The entire crew attended this shakedown – Marshall, Travis, Branden, Rhys, Sofie, Sarah, Elmer, Robert, Robin, and Shane.

Sarah & I left the house at 4:45pm Friday, went by McDonald’s for a couple of #11 meals to go, then drove over to the Troop shed. By the time we arrived, a few members of each crew were present and beginning to prepare their gear. Packing up was easy since each crew’s gear was already put together in the totes. We filled up six of the Troop’s water jugs (to be dropped off at Pond Camp) and loaded up crew gear, Philmont meals, and packs into my truck. Each crew was responsible for their own transportation. Crew 3 got out of the parking lot at 5:20pm. We (crew 4) got out around 5:30pm. Crews 1 & 2 were still waiting on a few members or working on gear when we left.

We traveled in my truck and Robert’s minivan. We decided to take Hwy 287 down to I-45, then south on I-45 to Fairfield, then across the smaller highways to Weches. We hit major road construction in Corsicana. Around this time we got in contact with Crew 3. They had taken I-20 over to I-45, then south, but had stopped along the way. We were now in the lead. I also contacted Crews 1 & 2. They had also taken I-20 to I-45 and were not far behind. The construction slowed us by about 20 minutes. Other than that slow down, traffic was zooming and we made good time. We stopped at the Love’s in Fairfield for bathrooms and snacks, then got going again. Crews 1 & 2 stopped right behind us. Crew 3 went on over towards Weches.

It turns out that on the maps I printed, I identified the wrong road as the forest road to the Neches Bluff Overlook camp. The road I marked was about 3 miles too far west. We finally found the right road and communicated the information to the other crews. We got the Neches Bluff before 9pm – not bad time at all. The camp was empty and we set up camp in the large clearing on the north side of the circle. All crews arrived in camp by 9:30pm.

Johnny started a nice little fire and we had a small cracker barrel and crew meeting. Travis was elected Crew Leader, Sofie was elected Crew Quartermaster, and Marshall volunteered to be the crew’s Chaplain Aide. We finally hit the sack around 11pm. The weather was perfect – cool, no clouds and a bright, full moon. It was cool enough to need the bag, but not so cool as to have to zip it up. No rainfly on the tent. I slept well and often. The moon was bright enough to wake me up several times throughout the night.

I got up at 5:15am, got Hampton up, and we took off to drop water at Pond Camp. We had never driven the back forest roads, and were extremely lucky in taking the right roads leading to the camp. It took us a total of 1:15 to get there and back with not knowing where to go. Take FR511 south to FR512. Take FR512 west to FR512A. Take FR512A south to Pond Camp. When we arrived back at camp, I awoke the crew. We were pretty slow breaking camp, but we assigned crew gear and ate breakfast before hiking. Crews 2 & 3 got out of camp before us. We hiked out of Neches Bluff at 8:40am.

The morning started cool, and the breeze kept the temperature nice. We set a decent pace and made the FR512 crossing before taking a pack break (about 4 miles). Elmer & I walked down the trail about 100 yards to the big fallen tree there. The rest of the crew stayed out at the road crossing in the sun. Our pack break lasted about 20 minutes and was plenty of time to take off and air out socks and boots. We packed back up and reached Pond Camp at 11:30am (6.24 miles from Neches Bluff to Pond Camp from GPSr – distance may be a little off due to bad reception in a stretch of the hike).

We walked up the road to where crews 2 & 3 were having their lunches and broke out our lunch there also – canned chicken, zesta crackers, chips ahoy cookies, GORP, and Gatorade. After we ate, we enjoyed a bit more break time taking to the other crews and filling up our remaining water capacity. Crew 2 decided they were going to “day hike” to Walnut Creek, then come back to Pond Camp, pack up, and head back about 2 miles towards Neches Bluff to a small creekside campsite.

We packed up at 1:05pm and headed on down the trail to the Walnut Creek campsite. The hike from Pond Camp down to Walnut Creek Camp was by far the prettiest stretch of trail we walked. We got to Walnut Creek Camp at 1:57pm (1.75 miles from Pond camp – slow pace – total of 7.59 miles today) and began camp set up. We used the Adirondack shelter as our crew fly and worked out a “bearmuda triangle” from there. Once crew gear and food was unpacked Travis, Branden, and I began trying to throw a bear rope. While this comedy was playing out, crew 2 walked up. Keith suggested attaching a Nalgene to the bear rope. The young’uns tried this method and shortly made the throw. I had already given up and went up to set up our tent.

When I got the tent up, I put on the rainfly upside down and seam sealed the zippers and guy line attachments. The other seams were factory taped. Elmer and Robin also seam sealed their flies. I put up a clothesline and aired out my bag and socks. Crew 2 took off around this time. We began a map & compass class at the hut, covering the basics of the map and the compass, how to orient the map to magnetic and true north, how to take a bearing by sight and by map, and how to triangulate position. Crew 1 walked up while we were doing our little class and listened in a while. When we finished the class, most of the crew headed for their tents for a well-deserved nap. I stayed up to talk to crew 1 a while. They told us that crew 3 had packed up and walked back to Neches Bluff so they could get in a 12 mile day. When crew 1 left, I went into the tent to journal a while, but was violently attacked by my Therm-A-Rest.

When I came too, it was 5pm and had cooled off quite a bit. I got up, put on my pants legs and fleece, and then got out to watch dinner preparation. I helped Sarah set up and light the stove, and dinner prep began. Everyone worked well together and dinner was ready in about 45 minutes. We had Hawaiian chicken, green beans, breadsticks, chips ahoy cookies, and hot chocolate (brought from home). This meal really required the spice kit we have yet to add to our crew gear. About 2 bites was all I could handle, although the rest of the crew liked it. Robert and Branden did a quick KP, then we hung the personal smellables. Once all of the tasks were completed, we started the small campfire that Elmer & Robert had built while everyone else slept. It was a cool evening. I was comfortable in my long pants, fleece shirt, and cool hat.

We talked a bit about the crew’s performance that day – hiking and camping – and then had our TB&R. My thorn was the “vicious” attacks against my battery requirements for camera & GPSr. My roses were the hike from Pond Camp into Walnut Creek and having SarahAnne there with me. The full moon poked through the trees on the close horizon as we prepared for bed around 9pm. Everyone packed non-smellable crew gear and got in their bags in very short order. I got in the tent, put up clothes, and took off my contacts. By this time Elmer had already started snoring. Rhys woke him up – “Dad, you’re snoring!” It started again five minutes later. I hate not beating the noise to sleep! Sarah went straight to sleep. I wrote in my journal for about 10 minutes then turned off my light.

I woke up the first time at 11:30pm thinking it was time to get up. I got back to sleep and slept well, but woke up often. I woke up for good finally at 5:15am and got my “tent stuff” done, and then got out and woke up the crew at 5:30am.

It seemed things were going slow, but the crew did great in the dark and we were packs-on and ready to hike at 6:15am, just as it was light enough to see the trail. Great job crew 4! I set the pace back to Pond Camp. The views of the forest were wonderful in shafts of light from the rising sun playing through the pines. We arrived at Pond Camp at 6:55am – a very nice pace. We stopped for breakfast there. I walked up the hill to fetch a water jug and stopped to talk to crew 1. They were in the process of making breakfast. All tents were down, but some crew gear and their fly were still out. When I got back to my crew, water was already being heated on the stove. We said Grace, then dug into our Philmont breakfast. It was cool enough that even though hiking in a t-shirt and shorts was comfortable, a fleece was needed when not moving. Breakfast was 2 summer sausage sticks, a cereal bar (I gave mine to Sarah – too sweet for my liking), blueberry granola, honey-roasted sunflower seed kernels, and hot chocolate (brought from home). The granola was really good in a bit of hot water. We took our time at breakfast and were ready to walk again at 8am. Crew 1 had come through about 10 minutes before.

I challenged the crew again to set a strong pace. The first 2 miles were good. Sarah and Sofie set the pace. I think they were running. The boys got tired and made the girls go to the back of the line. The pace slowed considerably then. At our final road crossing we came upon crew 1 taking a pack break. I pulled crew 4 together and explained the possible consequences of a slow pace at Philmont (turning a 3 hour 9 mile hike into a 4.5 hour 9 mile hike and possibly missing a program). We made the final stretch at a very good pace, especially going uphill the last mile of the hike to Neches Bluff. The crew only caterpillared once up the hill. Robin began having a bit of asthma trouble, so I stayed back with her while the crew went on to the vehicles. We hiked into Neches Bluff at 10:46am. I am very proud of my crew for the day’s hike. We did 8.24 miles of hiking at a good average pace with no complaint and very few stops. The crew began emptying crew gear from their packs. Elmer and I drove back down to Pond Camp to retrieve the water jugs stashed there. We finished up packing and drove away at 11:45am after a quick lunch. Elmer drove again, and I fought a losing battle with sleep. We stopped for gas and Dairy Queen in Corsicana and got into Arlington at 3:15pm.

journal of Shane Hoffman