Trail Day 2

Sunday, July 19^th, 2009

Rim Rock to Urraca

GPS stats: mileage: About 4 miles

                Elevation: 7,918ft

                Speed: 2.4mi/hour

We made it to Urraca! We started hiking around 7 am. Had a 1000ft elevation and CATed the whole way. CAT is where the person in the front steps off the trail and then the next person takes 5-7 steps and steps off the trail and when the end of the line comes around to the first person they get back in line. It looks like a caterpillar. We made it to the top of Urraca Mesa around 9:45ish and got into camp around 10:45. That is making amazing time. Hopefully we’ll keep up the speed as we lighten out packs. After getting into camp we did some challenge courses. Only did a few and then we got rained out. Second day of rain, hopefully it doesn’t stay that way. On our challenge course we did the human knot. We stopped that after at least 15 minutes after realizing it wasn’t going to work. Then we did a think where we had to lock hands and go through a tire without breaking hands or touching the tires. I was first to go through. We also did another things where we had to swing on a rope to the other side of a lot that was blocked off by a log without spilling any water from a Nalgene.

We had canned chicken, crackers, and nutter butters after the challenge course. After that we went to set up camp. Hopefully we can break camp earlier tomorrow. We’re having Fettuccini tonight for supper.

We played a game called black magic; I still haven’t figured it out. I wrote postcards to Gram and Pap and Todd and Juli.

We’ve hiked 8 miles out of 83. Trent, our ranger, gave us pound cake and chocolate icing. It was the closest to a home-cooked cake we’ve had.

Urraca Mesa is known for mountain lions so I’m not coming out of my tent tonight!

Thorn: Not seeing a mini bear yet; mini bears are chipmunks on steroids. And not figuring out the black magic game.

Rose: seeing the crew come together on the challenge course and getting to the top on the Mesa as fast as we did. We really have a great crew for this trek.

Buds: Sunrise from Inspiration Point and getting to rock climb at Miner’s Park tomorrow. Long day ahead of us!

My view as people pass in CAT.

Swimming pool?

Panoramic view of Philmont's south country.

"If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space"

Trent, our ranger from Florida.

Most important thing while in Philmont: Stay hydrated.

Christmas card picture? DJ, Dad, Myself, and Tiffany

Tire challenge.