[Philmont] Lenhok'sin trip report (Long winded)

Our troop went to Lenhok'sin High adventure at Goshen Scout reservation, and
I thought you all would like to hear about it.

Our trip was 7/13/-7/19, Arrive Sunday, Depart Saturday. Upon arrival we
went through a round robin of crew checks, medical, gear, campsite setup,
food pickup, etc. The food was standard philfood packages, and we carried
half our meals for the week, and picked up the rest mid-week. They also
will deliver any supplies to you on this midweek stop, ie fuel, etc.

They made us show them that we knew how to use our stoves and water pump.
AA torrential downpour started during the afternoon, and continued on all
evening. One of our groups tents was placed in a pooling area, so they got
a bit wet.

Our first day of hiking was to the Mountain Man outpost, we made it a fairly
easy hike and got there in time for lunch. You can;t enter the outposts
before 1:00 PM, so we hung out for a few minutes, and then went in. We had
passed the camping area on the way up the hill, so we went back down, and
set up our still wet tents, and got any wet gear out in the sun, where it
all dried rapidly.

We had a cons project at this outpost, and it was digging out the side of
mountain for a cabin site. We did this for about two hours, and another crew
came in, and we went on to Blackpowder shooting. The Blackpowder was much
more in depth, and more enjoyable than at Philmont. The boys weren't
limited to just two shots, and could shoot as long as they wanted. We then
went on a Tomahawk and knife throwing course, set up by Leslie. This was a
lot of fun, as you walked along a trail and threw hawks and knives at
targets, some of which were set up to move along ropes. Great fun!

The next days hike was over to FoxFire, for more fun with Blacksmithing and
candlemaking. We camped across the creek in a nice little area, and the
boys went "Swimming" in the dammed up area. Brook was the guy running the
outpost, and he did a great job with the group. Again, it was more in depth
and personal than the experience at Cyphers in Philmont.

Wednesday was our Primitive day, which essentially is to find a place to
camp in the woods. We found a nice little hollow near the intersection of
Viewing rock trail and Anderson Trail. We set up camp and decided to try to
summit Viewing Rock and Jump Rock. On the way, we went by a hornet's nest,
and my son got stung. They were very aggressive. We had to get two peaks in
for our Trailblazer award. The climb started out very easy, but quickly
turned into a steep tough walk. We had lunch on a knob below Viewing Rock,
and then went on up. The view, as expected was excellent. There was some
debate among the crew if we should attempt Jump Rock (Another hour each
way). We let the boys talk it out, and in the end, they agreed to give it a
shot. Most of the walk was along a ridge line, and made for easy walking.
We did get off the trail for a while, but picked it back up. We ran into
another crew up near Jump Rock that was making their primitive camp near
there. Great place to camp, however, we would have had a tough time making
it there with our packs on. They came up a different trail than we did,
which was probably a little easier walk.

We continued on to Jump Rock, and man what a view! Gorgeous views at around
3500 feet. We all rested there for awhile, and then made our way back to
camp.

We had chosen a spot to camp that at least on the map was next to a stream,
however, it was dry. A group of us went down to Camp PMI and brought water
back. I got stung by a bee on the way back.

Due to the water situation, we had a lunch for dinner (Yuck, canned
chicken), and got to bed early. Oh, by the way, a mini bear got into our
bear bag, as we hung it too close to a tree, and go some food. We had
noticed that the trees in the reservation did not have many vertical
branches, so that night we went to the two tree method.

In the morning we got packed up on and going early. We were walking down the
Hollow to go to camp PMI for showers and trading post day. I was the last
in line, and the crew must have walked over a yellow jackets nest, because
when I got to it, they hammered me. I never realized I could run so fast
with a full pack. It hurt like the dickens, over a dozen stings. I took a
couple of benadryls, and sat down til most of the pain went away. Felt
better after the shower at PMI.

We hiked down to Swinging bridge, and went swimming in the creek, amongst a
multitude of Webelos. WAter was nice, but a little cold. Hiked over the dam
to our last outpost, Native American, hosted by Greg. It was Greg's
birthday, (We knew this because someone told us) So we came into camp
singing Happy Birthday. Later on, a group of rangers came with a cake,
which we all go a piece. The native American outpost was great, there was a
lesson on Indian tools, and cooking vessels, then we went on an archery
shoot through the woods at 3d targets. After dinner, there was a sweat
lodge, which the boys really enjoyed.

We slept in the long house that night, and got up and hiked back towards
Camp Baird. We Got to camp right at 2:00 PM, showered, and had some snacks.
We were going to stay in base camp that evening, and drive home Saturday,
but we asked if it was OK to leave Friday, and it was no problem. We ended
up hiking 35 miles for the week.

All in all it was a really good experience, the staff was fantastic, and the
programs really good. I highly recommend this place for those who want a
Philmont like experience, at a fraction of the cost.

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Received on Thu Jul 24 08:17:37 2008