July 12, 1996Day 4 - Lambert Mine Camp to Mount Phillips4 AM dawned dark. No, that doesn't work. Our day started in the dark at 4 AM - an early start for a tough day. We skipped breakfast, packed up, and were on the trail at 5:15 AM. Just out of camp, we said our good-byes to Kyle. He was going to hike back to base camp today. Before he left, he told the advisors that there had been a fatality in Abreu yesterday. The staff there tried CPR for over 2 hours, but to no avail. Kyle said that there is on average one death per year at Philmont Scout Ranch. These usually occur at base camp, to adults on check-in day. We have no other details, but I'm sure we'll hear more later. We got into Cypher's around sunrise. We filled up ALL of our water containers, used the latrine, and started up to Thunder Ridge. The weather was cool and cloudy, good hiking weather. Brett had a real tough time, even though it wasn't a steep grade. I hope he is able to pick up the pace later. We got to the ridge at 8:30 AM, and ate breakfast. Then we went to do our conservation project. Philmont is building a new trail from Thunder Ridge to Sawmill. The conservationist said they get about 1/2 mile of trail done per season, and plans are for this trail to be finished in 2004. Our job was to fill in two holes in the trail where other crews had taken out large trees that were in the way. First, we had to move some LARGE boulders (400 - 500 Lbs.) into the hole as a base We carried these boulders about 300 yards down the trail. It was back breaking work. Then we gathered lots of golf ball sized rocks, and filled in around the big boulder. Finally we covered those rocks with 2 - 3 inches of dirt, and packed the whole thing down. It was tough work, but the conservationist said that we did a real good job. We had a great view from our work site. To the West we could see Angel Fire ski area, and all the way to Wheeler Peak. As we worked, we could see a big storm building up over Wheeler, and then it started moving towards us. By the time we hiked the 1/2 mile back to Thunder Ridge, the rain had started, and the thunder was really booming! We threw on our rain gear, and got down to a lower point off of the ridge, to wait until the storm passed. Our sister crew was about 50 - 100 yards behind us, and there were several lightening strikes very close to them. I don't think that many of those kids had ever experienced a big electrical storm like that, coming from the D.C. area. They were really scared! By 12:30 PM, the worst of the storm had passed, and we started our climb up Mt. Phillips. It rained, hard at times, and the trail was rocky and quite steep in places. We were rewarded with some great views, when the clouds would break. We ate lunch at Comanche Peak Camp, and then kept up the assault on Phillips. At 4 PM, 12 hours after we had started, we got to the top of Phillips, at 11,711 Ft. It was very windy, raining off and on, and cold (around 40 F.). We set up camp, and ate. No hot dinner for us. We had another lunch, as we didn't have the water to cook and clean up with. Several of us had frazzled nerves, including me. I just couldn't get the group to hike together, Mike J. wouldn't do anything to pull them together, and most of the guys were snapping at each other. It's was so cold that everyone was in their tents, trying to get warm. Matt and I crawled into bed at 7:30. I hope it's a better day tomorrow.
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