Our itinerary was 10a, 61 miles, and like the previous year's 13a, it was also considered "rugged" (the moderate rating). Oddly, 10a of 1984 is nearly identical to the 1998 Itinerary 22, even though the 54-mile Itinerary 22 is now classified as "strenuous" (one level harder than "rugged"). We had chosen a "rugged" route because for most of my crewmates, this would be the first visit to Philmont, and the moderate routes allowed more time for activities. Itinerary 10a took us through what is known as the South Country of Philmont. This meant that we'd get to hike over Mt Phillips and the Tooth of Time. Mt Phillips is no Baldy, but it's undeniably Philmont's third-most well-known feature. Despite the designation of 10a, I was not aware that there was any 10b, that is, any sister crew.

Below is a map of our itinerary. You can click on each campsite to see an account of our visit there.

South Country: Base Camp Ute Springs Sawmill Red Hills Porcupine Beaubien Lost Cabin Fish Camp New Abreu Crater Lake Shæfer's Pass Tooth of Time/Base Camp

Travelling from Ft. Worth to Philmont was a totally different experience that it was (last year). We left the city this year in the morning of June 30. I remember the trip through the vast expanses of farmland, oil fields, and nothing, between central Texas and New Mexico all too well. But, there would be no sticky vinyl bus seats. This time, I experienced it in the daylight from the front seat of our minister Claus's VW Rabbit. Maybe I should say "from the front dashboard," since that is about the same as sitting in the front seat of a late 70s VW Rabbit. We took the same route we had last year, through Dumas and Dalhart, Texas. The names stick with me because everytime we passed Dumas, someone could not resist pronoucing it "dumb-ass" (Rather juvenile, but I won't forget it). I was eager to take any chance to get out and stretch my legs, as were the others. So, even Stucky's roadside stores looked good. Along the way at one such establishment, several of us decided that we needed bandanas for the trail. The store had a fine selection, and we each chose our favourite. We saw a few with school logos on them, and in particular one from Texas A&M. We bought one as a memento to give to Greg, who was from our troop and on duty at Philmont. He would be our Ranger this time.

A couple of us bought one for ourselves as well, as we expected we might be going to that school as well eventually.

As I had done a year prior, we stopped near Amarillo. This time, we spent the night in Palo Duro Canyon State Park. We took the opportunity to do a little pre-trek hiking up and down the nearest mountain. I remember telling the crew that they should try to breathe through their noses rather than their mouths on the theory that the sinus cavities help us absorb oxygen. To this day, I don't know if there is any real basis to the theory. It was something about which which we had only speculated in my freshman biology class. But, I figured that it would not hurt. Like the rest of the animal kingdom, mankind did evolve breathing through the nose.

Well, we engaged in other fun activities while at Palo Duro State Park. This was where we saw the play, Texas. I had actually seen it once before when we visited the park in my family's motor home several years prior. The show had gotten rained out. It was in that rain that I heard a song which would become one of my favourites (while I still liked country music, that is) -- Amarillo By Morning. It was the real, original version by Terry Stafford). And, so, I suppose Palo Duro had a kind of private appeal to me.

We all got dressed in our scout uniforms for the performance. But, we certainly did not have to worry about attracting much attention; there were many other scout groups there as well. I suspected that they were probably on their way to Philmont too. However, there were Girl Scouts among them, so I could not really be sure. Before the play began, a few of the guys in my crew took interest in a billboard on which there was a map of the United States. The map was riddled with push pins indicating the places of origin from which various guests had come. Someone reached out to place a pin on Colleyville's location, but, before the pin could be placed, a teenage girl (apparently a theatre attendant) ran up and asked that no pins be added. I noted to the others that it would not have been possible to really distinguish Colleyville from Fort Worth/Dallas anyway.

By about 10 p.m., we headed back to our campsite to get some sleep. We needed to get a fairly early start on the road tomorrow morning, as it was still another 6 or so hours to Cimarron.

As I've probably given enough of an introduction to Philmont itself in the journal for my 1983 trek, I will skip it here. With that said, click on the trail sign to begin the 1984 trek.

FIRST DAY: BASE CAMP