Philmont Scout Ranch - Day 6

I got up early (everyone else was pretty tired from yesterday's hike - I was too, but old habits...) to catch the sunrise, which was pretty but without the sky/light show like the previous evening. We had a ton of dew get everything wet, so we waited for the sun to come out and dry everything off before packing up and hitting the trail.

We hiked down from Mt. Phillips to the Clear Creek Campground where we got to shoot a muzzle loader rifle. We each had only 3 shots, but it was still fun.

We hit the trail again (about 7-7.5 total miles) ending up at our final campsite, Tolby Headwaters Campground (9,750 ft. elevation). We had the place to ourselves, again. Since we were running low on gas for the camp stove, we had a campfire, which was very nice. That evening, we sat out in the meadow, watched a bear in the far distance as the stars came out and the full moon rose - it was a great way to spend the evening.

While the sunset didn't have the color like the night before, it was still a pretty sunset and a nice way to put the day to bed.

All told, we hiked about 7.5 miles and lost about 2,000 ft. in elevation. The trails were in good condition, so it was an easy day - the Scouts made grade time!

Cheers,

Marc

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

Philmont Scout Ranch - Days 1-3

Ian and I just got back from a week in the southern Rockies in New Mexico, at the Philmont Scout Ranch near Cimarron, NM. To say we had a great time is a massive understatement!

This trek was the makeup from the one we had scheduled in the summer of 2020 that was cancelled due to COVID. Because of my work schedule, we had to shorten it from the original 12-day itinerary to a 7-day itinerary, which was just fine.

Ian and I drove up and met the Maryland crew just before lunch. We did all of our in-processing paperwork and drew crew gear. We spent the night in base camp and headed out the next afternoon. Wouldn't you know it, as soon as we arrived at the trailhead, the monsoon rains hit us pretty good. Fortunately, it was a short but heavy rainfall and no near lightning. We hiked on up to our campground (Arrowhead) with our Philmont ranger.

It was a fairly easy 2.5 mile hike, finishing at about 7,500 ft.

We hiked the next morning through Clark's Fork Campground, where we learned to lasso. By a massive stroke of luck, I lasso'd Bessie.

We had a fairly experienced cowhand to show us how to handle the lariat (rope) and lasso the cow. I think Ian had a nice time, too!

We kept hiking from there towards our destination campground, but found a forestry demonstration in an old burn scar, and stopped to hear what the foresters had to say. Lucky for us, it rained while we were under cover.

We hiked on to Cimarroncito Campground, where we did some rock climbing and rappelling - which was put on a temporary pause due to some lightning and thunder in the area.

This second day on the trail was longer - about 6 miles, but with a climb to 8,100 feet elevation.

Cheers,

Marc

Gila National Forest and the Mimbres Hummingbird Festival

With Christina visiting, Catherine booked us an overnight in the Mimbres area to see the Hummingbird Festival. We went in to Silver City for dinner, hit rain with a double rainbow on the way back to the cabin, and followed that with some Milky Way viewing with lightning flashing on the horizon.

We took the very curvy Highway 152 there, which has loads of overlooks, which I used to snap the below photo.

Saturday morning we had breakfast at a little restaurant, then made our way to the festival.

It was a small affair, probably less than 50 people in the time we were there, but it was getting busier as we left.

While there, I had a grand time trying to photograph the hummingbirds - they tend to move, move, move!

Ian and I had a nice chat with an older gentleman who told us about a little place where there were pictographs on a canyon wall.

Catherine and Leah decided to hang out in the van, but Ian, Christina, and I had a nice little hike in a canyon that we had to ourselves. The hike was less than a half mile, so very doable, and the ancient art was pretty cool.

Good looking crew!

Cheers,

Marc

Dry Tortugas National Park

We needed to get our drivers' licenses updated to the new Real ID standards in Florida, so we took advantage of a little time off to explore Dry Tortugas National Park.

We drove down to Key West and spent the night so we could catch the ferry at 7 am, with only a 10-minute drive from the hotel to the ferry. We had fairly calm seas, but it was still a 2-2.5 hour boat ride to get there.

Once there, the time absolutely flew by. We did the 20-minute intro tour at Fort Jefferson. Nancy stuck around for the whole 1-hour tour, but Catherine, the kids, and I did some exploring on our own during that hour.

After our little tour, we had lunch and then the kids and I did some snorkeling around the fort. We saw some decent coral and the fishes that go along with it, in addition to a good-sized flounder. The whirlwind tour took it out of us - the three of us napped on the boat ride home.

Not a bad way to spend the 4th!

Cheers,

Marc

Not another sunset!

Yup - another sunset, and again from the back yard!

We've had a ton of rain this past week to kick off the monsoon season, this was the first time seeing the mountains in a couple of days. The back yard is basically flooded, but I'll take it.

Cheers!

Marc

Road Trip

I had to travel to Thoreau ("threw") New Mexico to attend a Wilderness First Aid course for a trip with the Boy Scouts later this summer. Since it was just me, I loaded up the bike and traveled the back roads, including a gravel county "road" through a very remote section of New Mexico - it was me and a couple of ranchers!

After the gravel road section which took me to the Very Large Array, I made my way to El Malpais National Monument to check out the La Ventana arch (above). That stretch of road was pretty cool - large lava field to my left with towering sandstone bluff to my right. The trip was through some very strong winds, which made my choice of roads all the smarter.

After the last class, I loaded up the bike and started back south, but since I hit the road after 6 pm, didn't want to go too far. So I made my way to El Morro National Monument, where they have a free campground. Since all the National Forests up that way are closed due to fire restrictions, I was worried that the 10 sites would all be taken and would have to drive further south into the Gila National Park. Turns out it was just me and one other person who never came out of his/her van. It is close to Navajo and Zuni lands, so I had very dark skies very close to a new moon...and I brought my star tracker with me!

I got some nice photos of the Milky Way (which is the brighter cloud of stars in the left of the photo, above), but decided I had enough of those, and turned my eye back to Rho Ophiuchi - the orange star with the orange cloud and dark dust fingers in the upper middle/right part of the photo. I combined it with a photo of a bluff to the south, just had to turn down the brightness a good bit to make the night scene work.

That next morning, I snapped some photos of El Morro proper (above) and made my way back home. 

That trip took me through the Gila National Forest, which has a very large wildfire - more than 215,000 acres when I went past. This photo is from the south and east, on a road I discovered last year that winds and twists its way through the mountains for miles and miles.

We actually had rain in the Lincoln National Forest today (and parts of the White Sands Missile Range) - I am hopeful that they will lift their closure soon!

Cheers,

Marc