Philmont 2016 - Day 7 - August 9, 2016

Today's hike is the longest of the trip, approximately 14 miles, and will take us from Whiteman Vega to Camp Dan Beard. Most of this hike will be in the Valle Vidal, after which, we'll cross back onto Philmont property. It's going to be a long day!

We woke up early, and packed up our camp. It was another beautiful morning.

We had been talking with the camp staff at Whiteman Vega the night before, and they had suggested that rather than following the trek plan on our itinerary, that we back-track the way we had come the day before and return to Ring Place, where we would then be able to reconnect with the trail we were supposed to take. It would save us about four miles of hiking, and according to them, there really wasn't much to see by following the original plan, so we didn't need to be told twice!!!

When we arrived at Ring Place, we met up with our sister crew who had arrived there a little earlier. Even though we weren't supposed to, we decided that we would finish today's hike together. Everyone was pretty excited to have the opportunity to spend the day together.

We had been hiking along a dry river bed through a canyon, that I would later find out was Seally Canyon. At one point, we were only about a mile West of the camp we had stayed at two nights ago!

Despite cutting the extra miles out of the hike, it was still a long day in the hot sun. After about three and a half hours of hiking, we found a nice shady spot to take a break, near an old cemetary.

Jim worked with the “navi-guessers” from each crew to plan the remainder of our route. We were still in the Valle Vidal, so there were no trail markers. Map and compass navigation were still required.

The next section of the hike required us to climb up and over a wooded mountain. We started the climb, making slow steady progress towards the top.

When we reached the top, Jim sat down with the boys for another navigation check. If our navigation was correct, as we came down the other side of the mountain and emerged from the woods, we should see an old windmill in front of us. Jim asked the boys if they thought we were on course or not. The navi-guessers double and triple checked the map and their compasses and thought we were o.k., but a little doubt was starting to creep in. We came down the other side of the mountain and emerged from the woods. Right there in front of us …

… was the old windmill!!! It turned out, Jim was just messing with the boys!!! We were in an area known as Beatty Lakes, an area of dry lake beds. The scenery here was breathtaking. It seemed as always, Mt. Baldy loomed in the distance.

We crossed the lake bed and decided to take another break to eat lunch. Josh & Ben had gone off ahead to find a spot to stop. A minute or two later, they both came walking back towards us, at a hurried pace. It turned out, they had found a nice shady spot near some trees. As they went to put their packs down, right in front of them was a huge rattlesnack!!!

We found another spot to stop and ate lunch. After lunch we continued hiking towards Dan Beard. As we approached the camp, we decided that we'd come into the camp as two separate crews so that we didn't upset the staff members there. We sent our sister crew on ahead and we waited about 10 minutes before we continued.

When we arrived at the camp, rain was starting to move in. We were all hanging out on the porch of the staff cabin when the weather started getting pretty rough. A lightning strike hit the ridge line at the top of the ridge above the cabin. This was the closest I had ever been to a lightning strike, and it was MORE than close enough!!!

Fortunately, the weather moved through pretty quickly. We got our camp set up and made dinner. After dinner, the boys played some volleyball with the camp staff.

Jim and I took the opportunity to do some “trail laundry”. Tomorrow's hike would be a fairly short one, only about five miles. It had been another great day!

We had reached the halfway point of our trip!