Philmont Day 3

We got off to an early start today. We woke up at 5:30 AM and began our hike to Deer Lake Mesa. The hike was a little over five miles, uphill. We ate breakfast on the trail at Vista Grande camp. We made it to Deer Lake Mesa in time to eat lunch and dinner there.

Our activity today was a side hike to Harlan Camp for shotgun shooting. Only half of the crew
decided to go on this hike. John Michael, Brian, Grayson and Matthew V., along with Mr. Reyes and Mr. McDonald had a great hike to Harlan camp. This “side hike” was actually 4.5 miles, each way, with the return trip to Deer Lake Mesa being the toughest.

At Harlan Camp, we learned how to reload shotgun shells, participated in a safety briefing, and shot sporting clays.

Although the hike to Harlan was long, everyone thought that the shotgun shooting was well worth the effort. We made it back to Deer Lake Mesa by 6:45 PM and had a great spaghetti and meat sauce dinner. By 9:45 PM, we were all in our tents for some well needed rest.

Photos from Day 3 are here.















Mileage Count:

Cimarron River Camp to Deer Lake Mesa Camp – 5.81 miles
Side Hike to Harlan and return – 9.01 miles
Total Miles to Date: 15.72

Philmont Day 2

(June 27, 2011) 

This is it!  Ready or not, we hit the trail today.  We took a bus ride to the Cimmaron River turnaround, where we were dumped at the trailhead.  After the bus left, Ranger Joe immediately began "training" us in the backcountry ways. 

The hike to our campground was short, only .9 miles.  We camped at the Cimarron River trail camp.  Upon arrival at the camp, we learned how to hang bear bags and set up our dining fly.  This is something that we would do at every campsite for the rest of the time at Philmont.

After getting the camp setup, it was time for "fresh" water.  By fresh, I mean out of the Cimarron River.  After filling our water bottles, we had to treat the water with micro-pure tablets and wait for 30 minutes. 

We sat around the campsite and got to know our ranger better.  He then cooked dinner for us.

Overall, a great day in camp.

Philmont Day 1

June 26, 2011

This is our first "official" day at Philmont.  We woke up to a day with strong winds.  Since we got to bed late, we were all a bit tired.  After breakfast, we met our Philmont Ranger.  Joe Failla is a Louisiana native who attended college at Texas A&M.  He worked us through the registration process.

After getting completely registered, we decided to visit the Tooth of Time Trading Company.  Everyone decided to play it safe by getting souvenirs early just in case we are delayed on the last day of our Trek.

We also moved into the wall tents, which meant taking down our trail tents in the high wind.  We had sand everywhere in our gear.

We were given a departure time for the trail at 1:00 PM on Day 2.  Ranger Joe decided to do the gear shakedown on the morning of day 2.

Day 1 also saw us get our initial food allotment.  We got food for three days.  We could not wait to start eating dehydrated dinners.

At the end of the day, the crew headed off for chapel service.  The group attended the protestant and catholic services.  After services, we attending the opening camp fire program.

Our nerves were high as we closed the day in anticipation of hitting the trail.





Day 1 Photos are Here.

Philmont Day 0

June 25, 2011

We left for Philmont a little past 6:00 AM.  The mood was high and everyone was excited. 

We call today "Day 0" because it is not part of the 12 days of Philmont.

After leaving Austin, we experienced bus problems. There were four buses in the convoy, and bus one could not move faster than 45 miles per hour.  We finally made it to Abilene, Texas and ditched bus one.  The other three buses continued on to Texas Tech for lunch.

Our trip continued to Las Vegas, New Mexico for dinner.  For dinner, we ate at Highlands University.  By the time we arrived there, bus number one had caught back up to us.

After dinner, we hit the road again and arrived at Philmont at 12:00 midnight.  There were no wall tents available, so we had to set up our backpacking tents for a few hours of sleep.




Day 0 Photos are Here