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Our day started a bit slowly this morning. We were supposed to move out of our tents and be at the dining hall at 6:30. We roused the guys at 6:00, but it was almost 7:00 by the time everyone had their stuff moved to the Welcome Center. (The Welcome Center, by the way, has been redone since 1994, and is quite nice.) We just barely got in before the homebound crews started breakfast. In the dining hall we ended up sitting next to the Prairielands Council homebound crews, and talked more about their trek. After breakfast we had our picture taken (they don't do the "with hats" picture any more), then to the Health Lodge for medical rechecks. Everyone passed.
During our medical recheck, Don went in to talk with the medical person in charge. He wanted to make sure that they knew he is an MD, and that they would respect his advice about things he saw on the trail.
Then we did our shakedown. Justin had us take everything out of our packs, and then went through the list of personal stuff we ought to be taking. Everyone ended up taking out some things they had planned to take, even some things that are included in the Guide to Adventure. I decided that I didn't need a long sleeved shirt and a jacket. I stuck with a wool shirt and my Gore-Tex rain jacket. I did keep my set of polypro long undies for sleeping and emergency. [One scout had a knife/fork/spoon set and Justin told him to only bring the spoon. Unfortunately, he left the whole set, and had to use one of our serving spoons to eat on the trek. In retrospect, I wish Justin had been a bit more exacting in checking that we had reasonable rain gear. Another scout, for example, had a very light rain poncho that quickly died on the trail.]
Justin tells me that a lot of the old Philmont traditions have been discontinued because they're considered "hazing." No more "30-second rule." No more brushing teeth with last night's charcoal. No more cleaning dishes with a bit of clean water and then drinking the sludge. What's the world coming to?
We didn't manage to get the crew equipment distributed before lunch, so we had to wait until after. It was a harrowing experience, but we've managed to get everything in. We discovered that we were missing our cook pot lid and our shovel. Whether they were left at the supply room yesterday (the advisors and crew chief had to go to meetings before all of the equipment was moved to our tents, so the rest of the crew was left to get the stuff together and secured), or "liberated" by someone while our equipment was left untended at the welcome center (we had to get everything out of our tents at 6:30 am even though we weren't leaving for the trail until 3 pm, and even though there were signs around saying you shouldn't leave things lying around outside), we'll never know. We had to sign out new items.
We didn't get things squared away until after 2:15, just barely time for me to go to the Trading Post to pick up a few items that I hadn't had time to get earlier (postcards, sunscreen). Just as I got there, the power went off all over camp, and the Trading Post closed. No last minuted purchases for me. Also no last minute call home.
We were told later that the power outage was planned to allow some electrical work to be done. Grr. Sure would have been nice to have been told.
At 3 pm, we were picked up by the bus for the trip to Ponil Turnaround, our starting point. On the way we got the story about the cattle guards along the roads. These are really minibear traps. It seems that the intelligent but puny town minibears keep trying to escape to breed with the strong but dumb backcountry minibears. They hitch rides on the busses, but the traps shake them off, they fall between the bars, and the cattle scoop them up and send them back to camp. There's more to the story, but you get the drift.
Once at Ponil Turnaround (7050 ft), Justin reviewed map reading skills and trail etiquette. Then, after some time trying to figure out the map, we set off. We discovered that the Philmont maps are not always 100% accurate. There are more trails than appear on the map, and the trails that do appear aren't always quite where they are shown. [I discovered later in the trek that the North Country detail map I had bought through the mail in March was the 1991 version. That was the map we did most of our navigation with. Don bought another map in the Trading Post before we hit the trail, and it turned out to be a 1995 version. There were significant differences. I am more than a little peeved with Philmont for sending me an old map.]
Our hike to Sioux Camp went pretty well, though there were a number of pauses to figure out the route. The guys made several wrong turns and Justin immediately called them back. If it hadn't been so late he would have let them walk on until they realized they were going the wrong way, but we were pressed for time. We did do an excellent job of keeping together as a group.
When we got to Sioux Camp (7390 ft), Justin took us immediately to a campsite. Normally, he'd have had us look at the available sites to find the best one, but we were in a hurry. He had us set up our equipment fly and showed us how to set up the Philmont tents. He then had us set up the other tents while he fixed the famous Philmont one-pot dinner.
The hike to Sioux Camp was very nice, up through a valley with sandstone cliffs, not really high, and nothing like what I expect to see later, but very nice.
After dinner and cleanup (licking out your dishes has been discontinued as "hazing"), we did "thorns, roses and buds." Virtually all of the "thorns" were centered around our crew's disorganization and the fact that it leaves us with no free time. But we're all looking forward to tomorrow.
One aspect of this crew is that I've been having trouble finding time to write this journal. There's just no available time. I hope that I'll be able to keep it going.
During the night we heard a cry near camp that I'm sure was a mountain lion.
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