Philmont Scout Ranch

Base Camp

When I was 14 my parents sent me on a 12-day New Mexico adventure at Philmont Scout Ranch in late June of 1973. We took Amtrak from York, PA to Chicago to Cimarron, NM. About fifteen 14-year old boys and three men to supervise.

On Day 1 we arrived at base camp where we were briefed on what our 10 days in the mountains (plus 2 in base camp) was going to be like. Susie Van Gorp led our hike for the first 3 days making sure we knew the basics, and training us where we lacked. She was probably 19 or 20 years old and all of us were smitten. Blond, fit, and tanned we were putty in her hands.

On our days in the mountains of New Mexico we did a lot of fun things: go down into an old mine, pan for gold, wrangle burros to carry our food for 3 days, fall off a cliff and roll down a mountain, etc. That fall off the cliff gave me the biggest charley horse of my life. My right thigh hit a pointy rock during my tumble down the mountain and I thought I'd never get that muscle loose again. But it did result in me being allowed to put my pack on the burros for those 3 days.
This is what it looks like from the top. We had a competition of throwing rocks from the summit to see who could throw the farthest.

One of the highlights was our climb up 14,441 foot-high Baldy Mountain. From the summit we could see 4 states. Oh yeah, I also fell down this mountain when I made the mistake of running downhill. That one nearly wrecked my camera and me. I tumbled about 100 feet until I was able to stop. Fortunately that fall didn't hurt as much as the other. No charley horse.

Here's the newspaper clipping from the June 9, 1972 York Daily Record an early morning paper that my brother Joe delivered for several years. He let me do February since it's the coldest month. I didn't mind as I really wanted the $40 that came with it.




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