Philmont memories Trek 721-A 1990
Kevin Thompson July 14, 2021

These are some of my memories from our Philmont trip in 1990. Our itinerary was for 76 miles, but we took several side hikes which made it longer. After we got back they added it all up and determined we had covered about 98 miles. This hike really had a huge impact on my life, because now 31 years later I still go on week-long backpacking trips through the mountains in northern New Mexico.

One of the requirements for the 50 Miler Award was to do a trail maintenance project. There was an area where a new trail was being constructed which was on the way to one of our camps. We took a detour and helped with the trail construction for several hours. They already had the route surveyed and marked with stakes. We just had to cut the trail. It was hard work. We would dig for a while, then the staff would come over and measure things to make sure it was the right grade, width, etc. Then they would have us dig some more. We learned a lot about how trails are made, about how they need to be the right shape so the water will run off of them rather than eroding them out. And they can’t be too steep or too narrow. We didn’t realize that so much effort was put into creating a trail.

One of the boys in our group was allergic to iodine, which is what we were using to treat our drinking water. We all knew it, and he had some other way to treat his water. At one of the camps, he started having a reaction and determined that he somehow got hold of some iodine treated water. We needed to contact the camp medical staff to come pick him up. There was a cabin with a radio installed in it about four miles away. Per the rules we couldn’t hike in groups of less than four, so myself and three other boys set off to find this radio and call them. It wasn’t a bad hike out there and back, even though we had already hiked a number of miles that day to get to the camp. We let them know who we were and what the situation was, and they sent a vehicle to pick him up. They actually ended up bringing him back to rejoin us the next day when he was doing much better.

When we arrived at one of the camps, there was a bear up on the hillside somewhere. It was roaring very loudly over and over again. One of the adults said it was probably about a mile away, although I thought it sounded quite a bit closer. This continued for about an hour. Later when I was off somewhere else, they said the bear actually came into camp. Everyone got into their tents with the doors very slightly open so they could see it. They said it just wandered around the camp for a little while and stuck it’s head into the fire pit. Then it wandered off and they never saw it again. I believe this was when we were hiking out to call the staff on the radio, which is why I was not there.

At one of the staffed camps, the staff offered us a gallon of milk. We had been eating dehydrated trail food for days, and that sounded awesome, so we gladly accepted. They had it stored down in the creek to keep it cold, with big rocks around it to keep it from washing away. We divided it up and there was enough for everyone to have seconds. That was the perfect alternative to squeeze-cheese or powdered eggs.

We had plastic salt and pepper shakers to season our food. One evening when we were eating dinner, someone stepped on the pepper shaker and crushed it. The plastic pieces got put in the trash, and they scooped up the pile of pepper and tossed it into the fire. Within seconds everyone was running away because we couldn’t breathe. The fumes produced by the burning pepper were not breathable. When I got about thirty feet away, my lungs started working again although I couldn’t stop coughing. I looked around and everyone else was coughing too. We all recovered within a few minutes, but learned a lesson not to throw a whole container of black pepper into the fire ever again.

Several of us were wandering around the camp area at Miranda and discovered a section of the creekbed had been mined at some point. First we found two boards laying flat on the ground in the

forest maybe hundred feet apart, labeled “Mine #1” and “Mine #2”. This was in the area around Lake Dorris and Lake Aspen, just down the hill from Miranda camp. We came up on a long section of creekbed that had a large hill of tailings piled all along it’s edge, and the remains of several old sluice boxes were scattered around. We came back with our cameras later, but were unable to find it again.

While camped at Miranda we did a side hike up Baldy Mountain. The original plan was to start off for Baldy about 3:00 AM so we could see the sunrise from the top. I don’t think anyone wanted to get up that early. We didn’t hit that trail until about 8:00. The higher up we went, the quicker I would tire out. It seemed like I was having to stop and rest about every ten feet. When we finally made it to the top, it was very windy. We were having to lean into the wind quite a bit to keep from being blown over. The view from the top was incredible. They said some of the mountains we could see were probably fifty miles in the distance. Eagle Nest Lake looked like a puddle. I also remember seeing the remains of an old mine near the summit.

On the trail at the top of Bear Canyon, a bad storm was coming in. There was lightning and thunder everywhere and we had to keep going to get down the canyon. Shortly after we put on our rain gear, it completely dumped on us. I think that was the hardest rain we saw the entire trip. Then it started hailing, just small pea-sized hail. It hailed for a while but the rain continued all the way down the canyon. Right when we got to the highway at the bottom of the canyon, the rain finally stopped and we had blue sky. My boots were soaked. They had told us to pack extra shoes for just walking around camp, so I put those on with dry socks and hung my boots on the outside of my pack. I didn’t realize that these extra shoes I had were not going to work for the trail. They were high-top canvas basketball shoes. After hiking about three miles in those, my feet hurt. The next morning my boots were dry so I put those on. However my heels hurt so bad I could hardly walk. I had to roll up some extra socks to put underneath my heels inside my boots for padding. I did that for a couple of days before my feet felt better.

One of our camps was a dry camp, and the adults made it very clear that we were to keep the fire small. Not too far away, there was a trailer with a water tank on it, but they said it was for emergencies only. But before we knew it several of the boys had built a raging bonfire, to which the adults loudly objected. I had nothing to do with the fire. I was just standing back watching all of this happen. Then they decided to break out the frisbee. The sump frisbee had many small holes drilled through it to act as a filter for the sump. We were supposed to use it to filter our dishwater that we poured into the sumps at the campsites. It would catch all of the food chunks so we could scrape them into the trash. The sump frisbee also doubled as a regular frisbee for throwing. So they started throwing this frisbee back and forth through the flames of their bonfire. After a few minutes of this, the frisbee went in one side of the fire and didn’t come out the other. It seemed to me like it was thrown high enough up that wouldn’t have hit anything. It just never came out. They scrambled over to the fire and looked for it, but no trace of it was ever seen again. We figured it just vaporized on its way through. Then came the discussion about “What do we do about the sump now?”

The staffed camps were great. They had numerous activities for us to do, like climbing poles, throwing knives and tomahawks, and roping fake cattle. They would put on skits and presentations, tell jokes, and sing songs. I still remember part of one of the songs that stuck with me for some reason. “There’s fire on the mountain and lightning in the air, gold in them hills and it’s waiting for me there.”

Cypher’s Mine was my favorite camp of all. They took us on a tour of the Contention Mine, with hard hats and flashlights. We went a long way into the mine before turning around, but the tunnel kept going further. It was hard to believe that people could make a hole that far into the side of the mountain. They also showed us how to pan for gold in the creek. During the panning demonstration, the guy found “chunk-a-rite” in his gold pan. It wasn’t gold even though it looked kind of like it, so he

chunked it to the right. Also the blacksmith shop was really cool. The guy showed us how to forge iron. He made a small iron tool that fits around your hand for striking against a rock to start a fire.

Another great time was “the stomp”. We didn’t know what to expect on this one. None of us had ever been to a stomp before. There was a cabin that was raised up on coil springs that were probably car springs. When we walked up into the cabin, the whole structure swayed back and forth on the springs. They had a jug band up at the front, with one guy playing a jug and another guy playing a washtub bass, one playing spoons, and some other odd instruments as well. The washtub was upside down and had a long board sticking up, with a rope stretched from the top of the board down to the washtub. He would pluck the rope like a guitar string and stretch it tighter by moving the board to change the pitch. The stomp was kind of a party where everyone would stomp with one foot as hard as they could along with the music and it would shake the whole cabin. A number of the boards in the floor were newer than others, and I remember a couple of people saying they broke boards when they stomped on them.

I always enjoyed going camping with the Boy Scouts, but Philmont was a whole new experience. It was my first serious backpacking trip, and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. I’ll always treasure the memories of the beautiful mountain scenery, the wildlife, the activities, hanging out with friends, even the sore feet, the rain and hail, the trail food, and the lack of showers. Philmont was awesome!

---