Philmont - Itinerary 9 - Day 8 - Copper Park Camp to Baldy Skyline Camp, Tuesday, August 8, 2006
Day 8, Copper Park Camp (elevation 10,400) to Miranda Camp
(elevation 8960) to Baldy Skyline Camp (elevation 9140 feet).
Total distance about 6 miles.
The day started out great as our tents were complete dry.
Yesterday was only the 2nd rainless day of our trip.
We dropped down to Baldy town (where dropped off our
trash, washed our clothes, and visited the store), and then we went to
Miranda Camp where we had lunch and participated in
blackpower shooting. We then picked out our two burros and
learned how to pack them. We would have the burros for
3 days until we reached Ponil Camp.
The trail to Baldy Skyline was about 3 miles with about an
800 foot elevation gain. It was easy hiking as there was a
nice easy grade. It was fun to watch the scouts struggle
with the burros to keep them on track. We had one small
burro nicknamed Big Mamma (even though it was a male)
who was easy going and fairly easy to manage. The other
mule was larger and was nicknamed Little John. Little John
was a
ain. He would go where he wanted and was very
hard to handle. Michael was the one person who seemed to
be able to handle Little John, which makes sense since
Michaels trail name is Mule.
At about 3:00 PM it started to rain, and it didn't let up until
about 7:00 PM. While we had to unpack the burros and
set up camp in the rain it was fun to watch how well the
scouts worked together to accomplish these tasks.
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