Philmont 2016 - Day 4 - August 6, 2016

This is our first full day on trek. We will be hiking from Anasazi Trail Camp to the Metcalf Station Camp. It's not a very long hike, only about 5 miles, and along the way we'll be passing through Indian Writings Camp, where we'll have some program activities available to us. We also still had to complete our “Ranger Training” with Ben.

We woke up to a beautiful morning, broke down our camp, packed up, and headed out on the trail towards Indian Writings Camp.

When we arrived at Indian Writings, the boys decided that they would eat lunch first, and then do some program activities.

There were two things to do ... we could take a short hike to see the Indian writings on the rocks in the area, and/or, we could try throwing the atl atl. A spear like weapon used by the Native Americans who once lived in this area. Our crew wasn't interested in seeing the Indian writings, but the other crew did.

Everyone tried the atl atl. Is that a t-rex on the trail back there?

After we finished at Indian Writings, we continued on the trail towards Metcalf Station, with Mt. Baldy looming in the background.

Metcalf Station is the newest camp at Philmont. Many years ago, a railroad ran through the canyon we had been hiking through to transport timber from the mountains to saw mills located in the town of Cimarron, at the end of the canyon. The railroad was removed years ago. Philmont is reconstructing a small section of railroad where the old railroad was previously located.

When we arrived, the staff was eating lunch, so we did the same. After lunch, we went to work on the railroad. Everyone got a chance to drive spikes and to “line” the tracks. It was pretty hot out, but the staff members were very entertaining, and everyone had a good time.

After we were done working, everyone had a chance to ride the hand car back to the station. It was a lot of fun, but also much harder to pump the car than I thought it would be!

The other program activity at Metcalf was blacksmithing, but there wasn't enough time for both of our crews to do it today. We decided to do it first thing the next morning. One of the staff members showed us to our camp. It was in the woods, up a pretty big hill. There was a nice view, but it was a steep climb (and the bathroom was at the bottom).

We set up camp and ate dinner. After dinner, the staff put on a campfire show. It was a really good time!