A week at Philmont: from Small Fry to Silverados
by HML
Pictures. Gimlet Gallery. You know the drill.
Thing Two spent the week attending the Small Fry program, or as he called it, “Camp School.” The program is for children under age five and offers play time, nap and snack time, and a special activity each day. The children made T-shirts in the Handicraft Center, toured the Villa Philmonte greenhouse and planted seeds, and had two opportunities to ride ponies. (Thing Two, however, decided that the ponies were too large and preferred to sit on the sidelines and watch.) Thing Two eagerly ran up the hill to the Small Fry Center every morning and afternoon, and played with his new friends at the Tent City playground and Dining Hall as well. One day an adult Scout leader “of a certain age” visited the Small Fry Center and reported, “I’m supposed to tell you that I was a Small Fry in 1962.” It’s fun to think that today’s Small Fry may be tomorrow’s group of young men heading off on a two-week trek, or even future Scoutmasters.
Camp life was not without its adjustments: when we set up our tent we placed Thing Two’s cot perpendicular to the two camp beds, across the front of the tent. It wasn’t long after bedtime before Thing Two rolled out of the cot and out of the tent. After that we placed Thing Two’s cot between his parents for a much more secure sleeping experience. Thing Two isn’t much of a water drinker at home, so we were worried about the effects of the dry, hot climate and high elevation (about 6800 feet). But the Small Fry instructors played lots of water drinking games with the children to help them get in the habit, and aided by a new red water bottle and matching carabiner from the Trading Post, Thing Two stayed hydrated.
Thing Two was intrigued by the little toads hopping around the bathrooms in the evening. One night a kind lady caught two toads for him to pet. Overall the adults we met at Philmont were very tolerant and helpful to those of us with Small Fry; when the little ones were fussy (as they often are) it often felt as though we had grandmas and grandpas ready to offer support rather than criticism.
Enjoying the beautiful backcountry is a big part of the time spent at Philmont, and we took Thing Two on three hikes. Our first hike is best known around Philmont as the “T-Rex hike”, a mostly level walk of about two miles round trip, to see the only known Tyrannosaurus Rex footprint in the world. Our encounter with fearsome reptiles began almost immediately upon parking, when we noticed a pair of mating rattlesnakes a short distance from the trailhead. More adventuresome photographers than Your Humble Narrator couldn’t resist the opportunity to take the perfect shot of this rarely seen event, but prudence (or cowardice) kept our camera at a greater distance, so our photos don’t do justice to the vertical mambo we witnessed.
The same afternoon we walked around the Nature Trail, a loop a little over a mile, and also mostly level. There were twelve different markers along the trail pointing out bones, trees and flowers, and other interesting natural features of the Philmont backcountry. Thing Two enjoyed walking from marker to marker. This trail was mostly in the woods, providing shade, which was good, but it also provided lots of mosquitoes, which was not so good.
Near the end of the walk The Gimlet tried to hurry through the last two markers to escape the mosquitoes, but his haste did not meet with Thing Two’s approval. The resulting racket brought a deer out of the woods to see what all the commotion was about. To restore peace and harmony to nature, we went back and redid markers 11 and 12. Most of the hikes around Philmont can be commemorated with patches, even the little nature trail. Team Gimlet truly earned their nature trail patches with blood, sweat, and tears.
The most scenic hike we took during our week at Philmont was a 2.8 mile roundtrip called Lover’s Leap. This is another mostly level hike (do you see a pattern when hiking at a three year-old’s pace?) and mostly shady. The Tooth of Time is in sight for nearly the entire hike, making for stunning mountain and forest views.
At this point the trail became narrow and rocky, with a steep drop on one side. Thing Two had had difficulty navigating previous rocky patches on this hike, so we decided to admire the leap from a distance, and turn back so we could be out of the woods before dark.
According to the legend of Lover’s Leap, at the end of the Mexican-American War (1848), a U.S. cavalry captain and a Native American girl were turned into hawks as they jumped from the cliff to escape pursuit from the cavalry and her tribe. To this day, hawks are supposed to soar and nest at Lover’s Leap, and we saw several hawks circling the cliff on that lovely summer evening.
The Lover’s Leap hike was also available as a sunrise guided excursion to the Silverados, or spouse program. The Silverado program was full of interesting activities: from various handicraft classes and demonstrations, to hiking, horseback riding, and river rafting, museum and shopping excursions to nearby towns, and several other opportunities, the week offered something for everybody. Your Humble Narrator hiked the trail up Urraca Mesa, a much longer and steeper hike than Thing Two would have been able to do, and enjoyed the panoramic views and companionship. The mesa has a long tradition of being haunted, but I didn’t see any blue lights, ghosts, or even urracas (magpies). But it was late morning, after all, and most sensible creatures, natural or supernatural, are hiding out of the sun at that time. (And our guide didn’t take us up to the skull-shaped top of the mesa, where all the best stories take place.)
Blogging in the wilderness.
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Tags: hike, new mexico, philmont
