When you participate in a ten day trek at Philmont Scout Ranch chances are pretty good that you will see a lot of wildlife. I have seen wild turkeys, goats (or rams), deer, a bear, and plenty of chipmunks. In fact, seeing the larger wild animals can easily be one of the highlights of a trip to Philmont. The following is from my journal of the 1992 trip to Philmont made by the crew from Troop 68. The animals helped to make it a very memorable day.
Webster Park is an unstaffed camp with an excellent view of Tooth Ridge. Those who stay here have to entertain themselves. Or do like our crew did and get the animals to provide the entertainment. Jason and a couple other guys try to catch a couple of bold chipmunks who have been trying to get at our food. They have taken one of the ropes, tied it to a stick, and set a pot on it. When a chipmunk tries to take the bait placed under the pot they would pull the rope and have themselves a mini-bear. What they plan on doing with one I have no idea.
My body is letting me know that it does not appreciate what I have been putting it through these last few days. I have a blister on the big toe of my right foot and another one on the second toe of the left. The right side of my head, from the top, past the ear, to the neck, has been painful the last three days. I have no idea what the problem is but I hope it is not the start of something permanent.
It started drizzling around 2:30. Time to catch up on some shut eye. It is rather amazing. I am getting more sleep out here on the trail then I do at home but I still feel like taking a nap in the afternoon if the opportunity arises. Maybe it’s the fresh air. Maybe it’s the hard work of hiking. Whatever it is it is rather weird.
Shortly before 4:30 p.m. there is a bit of a commotion in the camp. I get up just in time to see a seven point mule deer buck walk by the camp. Nathan quickly grabbed his camera and began to stalk it. He was able to get with twenty-five feet of it before it moved on. The pictures he took should be pretty good ones.
A half hour later it started to rain again. The temperature is down to 57 degrees. Josh and Tim are in their tent. Tim is having fun irritating Josh by passing gas…constantly. At this particular moment I would not mind if this trip was over with. I am getting bored. I am tired of backpacking. I am not looking forward to tomorrow. When I look over tomorrow’s hike I begin to wander if we did not make a mistake when we planned our itinerary to include a trip to Harlan Camp.
A buck, two does, and a yearling are grazing in the meadow that borders the east side of our site. Tom is trying to in get close for a good shot with his camera. Corey has grabbed mine and moves in on the yearling. The fawn avoids him but the nine point buck moves closer. Tom sneaks around behind the buck and tries to steer him closer to Corey. We are going to have many pictures of deer when we get home.
The excitement never ends. Jason’s water bottle has been attacked by a chipmunk. Greg and Paul keep pushing the blame on each other for the sticks being thrown at each other. I wish they would shut up and drop the subject.
It is shortly after 5:30 when the crew gathers around the campfire ring. For the last two days Al has been working on his version of how Santa Claus Camp got its name. It has developed into a full fledged story. The group grows quiet as he begins to tell his tale.
Suddenly, Peter yells. A chipmunk screams. Everyone turns to see Pete standing half way up the hill holding a rope in his right hand. Hanging, and I do mean hanging, from the rope by its neck is a chipmunk. Peter has finally caught one after patiently waiting with the noose lying over the burrow hole for the last fifteen minutes. The poor little creature is squirming around like crazy, trying to get get out of its predicament. Finally, after a few seconds, the noose loosens enough for the critter to fall to the ground. In a flash it vanishes. We are not bothered by mini-bears any more that night.
The entire journal can be read on the Troop 68 website at http://melrosetroop68.org/highadventure.html
I’m a 34 year old father of two boys 9 and 2. I stumbled across this blog today and boy does it bring back some memories. I went to Philmont 1988 and it was a life changing experience for me and most of the people who went. I have never been back but I hope and pray that one of my boys will show interest in Scouting and want to make the trip before I’m too old to go again.
Before I go off the deep end with my “back in my days of Scouting” stories I wanted to relate a Philmont story of my own. We were camped out around the fire one night eating dehydrated pineapple when we noticed several deer off in the distance. Being too absorbed in ourselves we didn’t pay them any attention. After about 20 minutes we noticed that they were VERY close, less than 5 yeard away. Being very brave ( translate that to stupid if you are an adult ) I put half a bag of pineapple pieces in my hand and held it out away from my body without looking at the deer and we kept ignoring them. It wasn’t long before I felt the deer eating them. My Scoutmaster gave me the evil eye later for feeding wild animals and also the ” he could have bitten off your fingers bone head ” speech but 21 years later thats one of the memories of Scouting that hasn’t faded.