-mile hike to Miners Park, mostly downhill. We hiked around Uracca Mesa, over Stonewall Pass, and down to Lovers Leap Camp where we had lunch. From there we hiked uphill through pines that had been thinned by the Philmont Staff. It was nice to see some active forest management, which I preach as a professor of forestry at Oregon State University.
We arrived at Miners Park at about 1pm. There were nice meadows and pines to camp under. This was our first staff camp on the trail, so we proceeded to headquarters and announced our arrival. We were shown our camp where we quickly pitched our tents and rainfly as it was beginning to cloud over. We signed up for an environmental awareness program at 1pm and rock climbing at 3pm. The scouts had a interesting exercise and did some role playing for the environmental awareness program.
We returned to camp, and it started to rain hard. After covering our packs, we all dove under the rain fly. Rain, lightning, and hail fell for about 15 minutes; this was our first Philmont downpour and it didn't disappoint us. Unfortunately, our rock climbing class was canceled because of the weather, so we rescheduled it for 8am next morning. We would be hiking later in the day, but hopefully it wouldn't rain.
At 7:30pm the adults went to the advisor's coffee where we met several other adult leaders from around the country. We turned in at about 9pm.
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It rained most of the night but cleared in the morning. The trail would no longer be dusty. We dried out our tents and went rock climbing at 8am. We hiked about a mile uphill to a nice granite cliff where the staff had set belays. Our scouts climbed and rappelled except Reid; none of our advisors climbed. I thought about it, since I had done a fair amount of climbing in my younger days. Because we had many miles to go, I decided against climbing and possibly hurting myself.
We left Miners Park at 11am and hiked to Crater Lake Camp (8400 ft) where we had lunch. Unlike Oregon's Crater Lake, this Crater Lake is really a shallow pond with no Wizard Island. The building at the camp was one of Waite Phillip's lodges. I turned in our garbage to the staff, who promptly tested its compactness by hitting it like a ball with a baseball bat; the whole package exploded all over the area. We packed it better the second time.
After a lunch of peanut butter, jelly, and crackers, we hiked steeply uphill to Fowler Pass (9200 ft). It began to cloud over as we hiked with distant thunder. We didn't linger in the pass and hiked rapidly down to Bonito Meadow through aspen, Douglas-fir and white fir. Fortunately, it did not rain.
We arrived at Lower Bonito Camp (8900 ft) at 2:30 after hiking through the main meadow and a nice side meadow below Trail Peak. I remember camping here in 1966. To me this was the most scenic campsite that we had at Philmont. There were no other campers in the area! We had a nice, clean spring near camp. It rained at about 4:30pm after we pitched the tents.
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I woke at about 4:45am to something rattling plastic near the packs about ten feet from my tent. With my flashlight, I spotted a large raccoon eating food near one of the packs. I got up and saw that the raccoon had removed the rain cover from the pack, unzipped one of the pockets, and was feasting on one of the trail lunches. Here was another teachable moment. We had been stressing for several days the importance of not leaving food in packs because of animals. I gathered all the scouts and asked whose pack it was. Kurt Spies was terribly embarrassed and confessed to the deed. I told him how fortunate we all were that it wasn't a bear.
As the morning sun rose it began shining on the opposite side of our meadow, so we gathered our wet tents and laid them out in the sun. We left camp at about 7:45 and hiked uphill to Webster Pass (9200 ft). After a brief rest we hiked down to Fish Camp on a steep trail in Rayado Canyon. The morning light was shining through the trees, and we moved as one. I was really proud of our troop and how well they were hiking. I felt as one with the outdoors; city cares were another world away.
We arrived at Fish Camp at 9:45. Four of the scouts and 2 adults stayed at Fish Camp and learned how to fly fish. After emptying our packs, Reid, Jack, Tom, and I hiked 2.5 miles to Phillips Junction to get our food and fuel. Phillips Junction was like a rendezvous were several troops were gathering to get supplies. We met Steve Buchinski there; his troop would always be one camp ahead of ours during our trek at Philmont. The trading post was complete with candy, apples, stoves, flashlights, and everything you would need to finish the trek if you lost or broke anything.
We had lunch and hiked back to Fish Camp at 12:30. At Fish Camp we distributed the food and repacked our packs. It began to rain so we suited up with raingear. We had to hike up along Agua Fria Creek. The rain soon turned to a downpour, and the trail became a stream. We had 18 stream crossings over wet logs and rocks and a rising river. At one sideslope we had to cross a wet slippery spot. We had to go above the trail on better ground.
We made our last stream crossing and started up the "seven switchbacks from hell" to the plateau at Apache Springs. At one spot Leegh fell, skinned her SHIN, and twisted her knee. Fortunately she got back up and was able to go on. Her boots were lightweight with very little tread; almost useless on muddy slopes. Reid took some of her equipment which helped.
We got to Apache Springs Camp at 4pm, wet, tired, and hungry. By the looks on our faces, the staff at Apache Springs saw that we were in no mood for any program that afternoon and promptly took us to our campsite. We set up camp in the rain, had a great dinner of spaghetti and hot cocoa, and even managed to start a fire. The boys from Oregon know how to build fires from wet wood! It had been a long day and probably our worst at Philmont because of the rain and terrain.
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Today we had a treat; we slept in until 6:45! The morning was overcast, and we went to the Apache sweatlodge at 10am. The staff explained the hazards of the sweat lodge which can get over 140 degrees from steam. They heated rocks in a large bonfire. All nine of us crawled into the lodge which was made of canvass spread over a stick frame. The staff put the hot rocks in the center of the lodge and gave us a gallon of water with a large spoon. They shut the door. As we poured water on the rocks, the temperature quickly rose. We all began to sweat profusely. After 15 minutes we only used half the water, so the staff told us to pour the rest on the rocks. The temperature became unbearable, the staff opened the door, and we all piled out. We poured two gallons on cold water on each of us. We were now "purified" and ready to take on the more difficult part on our trek; the hike over Mt. Phillips.
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In the afternoon, we had a lecture on Jicarilla Apache life inside a large tepee with buffalo robes on the floor. The Jicarillas lived in the area and were more friendly to whites than the other Apache tribes. They eventually lost their religion, unlike other Apaches, and now live north of Philmont along the Colorado border. The staff were not allowed to wear Jicarilla Apache outfits because of a suit that the Apaches would file. That's a pity, because authentic outfits would have added greatly to the camp mystique.
At 7:15pm we met at the advisors coffee and hiked about 20 minutes to see the sunset along the Philmont boundary. The sunset was poor because of the thick clouds. On the way back down in near darkness, Leegh cut her hand, although not seriously, on the barbed wire fence that was part of the boundary. We got to bed about 9pm.
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We woke again to a sunny day at 5:00 and started hiking at 7:15. We were getting more efficient at striking camp, a testimony to how much the scouts had learned since we arrived at Philmont. We hiked through Bear Canyon and Buck Canyon on our way to Phillips Junction for another food and fuel pickup. Everybody bought some pogey bait and geedunk (junk food). We also argued about getting more toilet paper, but we would need a lot if giardiasis struck in a few days. We hiked up Rayado Canyon to Crooked Creek, a tributary of the Rayado.
We arrived at noon to a nice cabin above a meadow with geese, chickens, cows, sheep, and burros; a virtual "little house on the prairie." The staff "lady" met us and told the scouts that they were homesteaders and would get their piece of land to camp on in exchange for doing chores. The scouts weren't sure what this meant; the last thing they wanted to do was chores after a long hike. We were shown our campsite across the river under spruce and aspen.
At 6:30 we ate cookies baked by the staff. The scouts "chores" mainly consisted of gathering all the animals for the night. That was mostly easy except for the chickens which ran all over the area. Everyone got to milk a real cow and drink the warm milk.
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This morning we had a nice easy hike of about 6 miles up Rayado Canyon. We went from fir to pure spruce. We arrived early at about 10am at Clear Creek Camp (10,500 ft.). At the site was a beautiful little cabin in a narrow canyon. The cabin was occupied by crazy mountain men. They gave us mountain men names such as "Possum Crotch" for Eric; "Ermin Anus" for Reid; and "Weasel Spit" for Jeremy.
We set up camp above the cabin a few feet outside of the Philmont property. After lunch we shot black powder rifles. The scouts got to shoot their hats. Because some of the hats were missed, the mountain man put all of the hats on the end of his rifle barrel and shot them. The ball hit the button on the top of one of the Spies twins hat and blue a huge hole in it.
In the evening we hiked about one-half mile to view the sunset. We were told some tall tales by the mountain men and went to bed early. Tomorrow would be our big test; the hike over 11,500 ft Mt. Phillips.
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We woke at 5:30 to a temperature of 40 degrees; the coldest temperature we had at Philmont. We were so good that we were on the trail by 7:05. We hiked steadily up the steep trail to the false peak of Mt. Phillips and then Mt. Phillips itself. The entire top was above treeline, and we took photos in all directions. It was sunny, warm, and we felt we were on top of the world. We had finished the hardest part of our trek.
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We hiked down the col between Mt. Phillips and Comanche peak and then climbed Comanche Peak. We then hiked down Thunder Ridge to our conservation project site. At the site we had a lecture on trail clearing and ate lunch. The scouts left with a few other troops to have lunch while some of the advisors had lunch. We had some raindrops but thankfully no lightning. A Japanese troop passed by and asked directions to Comanche Peak. What a thrill it must be for them to hike through the "wild west" of the USA. After my nap, I hiked up the new trail to see how the scouts were doing. They were chopping the roots of trees in the new trail. After about 3 hours of trail work we left Thunder Ridge and descended 2000 feet to Cyphers Mine on a nice new trail with switchbacks.
We arrived at 4 pm and did the mine tour. A couple from the BLM lectured on Philmont geology and mining history in the area. Charley Cypher mined gold before Phillips kicked him off the land. Some say you can still hear Charley wailing in the night.
We toured the mine which was about 450 feet long. Although the ore was poor, the mine was operated for several years. At the end of the tour, they turned out the lights for those who wanted to "feel" their way back.
At 7:30 we went to Charley Cypher's old cabin for the "stomp". We purposely included Cyphers Mine on our trek to see the famous "stomp", and we were not disappointed. Five miners with complete costumes and authentic musical instruments told jokes and played songs into the night. Several troops sang and danced. The leader of the crazy group formerly lived in Corvallis; his dad was a student at OSU. We went to bed at 10pm. We all slept in a large lean-to shelter complete with snores, groans, and smells. It was nice to not have to pitch our tents.
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We were up at 6:30 and did some gold panning and blacksmithing. We hiked about five miles down the Middle Fork of Uracca Creek; the North Fork trail was not passable. At Phillip's hunting lodge we had lunch. No one liked the spreadables but me, and only Tom and I liked the pemmican bars.
After lunch, we hiked to Clark Fork Camp and arrived under clouds at 1:30. We had our boots branded with the Philmont brands. Soon a large thunder storm broke with a tremendous bolt of lightning. We quickly covered our packs and dove under the cabin porch. It rained hard for half an hour. A scout emerged from the woods being helped by two others. His horse had spooked by the lightning and he was thrown; he may have broken a rib.
We left camp at about 3:30 as the rain had stopped. We hiked steeply uphill and arrived at Shaefers Pass at 5:30 in sunshine. We camped at the edge of a large meadow. I remembered the meadow from my trek in 1966. We quickly set up camp and dried our clothes. We had a nice fire and supper as we watched deer at the edge of our camp.
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We woke early on our last day on the trail. We lowered our food from the bear cables as we had done every morning, but this day we could not get the bear rope down from the cables. Our crew leader, Reid was a little sick and was upset about the bear rope. He wanted the adults to carry out the trail food, but I said no. We would not move until the scouts packed the food. After a sitdown strike of 5 minutes, the scouts finally packed the food in their packs. This was the worst confrontation of our trek, and I was a little proud of how well the scouts had performed at Philmont. If this was their worst day, then we had come a long way as a scout troop.
We hiked up Shaefers Peak where the new trail stopped just short of the summit. Tom, Kaye, and I hiked to the summit while the rest of the troop rested at the trail junction.
We began our long hike down the Tooth-of-Time Ridge. The trail is in a magnificent position on top of the ridge. There are spectacular views on both sides. The trail, however, was very rocky and rough. Leegh had a very hard time. She kept slipping on the loose rocks and twisting her ankle. At any moment, I thought that we were going to have to distribute her pack among the rest of the troop.
We reached the junction to the Tooth-of-Time at 10:30. We left our packs and climbed up the steep slope to the summit. Near the top, it was a rock climb requiring hands. At the top, there were excellent views in all directions. Leegh finally made the summit with Reid's help. She was shaking as she crawled to the summit because of her fear of heights. We took photos on the summit and basked in the sun.
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At noon, we hiked back down to the trail junction and had lunch. We then hiked down the ridge through rock boulders, cliffs, and rock gargoyles; a spectacular climax to a great trek. I felt strong and happy and wished I could take a few day's rest and go on another 12-day trek, but the real world was calling, and I had to return.
As we hiked further down the ridge, a thunderstorm was chasing us. There was lightning to our left, and we hiked as fast as we could to escape the approaching storm. We had beaten the devil before and we were going to do it again. A light rain fell as we reached the flats before basecamp. We didn't stop to put on raingear, we were too close and the rain felt good on our faces.
When we arrived at Tent City, we dove into the nearest tents, dropped our packs, and waited for the rain to stop. We then went to our lockers and retrieved our gear. We also turned in our Philmont equipment, minus the bear rope which we had to pay for. I went back to the tents and took a long awaited shower, my first real shower in 14 days. I kept my 14 day's growth of beard; a souvenir from Philmont that I wear today.
After a fresh change of clothes, I went to the main office to retrieve our valuables from the safe. They could only find our photographs, but not our valuables. I thought that perhaps one of the other advisors picked them up earlier but that was not the case. I went back and practically demanded our valuables; I wasn't leaving until they found them. Fortunately, our packet was mislabeled as '716-E1" instead of "716-D". We were all relieved to get back our airline tickets, driver's licenses, and credit cards. We then went to the snackbar and celebrated with "real" food.
At 8:15 we went to the closing campfire. The staff gave out our Philmont patches and american flag to the crew leader. Reid gave me the flag which I keep in my daypack. Tomorrow we will be going home.
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We woke at 5:30, brought our packs to the Welcome Center, and had breakfast at 7am; eggs, hashbrowns, and waffles. Our bus to Albuquerque arrived early, and we left at 7:30 with Steve Buchinski's troop. We drove to Albuquerque and had lunch just outside of town. The scouts played poker with we part of the way. We arrived at the airport at 12:30 for our 1:55 flight.
Our flight to Las Vegas was delayed for one hour; President Clinton was leaving Las Vegas. We made good time to Las Vegas and arrived only 15 minutes late. We finally arrived in Portland about 10 minutes early. Again, all of our baggage arrived about the same time that our drivers arrived; Mike Wyse, Amy Spies, and Jerry Bowen (my father-in-law). He had my truck which I was to drive to Corvallis. We had dinner in Portland and arrived in Corvallis about 10pm. It had been a long day, but it was good to be back in Oregon and our homes in Corvallis.
In all, it was a good trek. No one got hurt or lost, and we were always on the right trail. Eric, Leegh, and Reid had a sore throat for a few days. Some had diarrhea but nothing debilitating. We had a few blisters and hot spots, but our pace was hardly affected. Leegh had a sore knee after her fall, but she never lagged behind because of it. The crew never fought among themselves and only briefly with the advisors. Reid did a fine job as a crew leader. He had his moments of poor attitude but so did all of the scouts. We hiked over 70 miles in ten days and climbed from 6500 feet at basecamp to 11,500 feet on Mt. Phillips carrying 40 to 60 pounds every day. Our crew of five scouts and four advisors were close to begin with but we grew closer with the miles. We will never forget our trek at Philmont. They say that you can never go back, but I did return to Philmont, and it was better the second time. I may have been 31 years older, hopefully wiser, but physically felt better than my first trek. I probably will not be able to return to Philmont, but hopefully some of the scouts will return and fondly remember their Philmont trek of 1997 as I did.
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