I slept well until 3am. I woke up for good at 4am, and began moving at 4:30am. It was warm enough all night that I never had to zip the bag, and rarely even used it for cover.

After a quick trip to the advisors’ lounge I carried my pack down to the Welcome Center, then carried our bear-bagged food over to the Welcome Center from the van. I walked to a full moon setting between Urraca and Tooth ridge to the west and sunrise colors beginning to show in the east. By 5:30am the crew had begun bringing their packs down. We broke out the remaining crew gear and split up food (6 bags for most, 5 bags for a few). All of our morning chores were completed and we were checked out of trail bound tent city by 6:20am. Everyone walked to the dining hall from the Welcome Center in their Class A’s so we would be ready for photographs after breakfast.

Breakfast was at 6:30am, and was surprisingly very good – French toast, fresh pineapple, and dry cereal. Immediately after breakfast we all went for crew and contingent photos. Staff has moved the photo location out beyond tent city between trail bound and homebound tents, so tent city doesn’t appear in crew photos any longer. All four crews were on time (Crew 1 actually beat Crews 1 and 3 – we feared a bad omen from this). The morning was beautiful with no clouds in a brilliant blue sky and very little breeze. The individual crew photos were taken, then the contingent photo. We were done with all photos at 7:15am. I called all of the crews together for a little final chat before we separated for the last time. I got quite teary reminding them how long we had waited for this day, how hard we had worked to get here, and I asked them all to get along, not fight, and enjoy every second because the trek would be over before they could believe it.

We stowed the Class A’s in the van and returned to the Welcome Center to await our bus ride to Zastrow Turnaround. Sarah and I went up to the advisors’ lounge to call Pamela one last time. We loaded our bus right on time, and pulled out of base camp at 8:05am. The rangers gave their usual comedy routine in the bus on the way.

We arrived at Zastrow Turnaround at 8:25am. Tim took the crew into the red roof inn and explained the do’s and don’ts of wilderness toilets – bring Scott and a stick – and keep it solid only please. It is quite funny to see 11 people jam packed into a RRI.

After the RRI lesson, we did more map & compass with hands-on learning about declination, orienteering, taking of bearings, and triangulation.

We began our first walk in the Philmont backcountry at 9:30am after learning a new way to hydrate before hiking. Everyone in the crew makes a toast to something they are thankful for or are looking forward to and everyone takes a long drink for every toast. This became morning ritual for us on this trip.

We hadn’t been walking very long (about 15 minutes) when we arrived in Zastrow. We stopped there for the Gillwell Hall tour and the orienteering program. I was happy to see that the staff has replaced much of the Wood Badge memorabilia that had been removed in 2002 when the Whitman Vega staff took over there during the fires. In the office, I saw Alvin Williams in four of the Wood Badge staff photos, and decided to write him a postcard while the kids did the orienteering program. While the kids did program, the advisors all sat at the picnic tables writing postcards or journaling. It was quickly becoming warm, and the shade of the big ponderosas was welcome.

After the crew finished program, we loaded up and hiked on down to the Rayado River camp. The total hike in packs for the day was short – 1.66 miles by my GPSr. The ranch has redone their campsite maps – now very detailed with campsites, sumps, bear cables, and RRI’s/latrines. Tim gave a little talk on choosing a campsite.

Camp setup was a VERY slow process (unlike on shakedowns when the crew didn’t have a ranger looking over their every move). Tim went through all of Philmont’s procedures for safety and set up, then we pitched the crew fly (my Kelty Noah’s Tarp 12). After the fly was up, we began the process of learning, changing, and refining our bear bag techniques (since Tim would not let us attach our parachute cord directly to the trees).

We ate lunch after the bags were finally up to our liking. I had a boo boo and spilled half of my canned chicken – an immediate bear clean up lesson.

We still didn’t have tents up, and Tim was talking to the youth, and I and the other adults were trying to stay out of Tim’s way so we began surveying the area for tent locations. Tim stopped what he was doing and had the crew join us in setting up tents – he thinks this is a crew activity, where I think it is a way for the adults to let the kids get their jobs done (crew fly, bear bags, water) without us being in their way or telling them what to do.

Apparently, Tim’s teaching was done at this point. The advisors wanted to hike over to Abreu for root beer, and the kid wanted naps, of course. We walked over to the cantina (about a 15 minute walk from camp) and enjoyed the quiet. Root beer was $0.75 for the first cup and $0.25 for a refill – one refill per cup. They won’t fill Nalgenes any more. Tim, Elmer, Robert, & I played Euchre (a new card game for me) for about 2 hours while Robin journaled – it is becoming apparent that she is writing a book instead of a journal.

At 4pm we returned to camp to find the crew fast asleep. We woke them and Tim began dinner prep. Dinner was very good – spaghetti in meat sauce and corn, pilot biscuits, and chips ahoy cookies. After KP and sump were taught, we rehung the oops bag and the entire crew went back to Abreu for advisors’ coffee, root beer, and the evening program.

While we were sitting on the porch chatting, crew 3 walked into Abreu – they were camping at Old Abreu. We watched the chicken races in the construction area adjacent to the cantina – Bill Phipps won – then watched a little bit of goat milking. Just as it began getting dark, we had our TB&R by the cantina (the kids wanted to stay at Abreu a bit longer, but the advisors needed to go back to Rayado River with crew 3 – we were going to shorten our bear ropes by 50’ each and give the cuttings to crew 3 to use as a second bear rope). My thorn was that my crew thought the hike up Urraca would be the “worst” hike of the trip. There are no “worst” hikes at Philmont – maybe hard, but not worst. My roses were the card game at the cantina, the way the crew performed all day, and the day itself (any day at Philmont is a rose). My bud was looking forward to the Urraca hike.

We completely took down our bear bags and ropes, made the cuts, and showed crew 3 and their ranger how we hung our bear bags. The re-stringing and re-hanging took about 5 minutes compared to our 45 minute learning experience earlier in the day. We wished crew 3 a happy trek and sent them on their way back to Old Abreu at about 9:30pm. I got into the tent for good at 9:45am and journaled the day. For the first two nights on the trail, Robert and I tented together and Sarah and Sofie tented together at Tim’s recommendation. We will change back to our normal tenting arrangement when Tim is gone. The evening was still rather warm, and I started the night with the bag still stuffed in the stuff sack.

I am so pleased with my crew. They rise to every challenge that is given and excel in overcoming them. Their job this morning in base camp was tremendous. I can hardly wait to see how they handle the Urraca climb in the morning.

(journal of Shane Hoffman)