North Country Map

The creak of the cabin door opening woke me from my sleep. It was another beautiful cool morning in the North Country with the clear skies brilliant with stars. I asked the other Rayado Ranger who was opening the door what time it was. 4:30 AM. It was time to get the Rowdies up. While standing up on the porch of French Henry Camp, I accidentally stepped on a Rowdy who was sleeping under the bench I had been sleeping on. He woke up and said “Are you trying to leave?” I responded “No, it’s 4:30, and it’s time for you to get up!” We got the rest of the crew up and left French.

I had the privilege of being a Rayado Ranger during first session Rayado in 2004 for crew Rayado Men 3, RM3. The crew consisted of 7 Scouts from all across the country. Rayado, a descendent of the Kit Carson program, is a 3 week special trek which teaches youth, called Rowdies, advance backpacking skills, teamwork, and leadership, by challenging them physically, mentally, and spiritually. It was my second summer to work at Philmont Scout Ranch, having also been a Ranger the previous summer. We had hiked to French the day before and had originally planned to camp at the Aztec Mine; however, a rainstorm caused us to change our plans and instead crashed on the porch of the cabin. The Rowdies were sleeping on the porch while Will and I slept on the benches. They had bedded down expecting a good long sleep. Little did they know, today was going to be a long day.Leaving French Henry in the dark at about 5:00 AM, we made our way to Copper Park and took the old Greenwood Canyon Trail. Will and I had taken the trail earlier in the summer during Ranger Training when we hauled supplies up for the new repeater tower. The 25% slope trail wasn’t bad with just a pack on compared to hauling concrete in packs and batteries strapped to litters for the tower up. We stopped for breakfast on the ridge and Will informed the crew that our first destination was Baldy.

Breakfast on the ridge above Copper Park

After failing to impress our Rowdies with the repeater tower, we followed the ridge to the top of Baldy. As the day progressed, several thunder storms began to move into the area. We took in the beauty of the approaching storms from the exposed ridge top as we climbed up to the peak. On the peak, the scouts took pictures and took in the scenery while I took a nice Ranger Nap. After being woken up by my Rowdies, we left the peak just before the storms rolled in. We ended up dodging thunderstorms and hail all day. We had lunch on the saddle while the first storm began to roll over the peak. We were lucky enough to miss the 3 thunderstorms which rolled across the North Country that afternoon.

Storms from Baldy Saddle

Baldy Summit

Touch-me-Not from Baldy

After lunch, we let the Rowdies know that our next objective was to climb Touch-Me-Not. Our Rowdies loved the opportunity to bushwhack the mountain. After successfully climbing the peak, they enjoyed more scenery and took group shot on top of the peak.

RM 3 on Touch-me-Not

It was about 5PM when we headed down from Touch-Me-Not to begin going to Maxwell Camp, our camp for the night. The scouts had been talking about wanting to go to Baldy Town all day, so we gave them the option of taking the trail to Baldy Town or ‘shwacking to Maxwell. Much to our surprise, they decided to ‘shwack. We followed a creek that looked like it would be an easy 5-6 kilometer hike to Maxwell. About an hour later we had dinner in a nice meadow and continued our hiking. The Rowdies were enjoying the hike and one of our Rowdies, Scott, gave his usual response to everything on Rayado, that “it was amazing.” Darkness soon began to set in and we were forced to climb over deadfall and make probably a thousand stream crossings with only the aid of 4 working flashlights for the 9 of us. It was quite an adventurous hike, climbing over logs, under dead fall, and wading through the creek, all while trying to find a trail that crossed the creek. At about 11PM, we finally found the log bridge that crossed the creek for the trail which went into Maxwell. So much for the short 5-6 km hike! We got into camp shortly after and attempted to find the bear cables. Our Rowdies had been level-no-trace camping or crashing porches every night so far (including what I believe to be the first crew to camp in Mountain Lion Canyon) and had only used LNT bear rope techniques. After a 10 minute unsuccessful search, our Rowdies hung their bear rope between two trees and called it a night. They remained in good spirits and Scott as usual said “it was amazing.” After I took off my pack I realized that I had lost my North Country map.

When I hiked, I normally kept my map tucked into the hip belt of my pack for easy access. I had been using it on the shwack to read the topography of the creek to estimate our location. Somewhere along the hike, it slipped out. I figured I would never see the map again and felt somewhat guilty for breaking the Wilderness Pledge. Luckily we were headed for Sawmill the next day, and then continued south through the ranch so I would not need my North Country map. I borrowed an extra map from a fellow ranger upon my return to base camp and used it for the rest of the summer.

Later that summer, I had a crew from Fort Worth, TX. It was a great crew with a Ute Springs - Devil’s Wash Basin itinerary. Several of the scouts talked about how they wanted to come back and work on staff. One of those scouts, Keith, returned to Philmont as a Rayado participant in 2005 and made his dream a reality, becoming a ranger in 2006.

In fall 2006, I received a letter in the mail from Keith. He wrote about a hike-in that summer he had with another ranger. They had dropped off crews at Pueblano, hiked Wilson Mesa, crossed over to French Henry, ascended Baldy and went over to Touch-Me-Not. On their way down from Touch-Me-Not, they thought a nice ‘shwack was in order and followed a creek that flowed down to Maxwell. As I read the letter, I could see all of the places he talked about, because I had hiked those same paths, including the creek down Touch-Me-Not.

The letter that Keith sent me came in a large envelope. On the back on the envelope was written “I think you dropped this…” In the package with the letter, was the map. Keith had found the map while hiking the creek where I had lost my map 2 years earlier. The map was still is fair condition, considering that it had spent 2 years exposed to the elements. It was slightly faded where the sun had shined on it, and the ends were chewed on. My marks were still visible on the map where I had marked wells, meadow crash sites, and Stony Point. Also still clearly visible was where I had written “Clinton Woods, Ranger 2003.”

I Wanna Go Back to Philmont…