Our trek 608-7C went out to the backcountry two weeks ago tomorrow and we returned a week ago yesterday.

This was my 2nd visit - the first being in 1989, so I know have two special Philmont Arrowheads - 1 for the 50 year anniversary and the 2026 version for 250 years of USA.

Our trek went:

- Drop-off at Rayado and hike over to Olympia. We experienced 45+ mph winds for a couple of hours which made getting our first camp set quite hectic for our boys...winds finally calmed and the first night was cool.

- Olympia - to Crater Lake (passing through Abreau) - we stayed at Abreau too long and then the hike over to Crater Lake was difficult for our crew. Crater Lake was having issues with their water well which essentially made it a dry camp...not ideal for us as we were very low on water when we go there. We arrived too late to Spar Pole climb but the campfire show was pretty good and the view over to the Tooth was outstanding.

Crater Lake to Beaubien - given our water situation we decided not to go over Trail Peak and instead opted for hiking along the service road where we were told the stream would have water...not true and again we had water issues. Kudos to our sister trek who gave us some as they passed us. We then spotted a water buffalo at Bonita Cow Camp so we were able to fill up there. Beaubien was having water issues as well, but while the staff told us that they had to tell us it wasn't useable, they were using it, so we figured if it was good enough for Staff it was good enough for us. Chuckwagon dinner was good and their campfire show was fantastic.

Beaubien to Black Mountain - we did our conservation on the peak above Beaubien where they are prepping for a controlled burn and then made the short hike over to Black Mountain. We enjoyed Black Mountain camp the most - blacksmithing, black powder rifle shooting, some of our trek saw a bear that night across the creek.

Black Mountain to Shaefer's Pass - we hike along the North Fork of Urraca Creek and crossed the creek 48 times. Shaefer's Pass Camp is dry so we filled up in the creek before making the climb up. We got our first rain that night and woke up and pack-up in the rain.

Shaefer's Pass Camp to Base Camp - cold, wet, slog of 10 miles. We determined that it was too wet to safely make it to the top of the Tooth and that was our biggest disappointment of the trip.

All in our our crew of 8 boys and 4 adults had a great time - if you get the chance, do not pass it up.

Crew 608-B checking in. Itinerary 12-16, ended up with ~75 miles on trail and over 85 total the 10 days in the north country. Valle Vidal and Baldy absolutely the highlights, also being first crew for the season at our first five camps including three nights of leave no trace camping. We honestly wished every night was the same vibe as LNT. Ridiculous late night "inspections" by socially stunted lispy staff sporting their pronouns on their badges with a single week of training making people move a tent 10 feet for "safety" was tiresome.

Day 1 on Trail:
Ponil Trailhead to Horse Canyon
4WD road pretty much uphill the entire time with zero shade. It was a nice "welcome to elevation you Texas *****es" kind of start. Just a grind. Horse Canyon is a cool camp at the top of the ridge on a little finger with great sunset and sunrise views. We were surprised by a water spigot not working and a catch basin with about 1' of water in it and a decomposing dead rat... so water rations begin! We ate lunch for dinner and planned on cooking dinner for lunch at Dan Beard the next day.


It is weird looking at Baldy knowing you are eventually going to be on top of it powered by your own legs.

Day 2 on Trail:
Horse Canyon to Dan Beard
Morning started off with excitement as we broke camp and began to live a beautiful cinnamon colored black bear decided to show up, and keep showing up. We were the first crew of the season to use the camp so I think we stayed in his house as I saw scat around the camp when we arrived. Hopefully the bear team can move him along and keep him safe from the future treks. Easy walk along ridge and then (steep) downhill to Dan Beard to do a COPE course the boys had fun with, cook dinner for lunch, and set up our first LNT campsite.

Day 3 on Trail:
Dan Beard to Whitemen Vega
Said goodbye to our excellent Air Force Academy Ranger and were set free into the Valle Vidal. Absolutely beautiful mountain meadows, canyons, forests.... just pristine land. We taught the boys terrain navigation and using terrain features as handrails to direct us to our destination and let them at it... it added some miles but we had a phenomenal lunch on a hillside overlooking the meadows and mountains... Got to camp and relaxed while the boys did mountain biking. It gets cold in the morning and we had ice / frost on the tents when we broke camp.



Day 4 on Trail:
Whitemen Vega to Beatty Lakes + Cons project
Spent the morning building artificial beaver dams on McCrystal Creek to help slow water and reclaim some wetlands. I fully expect cattle to destroy all the work next time the BLM leases it out for grazing but it is what it is. Hopped down to Ring Place to pick up some food where we met the most eccentric cast of hermits staffing the site. I guess since they do astronomy they are all nocturnal or something... but it was ..odd. Instead of terrain navigation we were using the compass this time and letting the boys lead which worked out until we ended up in a creek bed as a storm rolled in so we directed them up a saddle as quickly as possible to the other side to have cover from lighting. It was a fast hike and real test of personal willpower as we couldn't stop. God rewarded us as we dropped into the next valley before Beatty Lakes with a massive heard of Elk moving through the forest. It was awesome and immediately energized everyone. We waited out the lightning then moved into the pasture at Beatty Lakes to set up our LNT camp. This was everyone's favorite night. Alone, plenty of water, stellar sunset... it was exactly what Philmont should be. 11/10 night.



Day 5 on Trail:
Beatty Lakes to Flume Canyon
Early start and hauled ass to Dan Beard for some red roof relief, a quick coffee for the advisors and water top off. We then proceeded down the canyon for about 10 miles until we get to another 4WD road up and over the ridge to drop into flume canyon on switch backs. >1,000 ft in less than a mile in the sun is a hell of way to end a hike. Good confidence builder as we worked towards Baldy but... yeah. That hurt. Flume Canyon has small campsites along Ponil Creek and other than some trout it wasn't our favorite. Hard to be stuck in a canyon with zero views after the Valle.

Day 6 on Trail:
Flume Canyon to Copper Park Baldy Town
So I had the benefit of a Garmin InReach Mini to provide weather updates that we tracked closely as we started to approach Baldy. While en route to Copper Park and stopped at Pueblano we discussed an itinerary change since our food pick up was in Baldy Town and Copper Park was dry. There were T-storms on the forecast for that afternoon that would place us going up the draw known as "the wall" from French Henry as the storm hit. We requested to stay in French Henry that night and make our approach up Baldy from there and stay in Baldy town the next night... It was denied but they did offer us two nights in Baldy Town. Yes. Please. We then redirected ourselves up to Baldy Skyline and Ewells Park to drop into Baldy Town. Great hike, some good elevation gain and ended up in the clouds through some serious forest thinning work done by the camp. Nice aspen forests, some pines.. really beautiful with the fog in the clouds... until they just turned black. Then the torrential rain, then the hail, then the lightning, then the trail washing out... Was a blast. Waited that out then finished the hike into Baldy Town soaking wet and cold to be greeted with hot coffee, hot chocolate, and a gas fireplace. Warm up a bit, get assigned our camp (>1/2 mile away uphill) and proceed to set up camp and start to cook dinner while it rained hard and hailed again for the next 2+ hours.

Day 7 on Trail:
Baldy Town to... Baldy Town
Weather window wasn't great to summit and everyone was wet and tired so we decided on a reset day, the next camp was Miranda and was only 4 miles away so we figured we could summit the next day and make it to Miranda. Spent the day doing laundry, drying gear, wasting money at the trading post, our first shower, and recouping. Was a great break but I can say the boys losing momentum made them extra worthless that night and the next morning.

Day 8 on Trail:
Baldy Town to summit Baldy to Miranda
Beautiful morning, up before the sun, in Baldy Town with the sun, and start our ascent. Staff said their rule of thumb is 4 hours up and 4 hours down. We did it in well under 3 up and 2.5 down including a lunch break. Wind was a nice calm 50mph + on the summit so lots of fun pictures and hunkering down in the wind breaks. The views were incredible and everyone was pumped to have made it. The trail isn't friendly as its all loose and broken shale but absolutely worth it. Broke camp, grabbed packs, and proceeded to Miranda. There was this feeling of "we've done it" after Baldy so even though this hike was relatively short it felt like forever for everyone.





Day 9 on Trail:
Miranda to Head of Dean
Another relatively short hike but people were tired and the come down after seeing Baldy all week and conquering it was still hanging over the crew. Miranda to HOD seems like a "flat" hike but terrain working against you as we were going uphill but staying at a level overall elevation. Another slog of the day and the boys were kind of over it. We forced them to doing the COPE course to see how they did compared to their teamwork on Day 2 and they relented... and had an absolute blast. Came back energized and started to focus on finishing strong.

Day 10 on Trail:
Head of Dean to Ponil
Heading home. Up early, we were notified that HOD didn't have a burro for us to take to Ponil as scheduled so we didn't have to deal with any of that drama... would have been some funny stories I'm sure but we got to haul ass to our last campsite. We covered the 7.5 miles in about 2 hours and 15 minutes. Hell of a pace to finish out our last long day. Got to Ponil before 9am so enjoyed the cantina, boys rode horses, and we got to camp so damn far away from Ponil that we were practically in Sioux Trail Camp. Boys got showers, we got hyped up for our "Chuckwagon dinner" which turned out to be a pot of Mountain Home chili... which pissed everyone off but at least we didn't have to cook. Settle into camp, have our last devotional, a nice closing discussion reflecting on the week, the highs and lows... go to bed... where it rained for two hours just to make sure all our **** was wet in the morning. Never fails.

Day 11 on Trail:
Ponil to Ponil Trailhead
Up at 5am, on the trail at 6, having breakfast and relaxing before 7 at the pick up spot. We were going to be first on the first bus out dammit. Bus arrived at 8:50, we blew through all the check out procedures, went to Cree-Mees for Green Chili cheeseburgers, topped of the gas, and relaxed in base camp for a 5am wake up and departure the next day.

Philmont is a magical place. The further you get away from the camps and activities the more the magic came alive. I know some crews treat it like a walking summer camp and focus on the activities... I'm glad we didn't. We saw bear, elk, pronghorn, a marmot, prairie dogs, coyotes, and of course mini bears. We saw sunrises and sunsets that would make you tear up and feel God's love. I had both my sons with me and will remember it for the rest of my life and hope they will as well.

former ranger here. Wife is currently on a trek and gets off the trail Wednesday. We're doing a few days of Family camp in late July, and then I'm staffing the Wood Badge course out there in September (we've still got a few spots if anyone wants to join us out there for a week).

00 - I have not done the trail races but have heard good things from some friends who have.

I've got about 500 pictures - mostly with our participant though.

Here is one pic from the trail between Abreau and Crater Lake that's was a good one.

Enjoyed the stories and photos. It is a life long memory. It will be 60 years in August that I did my trek. My son got to do a trek and served 2 years on staff. I am on the second row from front and second from left.

Our 616-7G trek finished last night. My husband has been with each of our three boys. He preferred the pace of the 12 day vs the rush of the 7 day trek.
We had nice weather. Highlights were seeing a bear at Black Mountain camp and the Cyphers Mine program. We had an excellent ranger from USAFA.
I'm not much for camping, but I appreciate the beauty of Philmont.