Over Wilson's Mesa to Pueblano Ruins Camp
Leaving Sioux, we ran across another crew trying to get to Bent Camp via Sioux. It don't work. It turned out, though, that there is a trail along southwest side of the valley that isn't on our map, but is on the less detailed overall map. [We later realized that it was also on the 1995 version of the North Country map.] It was a good thing that we took the path we did. Otherwise, we'd have had to ford the river.
The
hike up to the top of Wilson's Mesa (8514 ft) was pretty grueling, but
the view when we got there was wonderful. It was a bit gray, and drizzled
on and off, but the views of Mt. Baldy and of the meadows full of wildflowers
on top of the mesa were great. We stopped for lunch by a pond. The view
of Mt. Baldy over the pond was to die for. It was a little cloudy and hazy
so the pictures might not turn out very well.
Early on, in base camp, Justin felt that one of our scouts, who can be a bit shy, was not terribly enthusiastic about being at Philmont. Justin took to yelling at him "Are you excited to be at Philmont?" The scout would first respond with a tentative "Yeah," but on further prodding would give a gusty "YEAH!" This evolved further into "HELL YEAH." This has developed into our trademark crew cry. When things start to get down, someone will yell "Are you excited to be at Philmont?" and the rest of the crew will respond with a resounding "HELL YEAH!"
While we were eating, another crew passed and asked if we had seen the bear. Apparently they had seen one just a half mile or so down the trail.
When we got to Pueblano (8088 ft), we found that we were too late to do the spar climbing. What a disappointment. There is a campfire program tonight, but it doesn't sound like the guys will be interested in hiking back down from Pueblano Ruins. We could do the spar climbing tomorrow at 8 am, but that would delay us getting to French Henry.
So, we proceeded up the canyon to Pueblano Ruins (8370 ft) after topping off our bottles with treated water. [We never found any ruins.] The guys were inclined to grab the first campsite we came to, but Justin convinced them to look further up the trail where we found a much nicer spot. It was much better than the first camp, and right near the bear cable. We had a nice sized meadow all to ourselves.
In the evening, we went back to Pueblano for the "Philmont Story, Pueblano Version" camp lantern. It was held in front of the cabin instead of the more remote campfire area because one of the staff members was feeling indisposed. The program was quite entertaining, with some great singing, but unfortunately it was truncated when it started to rain. There's been a lot of that so far this trek. No hard rain, but a lot of drizzle.
Most of the crew forgot to bring their rain gear and flashlights. The staff has been stressing since we got here that you should bring your rain gear wherever you go. Eventually they'll learn.
Bob stayed in camp while the crew went to Pueblano for the program. While he was there waiting for us, a bear ambled through camp. We had put everything up, though, so he didn't stop.
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