Brendon worked very well with the crew. He was patient and friendly with the Scouts and he accepted the opinions and suggestions that Larry and I offered. He demonstrated excellent backpacking skills and was effective in teaching the "Philmont method" to the crew. Brendon was one of the best rangers that Iíve encountered at Philmont.

We reached the top of the mesa at 9:10. The trail was very dry and dusty, but we were able to maintain a non-stop slow and steady pace on the way up to the top. At 9:30 we were back at the lookout over Toothache Spring on the other side of the mesa. Blake found the bear bags, right on the bush where he left them yesterday!

We hiked back through Stonewall Pass, and at 9:55 we were at the turn-off to Lovers Leap. At 10:05 we passed the junction with the other trail to Urraca Camp and proceeded on to Lovers Leap Camp. Unfortunately, we took the wrong trail out of that camp and consequently did a bit of extra side hiking. We werenít lost, just laterally misplaced. This little glitch really was avoidable, because we had been warned at Logistics that the trail was tricky to find and the right trail was marked on their wall map. Oh well, this was just another learning experience.

Paul was still struggling on the trail, having a hard time breathing and feeling nauseous. He made it, though, and at 12:05 PM we finally reached Miners Park. Thomas, one of the staffers, gave us the bad news that the 1 PM rock-climbing program was full, so we signed up for 3 PM rocks. The good news was that the showers were open. Yessss!

We realized that our original plan to hike to Inspiration Point in the AM, then do our conservation project near Lovers Leap (or Crater Lake), and still make it to Miners Park for a 1 PM rocks program was an unrealistic expectation for a crew like ours.

Larry and I headed over to the shower house while the crew set up our camp in site 17. By 1:55 we had showered and done laundry (look out, there are dark clouds on the horizon), hung our wet clothes, set up our tent, and were relaxing and munching on dried pineapple chunks left over from this morningís breakfast. The crew hadnít started lunch yet. Neither speed nor efficiency was their strong suit. We finally ate lunch at 2:15.

Well, it appears that my laundry => rain jinx is still fully operational ñ with a vengeance. We left for the rocks program under increasingly darkening skies. On the way up to the climbing rock it started to rain slightly, but this was only a precursor. We arrived at the top only to be told that the rock was too wet, and therefore too slippery, to climb on. The program was cancelled for the day. Thatís what we called a bad thing.

The situation was about to get quite a bit worse, though. On the way back to our campsite the skies really opened up and we got a gully washer of a downpour. Our laundry got a second rinse and the clothes we were wearing got soaked. I forgot my rain pants, so the bottom of my shorts got wet.

The good (or at least not so bad) news was that when we sloshed over to the staff cabin and looked forlorn, we were able to persuade the staff to sign us up for an 8 AM rocks program. Hoooahhh! We were hopeful that we would luck out once again.

Larry and I stuffed our dry clothes (which were in our covered packs) into our tent and Larry grabbed two large plastic trash bags to put our wet clothes in. I dried off with my two bandanas and climbed into my polypropylene long johns (which I almost didnít bring on the trail). I was prepared to start hiking tomorrow in long-sleeve shirt and long pants. I planned to recycle todayís hiking socks, which were dry and relatively clean because I had been wearing my low gaiters (which has been a definite improvement in my hiking comfort, by the way).

Our plan for tomorrow was to get up at 5 AM, hike to the turn-off for the rocks program trail, set up clothes lines to dry out our wet stuff (weather permitting), eat breakfast, and meet the staff on their way up to the climbing rock. We hoped the staff would agree with our plan, but if not our fall-back plan was to radio in to Logistics and request an itinerary change to swap out Harlan for ëCito.

Dinner was very good, especially considering the circumstances: rain with thunder and lightning (thankfully in the distance). The guys decided to skip the dessert, though, because gourmet cooking and rain-splashed mud donít mix very well. At least everyone got a hot meal in them (Cup-a-Soup and chicken with rice).

After dinner we had our Thorns and Roses session, which was a really good one, but elected to skip the spiritual reading. All of the crew pulled together for clean-up duty. Larry and I went to Advisersí Coffee at 7:50.

The staff told us that it was okay for us to go to the rocks trail junction in the morning as we had planned, but that if the rock was still wet we wouldnít be able to climb. The Miners Park staff was being very helpful. In fact, they were bending over backwards to help us get our rocks program in. Thatís what we call a good thing.