Day 12
The next morning we
had breakfast
and broke camp.
We stopped by the main cabin for a few shots.
Our trail took us
through the Black Mountain
camp where they also do Blacksmithing.
We had meet this next
young man on the trail at the
top of Mount Phillips a couple of days ago. We had
given him some of our homemade jerky in a desperate
attempt to lighten our packs. He is firing up
the forge. He also explained the smoke is from
the high sulfur content in the low grade coal.
Riley used this break
from the trail to show off
some of his many talents. Skills such as being able
to put your backpack on while laying on the ground, then rise
to his feet with no hands. Somebody put another
bag of food in his pack please.
He still has too much energy.
We saw a lot of these
wounds to the dead
trees in this part of Philmont. We decided they must
have been made by bears digging out insects. They were
all about the same height on the trees and very common.
You have to look close
but on the log was a mother grouse
and her chicks. They showed little concern for us.
First view of the Tooth
of Time rock formation
since we left base camp.
From Black Mountain to
North Fork Urraca the
trail crossed the creek 52 times. It wasn't a long
hike but it was a tough one.
Pilot/bombardier configuration.
We found the unstaffed
North Fork Urraca camp
just fine but had lots of trouble finding a camp site. We
finally decided to set up in what we thought was a
campsite with out a bear line.
Kurt got in some more
service hours, helping out with
the blisters on Derek's feet.
We always had to be on guard for tent bears!!
About the time we were
through with supper
one of the staff trail crews came by and explained we
were not in a camp site. They also explained we needed
to move out of the middle of the trail. After much discussion
we did move and it worked out well for us.
Sleeping is pretty good
at 9,000 feet on
a clear night. It does help to be tired!