Philmont Trek 803-I 1997
Part of Troop
104's 1997 Philmont Trek
August 12, Day 10
Ute Gulch Commissary and Aspen Springs Camp
Don and I got up at 5:40 to climb back up the ridge to watch the sun rise
over Cimarron. It was pretty, but not outstanding. It was peaceful sitting
there, watching the day break.
The crew didn't get up until 7. We have a short hike today (comparatively),
are tired from yesterday's hike, and have no program to get to later in
the day. At 8, five scouts and I went to try our hands at shotgun shooting.
Peter was very reluctant to try, the guns were awfully big and noisy, but
with some encouragement he did shoot his five shots. I did pretty well
for my first time with a shotgun, hitting 4 out of 5 "pigeons." (Actually,
I had six pigeons. One shattered out of the chute. The scouts claimed that
I had broken it with telekinesis.)
We
left camp at 10:30. The hike to Ute Gulch Commissary was harder than we
had expected, but not really bad. It went partly up one side of Deer Lake
Mesa and around it on the south side. It gave some wonderful views of the
Tooth Ridge. Note to future crews: The point where the trail starts to
drop toward the valley (marked on the Philmont maps as altitude 8066 ft)
is a great place for a lunch or long trail break. We had a good view of
Window Rock (with people climbing on it), the back of Cathedral Rock, Clark's
Fork Camp (which we'll visit tomorrow), and Tooth Ridge.
When we got to the junction (7536 ft) with the trails to Aspen Springs
and Ute Gulch, we stopped to check the map. Again, the Philmont map was
rather misleading. While we were there, another crew came down the 4WD
road from Ute Gulch. There were on their way from Sawmill Camp to Harlan
Camp, a pretty good day's hike. We all said "hi" and did the usual "where
are you from" exchange. Then they started to continue on down the road,
bypassing the trail we had just come down. I suggested that they should
check their map, and they stopped and pulled theirs out. I quietly pointed
out the proper route to one of their advisors, leaving it up to him to
tell his crew or not. The crew then put away their map and continued on
down the road, still bypassing the Harlan trail. The advisors stood for
a minute, then shrugged their shoulders and followed the crew. I suppose
they eventually turned back, otherwise they would have had a very long
hike.
We continued toward Aspen Springs to the junction of the trail to Ute
Gulch. We left our packs and most of us went up to Ute Gulch (7950 ft)
for our last food pickup. We had been looking forward to visiting the Trading
Post, but it had virtually nothing. No candy, no fruit, no postcards. Apparently
it's late enough in the season that they are no longer stocking the Trading
Posts. Not exactly a consumer-oriented policy.
Returning to our packs, we
hiked up to Aspen Springs (8000 ft). (I don't know where the "Aspen" comes
from. The forest is all evergreen.) Aspen Springs is the most interesting
camp we have been in to date. There are long, high ridges of rock, part
of the same formations as Window Rock and the Tooth Ridge, right in and
near the camp. The guys loved climbing on them, and the views from the
top were spectacular again. We could look down in to Hidden Valley, and
could see the back of the ridge that ends in Window Rock. Parents probably
would have cringed to see what was going on.
They say that the sense of smell is the most evocative of memories.
Philmont is replete with fragrances that are unique, at least for us Midwesterners.
There's the butterscotch (or is it vanilla?) of the ponderosa pines. There's
the spicy sweet sage in the meadows. There's the pungent junipers. There's
also the indescribable experience of walking behind ten scouts and advisors
who have been eating trail food for a week.
