Day 3 (Wed)
We got up at 5:15 since we had an early time at the pistol range. We packed up camp and walked to Ponil. We left our packs near the cabin and walked back up to the Pistol shooting area. We went into one of the out buildings and got a short safety lesson on the pistols. We also were given ear and eye protection and headed to the range.Â
As a first order of business we were all asked to come up with cowboy names and a shooting slogan that we would shout out before taking our shots.Â
Laura:Rusty, “Go to your happy place!”
Paula:Pistol Paula, “Let’s do this!”
Adam: Moses, “Amurica!”
Nathan:Howard, “Slogans are overrated”
Troy:Hermanito, “Yippie Ki-yay…”
Carly: Jessie, “Someone poisoned the water hole”
Keith:Bieber, “I don’t want to die!”
Mike:John Paul Jones, “I have not yet begun to fight!”
Steve: Spur Squatter, “10 Schnitzelgruben are your limit!”
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Nearly everyone hit at least one target. Mike didn’t tell everyone until afterwards that he rated as an expert marksman with the Navy. That explained not missing even the far targets. We need to make sure we take him to Lost Valley for the shooting contest one of these years!Â
The whole activity was very exciting and we talked about our shots all the way back to Ponil to get our gear. We all decided it would be fun to go to a shooting range again sometime. We got back to Ponil and mapped out trail to our next destination. We were headed Dean Cow staff camp. We could either go through Dean Canyon or take the Dean Skyline Trail. Konrad recommended the later so we all agreed and headed off.Â
The hike out of Ponil Canyon was really something, when we got to the top of the ridge we could look down and see our camp site, the Ponil staff camp, and the turn around area. A few years before there had been a big fire that cleared out a lot of the vegetation, the land was very scared, but it gave us a good view in every direction. The burnt and fallen tree trunks were still very impressive and while it was probably nicer before the fire, it was still easy to appreciate what the fire had done and how beautiful the land still was in spite of all the destruction.Â
Our hike was long. The rangers are instructed to not say exactly how long any hike is. Every time we asked how much further, Konrad would reply it was only a Ranger mile to go. We finally figured out that a Ranger mile was exactly the distance from where you were to your destination. We tried to guestimate how long, the trail was and based on looking at our maps and our typical hiking rate we thought this hike was between 9-11 miles. It was much longer than the route we were supposed to take, but much more impressive. It was also hot that day, 95-100 degrees on the top of the ridge. We knew that the canyon was probably cooler, but the view would not be as good.Â
We got to have lunch on top of the ridge and were treated to a nice view of Mt Baldy. From where we were it looked so calm up and quiet up there. We were all looking forward to the climb up Baldy in just a few days.Â
We pulled into Dean Cow and Troy lead us to get our porch talk. There was nice swing that the adults got to sit in. Then we were treated to a big surprise. There were showers! I’ve never seen young men so happy to hear they were going to get to shower. We also scheduled our rock climb. We scheduled it for the next morning. So we headed of to set up camp and do showers. Not much later the staff came by and said we do climbing right away and we could “sleep in” the next day instead of getting up early to climb, so we all headed off to climbing. It was really nice of the staff to stay late so we could climb that day. Once again the staff at camp went way above and beyond to make our time there fun!
As is usual, the activity started with a safety talk and some basic climbing instructions, which amounted to reach up, grab the rock and pull yourself up, then do it again and again until you get to the top. We all noticed there was a big splat of blood at the base of the rocks. The staff was kind enough to explain that it was the results of a nose bleed and not some horrible climb gone wrong. Some of us were not sure about that.
 I’m not sure how high rock face was, but most everyone agreed it looked higher from the top going down than it looked from the bottom going up. There were two lines up the rock face. Once again the staff asked us to take climber names. Adam: The Most Interesting Man In The World.
Carly:Â Spark
Laura: Spot
Troy: Chaffe
Steve:Â Little Runner Boy
Most everyone did at least one climb, some did both lines, some like Keith and Nathan must have gone three or more times. It was impressive to see everyone one going up and more impressive seeing them coming down. We all had to put a lot faith in our equipment to rappel off the cliff face.Â
The sunset from the top of the cliff was very impressive, it was bright red just over the ridge we had come from earlier in the day.
We walked back to camp, hit the showers and had dinner. That would be our last night with Konrad. We were all very sad to see him go. We hit it off with him and he fit in with youth and adults. After dinner we did Roses Buds and Thorns, most of the thorns were about missing Konrad and the Buds were about making it up Baldy. After that Konrad broke out a pound cake for all to share, we learned that most of the Rangers do that. He also brought us an extra treat and gave us a package of Twizlers that he told us to share on top of Baldy. We learned that special crews sometimes get something like that. Then after telling us we were one of favorite crews of the summer, he broke out cake batter and frosting and baked us a cake in the camp fire, we learned later that Rangers don’t do that.Â
Having a fresh baked cake at camp was really cool, and he said we were the only crew he ever did that for. Now we were his last crew of the summer and maybe he just wanted to celebrate his last week at Philmont regardless of who it was with, but I’m pretty sure it was more than that. I talked to him on the side quite a few times and he told me how impressed he was with our entire crew. He had mentioned that as adults we did a good of letting the kids lead and the kids did a great job of being true to the Philmont experience. Our challenge going forward would be to keep that going once Konrad left the next morning.