[From the Philmanac - A worthwhile side trip from Aspen Springs, Ute Springs, Cathedral Rock Camp, or Cimarroncito is Hidden Valley.  This small, scenic valley leads to Window Rock, which opens towards a spectacular panorama of mesas and prairies on the eastern horizon.  Waite Phillips installed a circular window in the study of Villa Philmonte that directly faces the formation (thus the name "Window Rock.")]

[From the Philmanac - Cathedral Rock is the massive rock formation that looms above Cimarroncito Reservoir.  This is an excellent area to find mule deer in the early morning and late evening hours.]

[From the Philmanac - Clark's Fork is the Western Lore Camp for the Central Country.  It is conveniently located between Cimarroncito and Schaeffer's Pass.  Crews often either stay at or pass through this camp near the end of their expeditions, as they prepare to hike into Base Camp via the Tooth Ridge Trail.  The program includes Horseback Riding, Branding, Chuckwagon Dinner, and an Evening Campfire.  Just to the northwest of Clark's Fork Camp is a burned-out area resulting from a camper-started fire in 1978.  An enlargement of the Clark's Fork Cabin was completed in the fall of 1995.]

Gave up at 4:15 and continued to write diary for a while.  Still lots of wind, and a nearly full moon overhead.  Got up at 5:10, and woke the Crew at 5:25.  54 degrees (very surprising at this elevation!), but the breeze made it seem colder.  Another speed breakdown - except that as soon as the guys were ready, we sent them down to the cabin in small groups (warning them to stay quiet for the staff’s sake).  Hugh and I were last - and one minute too late to the cabin for the first peek of sun.  But we got a secondary sunrise two minutes later as the sun re-emerged from behind a cloud bank to the far east.  Got some spectacular photos.  A few members of two other Crews were up the porch (some wrapped up in their sleeping bags), also appreciating the view.  As Dan had promised yesterday, it was indeed worth getting up early for.  We sat on the flagpole “steps” in front of the cabin and ate breakfast; the other Crews’ Scouts headed back to their campsites.  We hit the trail at 6:30, William leading - but I stopped the line for a minute to run back and sign out at the cabin (clipboard near the door).  Now sunny with broken clouds, and we were soon into another speed run to the east, exactly the reverse of yesterday’s finishing hike, with only “water caterpillars” every 30 minutes.  A lot easier going down than up!  There were a few Crews in Upper Sawmill, but none at Lower Sawmill.  We soon intersected the Grouse Canyon trail again - and it was a whole new view in the canyon with the sun at a different angle than late yesterday morning.  [Photos: 1, 2]  Right turn to Aspen Springs, and right back into switchback climbing again.  Lots of Crews in Aspen Springs yet, most just getting ready to leave.  Then left at the Hidden Valley/Cimarroncito trail intersect.  Going up Hidden Valley, we blew past an Illinois Crew that was very complimentary of our speed:  “You guys are real truckers”.  Yeah, you can tell by the way my tongue is dragging on the ground!  In reality though, Hidden Valley (actually a cleft along the top of a ridgeline) is one of the more pleasant hikes at Philmont, even though it gets increasingly steep the whole way. Just before Window Rock, I stopped everyone and gave them the usual warning not to sleepwalk themselves right off the cliff (it slopes away at a rapidly increasing angle, so an inattentive backpacker can literally walk themselves right over the edge.)  This is one of the few commonly visited spots in all of Philmont that is seriously dangerous if you're fatigued or acting foolishly.  We pulled in at 9:00, getting the usual reaction from the Crew as they cleared the last rock spires on the left and saw the grand vista laid out in front of them.  Just under 2 ½ hours from Sawmill, so really excellent time.  No one else was present when we arrived.  Everyone dropped their packs, and we took the time to get single Scout and “all-Scouts” mommie shots with the Tooth Ridge as a distant backdrop, then various combinations (e.g., Luke, Will, and Neil wanted a shot for the Washington and Lee H.S. yearbook).  With that done, we went ahead and got all the remaining Troop food out (cracker packs, Slim Jims, and granola bars), gave it to Luke and Matt to distribute, and let everyone climb the spires to the left to enjoy the view - and a spectacular view it was, too.  I went up to grab some more photos, and enjoyed a few snacks myself.  Everyone agreed this was well worth the extra effort to get here.  The Illinois Crew (and separately, a single Ranger) pulled in about 9:25.  We hung out for another 10 minutes, then descended down off the rocks and had one of the Illinois Advisors take an “all hands” photo (Hugh and I did the same for them), and we left around 9:40 or so.  We stopped briefly at the second overlook (at the top of the switchbacks), which gives a southerly and southwesterly view, and I briefly pointed out the major peaks again, Shaefers, Black, and Bear.  A deer was eating at the first switchback, and eyed us warily as we passed by.  Down the steep switchbacks, stepping aside for two upward bound Crews (we told them “It’s worth it!”)  Crossed the Cimarroncito Creek at the bottom (some nice flowers), and I polled everyone one last time as to whether they wanted to go see the Hunting Lodge.  The collective (and unanimous) decision was “no”, so we again took off for Clark’s Fork, soon passing by the Cimarroncito Reservoir and Cathedral Rock.  On the way, we went through some areas that looked to have been logged off - or maybe a spinoff of the Clark’s Fork fire (a much smaller fire that had occurred well after the Middle Ponil complex fire, and had been very aggressively contained).  Hard to tell.  We pulled into Clark’s Fork at 11:00 on the nose, dropped our packs back in the trees, and were immediately invited on the porch for our orientation talk from Brian - who was quite impressed to hear that we had already come from Sawmill via Hidden Valley.  Our horseback ride was confirmed for tomorrow morning.  I was also pleased to get permission from him to play his guitar, so I knew what I would be doing later.  Also got instructions on the Chuck Wagon Dinner, boot branding, chess, cowboy (Western Lore) talk, and all the other various attractions of the camp.  But most importantly, we had permission to take a “brief” shower (“Yaay!”) - but no clothes washing.  Once the talk was finished, he took us down to our Site (15 (???)), and I immediately relayed both of my remaining sets of strings to him (he was completely out and therefore very appreciative).  The guys went ahead and broke out the tarp and lunch, but I passed on eating and instead immediately took off for a shower (open 11:30-12:00 only).  Two other Advisors were inside when I arrived, but they were just finishing up.  Grabbed a quickie shower and shaved, all in less than 10 minutes - 5 minutes at low flow, and 5 minutes of no flow to soap up and shave.  Felt wonderful, even though all I had to put on afterwards were my “least dirty” clothes.  Back at the campsite, the guys had saved me lunch, but I ate only about a third of it, and gave the rest away (the Window Rock snacks were still holding me).  We discussed the various options available for the afternoon (including Scout showers), established our Chuck Wagon Dinner volunteers (Will and Michael), and declared “free time”.  I grabbed my sheet music, the trash, and the leftover food, and headed back up to the cabin.  Brian was occupied, so I went ahead and played chess with another Scout (beat him easily), then played Drew (that took a while longer; Drew has a penchant for driving me nuts with his style of play).  Most of the guys came up to watch the game with Drew, then all left to go brand their boots (and various other items) with “Tim”.  [Photos: 1, 2, 3]  Matt branded my boots.  Once I managed to survive Drew, I got Brian’s guitar and started playing.  Startlingly, several members of the staff soon came out of the cabin with their own instruments and began jamming with me, including Brian and another guy on mandolins, another guy on bass (a huge upright), and yet another guy on another guitar, on and off.  Wow!  Even though they were all better musicians than I am, they seemed to appreciate my different takes on the standard Philmont classics (which I tend to play harder and faster), plus I had a bunch of songs that they didn’t have.  Other than breaks for Crew porch talks, plus a half hour where Brian took back and played his guitar, I played on and off til 4:45, my longest “jam” session ever at any Philmont camp.  Played every song I had, most of them 2 or even 3 times, per requests from staffers, Rangers, and other Advisors.  Not surprisingly, “Fire on the Mountain” was the most popular tune.

This year’s play-list (in alphabetical order) was:

Ain’t No Bears in Arkansas (which I had learned at Clark’s Fork in 2000)
Boy Named Sue
Coal Tattoo
Dark as a Dungeon
Fire on the Mountain
[The] Gambler
Georgetown
Ghost Riders in the Sky
God Bless the U.S.A.
Good Riddance (by Green Day)
In the Real West
Me and My Uncle (Grateful Dead version)
Night Rider’s Lament
[The] Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
Paradise
Philmont Hymn
Ramblin’ Man
Take Me Home, Country Roads
[The] Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

I also pulled a few more out of my head, including Spanish Pipedream (a Scout appropriate version) and Unwed Fathers (both by John Prine), Free Falling (Tom Petty), and a couple of others - but I drew the line on requests for Illegal Smile (also by Prine), Don’t Pet the Dog, and Always Marry an Ugly Girl.  Around 2:00, we started hearing distant booms of thunder to the west, but that storm moved south of us, staying mostly on the other side of the Black Mountain/Shaefers Peak/Tooth of Time ridgeline, and finally faded away between 3:30 and 4:00.  After playing lassoing games for awhile [Photos: 1, 2, 3], most of the guys went over at 3:00 to get the cowboy/Western Lore talk [Photos: 1, 2]; they also saw a turkey.  Will and Michael took off at 4:00 to go help with the Chuck Wagon Dinner, but (I think) Michael soon returned because they had too much help.  By 4:45, my voice was pretty well shot, and after offering my gratitude to Brian and the rest of the staff, we headed over for dinner - now held at a huge shed-like pavilion about 250 feet down the road from the cabin.  The rumor was that this had been built in order to help service the fire-fighting teams - but it looked much too well-built for that, certainly not something that had been frantically tossed up in a week.  Regardless, it was a heck of a nice facility.  Dinner was very organized, with 4 serving lines - and a good thing too, because the place was absolutely packed.  Crews were called up in apparently random order (we were about half way down the list for both first and second servings).  Beef stew, Ritz crackers, peaches, and Gatorade, all delicious as usual.  Cleanup was less organized, however, with only one set of sinks for the entire group.  Neil and Drew were “volunteered” for kitchen KP, but Drew was released from duty because (once again) they had too many people.  I wrote diary, chatted with other Advisors, and watched our pile of clothes and stuff while the guys were either in line or working.  Finally, we headed back to camp, where we found that Drew had apparently used his canteen for a flavored drink, so we had to put it in the bear bags (Luke had a chat with him about it).  Set up tents, then I went over to the Advisors’ coffee around 7:15 or so.  No Gatorade, so I got some water instead and played another Scout in chess (aka Victim #3).  The rest of the Crew eventually came up to watch, and then just sat around shooting the breeze for awhile.  Drew took my place at the table, and beat his opponent, too, while I wrote diary.  At about 8:30, the staff started the campfire program right outside the cabin porch, using 4 lanterns in lieu of an actual campfire.  [Photos: 1, 2, 3]  Since this is usually one of the better campfires on the Ranch, I once again kept track of the songs and skits:

- “Raise a Ruckus Tonight”
- Poem - :The Two Things I Love Best
- “Northeast Texas Women”
- Story - The Original New Mexico Cowboy, Backwoods Billy O’Bannion
- “Wild Horses”
- “Ghost Riders” (a rather corny version with a histrionic “Yaaah” chorus).
- “Silver Spurs and Gold Tequila”
- Flute solo (by two female wranglers) “Cowboy Take Me Away”
- “Spider John”
- “Ashokan Farewell”
Closing remarks by Brian on not missing Philmont:  “You Can Always Sleep When You’re Dead”
- “Night Rider’s Lament”

After wishing (staffer) Carl a Happy Birthday (it was his 21st), they called it a night.  A good selection of material, but overall the campfire had a rather sad tone this year (not sure why they chose to do it that way).  We said goodnight, and headed back to our campsite, with the staff firing up the Beatles’ “Rocky Raccoon” after everyone had cleared out.  Great stars tonight, and some of the guys went out to the meadow to check them out.  Bed at around 10:00.  The wind kicked up around 1:30 - a nearly full moon, too, nicely illuminating the forest.  Surprisingly warm all night.  Our horseback ride and Tooth Ridge tomorrow, so no need to do the usual crack of doom wakeup call - OK by me!  Also surprisingly, I heard very few Crews rousing early to hit the trail for Basecamp - maybe two.  Maybe they had the Basecamp-bound Crews positioned in the upper campsites - or maybe the Staff had really laid the law down on trying to hike the ridgeline trail at night.  Regardless, it was nice not to have the usual all-night ruckus going on all around us.