[From the Philmanac - Miranda is named for Guadalupe Miranda, who with Carlos Beaubien petitioned the Governor of Mexico for the original land grant to this area in 1841.  He later sold his share to Lucien Maxwell and returned to Mexico.  Miranda was once a 4-H Camp, and was included in the Norton Clapp purchase of the Baldy Mountain Tract in late 1962.  It is one of the most beautiful locations at Philmont.  Lakes Doris and Aspen are located nearby.  Miranda  has been a staff camp since the mid-60's, with a variety of programs through the years, including Fly-Tying and Fishing, Geology, Survival, Orientering, Mountain Search and Rescue, Philmont Story Campfire, Wilderness Survival, Gold Prospecting, and 12-Gauge Shotgun Shooting.  In 1989, the program settled on Mountain Man Rendezvous/Black Powder Rifle Shooting and Burro Packing.  The "Rendezvous" was an annual gathering of frontiersmen which provided them with a ready market for their winter catch of furs and an opportunity for recreation and some notoriously wild socializing.  They were held from about 1825 through 1838.  A new log cabin was added to Miranda in 1997, to better complement the interpretive programs associated with the Mountain Man Rendezvous.]

[From the Philmanac - Ewell's Park is named for Captain Richard Ewell, who at one time commanded a military post at Rayado.  He later joined the Confederate Army.  Ewell's Park is a very nice meadow that is used as a layover camp for Crews hiking Baldy; it is located about midway between Baldy Skyline Camp and Baldy Camp.]

Up at 4:55, but Chris and Brad beat me to the wakeup duties today.  Clear, 44 degrees - "It's Perfect Again."  Circled up by 5:35 - much better than at Sioux yesterday, so last night's efforts clearly paid off.  Laura joined us at the circle-up; this was her departure day, and wanted to say goodbye before heading back to Ponil (and then Basecamp) with a few other Rangers.  She strongly encouraged everyone to do as much as we could, adding that she "just knew we were going to have a great trek" (well, we always insist!)  We agreed to meet for dinner in Cimarron on the 10th, along with Rob and Trent, and saddled up.  There's a pretty solid lady there, under the rebel exterior; I hope to see her again in 2002....  Gone at 5:45, taking pains to keep quiet as we passed the Staff cabin.  Passed a Crew in one of the upper sites who were loudly complaining how much they were looking forward to leaving, and what they would eat when they got home (sounded like the same whiners the guys had met at Spar Poles and Continental Tie and Lumber Company yesterday.)  I responded that they'd be wishing they were back here after 3 days, to which their Advisor said "After Day 9, you won't be able to wait to go home."  Our guys (especially Brad, Dan and Chris') reaction to this was disgusted amusement.  I retorted that this was my 9th trek, and I guaranteed them that "After Day 9, I'll want to do our trek all over again."  Taken somewhat aback (I think), their Advisor just replied "Have a Great Trek!"  Quickly up the South Ponil Creek trail to Pueblano Ruins, then turning left across the footbridge - ignoring the (bad) advice of a trying-to-be-helpful Advisor who tried to send us straight (on to French Henry.)  Up the creek trail another half-mile, then left and up the "Pueblano Ruins Death March Trail" to Five Forks and the Baldy Skyline trail.  [Going straight would have brought us straight to Ewell's Park (our camp for the day), but we decided to hit Miranda and grab some extra programs on the way.]  Once again, right into caterpillaring, all the way to the top without a break.  As usual, the hike up seemed to take longer than the map would suggest, but it's a tough, rocky trail the whole way, so not too much of a surprise.  Made the Five Forks intersection at 7:10, good time.  Breakfast with Touch-Me-Not laid out in front of us, marvelous in the morning sunlight.  About 15 minutes later, a Pennsylvania Crew came up behind us, also stopping for breakfast.  Turned out to be a provisional Crew from the Keystone Area Council (the same Council I came with in `72 and `73, also provisionally.)  No-one from my old Troop (54), but one of the Advisors had come out in `74 as a Scout and knew Tom Ciuk and John Polivka, both of whom had been Advisors for my contingents.  Pretty neat!  They were doing Trek 32 (Old 21), so I spent a few minutes with their Crew Chief giving a few pointers on Baldytown along with some suggestions for the rest of their trek.  We were off for Miranda at 7:40, down the new Maxwell trail which 3 of my previous Crews had worked on from 1989 through 1997.  Always cool to walk trail you help build.  Great views of Touch-Me-Not, Baldy, and the Ute Creek Valley as we descended.  Crossed the Baldytown Road, then Ute Creek, then through Maxwell and onto Miranda, arriving at 9:10.  As we headed up the meadow to the Staff cabin, we passed a bear-cable with 2 bear-bags laying on the ground, with no-one in sight, not good.  However, we decided to just report it to the staff rather than try and put it up again ourselves and have an unseen someone think we were trying to steal their stuff.  At the cabin, we stacked our packs up against some large aspens off to the right, then got oriented on the porch by Austin.  Reported on the bear-bags, and 4 staff members headed down about 5 minutes later, returning within 10 minutes with the bags slung over their shoulders.  I suspect a Crew Chief will be singing for his supper tonight!  A Cavalcade Crew came in a few minutes later, followed by the Keystone Area Council Crew.  We all headed into the cabin for the "Mountain Man Rendezvous," an interpretive program on trapping and trading in this area in the early 1800's.  Not the most exciting stuff (lectures are always tough), but still worth the listen.  Lots of accoutrements to illustrate the talk, including a bunch of cured beaver pelts.  After the talk, Austin took us down for the Tomahawk throw, along with the K.A.C. Crew - but since we were a "pass-through" Crew, we went first.  Chris was our only perfect frontiersman, burying 3 out of 3.  Brad and Steven got 2 each to tie for second place.  [Photos: 1, 2]  Since Keystone was waiting on us, no second chances, and we headed on down to the rifle range, arriving just as the Cavalcade Crew was finishing up.  2 Staff members were running the show - Charles and Troy.  They started off with a brief history of black powder muskets, going through the various types of igniting mechanisms from the first weapons to those actually used by the mountain men.  Turned out we were using a system a bit more advanced than what was available on the frontier in the early 1800's.  This was followed by a demo on how to load and shoot the weapons, and we got right into it.  After placing a couple of personal items downrange for some artificial air conditioning, each trekker got to load his rifle from scratch, going through all the steps, then shooting at any of the targets we had laid out downrange.  Our accuracy left a lot to be desired! - but a few guys hit some of the stuff.  Done by 11:40, and we headed back up to the cabin for lunch.  I spent a few minutes chatting with (and thanking) Charles and Troy, so I was behind the rest of the Crew.  As it turned out, the K.A.C. Crew left to set up camp after their tomahawk throwing slot (rather than coming down for their rifle-shooting ssession), so Charles and Troy followed me up to the cabin.  After hearing that I had played at Pueblano the previous day, Troy offered me a chance to play his guitar during the Staff lunch, which I eagerly accepted.  The flies around the cabin were extraordinarily excessive at this point (thanks to the landmines left by the Cavalcade horses), so we headed over into the woods to eat, a lot better.  I returned to the cabin by 12:20, and Troy and I enjoyed playing for about 40 minutes.  The arrival of several Advisors and another Crew just before 1 pm called a halt to the proceedings, along with the weather, which was beginning to cloud up and look like rain.  I (again) thanked Troy with a set of strings and 2 picks, and agreed to send him a copy of my sheet music when I got home (which he was very interested in.)  We hit the road at 1:10, taking the trail to Ute Meadows that we had used on several previous occasions to start our ascent of Baldy from Miranda.  The rain got started in earnest about 1:30, just before we got to Ute Meadows.  Most of the guys just donned hats, put covers on their packs, and kept going; hiking up this steep a grade wearing rain gear would have resulted in our drowning in our own sweat in short order.  At the camp, there was no sign for Ewell's Park, but a decent trail did head in the correct direction, so we went ahead and took it (correctly, it turned out.)  After about 5 minutes, we passed a fairly new looking Colorado Department of Wildlife bear trap, set up alongside the trail.  What it was doing here in New Mexico is anyone's guess.  Finally re-crossed the Baldytown road, and Chris quickly located the cutoff trail to Ewell's Park, about 100 yards down the road (odd that they didn't have the 2 trails lead right into each other; also odd that there were no signs at either trailhead for the other camp.  No wonder people get "confused" up here.)  In the coincidence of the day, a couple of staffers passed us in a yellow Philmont truck as we walked down the short stretch of road; they were heading for Baldytown. The Ewell's Park trail quickly turned into a very tough uphill, steep and rocky, but with some great views to the right and behind us.  The rain eased to drizzle as we reached the plateau.  Somewhat confusing trails and signs as we approached Ewell's Park - the only legible sign was for the Baldy Skyline trail.  Fortunately, that was enough to keep us oriented.  We ended up locating the camp by walking right into it - we could see the meadow through the trees.  Passed by 2 set-up campsites with no Scouts present; probably still off at Baldy.  After wandering a bit, we settled on Site 1C under the trees, getting changed into dry clothes and raingear just before heavy rain moved back in (this was about 2:30.)  Got the tarp set up, with our pack line underneath, and (after telling a couple of jokes) everyone crashed for about an hour and a half.  The sublime benefits of an oversized tarp!  The rain finally ended around 4:00, and we started dinner at a still deserted site out in the meadow around 4:15.  Hank and David had problems getting water, spending about half an hour before finding the well (with the help of an Advisor who had just returned from Baldy.)  Oddly, the other 3 Crews at the camp also had no idea where the well was, so there must have been some thirsty trekkers by this point.  The well also turned out to be flowing very slowly, about 1 liter per minute, so we started dinner with the Miranda water still remaining in our canteens.  Spaghetti and soup today, plus a blueberry cobbler that we decided to go with this time.  The weather was clearing rapidly by this point, so once we were done with cleanup we moved the campsite out from under the trees and down to one of the meadow sites instead, much more pleasant (and precluding all-night "tree-drip" on our tents.)  Everyone circled up and we went through the Baldy list in detail, packing very meticulously for the following morning.  Everyone's daypacks ended up in the bear-bags tonight, so it was a heavier than usual load.  An instant down/up repeat on the bear-bags was needed 15 minutes later, since we forgot a few First Aid items.  Of note, the Crew in the next campsite was still eating dinner at 8:45, and loudly announcing dessert as we headed off to bed; gonna be a flashlight cleanup and bear-bags there, always risky.  Still partly cloudy, with a nice sunset; 48 degrees, but a decent breeze and all the wet making it feel a little colder than that.  Another good day.  Tomorrow Baldy.