I slept much better and more often than last night. The temperature was finally cool enough to require the bag at the beginning of the night, and the breeze was constant all night. My sinuses were still a constant problem, but nothing that a little Philmont can’t handle. Sarah’s pad doesn’t seem to be holding air, and the tilt of our tent site kept her right next to me all night. I woke up for good at 4:30am – 15 minutes before the alarm. I waited until the alarm went off to begin my chores.

I got the kids up at 5am. They moved much slower than yesterday, so we weren’t the first crew out of camp… or the second… Travis had to walk back down to the cabin to sign us out of camp and that little bit of time cost us our #1 morning ranking for the day. We walked out of Miners Park towards North Fork Urraca at 6:10am.

After a small up and down, we stopped at the North Fork Urraca Creek for breakfast and a search for the single P2B supposedly located there. Scott and I went in search of the fabled wooden box, but after 10 minutes and a climb up a 60% grade (I would have sworn that I was on a trail) I gave up the search.

We began our beautiful hike up the creek under overcast skies. No heat in the immediate forecast – thank you Lord! The creek was running strong and we saw numerous small trout and two active beaver dams. The trail crossed the creek countless times – some by rocks, some by logs. We caterpillared two or three times, but most of the hike was easy. Many types of wildflowers were blooming all along the trail.

We arrived at Black Mountain at 10:15am – first crew of the day again. As we walked into the cabin meadow, we saw crew 1 there. Some of the guys were in their packs and some were still talking with staff and other campers. They had taken a late morning to shoot black powder before beginning the short hike to Beaubien. They planned on doing their 3 hours of conservation between Black Mountain and Beaubien, and the next work time was about an hour away. Crew 1 looked like they were having a great time and it really made a great day even better to see that. Crew 1 departed while we got our porch talk around a large burning campfire.

We were given what we first considered a “remote” campsite (I think all of them are remote when you have to reload that pack and walk away from the comfort of the porch), although it only took about 2 minutes to walk from camp to the cabin. There was little messing around during this camp setup. The bear bags were hung very quickly, then the kids jumped into their tents for power naps while we sat around talking and journaling. We got the crew back up before noon to eat lunch, then prepare the camp for rain while we went to program. Elmer and I walked down to the cabin area early to fill Nalgenes from the flume staff had installed in the creek – a very helpful tool! This was our first opportunity to use the new Micro Pure tablets to treat water and they were very easy to use and left no taste in the water.

Our first program feature was black powder rifle shooting at 1pm. We shot .57 caliber muskets. Each of us got two shots – one with a round ball load and one with a mini-ball load. John, our staffer, would begin us loading the round ball, then he would load the second musket with the mini-ball and would finish before we could finish the round ball. I had him beat, but did not trust my finish with the ramrod and got it back out to make sure. Bob is dead. I hit Sarah’s hat with my first shot and missed Travis’ hat with my second. Branden hit my hat when aiming for his Homer doll – you have to allow about a 6” fall at the range we shot at. Staff blew holes in all of the items missed in the usual way – draped over the barrel of the musket. Homer was grazed twice during our shooting, and Branden wanted more, so Homer was replaced downrange. John took careful aim, decided he would miss, and walked downrange, directly to Homer, and shot poor Homer point-blank in the belly. It was unexpected and very funny.

After shooting, we went over to the blacksmithing shed for some very humorous blacksmithing. The CD, “Captain,” did the program while throwing comedy and insults at us “Bobs” and “Lady Bobs.” He questioned more than once if the public school education the kids were getting were doing them any good. The also Captain explained that if you turned the “squirrel cage” – the forge fan – backwards it would backfire. That backfire was bad because it scared the minibears. When the minibears got scared they got confused and mated with the deer, and that produces minideer, “AND WHEN MINIDEER GET MAD THEY EAT YOUR FACE OFF BOB – THAT’S NOT GOOD BOB – SO DON’T TURN IT THE WRONG WAY BOB.” Sarah hit his anvil, “Betty,” in the face three times (he pulled the iron away) and had to scream an apology to Betty and give her a kiss on the face. Through all of the fun we made the usual hat hanger.

We finished filling our remaining water containers after blacksmithing and then returned to camp. Elmer beat me to sleep while the kids played Frisbee and talked. I woke up a little before 5pm and journaled while listening to the kids cook dinner.

The weather today was great. The overcast skies kept the hike cool and the clouds cleared off just as we arrived at Black Mountain. The sun warmed things greatly while we set up camp. The clouds began rebuilding, and while we shot muskets we heard distant thunder and had a few rain drops fall on us. This little bit of rain cooled everything back down again.

At 5:30pm, Elmer and I walked back down to the cabin to enjoy some time away from camp. The afternoon had cooled considerably and long sleeves were in order. We sat around the campfire and talked with staff until Sofie came to get us when dinner was almost ready.

Dinner was really good. After KP (Elmer & Sarah) the advisors walked back down for advisors coffee. We talked a bit and watched as staff washed and cleaned the muskets. After a short while it began to sprinkle, then to rain, so we hustled back to camp for our TB&R. My thorn was the sloped tent site that we had for the evening. My bud was looking forward to camping at Comanche Camp again. My roses were the blacksmithing and hiking with Sarah in the back of the line today.

I got into the tent at 8:20pm and journaled. Sarah and most of the others were already asleep before I finished writing. I had the pleasure of going to sleep to the sound of rain lightly hitting the rain fly – the only thing better is camping next to a running creek, and we get that tomorrow.

(journal of Shane Hoffman)