Again, I didn’t sleep very well. Usually, when I come to the mountains, any sinus troubles I have miraculously disappear. This time, the sinus congestion I brought with me seems to be worsening into a full blown sinus infection, so breathing while laying down is something of a chore. I woke up at 1am to the full moon coming directly through the door of the tent. I woke again at 3am, at 4am, and just before the alarm at 4:45am.

I was done with my tent chores and out of the tent at 4:55am and woke the crew. The crew began their morning chores in high gear and we should have been ready to hike at 5:45am, but as we got closer to finishing, we all slowed down for some reason. We walked away from Rayado River Camp at 5:55am.

We walked to Abreu and filled our canteens from their treated spigot, then began our hike up and over Urraca mesa on the Toothache Springs trail. We stopped for breakfast in the big meadow before the trail splits to go to either Stonewall Pass or Toothache Springs. The morning was beautiful – cool temperature and a slight breeze with no clouds in the sky.

The hike up to Toothache Springs was long and uphill with little shade offered as the day quickly grew warm. The pace was great, and we only caterpillared once or twice. We arrived at the spring at Toothache Springs at 9am. The hike up to the top of the mesa from there was short and steep. It offered a little more shade, but worked us much harder than the first part of the hike. We took a pack break at the top at 9:34am. Tim told a few of the Urraca stories and the crew had a few chuckles after they learned that a hard hike would not kill them.

We started hiking again at 10am. The walk across the mesa was as pretty as ever, and again everything seemed greener than I’ve ever seen it. We arrived at the Urraca cabin at 10:40am to the smells of dinner already being prepared by Kyle Schnieder, the PJ manager, for the visiting chaplains who would arrive later that evening.

We were the first crew to camp that day. Staff was quick to get us a campsite assigned, and Desi, our staffer, gave us the “porch talk” during the walk out to our campsite. It seemed to be a far site, but it was a beautiful campsite. We could not find the bear cables – because they weren’t where Desi pointed, but much closer to camp and set over a 60% grade on the side of the mountain. Travis ran the camp as he should. Our bear bags took only about 10 minutes to rig and hang – the process is becoming easier and faster. We returned to camp, set up the crew fly, and had lunch. After lunch, we set up tents, grabbed water, and secured camp before leaving for the challenge events program.

Again, Desi was our assigned staffer, and she was fun! We stared with an introduction game so Desi could learn our names, then played “Gust of Wind” – similar to musical chairs, except a person in the middle who makes a statement similar to “A gust of wind blows for anyone who has see the movie Ghostbusters.” Everyone who meets the statement must move to a different station, and the last one to find a station becomes the person in the middle. Event #3 was a problem-solving game where we had to get all 9 crewmembers onto a 2’ x 2’ block with only 8 points of contact. Once on the block, we had to maintain the stance for 15 full seconds. Next was the hoola-hoop circle. Event #4 was a problem-solving game of moving the team and a FULL canteen of water across “a creek filled with jalapeño squeeze cheese.” During this game no one other than Travis could talk. Event #5 was “the king’s finger” where the crew had to remove a tire from around a tree trunk about 12’ high. The crew made very short work of this challenge, so Desi challenged them to replace the tire. They also made very short work of this. Event #6 was the wall. This was the hardest challenge for the adults to remain quiet. The crew had to start by selecting the order of members (including Tim) as they would go over the wall. We probably would have chosen a different order for completion, but the crew selected well and steadily got all of the members up and over the wall. Marshall was the last one on the ground, with Sarah and Branden to be his pullers. He took many runs at the wall, and pounded into it more than a few times. He finally jumped high enough to catch Sarah’s outstretched arm, and Branden helped haul him up the wall. Our last event (#7) was the “trust fall.” Every member of the crew participated. Each member stood on top of a 4’ tall metal bear box with their back to the rest of the crew formed up below them. After stating that the member is ready to fall and the crew states they are ready to catch, the member falls straight back onto the outstretched arms of the crew. I stood on that box with my back turned, and just about walked away, but did the fall anyway – maybe the most mentally challenging thing I’ve done at Philmont since 1981. After the last event, Desi sat down with the crew to reflect on the events. She was very impressed with the crew’s performance and growth during the events.

After the events, the crew returned to camp. The kids again wanted a nap. Elmer, Robert, & I hiked up to inspiration point. What an awesome view! We spent about 20 minutes up there taking pictures, relaxing, and talking. When we returned to the camp we woke up the crew and did some Zip Lock laundry around the sump while dinner prep took place.

Dinner and KP went very smoothly – we used our practiced turkey bag technique instead of Tim’s dirty pot technique. After dinner, Tim brought out the usual pound cake and a can of chocolate frosting for the crew – it disappeared quickly.

The advisors went up to the cabin for advisors’ coffee at 7:15pm. At 8pm, as we were returning to camp, the crew came down the trail towards campfire so we had our TB&R right there along the trail. My thorn was just how fast the day flew by. My roses were Branden, Robin, and the challenge events. My bud was looking forward to tomorrow’s hike. After TB&R the kids went on to campfire, and the advisors returned to camp. I did my nightly chores and got in the tent at 8:45pm to journal. It was warm again, and I began the night on top of the bag.

Our plan for tomorrow morning was a very early wake up – 4:15am – so we could break camp, drop packs by the trail, and hike up to inspiration point for a devotion led by Tim before sunrise (about 6am).

Again, the crew excelled in the face of adversity. The hike today was hard and they laughed at it. The challenge events proved fun and a very useful teambuilding tool for the crew. The crew took on real challenges today and passed with honors.

(journal of Shane Hoffman)