Day Fifteen

Wednesday, 7/15 - Up at 3:45 a.m., with a real effort - man, losing that sleep to the "bear raid" really hurt. 48 degrees, light breeze and partly cloudy, with the moon helping some only when it could peek through. Rusty was already up, but I beat him out of the tent, and did the wakeup duties; this time, I waited until flashlights came on and I heard movement from both Scouts before moving on (and Rusty came by 5 minutes later to confirm that everyone was up in all tents.) Could hear some murmuring down by Crew B, so it was clear that they had once again gotten up a bit earlier to make sure we'd match up on departure readiness. No sign of any activity in the rest of the camp; as usual, we appear to be the only ones trying to get a jump on it - which is fine with me, I always prefer having the Tooth all to ourselves. Everyone a bit slow, but we headed out to the staff cabin at 4:50 for our stretching exercises, cameled up with a liter apiece, and filled all our empty canteens. Three liters each today - a very long, hot hike coming up, with no water all the way from halfway up Schaeffer's Pass to Basecamp. Finally got the bright idea to trade off one of the flashlight batteries in John and Mike's flashlight with one of our still-bright lights - worked a lot better than a thought it would, so I'm good to go. Too bad I didn't think of this a week ago. First light, and we're on our way - first across Clark's Creek, and then up we go, one more time. Chris W. took the lead from me again, as soon as he could easily spot the trail without a flashlight. Past Upper Clark's Fork and Ponderosa, with a beautiful sunrise coming up over Cimarron. Surprisingly, we didn't need too many caterpillars, despite the slope - those stripped packs really make a difference (most of the guys are below 30 pounds each now, and some are even below 25 pounds.) Matt C. still limping, but walking it off. Pushed it all the way to the pass, and broke out breakfast - still saving some items for the Tooth, so we've got a good stockpile of munchies now. Some of the guys added drink mix directly to the canteens, now allowed since we were finally no longer concerned with bear security. As usual, several deer were wandering around the campsite, including a nice buck (still in velvet) that I got a decent shot of, trotting away from me. 30 minutes and gone, now heading east for Schaeffer's Peak on the monster switchbacks. Rapidly improving weather now - the morning cloudiness was quickly giving way to a deep blue sky with fluffy white clouds - gonna be hot for the hike to BaseCamp, but it's delightful now. Passed on doing the left-hand spur trail to Schaeffer's Peak, and instead cut right and cruised down the ridgeline trail - a brutally rocky stretch leading all the way to the Tooth, with fantastic views to both sides. Got some nice shots of the crew, with the distant plains behind them offering a marvelous backdrop. As designed, our timing is perfect - we're ahead of everyone from the lower camps, but behind the crews that spent the night at Schaeffer's Pass. Approaching the Tooth itself, everyone was impressed with rock formations - this year, we took the time to check out some of the little overlook points on the right hand side, which gave some nice views of the backside of the Tooth. I also found two water bottles (one completely full) and a few pieces of trash at two of these overlooks, which I went ahead and carried the rest of the way to BaseCamp. Guys starting to stretch out on the trail now, but not too badly, and we all rejoined at the intersection with the side trail to the Tooth. Several crews were there, but they were all leaving except for one, and they didn't appear to be in much of a hurry. I asked everyone about the full water bottle I had picked up, but no-one claimed ownership; well, it's a long, hot hike to BaseCamp, whoever you are! Set up our packlines about 25 feet down the trail, grabbed our canteens and daypacks, and started on up, taking about 20 minutes to scramble up and over the massive boulder field and get to the top. Per my standard request, the guys caterpillared all the way up and reached the top as a crew (same as Baldy, and of course the way you're supposed to do it.) Great view, and making up some for the sea of gray on top of Baldy; in both cases, the top of the mountain is about 3,000 feet above the surrounding terrain, so the views from the Tooth are comparable to Baldy. Perfect weather conditions - hot, with a gentle breeze, just a few light clouds. Took some standard crew shots, plus plenty of solos - especially of the guys standing on the promontory on the south side (looks like you're standing on a sheer cliff, with a 3,000 foot fall one step away.) Everyone did a little exploring, but mostly we just sat sunning ourselves, devouring the last of our squirreled munchies, and enjoying the view. Dan ate an entire bag of dehydrated apples (which no one else wanted), suffering the inevitable stomach upset after rehydrating them with the contents of his canteen. The other crew began straggling to the top about 10 minutes after we arrived, but stretched out over about 15 minutes, and assembled themselves on the eastern edge. After about 30 minutes, another crew began to arrive (also all stretched out), and we called it a view and headed on down. Back at the packs, we sucked down another canteen each (I gave Tim some of the extra water from our recovered canteen), saddled up, and - after Dan tossed his apples - hit the road for the "forever hike" to Basecamp. One of my least favorite hikes at Philmont - hot, tedious, and boring; many crews find it to be a really special experience to end their trek, but as far as I'm concerned, the Tooth itself is the "real" exclamation point. Quickly past Tooth Ridge Camp, down the ridgeline, and into the open "scrub oak ridge." Very hot and sunny, with tent city laid out to our lower right, and we continued on with just a few mandatory water breaks. Was just delighted to find that they've made the hike even longer now - it loops way over to right before doing a curl and coming back towards BaseCamp - at least another mile or more, for absolutely no apparent reason. I guess they're trying to make it so miserable that no-one from BaseCamp or the Philmont Training Center will ever do it as a "lark" again. I know they've already got an edict against doing the Tooth from BaseCamp, but this puts some teeth into it. Not too much fun for the homeward bound crews, though. Well, we finally pulled in, taking a moment to get the obligatory group shots of both crews under the "Congratulations - You Made It!" gateway. My last two photos, believe it or not. Six hours from Clark's Fork, including the half hour we spent on top of the Tooth and the extra half hour doing the additional section of trail - not bad. After a combined crew circle-up for silent meditation and a reminder from me to pass on the "Legacy of Philmont," we walked on up the last stretch to tent-city. Everyone hit the toilets while Rusty, Chris W. and I headed to the Welcome Center to check in. After shifting everything to our assigned tents (which were actually very close to where we dropped our packs), we immediately headed on over for lunch, snarfing down lots to drink and zoning out a little bit, and spending about 45 minutes on the Advisors' and Crew Leaders' Evaluation Forms. Chris (from Harlan) showed up, and we agreed to hook up for dinner in Cimarron at 5:00, then headed on over to Admin to see if we could find Doug Palmer to ask about donating my Ithaca to Harlan. Met with him briefly, explained what I had in mind, and exchanged phone numbers and promises to talk after I got home. Said goodbye (for now) to Chris, and headed back to the Dining Hall for a quick "all-hands" PLC - lots to do, but plenty of time, since we don't have to worry about returning a bunch of Philmont gear to Logistics. Transferred all our carry-on gear from the vans to our tents, and most everyone hit the showers. Per my request (and really because we had little else clean), the guys put their crew T-Shirts back on. This, unbelievably enough, turned out to be a subsequent problem, as a couple of Scouts from one of the Troops in the M. Area Council soon traded insults with a few of our guys about our shirts. I saw this from a distance, but didn't think much about it at the time, figuring it was just spin-off of the usual post-trek combination of teenage testosterone and fatigue - a mistake I would pay for later. Rick headed off to the laundry to do a massive cleanup of his and Chris' stuff, since they needed it for the extended stay in Colorado. After reminding everyone that I had already or would soon purchase patches, bolo ties and maps (and soliciting for what color bolo ties they wanted), we gave them their release `til 4:30 to hit the Trading Post and (of course!) the Snack Bar. I hit the showers myself, got dressed in my fresh Uniform, and headed back to my tent to sort all my stuff. Stepping outside for a second to hang a few items on the tent frame, I noticed a circle of about half of Crew B and another group of Scouts about 40 yards away, and my warning antennae popped up immediately and started screaming - this didn't look at all to be a friendly get-together. I headed over at a half-trot, and intentionally walked between the opposing Scouts - our friends from M. Area Council again, now reinforced and spoiling for a fight. After inquiring "What's going on here?" (which was obvious enough), I firmly ordered our guys to walk away. To their credit, they immediately did so, with Mike and John cracking up laughing at the sudden flood of ridiculous insults coming from the ringleader of the M. Scouts. These ceased immediately as I whipped around and got in his face - and they trailed off themselves. Al said later he thought the only reason why I didn't get attacked was the Scoutmaster patch on my Uniform, but I'd prefer to think that perhaps this young man saw something unfamiliar and quite deadly in my eyes, and decided to punt. Brad told me later I looked "extremely menacing" (and let's face it, that's pretty hard to do wearing a Scout Uniform!) Well - once again - bark succeeded, so bite wasn't necessary. After briefly debating with myself whether to bring Security in on this, I figured we would just order our guys to completely back down and ignore any further provocation; hopefully, that would do it. Finishing my housekeeping chores, I headed off to the post office, then the trading post, and then the Ranger Hut to find out if John Carman was around or not (no luck, he had left on one of the morning buses.) I left him a note, and headed back over to finish the rest of Crew A's check-out list (easy enough.) Everyone returned by 4:45, and we got dressed in formal Class B's, piled into the vans, hooked up with Chris and headed off to Cimarron for dinner; per Chris' recommendation, we hit "The Porch" for dinner - basically a glorified sandwich shop, good food, reasonable prices. Tim, Chris and I sat at one table and chatted about my plans to come out here following my retirement from Uncle Sam; he was full of various ideas and recommendations, and Tim and I jokingly laughed that we'd set up the "Cimarron Towing and Garage Service," since that appeared to be such a marvelous business opportunity! After dinner, we said our goodbye's and headed up the road to the "Creamee" (a glorified Dairy Queen) for dessert, where everyone snagged their specialized creamee shakes - halfway between a milkshake and soft ice cream, with various additives per your request (for the second year in a row, I got the M & M's - deeelicious!) Headed back to Basecamp, where everyone completed the last of their packing chores (everything but our sleeping gear, Uniforms and small carry-on luggage), and we got dressed for the closing campfire. Standing outside, our friends from M. Area Council walked by on their way to the campfire, and immediately started in again. Nathan attempted to make peace, saying "Hey guys, let's just let it drop, OK?" (while I headed over at a trot again), but they came back with a bunch of "No way!"'s and "See you tonight"'s `til I barked at everyone on both sides to "Shut the Hell Up!" Now this had gone too far, and I quick scanned for some Advisors - and found two of them (Vinny and Ron) walking up behind the group, and intercepted them. I explained what was going on - emphasizing that this had started over our T-Shirts (how ridiculous!), and that both groups of Scouts were at fault, and was quite surprised to have them come back and say that no, their one "Scout" (the afternoon ringleader) had been a problem child during the entire trek, and they had no doubt that the whole mess was his fault, and that they would handle it now that they knew what was going on. Ron in particular looked extremely angry, and I suspected that this was approaching "final straw" time for him. I asked if they thought we should restrict both groups to their campsites for the rest of the night, with the Adults doing "DMZ Patrols," but they both assured me that wouldn't be necessary, so OK. Obviously, I should have gotten these guys involved a lot earlier, but better late than never (still learning!) I returned to our assembled guys and strictly forbid any of them to say so much as one word or even look at a M. Scout for the rest of our remaining time in camp. With that, we joined the Closing Campfire assembly, and headed down with the rest of the crews. Despite the crowd, we managed to snag some pretty good seats near front left. They had another completely new Program this year - "Radio Philmont," for lack of a better title - skits, songs, and jokes - pretty good overall, though it was obvious that we had the "B-Team" tonight (since they read everything off of xerox copies the whole night long, and weren't exactly polished.) Winding down, we had the traditional assemblies of the Crew Chiefs, then the Advisors; each Chief presented his primary Advisor with the Crew flag. I also took immediate possession of the Arrowhead patches for both crews.) We then called it a night with an "all hands" version of the Philmont Hymn. After everyone cleared out, we spent a few minutes getting our final crew photos taken around the Philmont 60th Anniversary sign (one of the backdrops to the closing campfire); a couple of the other departing crews saw us doing so, and returned to grab their own photos. Turned around to find Ben Northrup standing there (the current NCAC High Adventure Chairman), which was a heck of a surprise. [Note: I worked for the Council High Adventure Committee for about 5 years in the late 80's and early 90's.] He was stuck in BaseCamp after being denied permission to go on his trek for medical reasons - total bummer, there! Apparently, we had two NCAC Council Contingents (8 crews) on the Ranch at that time, and Ben was sort of keeping an eye on all of them while still (hopefully) waiting for medical clearance when his system attuned to the altitude (but he wasn't optimistic on that happening.) Anyway, he always came to the closing campfires to see if there were any independent crews (like ours) from the NCAC, just to say "Hello." We enjoyed a brief chat, and he invited me to meet him at the Snack Bar for a ice cream cone; I said I'd try and get over in about 15 - 20 minutes, after I secured the patches et al. Back at our tents, most of the guys solicited me for permission for one last raid of the snack bar, which I granted after reminding them not to mess with the M. Scouts. I spent about 20 minutes reorganizing my files, and headed over to the Snack Bar myself, diverting to the Welcome Center to drop off our evaluation forms. Linked up with Ben again, and we spent a pleasant 45 minutes chatting about his family and how things were going with me; fortunately (and despite my premonition otherwise), he did not attempt to recruit me as High Adventure Chairman of our new Chain Bridge District - maybe he realized that being both Roundtable Commissioner and Scoutmaster of the largest Troop in the County is enough for any one man. Finally said our goodbye's and good luck's, and I slowly headed back to the tents, looking up at the stars and enjoying the peace. That was disturbed as soon as I got into my bunk, however, by the screams of a "tent-raid" in our site, and I jumped out fearing the worst. Fortunately, it was only fratricide - Crew B was raiding Rusty and Matt S.'s tent. Unfortunately, they made a bad situation with his cot (badly bent already) even worse, and Rusty and Matt had to do a semi-fix by the light of their flashlights. After this adrenaline rush, I ended up tossing and turning for quite a while before finally getting some sleep; no howling coyotes tonight - guess they're all visiting their in-laws at Miranda. A very long and full day, but all-in-all (and despite the stupidity with the M. Scouts), a great ending to a great trek. Later on a minor thunderstorm rolled through.