Day: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12	E-MAIL

703 Day 3 - Sawmill Camp

With our first night on the trail over, it was time for breakfast. We dropped our bear bag (only one bag today) and retrieved what we needed. We had one choice for breakfast today since we had only the one menu the Base Camp commissary had given us. On later days, when we would be carrying more days' worth of food, we would sometimes shuffle the menus a bit to accomodate our schedule. Why? Some meals would take less time to prepare than others. Today's breakfast was one of the more involved ones -- pancakes, as I recall. Granted that all one must do is add water and fry, cleanup is no simple matter. Cooking on a Peak-1 stove which is easily one third the size of the frying pan leads to very uneven cooking. Some pancakes would be blackened and dry as a bone on one edge, and still doughy on the other. Those that overcooked became bonded to the pan, and required a moderate amount of scrubbing and scraping to clean. And, so, today's breakfast was no quick matter.

Greg finished up on his Ranger training, although he was confident that we knew how to break camp properly. Dishes had to be cleaned, grey water had to be strained an put in the sump, any remaining food bits were wiped up and put into the fire. Paper trash and any empty cans had to be burned as well. We wanted to carry as little smellable material as possible. We actually had not had to burn anything this morning. That is primarily done only at the evening meals, since those are usually the meals that produce such waste. The cans and any unburnable material remaining from the previous night were then removed from the ashes and placed into a heavy-duty plastic garbage bag. This was to be disposed of at the next staffed camp. Finally, the fire had to be fully extinguished, stirred, and checked for any missed embers.

click for map

From Ute Springs, we passed through the Ute Gulch Commissary (a double-back path) where we picked up three days worth of food. The meal packages fed multiples of four. There were already nine persons in our crew, and we expected to be joined by my father at the next camp (Sawmill) giving us a total of ten for a few days. Fortunately, this still gave us a surplus helpings for two.

Sawmill Shower, Michael Shearer

From Ute Gulch, we hiked on through Sawmill Canyon to reach Sawmill Camp, where we would stay the night. Suzanne, the staffer who had worked through the itinerary with me had promised showers at Sawmill, and we were not disappointed. However, there had been only two opportunities to shower on my last trek the year before. And, likewise, Suzanne had marked only two locations on the map this time -- Sawmill and Beaubien. So, expecting only two opportunities, I was disappointed that our first would come so early into the trek. But, although we had no way of knowing it, our luck would be much better this time around. At Philmont, some showers are heated by gas burners, while others by wood-burning stoves. Sawmill's shower was a wood-burner. Thus, someone had to get up about two hours before your shower and get the stove going. It is well worth the sacrifice, since even in the summer the water tends to be very cold otherwise.

I still recall the hike approaching Sawmill. The sun was out this morning, a clear morning. As we hiked along the hill sides, clouds of steam could be seen rising from the forest canopy in the valley below us. I had seen this strange phenomenon before on last year's trek. I first thought it to be smoke, as if the forest were on fire (PHOTO).

I remember coming up an embankment, the side of a small hill, steep but short. Going over the embankment we encountered some sort of small hand railing or gating. It was here at Sawmill Camp that my dad met up with us. He brought along his 35mm camera with which he took far better pictures than I could with my 110. This made for three adults at the moment. But Claus would depart in a few days.

At Sawmill, where the the North and South forks of the Sawmill Canyon Creek converge, there is an actual sawmill water wheel, and a wooden foot bridge spanning the creek. We crossed over this enjoying the view. I wish we had gotten a picture, and cannot imagine why we did not. My dad, however, managed to get some pictures of the view from the camp's wooden bridge overlooking the valley in the distance.

The Sawmill programme is firearms, .30-06. When initially writing this journal, I did not recall that we participated (which is strange since that is THE activity at Sawmill). I had done a number of rifle activities at various summer camps, and they all tend to run together. But, John G. kindly reminds me:

"We did do some reloading and shooting of .30-06s. I don't recall where at Philmont we did this, but I remember us shooting our hats as it was the 'cool' thing to do at the time. I believe I still have that blue ball cap with the holes in it."

So much for my memory.

The rain came, as it always does, in the afternoon. We went on with our dinner preparations in hopes that if we did not pay it any attention, we would not get too soaked. Dinner included a pudding made from a powder which required only the addition of water. Such pudding was a signature of Philmont. The powder never quite dissolved all the way, and everyone was ensured a crunchy chunk of the stuff somewhere in his Sierra cup. Mmmm. These gems were known fondly as "flavour crystals".

It was here that Greg left us to fend for ourselves. We did not expect to see him again until after the trek was over. We would, however, see him again unexpectedly later on.

We hoisted our bear bags, full of our smellable items (including photographic film, by the way), up a tree some distance from camp, and prepared to hit the ground for the night. I hung my pack on a tree limb by placing a smaller stick through its shoulder straps (like a natural coat hanger), and then placing that stick over the branch. It made it easier to access, and it also saved it from run-off water if it happened to rain heavily. Then it was time for sleep. Rest was welcome for, tomorrow, we would have conservation work in the morning, and then would leave for our next camp, Red Hills.

Photo of Sawmill Shower (top right): Michael Shearer

		Day: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12	E-MAIL