Philmont


Philmont Scout Ranch, Cimarron New mexico - YouTube

When I was 14 years old my parents paid for me to go to Philmont Scout Ranch. Philmont Scout Ranch is a large, rugged, mountainous ranch located near the town of Cimarron, New Mexico, covering 140,177 acres of wilderness in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in northern New Mexico.
Sangre de Cristo Mountains | Casa Escondida
Sangre de Christo Mountains

It was a great trip. It started with a train trip from south central Pennsylvania to Cimarron via Chicago. We had to transfer trains in Chicago and there were several hours of layover there. Being 14 years old, full of energy, and not really knowing better several of us started walking around town. Nothing happened but it probably wasn't the smartest thing for a country boy to do - walk around a major metropolitan downtown area with no adult supervision.

Upon arriving in Cimarron we took a bus to the Scout Ranch which seemed like it was maybe an hour away. We put our gear in base camp, a bunch of permanent tents with beds and mattresses although we relied on our sleeping bags to stay warm.
Philmont Base Camp | Base Camp at Philmont Scout Ranch. | Photos By Dan | Flickr
Base Camp
Our 10-day hike in the mountains began with us being led for 3 days by Susan Van Gorp, an older scouter who worked at the camp. There may have been another guide but I'm not sure. Teenage boys have a much better recollection of 18 or 20 year-old girls, than everyone else on the trip. I seem to remember that after 3 days we were on our own with whatever we could carry and the supervision of 2 scoutmasters who accompanied us from Pennsylvania.

Our trip was slightly more than 100 miles (109 miles is what I seem to remember) which obviously averages out to about 10 miles/day. We had different activities on several of the days - panning for gold, climbing Baldy Mountain, etc.. We also had burros for 3 days to carry some extra food which we picked up mid-trip.

Miranda Burro Pen - Picture of Philmont Scout Ranch, Cimarron - TripAdvisor
This is what it looked like where we picked them up and dropped them off.
Just before getting the burros I injured myself. It had been raining lightly after camp was setup so we were free to goof off if we weren't cooking that day. So we decided to climb to a higher elevation to look out over the valley. This wasn't a huge thing we were attempting climbing perhaps 200-300 feet in elevation. The problem is that the grade was pretty steep. Being young men with not the best judgement we decided to race up the mountain face to see who could get up there first. I was wearing sneakers with very hard soles. It turned out to be a bad choice of footwear.

About half-way up the hill/mountain I had made it to a ledge where I stopped briefly. The ledge however wasn't parallel to the ground - it sloped downward. Next thing you know I slid off this little cliff edge and started tumbling down the mountainside. I rolled probably 150 feet during which I grabbed at rocks, plants, anything that could stop my descent. When I finally came to a stop I struggled to stand up; struggled because I hurt everywhere. I believe there were bruises on every part of my body. Naturally the adults came running and had a wonderful teaching moment as they showed the boys the practical application of First Aid merit badge.
First Aid Merit Badge | Boy Scouts of America
First Aid merit badge
As far as I know no bones were broken. It wouldn't surprise me if one day I discovered that some ribs were cracked, but certainly there was nothing broken in the usual sense of the word. However I had hit a rock, while tumbling, that smacked right into my thigh and left me with a world-class Charlie horse. Once I had eaten and recovered a bit, I spent the rest of the evening trying to squat in order to stretch the muscle that was knotted up. It ached quite strongly but I knew that if I was going to be able to complete the hike, I'd have to be able to walk and in order to walk, I had to get that leg muscle stretched out. Eventually I succeeded in getting down into a full squat; it hurt like the dickens, but it allowed me to continue.

Fortunately this happened at the camp where we picked up the burros so the adults put all of my gear on a burro for the next 3 days and I limped along behind everyone from camp to camp. After those 3 days my body still hurt all over but my days of slacking were over - the backpack was mine to carry.
Baldy Mountain Philmont Scout Ranch Cimarron NM - Photorator
Baldy Mountain
Sometime during this stretch we climbed 14,441 foot-tall Baldy Mountain. True to form I started running down the back side of the mountain and it didn't turn out well. My camera went one direction (I believe it was broken by this), me in another direction tumbling head over heels again. This time it was all rock; weathered and rounded rocks, but not soft soil or grass or plant of some kind. Guess who has never again run down even a hill without being very careful ever since?
File:Philmont Scout Ranch Baldy Mountain summit ridge.jpg - Wikimedia Commons
What it looks like at the top. You also can see the rocky surface I tumbled down.
At the end of our 10-day hike of 100+ miles I was bushed. Our train trip back to Pennsylvania took 3 days.
Philmont Trek – June 19-July 3, 2019 – New Birth of ...
Patch we received at the completion of our hike.

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