Ringo's World: What I'd Write Home About: Part 1

I've discovered that there is a wealth of information about Philmont just waiting to be plucked from the Internet like a nugget of gold in a mountain river. I know you're all on the edge of your seats now, realizing I am about to share...and did you just glance back up to the title and see the words Part One? Yes, my friends, it's true. I struck the mother lode complete with photos! As we go through what I imagine to be Gib's journey through Philmont, we will learn the lingo and see the sights as only I can gleam them.

Boring factual stuff first:

Philmont Scout Ranch is a large, rugged, mountainous ranch located near the town of Cimarron covering approximately 137,500 acres of wilderness in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of the Rocky Mountains of northern New Mexico. The ranch, formerly the property of oil baron Waite Phillips and now that of the Boy Scouts of America, is currently in use as a National High Adventure Base in which crews of Scouts take part in backpacking expeditions and other outdoor activities. It is the largest youth camp in the world by size and number of participants.

Cripples - Whenever you walk around base camp at Philmont Scout Ranch during the summer you will see the "cripples": Boy Scouts, mostly adult leaders, who have broken down on the trail and had to be removed from their crew and evacuated from the backcountry.

I think some of them chucked their worthless boots over the sign in frustration. Here is a photo from 1979. You can tell people had more decorum back then because only a couple idiots did it.

But a tradition grew out of a temper tantrum, and now a whole bunch of guys do it and probably say that a bear ate their boots when mom gets mad that $100 boots are missing. Well, she better not ever see this photo and Gib's boots better make it home!

Mexican Homestead a quaint way of saying you hiked all this way to see a dusty old log cabin and some bricks mortared together with spit and hay. Oh, and you get to work there like it's the 1800's and come out smelling like a goat which will only attract bears tomorrow. When the day is done you and your crew visit the Mexican cantina and indulge in some root beer...if you have enough pesos. There'll be some rootin - tootin' good times at the ol' campfire tonite!! And on the trail the next day. I feel sorry for whoever's downwind! That would not be a good day to lag behind!

The official brochure reads as follows: Day 3 at Abreu your crew will visit a working homestead. The staff will help you learn early day skills such as railsplitting, shingle making, primitive farming, log structure construction and care of farmyard animals. In keeping with the southwestern spirit of the program, you will be instructed in preparing a special Mexican meal. You also have the opportunity for thirst-quenching root beer in a Mexican cantina. You can buy a pitcher of root beer for your whole crew or a cup for yourself. Ole! (OK, I added that!)

Lookout Meadow: If you take away the pine trees and add a more Lion King-esque terrain and a stampede, doesn't this place seem familiar?! And the name! Lookout!!!! If I was standing here with Gib, all I would have to do is turn to him, look him in the eye, and say, "Shall We Run For Our Lives?" and he'd smile and say, "Yes, Let's!". He'd get it. So what do you suppose they're supposed to be on the Lookout for? Bears?! Flash flooding?! Now that I take a second look at it, it does kinda look like Raging Waters. Don't camp there people.

The Rayado stream offers excellent trout fishing. A little time and skill spent along this stream may yield you a delicious trout supper or breakfast. It may also yield you a surprising visit from a black bear followed by an unplanned swim in the river.