Day 7

Day 7 - Copper Park Lay Over

Day 7 – 7-11-99 – Sunday

Layover day! We slept in – until 6 AM. Most of the guys decided that they would not climb Baldy – I think the climb they did the day before really took it out of them. Dan & Denise said they would stay, and Tom and I would go with the few that wanted to go up Baldy. We filled up with water, took some snacks, and Tom, Tommy Br, Tommy Bi, Cory, and I headed up the trail at 7:30. It was a pleasure to just walk without a heavy pack on! The trail to Baldy circles around the mountain to the northwest side, and ends at the base of a long rockslide. We started up the slide, and soon spotted a trail to our left, climbing out of the slide and angling up across the mountain’s north slope. Up we went, above timberline. Baldy is nothing but a big pile of different sized rocks. It’s about a 45-50 degree slope, and you tend to slide back one step for every two you go up. It took us just over an hour to get to the top. It was then that we noticed that there was another trail on the northwest side that followed a ridge, and would have been an easier climb up. Oh, well. We spent about an hour on top, snapping photos and talking to other crews that had made the climb. The weather was perfect, and the views were hard to beat! CENSORED CENSORED CENSORED CENSORED CENSORED CENSORED CENSORED CENSORED CENSORED CENSORED CENSORED CENSORED CENSORED CENSORED CENSORED CENSORED CENSORED CENSORED CENSORED CENSORED CENSORED CENSORED CENSORED CENSORED CENSORED CENSORED CENSORED CENSORED CENSORED CENSORED

Soon we headed down the northwest trail to the ridge. There is an old cabin and several prospect holes on the ridge, with fine views of Wheeler Peak, New Mexico’s highest peak, to the west. We followed the trail back to the rockslide, and worked our way down. There were a couple of patches of snow near the bottom, and there was a crew from North Carolina having a snowball fight. Farther down the hill several guys had made a sled track and were using a pack rain cover as a sled. They boys said that they had never seen snow in July before, and seldom saw it at all back home.

We got back to camp at 12:15, and the others were not around. So we ate lunch and lazed around until 1:45. Then we headed down to French Henry for the program there.

The trail to French Henry is very steep and rocky, much like most of the trails at Philmont. We got to the Aztec Ponil #2 mine about 3 PM, and had to wait for a tour. To tour the mine, you wear a hardhat and carry your flashlight. The shaft is about 8 – 10 feet wide, and about 6 feet high. The guide takes the group into the mineshaft, explaining how the mining was done. When we got to the end of the shaft, everyone turns off his light to experience total darkness. To exit the mine… Well, you will just have to take the tour to find out!

After the tour, we headed down to the cabins at French Henry. The program is gold panning and blacksmithing. They guys tried their hand at panning, to no avail. Then we headed up to the forge. The smith lit the fire, and had each boy turn the forge blower, and hammer a piece of steel into a J-hook using an anvil. It was a lot of fun for all.

We headed back to Copper Park about 5:30, and hit camp at 7 PM. The other guys were there, after a long hike to Baldy Town to shower and pick up our crew food. We ate dinner, swapped stories, and then Keith led a very nice worship service. We called it a night, as we had all had a very full day. Tomorrow, Head of Dean.