Horse riding

Lisa left us this morning to go back to basecamp to start another crew. It was time to walk up the canyon wall, deal with trails which had been abused by forest fires and cats, and down to Ponil, the original base camp for PhilTurn, the precursor to Philmont.

Looking back into the valley from halfway up the canyon wall. The previous evening, some scouts from another crew hailed us from this point.

This is the view from the top of the canyon.

The rock structure is where a creek used to flow over the edge, creating a side canyon. The creek was dammed up some time ago.



Just before summer started, there was a forest fire in this area of Philmont. In the course of fighting the fire, the trails were somewhat destroyed. This caused a certain amount of map reading, walking steep grades, and significant mistrust of the adults. In the end, it was the right route, but...

We eventually made it to Hart Peak. This gave a great view of the surrounding territory.



We eventually made it down to Ponil, and the scouts went out to ride horses. On the way in, we did see a cougar print in the middle of the trail.



Jody and Dave stayed around the corral to watch the wranglers apply medicine to the burros. Once they had the medicine applied, the wranglers attempted to practice with their lassos. The burros were not in immediate danger.

It did rain in the afternoon, so the scouts came back a little damp.

After the horses and gear were put away, the scouts hung out at the cantena to drink (root) beer and listen to live music.

Dinner was with all of the crews at a chuckwagon dinner. Canned stew and biscuits. It was a welcome break from freeze dried food.

Sunset at Ponil.

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