Father's Day on the trail

Scouts toast their dads from the trail as they observed Father's Day.

While the crew has been out of contact with the civilized world, it’s been easy to lose track of the days. When Scoutmaster Andrew Baird reminded the crew that today was not only Sunday, but was Father’s Day, they wanted to send out a salute to their fathers. Scouts paused along the trail this morning to toast their dads with their water bottles.

Scouts took their turn climbing spar poles.

Following lunch on Saturday, the crew continued across Wilson’s Mesa where they ran across a bear on the trail. Fortunately, as soon as he spotted the crew, he went running off in the opposite direction. The crew continued on the way to Pueblano, which is home to the Continental Tie and Lumber Company. They quickly put the crew to work climbing spar poles. With harnesses, belts and gaffs on their boots, most everyone made the attempt to get to the top of the poles. It was a good chance for the Scouts to try something very different.

 
Today, the crew hiked up to the Head of Dean—admittedly unsure who Dean is or why they have his head 😉. They were greeted from the porch of the staff cabin with a loud “War Eagle!” The camp director is a current Auburn University graduate student in wireless engineering. He was happy to see a crew from Auburn. The crew is identified by its crew number, 612-N, which they pronounce using the NATO alphabet as “612 November.” However, when asked the crew number at Head of Dean, they changed it to “612 NoBama.”

The program at Head of Dean is challenge course events. The crew spent the afternoon on a variety of elements, trying to plan and work together toward a successful conclusion. On Monday, they will work on a conservation project before moving on to next camp at Baldy Skyline.

Continue to follow the troop's 2023 Philmont adventures on the troop blog and check out photos of the trip in the troop's online photo album.