This morning we were scheduled to do three hours of volunteer work at Beaubien. This work is known as a conservation project, and it’s one of the requirements that needs to be done to get a “50-miler” award. We woke up with enough time to have breakfast, break camp, and get down to the Beaubien main lodge by 8AM. We met with two guys named Zach and Quinn. They talked to us about conservation at Philmont, gave us tools, and bought us to a site to work on trail maintenance. I received a wheelbarrow to bring up there and a “McLeod”, which is half hoe / half rake. Matthew got a cutter mattock, which allowed him to dig trenches and cut roots to lay logs on each side of the trail. The other teams dug soil and hauled it with the wheelbarrows, and we used the McLeods to spread the dirt evenly and make a nice, raised path. We finished at 11 and had lunch together.
At noon we started our hike to Philipps’s Junction; we arrived at 12:40 and had to wait 20 minutes until it opened up again at 1PM. So we ate some of the fruit that they had put out. At 1PM I bought a Philmont chair for $18, Matthew bought Beaubien and Uracca patches. We started our hike to Crooked Creek. We walked through beautfitul fields filled with wildflowers. We came to a meadow with two pack mules alone in it, and all of a sudden a guy dressed in a prospector’s outfit from the 1800s yelled over to us from the cabin he was staying in. He asked us if we wanted to pan for gold, so we crossed the river to his cabin.
His name was Avi, and apparently he is on staff at Philmont and wanders the park in costume, staying at different cabins along the way. He brought us to a bend in the river and Dave scooped sand from the riverbank into pans.
Matthew and I took turns swirling it but found nothing. MattG found a shiny flake so he kept it to get it analyzed. All of a sudden it got really windy and the temperature dropped what seemed like 20 degrees, and we saw lightning and heard thunder. We went back to our backpacks and put all our rain gear and pack covers on, just in time for it to start hailing, and then it starter pouring. Avi was in his cabin and he called us inside because it wasn’t stopping anytime soon. Within a few minutes another troop came in for shelter. They were from Framingham! We all packed inside , and Avi told us we could light a fire in the fireplace. We ended up staying about 45 minutes, then started hiking again in a slight mist.
But the rain picked up again and we walked to Crooker Creek in the rain. When I got there I saw Kaleb from EMC! Our two troops got a tour of the homestead, which was inhabited by a “family” of actors who moved from northeastern Tennessee in the 1870s. Their house was in a beautiful setting on a hill with 2 cows and 2 donkes grazing. Inside the house was a bison-covered couch, loft, an ox-blood floor, a spinning wheel, kitchen with a cast-iron stove, a butter brand, a candle for “suitors”, and a fireplace. We were shown our cammpsite and set up everything in the rain (miserable). Fortunately Matthew and I set it up quickly enough where our tent was dry inside. We tried to light the stoves but it wouldn’t work, so we ate next day’s breakfast for dinner (dry) up on the porch of the homestead.
At 7 PM the sun came out and we saw the beginnings of a gorgeous sunset, one that the actors said was the prettiest all year. At 7PM we had advisor’s coffee and an awesome Oreo cake (did they have Oreo cake in 1870?). At 7:30 our two troops performed songs for the actors before they had the scouts bring in the animals. Each scout that wanted to tried to milk the adult cow, fed them, and scooped poop . Everyone really enjoyed it. They called the younger cow “milk-face”.
We went back to hang our “smellables” in the bear bag, and hit the sack around 9:30. I wrote this post from my new chair, which makes it a lot easier to write while in the tent.
