[From the Philmanac - Miner's Park is the first Staff Camp south of Schaefer's Pass.  It once served as the Sunday gathering spot for the miners and their families.  It has been used as a staff camp since 1966.  The original program was Geology, Forestry, and the Philmont Story Campfire.  In 1971, Lumber Days was offered, and a Flapjack Breakfast was added in 1973.  The Rock Climbing Program was started in 1976, and continued to the present.  An Environmental Awareness program has been offered since 1983.  A climbing wall was added in 1991, but closed in 1996.  A nightly volleyball tournament was also started in 1991.  A new climbing wall was built in 1998.  The rock climbing and repelling program takes place at Betty's Bra, approximately 1 mile up the trail towards North Fork Urraca Camp.  An enlargement of the cabin took place in 1995.]

[From the Philmanac - Shaefers Pass is located between Shaefers Peak (9,360 feet) and Black Mountain (10,892 feet.)  It is one of the few passes at Philmont that is still used as a trail camp.  Most Crews who camp here are on their last night on the trail before heading into Basecamp on the Tooth Ridge trail.  A new trail from Shaefers Pass to Shaefers Peak was completed in 1994.  The spring at Shaefers Pass is not always flowing; be sure to check the second spring a little further back.]

Up at 6:45 am; 56 degrees, "It's Perfect Again!"  The first Kansas Crew left at 5:45, then 2 more Crews at 6:45 (including the second Kansas Crew), and 2 more Crews at 7:00.  That, however, appeared to be it.  A bit of a surprise to me, in that I had always thought that a bunch of Crews hiked in over the Tooth from Miner's Park - same as Clark's Fork.  Well, I stand corrected!  Woke everyone at 7:00, and we had a leisurely reveille, eating breakfast, re-sorting the remaining food, and filling the stoves for dinner-for-lunch.  That left about 10 pounds of extra food and trash, plus 1 full liter of fuel, to drop off at Miner's Park.  Went over to talk to our nocturnal Crew - astonishingly, they were the other 628 Trek 30 Crew, and had gotten lost off Black Mountain on the same false trail we had taken, about 2 hours behind us.  Unfortunately, when they got to the draw, they decided to head down instead of up, and had spent an additional 6 hours (!!!) battling their way down to the North Fork Urraca Creek, then another hour and a half hiking down the trail to the camp, in the dark the whole way.  Ouch!  Not surprisingly, they were absolutely destroyed, and were moving real slow.  About the only positive was hearing that we had done the same thing, so they didn't feel so dumb anymore.  Plus (like us) no-one got hurt - although they were nicked up pretty good.  They still had a very long day ahead of them, though, so we left them to it.  Raised the bear-bags, got everything else under cover, and headed off to Miner's Park at 8:30.  Nice trail.  Passed a sign for the Miner's Park rock climbing area within 15 minutes, but the actual camp was still a 20 minute hike yet.  Got a nice view of the "Grizzly Tooth" formation on the Tooth of Time ridge, an impressive rock spire, well lit in the mid-morning sun.  Coming into the camp itself, I was struck at the number of large stripped pine log water bars - many more than had been present on any other trail on this trek.  These were the same type I had helped install as our trail service when I came as a Scout in the early 70's - and some looked old enough that I wondered when they had been put in.  Presumably they can get away with using wood in the south country, since it's so much drier.  The camp itself is a Philmont treasure - a wide expanse of Ponderosa, with huge pine trees scattered through large meadows; a beautiful place.  Got to the cabin just after 9:00, where we were greeted by 2 female staff members (one with her sprained ankle wrapped.)  Thankfully, they were immediately agreeable to allowing the Crew to do both the Rock Climbing (at 10:00), and the Environmental Awareness Program (as soon as the staff environmentalist finished lunch.)  Brad, Chris and I volunteered to do some trail service around the camp - both as a thank you and to try and get Brad some of the hours he still needed for his 50-Miler Award.  After grabbing some water, the rest of the Crew headed off for rock climbing at 9:35, along with a Trek 18 Crew.  [Photos: 1, 2]  After a few minutes discussion with the staff (during which I dumped our excess food and trash), Brad, Chris and I started in on clearing all the rocks on the trail leading from the staff cabin to the showerhouse.  As with a similar project we had done at Harlan in 1997, the rocks lining the trail were now mainly in the trail, so they were a significant tripping/ankle spraining hazard.  Also, there were 2 pretty pathetic water bars in line in the trail at the lower end - basically just a bunch of small and medium rocks in the way, not a real erosion barrier.  We eradicated these next, then went ahead and built a proper, heavy-duty rock water bar and diversion trench.  Tough work in the hot sun.  Luckily, the cabin had all the tools we needed.  Finished by 11:40, so 2 hours more service for Brad.  Got semi-cleaned up under the shower-house faucet, and put all the tools away.  Brad returned with one of the staff guys in tow to inspect the work; he was very impressed.  I guess they hadn't been expecting a real effort.  The Crew returned just about this time, and (per the Staff's invitation) we spent about an hour relaxing on the porch, waiting for the Staff Environmentalist.  The Staff gave us a half-package of oatmeal-raisin cookies for doing the trail improvement, which everyone made short work of.  We also enjoyed playing with 2 half-grown cabin-kittens, one grey and the other calico, and a couple of the guys tried their hand on a rock climbing practice route, installed on the ceiling over the porch - a lot tougher than it looked; even Matt and Steven couldn't master it.  [Photo: Steven also decided to put his "bear-like strength" to the test in a bout with Ranger Vaughn!]   About 12:30, Chris and I took a few minutes inside the staff cabin to talk to one of the senior staffers about the atrocious situation on top of Black Mountain, drawing out a map, and indicating where we and the other 628 Crew had ended up going wrong.  He promised to discuss it with a back-country manager later that day.  Headed back outside and joined the rest of the Crew, who were waiting for us along with "Trish" the Environmentalist (who had finally returned from the rock climbing area.)  The program turned out to be a review of the plant life in and around the meadows north of the cabin; interesting, albeit not very exciting.  We ended with an exercise in building "the perfect mini-bear home," with Chris and David acting out (after we finished) as anti-environmental Scouts destroying everything - point being, remember we're just guests here, and we need to be cognizant of the impact we're having on the local flora and fauna.  Headed back to the cabin, where I was finally able to give away the last of our fuel to a Crew that was just about out.  Everyone filled their canteens, and (after I thanked the staff for all their accommodating today), we hit the road for a quick run back to North Fork Urraca Camp.  The Trek 18 Crew that had shared the rock climbing session with us was already in residence, eating dinner-for-lunch (since we had warned them that the spring at Shaefers was basically dead.)  We followed suit immediately, with Sante Fe Beans and Rice, plus various extras picked up at Ute Gulch:  Beef Noodle Soup, Three Berry Cobbler, and Gatorade.  Delicious.  The Trek 18 Crew left after a very leisurely cleanup.  A few minutes later, 3 Rangers came down the Black Mountain Camp trail, and stopped for lunch.  They looked surprisingly beat (at least, for Rangers), but I didn't ask if they had done the Black Mountain bushwhacking thing.  More than likely, they were just doing a long hike into Basecamp from one of the western camps.  They headed up the hill about 45 minutes after arrival.  At 3:30, we followed, carrying about 5 extra gallons of water in the jugs.  Once again, we pushed it all the way to the pass with just one short water break, arriving 4:20.  Our first act upon arrival was reorienting the North Fork Urraca sign, which someone had twisted 90 degrees to send people to Black Mountain, and then re-erecting the Black Mountain and "Spring" sign, which was laying on the ground about 20 feet away.  Both signs had been fine the previous afternoon when we had passed through, so (as always) one has to wonder what kind of morons think this sort of behavior is funny.  2 Crews were already set up in the lower pass - but we pushed up to the top of the saddle, since that site is the most level in the camp, and is also right next to the trail to Shaefers Peak.  No sooner had we arrived than a thunderstorm started coming in, and the temperature dropped 15 degrees.  After some debate, we all agreed to nap through it in our tents (a first for this Crew).  Rained fairly hard from 4:50 to 5:40, with some impressive thunder and lightning.  One earsplitting crack at 5:30 (less than half a mile away, down towards the Tooth) had me peeling myself off the tent ceiling.  Everyone got up around 6:15, and we ate lunch-for-dinner at 6:30, again augmented with some of our extra food.  While we ate, we went ahead and discussed the game plan for the Tooth; after I vetoed the idea of trying to get there by sunrise (although many risk it, the Tooth Ridge trail is simply too dangerous to do in the dark), everyone agreed on an 8 pm bedtime tonight, with a 4 am wakeup, and on the trail at first light (about 4:45.)  We could catch sunrise from Shaefers Peak (a short side hike) or more likely while walking down the ridgeline trail.  Did the usual camp breakdown by 7:00 - surprisingly, the tents were already drying out in the breeze, under clearing skies - then hoisted our lightest bear-bag of the trek.  Our average pack weight tomorrow will likely be less than 30 pounds, so we'll be lightning quick to the Tooth and Basecamp.  Indiana finally pulled in, coming up from Clark's Fork; I gave them a wave as they went on by, yelling "Welcome to the Pass!"  Over the last 45 minutes, guys did some pine cone batting practice - and also spent time piling sticks up in front of each others' tents (which seemed pretty weird to me - but then again I'm not 16 years old, either.)  Hank and I both took a few minutes to head down the trail to Clark's Fork a bit to check out the view.  Just as I returned, a Crew of 4 Wranglers came up the hill from Miner's Park, inquiring about our bear safety.  I thought they were going to stop and do an inspection, but no, they just took our word for it and kept on going (which seemed rather odd.)  I ran after them a bit and asked about the Mt. Phillips situation - they said they thought the bear had been shot that day, and that both injured Scouts were OK.  However, they also thought that the 2 Crews involved had quit their treks after the attack (which, if true, was certainly understandable.)  I bid them "Good Ride" as they headed down to Clark's.  Most of the guys were already racked out by 7:45, with the last 2 or 3 heading in at 8:00.  Still cool and breezy, and no mosquitoes, so I left the tent flap open.  Wrote diary `til 8:40, and called it a night.  All in all, a pretty good day!  [Little did I know, however, that my day was far from over!]