[From the Philmanac - Harlan was named for Thomas Harlan, the chief proponent of the St. Louis, Rocky Mountain and Pacific Railroad, that once ran through the Cimarron Canyon.  This railroad had big plans; however, it never made it past Ute Park, New Mexico.  It ran from 1905 `til 1942; today, you can still see some of its railbed along the Cimarron Canyon.  Harlan is located between Antelope Mesa and Deer Lake Mesa; it is one of the older staff camps in Philmont.  In 1969, the program was Astronomy and Burro Racing.  The "Mexican Dinner" was featured until 1989, when it was returned to Abreu.  12-Gauge shotgun shooting was added in 1989 (it originated at Miranda in 1988.)  Harlan has one of the larger areas of responsibility at Philmont, including the various trail camps across Deer Lake Mesa.  The jeep trail to Harlan is known as one of the roughest on the Ranch.]

Finally gave up at 4:45 and got the diary and flashlight out again, to fill some gaps.  Got going at 5:20 - still pretty dark outside, under broken overcast.  Forgot to check my thermometer, but I’m guessing lower 40's.  Got everyone else up at 5:35.  Everything still wet, but drying slowly in the breeze.  The guys were moving a little better today than yesterday morning - carryover momentum from last night I guess.  The Crew next door starting stirring up 6:00, but there were no signs of life at the third Crew’s site.  Circled up at 6:15, and left at 6:20 (Will leading), so we hit the mark (45 minutes) right on the nose.  Hiked for 20 minutes to a rock overlook view of the Midnight Mesa ridge (where we have stopped on several previous treks), and took a leisurely 40 minute breakfast, enjoying a nice sunrise.  Our neighboring Crew hiked through while we were eating, on their way (I think) to Ute Gulch Commissary.  Off to Harlan at 7:20.  Passed the trail intersection for Devil’s Wash Basin Camp (pretty much the top of Deer Lake Mesa), and quickly came to Deer Lake Mesa Camp - where 3 - 4 Crews were in residence and gearing up.  That same tub of reddish pellets (suspected algicide) that we saw in 2000 was still sitting on the berm at the south end of the pond, which was sort of odd.  The pond itself was very low.  I pointed out the location of the “secret spring” at the far south end of the camp to everyone for future reference - just in case they should ever come back here someday.  It’s slow, but a lot better than making due with the swill out of the pond, that’s for sure.  The trail became a 4 wheel-drive jeep road - very rocky in some stretches - after Deer Lake Mesa Camp.  No Crews came from the opposite direction during our entire hike.  Finally reached the end of the mesa, and headed down/down/down to the cattle pastures between Deer Lake and Vaca Pond, passing through several barbed wire fence gates on the way.  As we broke out into the pasture land (bright sunshine now), we saw multiple Crews leaving for Ute Gulch or Webster Lake.  Left turn for us to Harlan, passing through one last gate.  Still more Crews coming out of Harlan, so the mass morning exodus was clearly on - but as I noted to the guys, it’s nice to be done with our hike when they’re all just starting their’s, yes?  Crested the little ridge before the camp and headed down towards the staff cabin.  The “triple cairn” we built at the Vaca trail intersection several years back was still in place, albeit a little the worse for wear.  Arrived at the staff cabin at 8:40 am, very good time from Upper Bench, and set up a packline in the shade.  Luke and Matt checked in, and we were soon invited up onto the porch for an orientation talk from Andrew, while the guys played with yet another cabin cat.  We got a 9:00 reloading/10:00 shooting slot; excellent.  Plus we also requested (and were granted) the “hidden” campsite to the east of the triple cairn (behind a mini ridgeline).  As soon as the “porch talk” was done, we grabbed our water bottles and headed right into the reloading shed, along with another Crew (Crew 722-E-3, Trek 20; missed where they were from).  In a sad sight, we had a large hummingbird beating itself to exhaustion against a skylight inside the shed (nothing could be done, and eventually it perched on a beam, completely spent; I’m guessing it must have died later).  The reloading guy (missed his name) gave a basic lecture, then demo’d how to hand-reload 12 gauge shotgun shells, and we got right to it, using four different machines around the central table. [Photos: 1, 2, 3, 4]  But Mark turned out to be not feeling well, and I took him outside, where a Ranger (Greg) and I both questioned him and determined he was probably suffering from dehydration - maybe exacerbated by the heat and cordite inside the shed.  We gave him some basic treatment (sit in the shade, wet down your hair, drink weak Gatorade, and a lot of it), and he felt better after a little bit.  We’ll have to keep an eye on this - but it was likely yesterday’s intensive hike more than anything else.  Inside, everyone finished reloading five shots, and so I went ahead and did a set for myself, finishing around 9:45 or so.  We headed down to the range immediately, arriving about 9:55 (with Crew 722-E-3 trailing a few minutes behind us).  Still bright and sunny out.  We spent a few minutes chatting with the rangemaster (Sean), while the Camp Director (John) sorted ammunition and clay birds in the shed.  Of note, there would be no extra shots (for purchase) today, because they were still waiting for Basecamp to ship some factory loads.  So our five reloaded shots would be it.  Once the other Crew had arrived, Sean gave the formal instruction. We had two shotguns, both Ruger over-and-under Redlands (top-notch weapons).  There were three sit-down bird throwers, two out on the range and one back under the shed for long range shooting (staff only).  We took the left hand thrower, while Crew E-3 took the right hand side.  John was our instructor on the line; I went ahead and ran the throwing machine, while Hugh took photos from the side (with permission). [Photos: 1, 2]  Will went first, hitting 3 out of 5.  Then Drew 4/5, Thomas 4/5, Charlie 4/5, Todd 4/5, Michael 3/5, Neil 4/5, Matt 5/5, Mark 0/5 (still not feeling well), Luke 3/5, William 1/5, Hugh 4/5, and myself 4/5 (with Hugh running the throwing machine for me).  Good time enjoyed by all, and after policing up the brass we thanked both John and Sean and headed back to the staff cabin.  We finished almost exactly at 11:00, so probably wouldn’t have been able to sheet extra shots anyway (however, it was a bit surprising to have both Sean and John start shooting a LOT of extra rounds as we were leaving!)  At the cabin, after about 10 minutes of waiting around, Andrew took us and two other Crews up the road for site placement.  As requested, we got Site 3 - the one tucked behind the little ridge to the left of the triple cairn.  A nice, semi-private site that I have camped at twice before with previous Crews.  We immediately took advantage of the (currently) nice weather and did a major league clothing sort and drying while prepping dinner-for-lunch (we have an extra dinner somehow).  At this point, virtually everything we owned was either damp or wet, so the hot sun and breeze were very welcome - and we sure didn’t lack for rocks to place the clothes.  On “lunch”, the S’more’s pudding was a big hit.  Matt, Neil, Mark, and Michael did a three pot clean up, taking time to really clean everything as thoroughly as possible.  Most of the rest of the Crew hung out on the rock shelf, with all our gear laying around, and checking out the map.  As we were finishing up on the cleanup, another thunderstorm fired up to the north (towards Midnight Mesa), and Hugh (who had just gotten water at the spigot near the staff cabin) indicated it was a big one.  We could also see curtains of rain hanging in the air to the immediate west of the camp (over Deer Lake Mesa).  After a minute (and having learned the lesson yesterday), we decided to do a “rush” clean up of the camp, and everyone got everything packed up and under cover in short order.  However, the rain curtains hanging to the west never made it to the ground, and after 10 minutes or so it was clear that the main part of the storm was staying to the north.  The thunder and lightning display were very impressive, and after a while half the Crew moved over to the main field to watch [Photos: 1, 2] (I eventually joined them.)  Hugh and I both tried to catch the vivid lightning strokes on our cameras (doubtless failing as usual).  After about 20 minutes or so, the storm moved away to the west-northwest.  Half the guys stayed in the field to play cards.  Others came back to relax or “boulder” on the rocks around the camp.  We spent a leisurely two hours or so just relaxing, which was fine - at this point, a little down time was needed anyway.  At 5:00, we started in on dinner - chicken rice and Ramen noodles (we passed on the dessert, and there was some leftover chicken rice too, for one of the first times (even William was full!))  I reviewed what I knew of the next two days’ hiking (Sawmill and then Clark’s Fork); I had never been to Sawmill as an Advisor, though I had a dim recollection of having maybe been there as a Scout (I’ll have to check that out when I get home).  Lots of options for the Scouts to mull over, particularly whether to come back down Sawmill Valley the following day to do Cimarroncito or Hidden Valley, or instead go over Thunder Ridge (close to Mt. Phillips) and do Cypher’s Mine and maybe Hunting Lodge, before going to Clark’s Fork.  Doing Hidden Valley and getting into Clark’s Fork early was the preliminary vote, but we don’t have to decide til tomorrow anyway.  Luke and Drew got the map out and reviewed the trails to Ute Gulch Commissary.  Cleanup went til 7:10 or so.  Luke and Michael called the Crew back from “bouldering” to do the camp breakdown (tarp, etc.) before the burro races.  Got the bear bags up - pretty light now - and headed down to the burro corrals.  Seven Crews were on time, with two more eventually joining us, so a pretty big crowd.  After some standing around at the corral, everyone got to pick their burro - we ended up with “Fletch”, a gray-white burro.  The fence that was normally used as the racecourse was gone, so everyone raced from the corral up to a large boulder near the staff cabin, then back down to the corral.  After a rather overly-long intro from Sean, we got going with some practice heats.  Then we did elimination rounds in two groups.  We were in Group A with four other Crews, while Group B had the other four Crews.  Hilarious fun as usual.  Well, the guys improved in every heat in the Group A races, and eventually won that bracket, beating a dark brown burro “Dirty Larry” by literally six inches in the final elimination round; a great race!  But the Group B Crew with Dirty Larry won their bracket, so it was an instant rematch. We won the uphill stage, but Fletch got stubborn on the boulder turnaround, and Dirty Larry ran away with the downhill, winning by about 25 yards.  So second overall for us, but the guys were well pleased with themselves, especially when Sean told us that Dirty Larry had just about never been beaten in any race that summer (the Burro Secretariat of Harlan!)  After refilling our canteens, we headed back to camp in high spirits, finished our getaway preparations, established a wake-up time, and hit the rack around 9:00 pm.  Surprisingly nippy for Harlan.  Felt very good to get in my clean(er) clothes (dry at last).  I wrote diary til 9:45.  A good day!