Philmont 727-E1-1994 – 25 July 1994
Philmont Expedition 727-E1-1994 – 25 July 1994: Now you see it… / Day -2: Flying Away
Now you see it…
Prior to Scouting, my camping experience came mainly at Mongaup Pond Campground. We must have gone there several times a year, first with a large tent and later with a pop-up camper. It offered all of the usual camping experiences with one little-known side benefit – it was located next to Beech Mountain, the former camp of the Hudson-Delaware Council.
My father had a history with Beech Mountain. My brother and I were too young to have attended camp there when it was still open, but my father had been there many times. Aside from some pictures and one of the benches from the lodge, I don’t know much about what he did there. And now there’s no there there.
Every once in a while when we were at Mongaup, my father, my brother, and various other people would have an overnight hike to Beech Mountain. Initially, I was too young to go with them. In what I would guess was sometime in 1983, I got my first chance to go and see the old camp. It would also be my last chance to camp there.
This whole expedition wasn’t exactly legal. Beech Mountain was officially closed and trespassers were warned away. The approach to the camp was up the road to the main entrance, out in the open. We would be easy to spot. I wasn’t sure about this, but nobody else seemed concerned. So I went with it. I was rewarded with one of the final glimpses of a now-forgotten camp.
As far as I know, nobody took any pictures. The trip wasn’t documented. We made our way into the abandoned camp took a quick tour. The main lodge, the chapel, the waterfront. All still there but deteriorating. The preliminaries out of the way, we set to work securing a sleeping location. Metal cots were still there, but the fiberglass insulation was falling out of the walls. Eventually, we had part of one of the buildings cleaned out enough to use for our night’s shelter. Water needed to be gathered and purified, dinner needed to be prepared.
It wasn’t the most exciting trip, but it was an unusual one. And a unique one. We went back the next year to find the buildings gone, with no trace that they had even existed. Aside from some concrete slabs by the waterfront, all signs of prior human use were gone.
I learned a new word on that trip – raze.
We hadn’t brought tents with us, intending to use whatever buildings were still suitable. That clearly wasn’t going to work now. After a brief tour of the vacant site, we hiked back to Mongaup, never to return.
Everything is fleeting. A camp that was in use for half a century was gone in, relatively speaking, the blink of an eye. 35 years later, not much has changed. The site is open for hiking and what few structures survived the demolition continue their slow fade back into the wilderness, memory of their past fading with them.
Day -2: Flying Away
The first challenge: putting dozens of kids and their packs onto a plane. We carpooled to White Plains to board our first flight. I rode with Sean’s father, who regularly commuted to the city and was therefore comfortable with the trip, smoking with the window open the whole way (Sean’s backpack had been paid for with Marlboro Miles). At the airport, we were given luggage tags to fill out and attached them to our packs, which were checked with rain covers on.
After a connection in Chicago O’Hare, we landed in Colorado Springs. It was immediately clear that we were far from home. Mountains larger than anything we had ever seen before loomed on the horizon. It took a while just to adjust to the new scenery.
Our first destination would be the United States Air Force Academy for sightseeing and lunch on a path that took us past several static displays, the iconic chapel, and the visitor center and gift shop.
Kissing Camels
After lunch at the Air Force Academy, we visited the nearby Garden of the Gods to view the rock formations. While we were there, someone in the parking lot had locked their keys in their car and Ron, a former police officer, provided assistance.
It’s not what it looks like…
Next, it was off to the Flying W Ranch, where we had some time to spend in the gift shop and on a small train ride while waiting until 7pm for dinner. Joe was looking for interesting photographic subjects while the rest of us tried to keep entertained with old timey metal puzzles and whatever else we could find in and around the gift shop. We were there for far too long and the chuck wagon supper (which came with its own long wait in line) didn’t really make it worth it.
The ranch has since burned down. Time comes for all of us, eventually…
Our night ended on the cement floor of a National Guard armory with thunderstorms moving in. While not much to sleep on, the armory did offer indoor plumbing, something that would soon be very hard to come by. We rested up for another day of sightseeing and all-you-can-eat buffets en route to New Mexico.