Larry Goldsmith's 1998 Philmont Journal

July 4, 1998: Day 1 - Philmont Base Camp

We pull through the Philmont gate at about 9:45. We meet our Ranger: Brendan Doner from Littleton, Colorado who is a sophomore at Colorado State University. We insist on going to Logistics first and get signed up. While waiting our turn there is time to get our packs over to our tents. Once we get into Logistics with our planner, John McDonald from Monmouth Council, things do not go as smoothly as we hope. Logistics is insisting on sending us our tomorrow morning on an 8:00 AM bus. Apparently, tomorrow is the start of Mormon Week at the Philmont Training Center and the buses are needed for a lot of transportation associated with that. We had been hoping for a 1:00 PM slot. An 8:00 AM bus means that today will be a busy day. We do get the horseback ride time that we request for the last morning on the trail at Clark's Fork at least.

After getting through Logistics and getting into the tents, it is now time for lunch. As lunch is ending, the rain has decided to come. And for awhile it comes down pretty heavy. This is only the second measurable rainfall at Philmont in over three months. And the other was on July 2nd! Hopefully, we are not in for a wet trip. When I was an Advisor for 1996 Crew 704-I-4, we arrived at Philmont in a major drought but we seemed to break it as we had at least some rain every day on the trail except the last day.

After lunch, it is on to Medical Recheck. Things now turn more complicated as Nathan, our Crew Leader, is complaining of an upset stomach. We take him over to the Health Lodge and it is decided that he will spend the rest of the day and the night there for observation. They say that we will hopefully get him back at 9:00 AM tomorrow morning after they do rounds. Unfortunately, that is too late for our scheduled 8:00 AM bus and we will be heading out on the trail without our Crew Leader. While waiting for Medical Recheck (estimated wait: 1 hour), we head to the Services Building and check out our crew equipment and food. We then getl through Medical Recheck successfully; my blood pressure is 115/76.

Denis and I head back to Logistics to see if there is anyway that we can get our departure from Base Camp changed so that we can hopefully hit the trail as a full crew. We talk to Dave Woodson, Head of Logistics, and Andy, Head of Transportation. They are finally able to arrange things for a 3:00 PM departure for tomorrow. At least we now have hope that be can go onto the trail as a crew. A little later, Denis and I ran into our Contingent Leader, Walt Tanner, and asked if he had a couple of extra contingent t-shirts left as we had found a couple of deserving receipients if he did. He did and we soon returned to Logistics and presented them to Dave and Andy for all their help; they both seemed to be very appreciative of both the shirt and the thought behind it.

Brendan and the Crew headed over to the Welcome Center to do Equipment Shakedown under the shelter to avoid the rain while we were in Logistics. There is a little free time in the afternoon and the Crew does a load of laundry so that uniforms will be clean for the trip home. The rest of the day went relatively quickly with the Advisors' Meeting, dinner, and religous services. The opening "campfire" was held under cover at the Welcome Center. We head to bed at 9:30. It is nice to lay down on a mattress again!