Philmont Scout Ranch - Days 4 and 5

From Cimarroncito Campground, we hiked through the Upper Webster Park area to do 3 hours of service work helping to build a trail - it was hot and hard work. 

From there, we hiked to Cypher's Mine (9,200 ft elevation). All told, it was about 10 miles on the trail, including the hike to the service project (started at 10:30 am). That got us in camp pretty close to dinner, which we needed to cook and clean, meaning we missed the camp program that night. However, we did the blacksmithing project (butter knife) and toured the abandoned gold mine before we hit the trail the next day.

From Cypher's Mine, we hiked up (and up) to Mt. Phillips, the second highest peak on the Philmont Scout Ranch. Since it was near the end of the season, we had the place to ourselves, which was pretty cool. We made great time over the 7.5 miles, but the elevation (11,936 ft.) was a killer. 

Fortunately, the sun played nice and gave us a very pretty sunset.

Ian noticed the show in the opposite direction, so we grabbed a quick selfie.

It was chilly up there with the wind blowing, but the show was worth it!

Cheers,

Marc