I got up at 4:10am after a surprisingly warm night.  I never had to zip up the bag, and our camp was above 10,000 feet in elevation.  I stowed my gear, and got the crew up at 4:30am.  We broke camp and began hiking at 5:30am.  The plan was to get an early start of the day.  We wanted to do program at Clear Creek – black powder rifles and tomahawk throwing – and still be able to eat lunch on the top of Mount Phillips.

The hike to Clear Creek was a little up and over and was very pretty.  Most of the trail followed a contour and the hiking was very easy.  We reached Clear Creek at 7:00am, accidentally woke up a staffer at the lower cabin, asked about program, and then had breakfast.  As we began eating, Crew 1 came barreling down the trail and many hugs and handshakes were shared.  It was great to see them after the speculation over the last seven days.  They all seemed to be in high spirits.  We talked for about 20 minutes before they took off.

At 8:00am, the tomahawk throwing program opened up, and our crews took it over with wild abandon.  Other crews would intermingle, but for over an hour, we controlled the “hawk” range.  Chuck, Chad, and Peter placed their hats on the targets for a little carving.  As more crews started showing up, we left the tomahawk range, and went down to the creek for the beaver-trapping program.  The staff had set up a beaver lodge in a small pool, and had a trapper’s tent and supplies around.  The program lasted about 30 minutes and was very interesting. 

At 9:30am, we started up to the black powder rifle range, and arrived at 9:45am, just as the previous crews were finishing.  We got a 15-minute head start on our time.  Everyone shot the rifles, putting more holes in hats – Chuck, Chad and Hampton’s among others.  We finished shooting at 10:30am, and everyone went back to the cabin to totally fill up with water before climbing Phillips.  This would be our last water until we reached Sawmill around noon tomorrow.

We had lunch near the flagpole built at the summit, and then took many pictures at the summit.  The view was spectacular – the kind only available to those willing to pay a high price to climb to this elevation.  Wheeler Peak was to our west, while Baldy was to our north, with the Spanish Peaks of Colorado on each shoulder of Baldy.  Crew 3 reached the summit a little after 2:00pm, and more pictures were taken. 

We began down the mountain at 3:00pm.  The trail was “iffy” through Mt. Phillips Camp, but we found it.  The quality of the trail is very low – rocks bordering on boulder size in the trail.  We reached the saddle between Phillips and Comanche peaks, and climbed the short climb up Comanche with little problem.  We walked into Comanche Peak Camp at 4:30pm. 

I, along with everyone else, was slow in getting camp set up.  Everyone was very tired.  I got camp set up, and just as I was getting comfortable in Glenn’s hammock, was informed it was dinnertime.  Dinner was a lunch we got the commissary to give us, so no KP was needed after – just trash compaction. 

After dinner, we all went up to the Comanche Peak lookout for awesome views, both east across the central part of Philmont, and west towards Wheeler Peak and the rest of the Sangre de Christo Mountains of New Mexico.  On the west side of the lookout, someone with skill had spent a lot of time constructing unbelievably comfortable chairs out of large rocks.  We took turns in these “chairs” watching a beautiful sunset.  Allen got phone service on the lookout, so I tried to call Pamela and the girls, but only got the machine.  I got into my tent a little after 8:30pm after another perfect Philmont day.