PHILMONT EXPEDITION 720C4 2003 Trek 5
                             

                                                                                                                    PHILMONT JOURNAL
                                                                                                                               by Cody Burke

 

720 C4
Youth
Cody Burke ~ Crew Leader
Jake Hammons
AJ Prisco ~ Chaplin
West Allen
Andy Card Jr.
John Laird
Eric "Spike" Darsey
Nathan Nash

Adults
Len Prisco
Danny Burke
Charlie "Rambo" Dierker
Steve Unger

Day 1 July 20, 2003

We checked in at 7:30 at Base Camp, went to the Welcome Center and were assigned
tents A67 to A72. We met our Ranger Skye Schnell at the Welcome Center, he took us
over to Logistics and I went in with dad and Mr. Unger. Justin took us over to the tables to finalize our trek and find out where the water is and isn't this time. After Logisitics we went over to Medical, then on to take our pictures. After pictures we went to the Dining Hall for lunch, we had hot dogs for lunch. After lunch we finished our check in with shakedown. Most of us hung out at the tents the rest of the afternoon until dinner, we had chicken nuggets for dinner. After dinner I went to the Crew Leaders meeting, seemed like a lot of stupid people there. After the meeting I met up with the crew and went over to Chapel Service. After Chapel Service we met Skye at the Welcome Center and went to Opening Campfire. It was as boring this time as the last time I went to it. After campfire we returned to camp and I went to bed.

Day 2 July 21, 2003

We woke up early and packed our packs, breakfast was at 6:30. After breakfast we
cleaned our tents and met at the Welcome Center for our 9:30 bus, my pack weighs 47 lbs 1 more then last year. The bus dropped us off at Lover's Leap Turnaround, where we went over some map work and a few other Ranger tips. Finally on the trail, we hiked up to Lover's Leap, I didn't climb out to far on Lover's Leap just far enough to get a picture with dad. I then went back down with Mr. Unger and waited for the rest of the crew. We hiked on down into Lover's Leap camp and set up camp. After we set up camp we ate lunch, we had lunch #2 which had Nutterbutters, Club Crackers, and chicken. After lunch we went and got water, Skye showed us how to purify our water, we already knew how to do this from our training but we all tried to listen. After the water was purified we went to do the bear bags, had trouble finding the cables, then had a hard time getting the ropes over them as they were pretty high. With bear bags hung we sat around camp, played some cards and relaxed.

Mr. Dierker made fun of the French and he and Skye got into a talk about the French, I think Skye made a mistake then. We had spaghetti for dinner, with bread sticks and Chips Ahoy. We also saw a deer on the trail today I saw it first. We sat on a hill over looking a meadow below us and watched turkeys walking back and forth in it.

Day 3 July 22, 2003

I got up at 5:15 and woke the crew at 5:30, we were out of camp by 6:30 which was
very good. We got to Crater Lake at about 9:00, we went up on the porch of the Staff
cabin for our porch talk, they gave us juice while we were there. We went over to the
spar poles to climb before we went to camp since no one was there in camp yet. I didn't climb the spar pole all the way but at least I tried, and made it halfway up, still to high, Mr. Unger kept telling me I could make it, but half way was high enough for me.  We climbed for about an hour then we went up to our campsite. We ate lunch after we got camp set up, the flies were terrible. We set around camp and played cards. Later on in the afternoon we went back down to do program, we did the log toss and the sawing with the 2 man saw. After supper we went down for the Toughman Competition. AJ won the competition with his story about saving some girls from the killer sharks, he showed his butt where he got bit, he even picked the guys nose next to him, then took off his shirt. His prize for winning was to carry the water bucket over to the campfire ring. The campfire was by far the best campfire I have ever seen. They sang songs from Wayne's World, told stories about Indians fighting mammoths with help from the Ewoks log crushers and catapaults. They told stories about Pancho Villa, a logger at dinner, piggy the pig, the worlds greatest lumberjack BIG Doug, and finally the "True Philmont Story." It was one of my favorite camps.      

Day 4 July 23, 2003

We left camp again before 6:30 and headed for Black Mountain. We hiked across a
beautiful trail crossing the creek 50 some odd times. There were a lot of beaver dams
and pools, strawberries along the trail. We got to Black Mountain, after lunch we set up the rain fly and hung the bear bags. Just as we got the bear bags hung the hail storm hit, it only lasted about 5 minutes but the rain lasted for about 3 hours. When the rain let up we went to the forge and made a J-hook. Skye met us at the staff cabin and brought us a box of chocolate donuts, we ate the donuts then said thanks and goodbye to Skye again. We went back to camp and made dinner, after dinner and clean up we went up and shot black powder rifles. After shooting the rifles we went back to camp and did Thorns and Roses then everyone went to bed.

Day 5 July 24, 2003

We were on the trail by 6:30 again and took the short hike up and over to Beaubien.
While on the trail Mr. Dierker sang us his Boilin' song he had written. We got into
Beaubien fairly early and set up camp. Since we had a food pickup at PJ we decided to
go ahead and head down there. Dad went with us, I asked the staffer there if we could pick up the next 5 days worth of food, he didn't have a problem with that so we picked up 5 days worth of food. After we took out the stuff we didn't want we packed up the food in 2 packs we had emptied back at Beaubien then we stuffed more food in dads daypack, and even had to use some of the guys rain gear they had brought. We were pretty loaded down but we headed back up to Beaubien with all the food. We were hoping to get back in time to do Conservation but didn't make it so we ate lunch and then went up to rope and play horse shoes. Me and dad beat West and AJ 23 to 12. Andy entered in the Toughman Competition this evening but didn't win. After the competition we went to campfire, the campfire was okay, the girls on staff sang which was good, but not as good as Crater Lake.

Day 6 July 25, 2003

Today is a layover day so we slept in a little then headed out to climb Trail Peak.

Mr. Dierker and Mr. Unger stayed in camp, dad and Mr. Prisco climbed with us. We stopped at the plane wreck and took a picture of the crew on the planes wing. We could see Baldy and Angel Fire, the Spanish Peaks in Colorado from the summit. We hiked back down and fixed supper for lunch ~ chicken with rice and Raman noodles. After lunch we went and did our Conservation work. We replaced 5 old diversion dams along the trail with 5 new ones, to help keep the water off the trail. Tonight we had a chuckwagon dinner with beef stew and peach cobbler for desert, AJ gave me an extra big helping since he was serving. After supper some of the crew went back to the campfire but I stayed in camp with the rest of the crew. AJ and West built a small Villa Philmonte out of sticks they pounded in the ground with the stake hammer.

Day 7 July 26, 2003

We were out of camp in 45 minutes today, and were on the trail to Wildhorse. We
passed through PJ long before they opened, thats why we got those extra days of food the other day. We stopped and did program at Crooked Creek. The program is
Homesteading, we were the first crew in so we got to put the animals out. West and
AJ put out the donkeys, me and Andy put out the sheep, it was a lot harder then I thought it would be. Jake and John put out the cows. After that we got to shovel out the cow pen (oh boy). We took the cabin tour, then we got back on the trail for Wildhorse. We made camp and then went to get water out of the spring. West and I bombed AJ's house at the pilot to bombardier. We played frisbee and football up in the meadow, then several games of Mafia until it got dark and we went to bed.

Day 8 July 27, 2003

We broke camp and headed for Mt. Phillips, stopping at Clear Creek for program. We
shot black powder rifles again, I hit Andy's cap one time. We went back down to the
cabin and threw tomahawks then. We listened to the beaver trade talk and AJ waded out in the pond for the demo. We cooked dinner for lunch it was beef stroganhoff and it was really bad, I almost couldn't eat it. After lunch we filled up all our water bottles and water bladders and started the long climb up Mt. Phillips. It was a long steep climb, we finally reached the top, what a great view. We set up camp in #1 and then went back over to the top and took crew pictures. After supper we all went to bed really early as everyone was really tired.

Day 9 July 28, 2003

It was cold when we got up this morning, dads thermometer said 38*, we were out of
camp pretty fast this morning, might be the cool temperature. We stopped at Cypher's Mine and did program there. The staffer showed us how to pan for gold, which we did for a little while, then we went over for the mine tour. I didn't go in the mine, dad came over and we sat and talked until the crew came out of the mine. We decided not to do the forge, since we had already done it earlier. We started on down the trail stopping at Hunting Lodge where we took the tour of the cabin. The bear we had seen at Ponil last trek was now a rug on the table here at Hunting Lodge. The staffer gave us cookies after the tour, then we left and headed up to Cimarroncito. We set up camp and ate dinner, it has been a long day today. We went up to the climbing competition, West made it all the way around, Jake didn't make it as far, Nathan and Spike did pretty good too. We played football until it got dark. Then back to camp and to bed.

Day 10 July 29, 2003

We got to sleep in today as it is a layover, we slept until 7:00. I woke up at 5:30 but went back to sleep. The adults stayed in camp and us boys went to Ute Gulch for a food pickup after breakfast. I asked for a lunch or breakfast for a dinner for later at Tooth Ridge Camp but the morons would not give it to me. So we had to eat 2 dinners today which sucked. After lunch we went to climb but it started raining just as we got there, and we all got soaked coming back down the hill, so we got to climb in the indoor climbing rooms. We went back to camp and sat around a talked until dinner. We played cards and then went to bed.

Day 11 July 30, 2003

We left camp at 6:15 and headed for the Tooth of Time, we ate breakfast at the
reservoir. We stopped at Clarks Fork to fill up with water and the guy running the show made us listen to a porch talk, that was really stupid as we weren't even staying there. We made it up to Shaefers pass and stopped and ate lunch there. We hiked across Tooth Ridge, there's a girl from the Health Lodge hiking with us today across the ridge. As we got to the base of the Tooth there was a crew there with a man who was having chest pains. The girl stopped and assisted him, we continued on, just before we got into camp we saw a rattlesnake along the trail, Spike was going to walk up to him, but I made him get back. We set up camp at Tooth Ridge in the same place we camped last trek. Everyone was really tired and most of us took a nap right where we had been sitting. When we all woke up we climbed the Tooth with dad and Mr. Dierker. We took pictures both crew and ones by ourselves. I got pinned between 2 rocks while we took the crew picture, that didn't feel good. We went back down to camp and ate a lunch for dinner, dad pulled out some Oreo cookies he had been carrying all trek and gave us all the Oreo's we could eat. We played a few games of Mafia and then we all went to bed.

Day 12 July 31, 2003

We got up early and watched the sunrise from the ridge by camp, we had all decided not to reclimb the Tooth. The sunrise was really nice from here. We could see Base Camp below us. We went back to camp and took down our tents then ate breakfast. We left camp about 7:15 and did the long trail down with all the switchbacks. We made it into Base Camp and started our check in. We all got cleaned up and then went to lunch, we had pizza for lunch, it was good. We laid around in our tents and played CD's and cards, after supper, we gave out the Arrowhead patches, then we went to closing campfire. Tomorrow we drive home.