My sinuses just keep getting worse. I slept soundly a few times but had to snort and blow my nose often during the night. It never got cold enough to zip up the bag even with the tent fly open. I got up at 4:40am and got the crew up at 5am. This was another high gear morning. We had our daily toasts at 5:45am and were hiking at 5:50am.

The hike from Upper Clarks Fork to Shaefers Pass is easier that the stretch from Clarks Fork to Upper Clarks Fork. We made Shaefers Pass camp at 7:30am and stopped for breakfast there in a really nice campsite. A couple of crews on their way to base camp from Ponderosa Park came through while we ate. I don’t understand why crews starting from Ponderosa Park or further away heading for base camp don’t start their hikes earlier in the day. If they plan on spending an hour at the Tooth of Time and take the ridge trail down, they won’t get to base camp until 3pm or later.

We finished breakfast and got back on the trail at 8am. The two long switchbacks around Shaefers Peak were easy and then we began the ridge hike. To say the trail is rocky is an understatement. Although mostly downhill, our pace slowed because the footing was so bad. The kids got out ahead of us and we didn’t catch them until we got to Tooth Ridge camp. We went up and down, left and right, and side to side while hiking the ridge. The views to both the north and south were well worth the high price of admission though.

We passed by many pack lines and one or two crews at the base of the Tooth of Time. A man from Troop 11, Raleigh, North Carolina, asked if we had any water to spare, so I gave him a liter from my four liter platypus. He tried to pay for the water, but I would not accept. I was glad to get the weight out of my pack.

We walked on down to Tooth Ridge camp, found the kids, and walked out to campsite 10. We got to the campsite at 10:20am. It was unoccupied, so we made it our final home of the trek. They have moved the famous P2B about 30 feet south, so the view to base camp is still there, but is not as good as it used to be – the view is a bit obstructed by a rock formation.

Camp set up was casual and slow. We had nothing to hurry for today except to find shade to get out of the sun and the heat. There was not a cloud in the sky. Once camp fairly well set up the kids all took a pre-lunch nap. Elmer, Robert, & I walked on down the main trail to take a look at the Pasture Trail as an alternate route to base camp. The trail looked steep but easily doable. When we returned to camp it was lunch time.

After lunch, we all (except Robin) prepared for the hike back up to the Tooth of Time. We left for the Tooth about 1pm. When we reached the base of the Tooth, there were no packs or people there, so we had the Tooth all to ourselves. The climb up hasn’t changed – little trail, steep, rocks, boulders, crevasses. There was still no clouds and it was hot so we took our time. Somehow we got a little left of the usual route up and had to do a bit of real rock climbing to get to the summit of the Tooth. At the top we took tons of photos and just enjoyed the views. Again the price of admission was a bargain for the show. We made our way down safely and returned to camp around 3pm.

When we got back to camp I doctored two new blisters, both on the bottoms of my big toes – the first blisters of the trip. Robert thinks they were caused by wearing dirty socks. I think that played a part along with the general pounding my feet took today on the ridge trail. After I finished, I joined Elmer over at the lookout where we both journaled for a while then had a long conversation recapping the trip day by day. Robert walked over and joined the conversation before we were through.

Around 4:30pm another Frisbee game broke out and then I walked the rock formation north of camp. I found a huge beautiful Ponderosa pine with an enormous root system in the middle of a bunch of big boulders and went back to camp to get Sarah and my camera. I took Sarah’s picture on the tree roots and up on a boulder. We ate dinner – a trail lunch – at 6:30pm. Clean up was quick since we only had to compact trash.

We began our TB&R after dinner. We started with the days TB&R. My thorn was that it was day 11. My rose was the views along the ridge and on top of the Tooth. My bud was getting to call Pamela tomorrow. After the day’s TB&R, we discussed what we had expected to get out of Philmont, what we learned about ourselves, and what we had accomplished in the last 11 days. After our discussion, we did the whole trip rose and thorn. My rose was Sarah – she was marvelous and surpassed my wildest expectations. My thorn was the clouds on the summit of Phillips. Crew 1 walked up at 7:45pm, during our crew discussion. They allowed us to finish while they set up camp across the trail from us. After we finished our talk, shared many tears and hugs, and made ourselves presentable we walked over and talked with crew 1 for a while. They had had another long day coming up from Cimarroncito (they are not a start-early crew). I got into my tent at 8:45pm and journaled.

(journal of Shane Hoffman)