Philmont Expedition 727-E1-1994 – 1 August 1994: Man(hunt) Up / Day 5: Midnight Horse at Clarks Fork

Man(hunt) Up

February is usually a bad month for camping in the northeast, so our troop traditionally skipped it in our monthly campout schedule.  The typical days off around Presidents’ Day however made it a perfect month to do something.  So in 1990, the troop organized a road trip to Washington, DC to hike the Lincoln Pilgrimage trail.  After that, historic trails became a semi-regular February event.

Our second one came in 1992 when we went to Philadelphia for the Benjamin Franklin trail.  For our accommodations, we had reached out to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard and had been granted the use of part of a building that was undergoing renovations.  This was perfect for us because it gave us plenty of space to work with and even came with a pile of mattresses (not to mention soda and ice cream machines downstairs).

We used a room at the one end of a wing on the second or third floor of the building for storage and sleeping (the mattresses, of course, were in the room at the opposite end, which was unsuitable for reasons I don’t recall) and had the rest of the wing, a series of large open rooms with a corridor running along them on one side, for, well, whatever.

“Whatever” ended up mainly being Manhunt.

Manhunt was the preferred nighttime campout game of our troop.  It involved running around in the woods at night.  Beyond that, I didn’t know much about it at the time because I never played.  It always seemed like something for older kids and I didn’t understand how it worked, so I usually just retreated to my tent when everyone else was trying to persuade the adults to let them play (they usually gave in).  Like so much of Scouting in those days, it just wasn’t my thing.

Now we had what was essentially an abandoned building to play in.  I figured that I couldn’t avoid it forever, so I decided to join in.  Not that I had any idea what I was doing.  There were two teams and lots of running and fighting.  What was the point again?  I was starting to think that there wasn’t any point beyond that…

I found myself facing off against Neil.  I’m not sure if one of us was trying to get past the other or capture the other or what, but we were facing off in a junction area at the far end of the wing.  Neil was older, stronger, and a member of his high school wrestling team.  He wasn’t going to go easy on me.  I was completely outclassed.

But I held my ground, much to his surprise.  I couldn’t get the upper hand, but I would not be defeated either.  We were stuck in a stalemate until the end.

I think I earned some of Neil’s respect after that.

Day 5: Midnight Horse at Clarks Fork

If nothing else, Clarks Fork was a good place to recover. No need to cook or set up camp. A chance to get cleaned up (showers!) and relax after narrowly averted disaster. Sit back, take off your boots, and brand them? Sure. But then it was another day, another trail, another challenge. No time to dwell on the mistakes of yesterday.

Up first was horseback riding at Clarks Fork. A horseback ride is the perfect way to enjoy the natural beauty of the area. Unless you’re stuck in a slow-moving line of horses doing an impression of rush hour traffic. My horse, Midnight Express, wanted to go faster. I couldn’t blame him. But we couldn’t go further than the horse in front of us. It’s kind of like getting your first chance to drive in a car wash. You’re technically doing it, but you’re not really doing anything.

Billy tried his hand at lariat tossing as we prepared to depart. And those were our last memories of Clarks Fork. Trying something new, maybe not as well as you would like, but giving it a shot and then moving on to the next challenge. There was going to be a lot of that on this trip.

Today’s trail took us over another ridge, this one with Cathedral Rock, Window Rock, and Eagle Rock. After passing Cathedral Rock, we made our way up to Window Rock, a wide open rock area with a great view of the valley.

And the approaching rain. This was not the place to be caught during a storm.

Eagle Rock is one of the outcroppings here, named so for obvious reasons.

Somewhere on the rocks, I dropped the panoramic camera in a puddle. Either this or some of the other abuse it was subjected to was more than it could handle. I wouldn’t see the results for a couple more weeks, but the developed film came back marked “RECEIVED DAMAGED.” So much for that…

With the clouds overhead threatening to unleash their fury, we cut our exploration short and resumed the hike as the rain started to fall.

It was around this point in the trip that we became acquainted with the fundamental law of Philmont: what goes down must go up. Every descent would inevitably be followed by an uphill climb. We began to dread downhill trails because of this inescapable fact. Our trek would take us to the highest point in Philmont; losing elevation only made the trail ahead that much harder.

After some trouble deciphering the signs pointing to different trails (I think this was the day I was navigator…), we arrived at Ute Springs trail camp. Like Rayado River, Ute Springs was set next to a river. No shortage of water here…

But we weren’t done just yet. We were due to resupply and it was already 4pm. After getting things straightened out in camp, five of us (myself not included) went to Ute Gulch Commissary to pick up food for the next four days. Our packs were going to be getting heavier as the terrain got rougher. The easy part of the trek was over.

Next: 2 August 1994: Tower Inferno / Day 6: Highway to Nowhere