disney4dan

The morning of day five. Bright and early we get up and for once we can put on a light day pack instead of the heavy 50 pound packs we had been carrying. Today we will summit Mt. Baldy. First we throw down a quick, cold breakfast of granola bars and fruit snacks, then we head into Baldy Town for water. It is a crisp, bright day with no clouds. The goal is to summit the mountain by noon because afternoon thunderstorms are common and dangerous. Many crews are turned back before summitting due to an approaching storm so we want to get an early start. Fortunately, the two veteran scout

Here we are at the end of day four, and I had gotten my second wind. I was in hiker heaven right here and I decided to go back to the main area with another scout to get our water for cooking, Just another three mile round trip hike at the end of a long day, including another 400 feet in elevation change, but I was feeling fine and getting adrenaline about the next days climb. This photo was taken near sunset showing the valley below, and the area we would be heading into next after we leave Baldy Town. One of our crew heading to the ranger cabin while Rick, one of the other adults

Now it is late afternoon on July 21, near the end of our fourth day on the trail and we arrive at Baldy Town at the end of our first food stash, tired, stinky and ready to rest. Luckily, they have cold showers at Baldy Town and we will be spending two days here. To be fair, they have hot showers, but the water heater can't keep up with the demand. Kids are instructed to take military showers where you just use the water to get wet, shut off the valve at the shower head and soap up. After washing in suds, open the showerhead valve again and rinse off quickly. They have separate rooms for ad

After the mine tour, we head out and up at about 2:30 or 3:00 in the afternoon. We must travel several more miles to get to our next camp at a place called Baldy Town. One of the things you can count on in this area are afternoon thunderstorms. We are at an exposed elevation with not many trees, around 10,000 feet in elevation and we needed to get moving and set up our next camp. This photo was taken to show what was either a bear claw mark to mark his territory or the rubbing of an antler on the tree for the same reason. A fresh one at that. We were beginning to feel the effects of altitu

After relaxing at French Henry (I spent a few hours chasing mini bears - chipmunks - away from our packs), we headed uphill even more to the Aztec mine area for a tour. This had been one of many working mines on Mt. Baldy. This cart would bring ore rock out to the tailings pile at the mouth of the mine entrance. Matt taking a photo down the valley from the mine tailing pile. And then the boys and other adults went in. I am not a fan of caves, tunnels or tight spaces, so I stayed outside and relaxed in the shade while they got the tour. Matt shared one of his photos from

I think the trick to this is to only post one or two photos at a time, and then do another reply. Let's try that for a while! So, we have departed Pueblano on our way up the foothills into the mountains now and are headed to our first historic mining camp. We are headed for French Henry camp. We spent that night at Pueblano Ruins, elevation 8,300 and will climb to French Henry at 9,600 feet in elevation. This trail is very scenic and follows the creek that was used for the camps power. Arriving at French Henry Here we are checking in with the staff at the camp and getting

Let me see if I can get a few of the other photos to link here This is one I wanted to post earlier about water from the stream - chunky style. You can see the other scouts in the background sanitizing the threads on the bottle. What you do is fill the bottle and drop in a tablet. Let said tablet dissolve for about 30 seconds and start purifying the water (killing anything that lives in the water). Turn the bottle upside down and let some of the water drain out through the opening and coat the threads on the cap, purifying the water along the mouth of the bottle. You get used to it.

Trying both Firefox and Google Chrome, both browsers showing malicious sites being blocked - so not just a Chrome extension. Good luck Kelly!

As we get into Pueblano, we are into higher elevation and the scenery is beginning to change This type of vegetation is much more like what we have in New England. This is after leaving Pueblano (none of those photos will load) and we are now headed out toward French Henry mining camp. Gaining more and more elevation as we go. Our ranger departed this morning after saying his goodbyes! Our water for this day was taken from a mountain stream and treated with tablets. Nothing quite like chunky water that tastes like chlorine tabs ;-P

Let's try this again....Mt. Baldy close up using Google Photos Trail lunch left behind by a mountain lion (apparently I can't get this photo to link..) Earlier shot of the group on Wilson Mesa

Next morning, heading from Bent camp to Pueblano. We will be climbing up to the top of Wilson Mesa and then hiking along the ridge with fantastic views before going back down into the next canyon. This is Gary, veteren of 6 trips to Philmont over the years and valuable resource for experience for us! Because of his help with getting ready, our ranger gave us a lot of slack and we had an easy first couple of days. Behind Gary is the top of Mt. Baldy, stripped of vegetation by former mining operations decades ago. We have already gained 1500 feet in elevation since Bent camp. The bo

Day 2 - time to rise and shine. We got up pre-dawn to get some hot showers in long before having to compete for space in the bathhouse. I grabbed this shot of the sun shining on camp. Love the scenery around here. These jackrabbits were running around camp early in the morning. When coming back from the showers you would just see groups of shadows skampering around in the grassy areas. Waiting for our bus to the trail head. We would be jumping into an old school bus that has the last few rows of seats removed to allow packs to be thrown in, and then packed us in three t

More from the first day at camp. The crew chief (on right in the photo) is inspecting the cooking utensils provided to us. Those two large aluminum pots will be our way of boiling water and then rehydrating dinners over the next two weeks. The crew chief is an older scout who is the designated leader of our crew. This is a boy lead trip, the adults are just there to resolve conflicts that might come up and to ensure safety. We have to have at least two adults with wilderness first aid training, navigation skills and the ability to drink lots of strong coffee. We are assigne

It has been a long time since I have posted a trip report on this board, but wanted to share some of the trip that my son and I took to Philmont last summer. For those who don't know, this is a high adventure scout camp run by the Boy Scouts of America. For those of you who have kids in scouting, I highly recommend it! Let's get this trip going! First off is our stop at the group sales check in counter for Southwest Airlines in Boston's Logan International airport. We got there before the Dunkin Donuts was open! SWA took really good care of us and gave all of us pre-check status

Anyone still using Photobucket? I haven't in a long while. I was just about to start writing a trip report and my Malwarebytes software is going crazy blocking malicious content from their site. Probably something they have for their ability to upload photos quickly? Seems to be tied to their advertising though. I moved the photos to Google photos but can't seem to load them into a thread here for a trip report.

This is cool, but I have noticed a conspicuous lack of pins in the New England area! I hope they get to travel through our nice looking part of the country sometime!

Are you guys still in for this race? Matt and Rachel and I are in. Nancy could not get out of work until Friday night.

Hard to believe how little I have posted since registering for this event! It is less than a week away and I am so looking forward to this event. Not sure if I can visit the Fort, we are only in Orlando for a short time, flying in Wed night and hitting Universal on Saturday and Sunday. Anyone going to be at the Fort Thursday or Friday? My daughter is thinking Trails End for fried chicken one of those nights. If I recall correctly, Jason is down for this 5k? Weather is not looking too sunny, but the kids want a day at the beach if at all possible either Thursday or Friday. Thinki

I am avoiding the stores on Black Friday as well. I plan on hiking with a friend and getting some fresh air and sunshine before the snow flies. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It's been a while since I logged into FF, and just in time for a fresh TCD trip report! SCORE! Must have been calling to me to come home to FF. Back to read some more!

I was able to register myself and two kids. Would not have done this race if we hadn't already had plans to be in Florida for a cruise that leaves that weekend. Looking forward to this event! Anyone else going to stop by to cheer on Jason, Sil, me and the kids? I'll be easy to find, the 50+ yo guy running with a coffee mug and gasping for breath.

Finally caught up! Great report TCD, but the Davy Crockett Ranch looks so sad, neglected and kind of like something out of a B movie. I expect to see a hoard of Zombies lined up for gruel at the breakfast shack.

Were some of those modern buildings for the Olympics? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm in! Nice room and who knew that finding your room in the Contemporary required math skills?

The pood forn photos are looking great! Wondering if you just brought a camera on the trip or if these were taken with a cell phone for convenience? I've noticed lately that I haven't really carried a camera around since the cell phones have upped the game on picture quality and these photos are great!