As in 2002, the wind on the ridge got very strong around 11pm. I had slept well until then, but stayed awake for almost an hour listening to the wind and wishing the coming day would be day 3 or 4 instead of day 12. I awoke again at 2:30 because of my sinuses and was awake for another hour. And again I awoke at 4:40am, five minutes before the alarm. I got up and got the crew up at 5am. It’s too bad that this was our last morning on the trail because we could have hiked at 5:40am had we wanted to. This was well beyond high gear.

Instead, we congregated on the rocks overlooking base camp. I read the 23^rd Psalm and the story of Peter getting out of the boat to walk on the water with Jesus from Matthew, then said a short prayer. We sat quietly watching the morning colors grow before sunrise. Kevin Gates walked over and joined our crew in the viewing. We have had three beautiful sunrises – Inspiration Point, Sawmill cabin, and now, Tooth Ridge. The little bit of haze in the sky just acted to punctuate the sun as it peeked over the buttes in the horizon. The sun showed itself at 6:05am. The colors just exploded into the morning sky.

We were both hesitant and eager to begin our last hike. We walked out of Tooth Ridge camp at 6:15am. We followed the main ridge trail for about 0.2 mile to the Pasture Trail junction. The decision of trail selection had been made earlier in the trek and verified with our little side hike yesterday.

The Pasture Trail closely resembles walking down the Clear Creek side of Mount Phillips. It was steep and rocky, except in the spots where it was steep and gravelly (is that a word?). I would not recommend the Pasture Trail for those with hurt or sore knees or ankles. For the rest of us, I’d recommend it over the ridge trail every day of the week. It cuts a little more than a mile off of the hike along the ridge trail and cuts out all of the tedious, mind-numbing, needless switchbacks the ridge trail boasts.

We finished the hike down the draw that the trail follows and reached flatter ground at 7am. The walk along the pasture was surprisingly pretty and much easier than the ridge trail. We walked up to the gate into base camp at 7:45am. I was truly sad to read the words “Welcome Back – You Made It” carved into the sign over the gate. We took many pictures, gave more hugs, and shed more tears before walking through the gate as a crew, ending our time in the back country.

We walked over to the services building and dropped packs. While the couple of crew members carrying Philmont’s crew gear got the gear out of their packs (sump Frisbee and spatula and MicroPur tablets), Travis took off to check us in at the Welcome Center, Elmer went to my van to get the bear ropes we checked out, and I went to the administration building to retrieve our security envelope. As soon as we were all back at services, we checked in our gear, then took our backpacks straight to the Troop trailer.

We dumped the remaining crew gear out of our packs and back into our crew tote, grabbed sleeping bags, flashlights, and any other gear we would need for base camp, then loaded our packs for the trip home. We quickly dropped our remaining gear in our homebound tents, then grabbed our clean clothes from the vans and immediately hit the showers. That first shower coming off the trail is beyond description and I didn’t want to get out of the water. After the shower I cleaned up my beard, stashed my gear in the tent, went by the post office to pick up the crew’s mail, and met the rest of the crew on the patio where I bought the crew their first round of ice cream, paying off my debt from day 9.

After our first round of ice cream, Travis and I quickly ran through his base camp check out list: administration – picked up pictures, physicals, and Philmont arrowhead patches, logistics – our crew t-shirt was displayed on their wall, security, post office, services, and pack rental even though we had not rented any packs.

Back at the patio I had another ice cream compliments of Elmer and was just beginning to work on it when we received a radio call from crew 1. They were 30 minutes out and had actually been passed by crew 2 who was about 20 minutes ahead of them. Elmer and I took our ice creams and walked over to services to await the arrival of the crews coming down. Crew 2 walked into base camp at 11:30am – they HAULED from Upper Clarks Fork, very impressive indeed. Crew 1 arrived about 15 minutes later. As crew 1 finished up at services and walked away, the guys from crew 3 walked up to services so I talked to them for a few minutes. All four crews had made it back to base camp before noon. I saw Johnny on the way to the dining hall for lunch and we hugged and talked a minute.

Homebound lunch was at 12:15pm. How can/do they ruin hot dogs? At least the raspberry tea was good. While talking to crew 3 at lunch, I found out that Chris M. had broken his foot on day 4 and walked 2/3 of his trek (over 60 miles) on that foot.

After lunch, Sarah and I searched base camp for a working pay phone to call Pamela on. We started at the med shack and ended up finding one that worked at the services building – should have gone straight to the advisors lounge – duh!

After our call, we joined the rest of the crew to await crew 2’s clean up so those leaving early could get on the road. While we were waiting on the patio, Robert bought me my third and final Philmont ice cream – maybe the best ice cream on earth just because you have spent the previous 10 days wishing you had had one more before hitting the trail.

Chris D and the rest of the group leaving early arrived at the patio a little before 2pmand we all walked out to the parking lot. It was very hard to let Sarah get into the suburban to leave early and miss our final Philmont moments, but volleyball tryouts and practices began at 6am the next morning and she could not miss them.

After the group left, Elmer and I drove into Cimarron to order pizzas and shop a bit. We ordered 21 jumbo pizzas from Simple Simons to be delivered to the Welcome Center at 5:15pm. Elmer bought a knife and a book all about Eagle Scout Courts of Honor from one of the shops. We stopped by the gas station/grocery store to get sodas and ice for the pizza feast, then drove back to Philmont. After stowing the ice and soda in coolers, I made a final run through the trading post and then talked with everyone as I could.

At 5pm the group moved towards the Welcome Center to await our pizza. At 5:20pm the pizza had not arrived so we called. Simple Simon’s was swamped, but our pizzas would arrive shortly. Even though late, the pizza was good and the fellowship was excellent. After the feast we cleaned up our mess and grabbed Class A’s for chapel. After chapel we played Frisbee behind services while waiting for time for closing campfire.

We front-rowed across the closing campfire benches. The show was very good. Highlights included a version of “New Mexico Rain,” an attack by the 101st Airborne Mini-bear Squadron, a spectacular Philmont slideshow, and the old PhilTurn movies. I spent most of the campfire with tears in my eyes wishing Sarah was here and wishing we were still in the backcountry.

After the fire, Elmer, Robert, & I headed to the advisors’ lounge for a last shower. We ran into the three advisors from San Antonio we had met on top of Phillips five days earlier. They were just getting their first off-trail shower so we let them go ahead and talked with them for almost an hour. After my shower, I walked out to lock the van then hit the sack. It was nice and cool and this was probably my best night of sleep on the whole trip, even though my sinuses were still running like a faucet.

(journal of Shane Hoffman)