Philmont just gets better…

I got up at 4:40am, did my usual morning stuff, and woke up the crew at 5:00am.  After I had got around to all the tents, I walked back up to the lookout to try calling Pamela on Allen’s cell phone again. She was there, and I got to talk to her and Jessica for about a minute before the battery started failing.  After the call, I went back to camp and finished packing.  It had been another beautiful night, not too cool, perfect sleeping weather.

We started our hike at 6:00am by going back up to the lookout for a view of the sun rising over the central part of Philmont.  After taking in the view, we started down towards Thunder Ridge Camp, but the trail was kind of hard to find.  We found it in short order.  The trail was very rocky and had many switchbacks – I wouldn’t want to be going the other way.  We ate breakfast at Thunder Ridge at about 7:15am, and then we took a very beautiful, easy trail following a contour around three minor peaks.  This trail took us out of Philmont land, and then returned us back in.  The views of Wheeler and Baldy were as beautiful as always.  Further on, the trail merged with a four-wheel drive road.  The road was pretty steep in places and Elmer took a nasty fall on it.  We followed the road to the upper part of Sawmill Camp, and dropped our packs there. 

Josh and I then hiked down to the staff cabin to check in and get signed up for the 30-06 re-loading and shooting programs.  We were told the wait for re-loading would be about an hour, then shooting would immediately follow, so we went back up to the rest of the other crews.  Everyone was over at the shower house washing clothes and taking bandana baths.  The showers themselves were turned off.  After crew 2 was done at the shower house, we carried our packs down to the cabin, and sat on the porch eating oranges and apples while we waited for program.  Crew 3 soon followed. 

We began the re-loading a little after 11:00am.  Most of the boys in both crews got their three bullets reloaded before the machine that seats the primer in the cartridge broke.  We all went out on the “lawn” to eat lunch while Jan helped Chris (staffer) fix the machine – Jan is an avid re-loader and knew how to fix it.  When I finished lunch, I went back into the re-loading room to find Jan and Chris re-loading enough bullets to finish up for the crew, and I “helped” in the process, mostly by staying out of the way.  Once all of the bullets were finished, Chris invited Jan in for real food for lunch – roast beef sandwiches and soup, then Chris took us up to the rifle range.

The walk to the range took about 10 minutes.  When we got there, Chris went over the rules of the range, and then targets were placed downrange before shooting began.  The same suspects put their hats out, plus a couple of new targets were offered.  Chuck and Hampton’s hats were the favorite targets of the group. 

We shot our re-loaded bullets in groups of three shooters, shooting from the prone position.  The boys went first, and Chuck’s hat took a severe pounding.  As the adults began to shoot, the direction of fire turned to Hampton’s hat, and it was hit a couple of times.  

After we had all finished firing, the guys retrieved their hats, and Peter was not happy with the small amount of damage his hat received.  He wanted more, so he took his hat back downrange, and placed it on one of the sheet-metal targets there.  Chuck also placed his on a sheet-metal target, and Conner placed his hat on the ground.  A few of us bought three more rounds apiece ($1.00 for 3 shots) and the fun began in earnest.  Andrew and I took up firing positions first.  Just as I was about to pound Peter’s hat, Andrew hit it and blew it to pieces.  It was blown off of the target, and flew about 10 feet before coming down.  Not to be outdone, I pounded it with my first shot, again making it fly about 6 feet further up the hill.  My second shot hit it again, making it fly another 10 feet.  The hat looked like it was done, so I turned my attention to Conner’s hat.  With his graces, I put my last shot into his hat, making it fly like a Frisbee for about 10 feet.  After I was done shooting, Chuck’s hat became the target of choice.  Needless to say, not much was left of either Peter or Chuck’s hats.  After the second round of shooting was done, we walked back to the cabin. 

As we got there it began to rain, hard.  Everyone quickly got into their rain gear, and we filled up our all of our water containers, and then headed out of Sawmill on the trail to Upper Sawmill.  As we walked out of camp, it began to hail.  The hail was small, pea-size, but stung any uncovered skin that it could hit.  It never really got cold, so hypothermia never entered the picture.  We hiked in the hail for about 30 minutes. 

I was hiking in the rear of the line as usual as we hiked down the valley, and as we passed this spot, I thought I heard a bear cub crying.  I stopped to look around, and saw nothing.  As I started walking again, the noise was repeated.  I looked back up the trail, and saw a huge mother grouse.  She was calling to three of her chicks, one of which was across the trail from her.  It was pretty neat seeing the chicks come running to momma.  I turned and continued on, soon catching the group. 

We stopped to talk to a couple of crews coming the other way, and somehow missed Upper Sawmill – it is not marked at all.  We got to the Webster’s Park trail intersection before we realized our error, and had to backtrack about 25 minutes.  Again, there were no complaints, just acceptance of the situation. 

We reached our camp at about 5:30pm.  Everyone worked well together, getting the crew stuff done, and then putting up personal tents.  Dinner was ready at 6:30pm.  This was the best dinner I have ever had at Philmont – turkey tetrazini with green beans and a little jalapeno squeeze cheese.  KP was done by 7:15pm.  The boys really did another excellent job.  I was cold by then – I did not hike with my rain jacket on – so I got in my tent at around 8:00pm to get warm and do some writing.  Some of the guys did the same, while others stayed out playing Frisbee or cards.