Up at 5am to walk down to the main staff cabin, where there was a great view across the valley to the east by which to watch the sunrise. Magnificent colors playing on the clouds, very touching to see His majesty on display. Said a prayer of thanksgiving for the day, and we all ate a cold breakfast watching the sun peek over the distant mountains.
Back up the hill to our campsite, where a mad scramble to get all packed up and out by 7:10, or at least 10 to 25 minutes later than we wanted to leave, which meant we had to scurry up the hill further to get to our worksite for the conservation project before 7:30. We just made it in time; our sister crew didn't, and they'll have to make up the work later on the trek to qualify for their Philmont patch. We set to work making a new trail that will one day cut over to Cimarroncito Peak, which is currently completely wild--no trails whatsoever. So our stretch of 100+ feet of trail will someday be in use, which is cool to think about.
Finished by 10:30 and on the trail again. The trek up to Thunder Ridge was uphill, but not painfully so. Lots of very ghostly, grey evergreen trees along the trail, which made for a very spooky sight. The trail from Thunder Ridge up to the camp at Comanche Peak, though, was much more strenuous and rocky. Less now of the ghostly grey and white pines, now more of a spruce forest on this mountain. Although, we did pass one stretch where the feathery Spanish moss was so thick on the bare grey branches, they looked like Christmas trees out of some cartoon. Near the top of Comanche Peak, the boys waited for us at a splendid overlook facing back towards the east/northeast. They all thought that was one of the views they really came to see. Arrived at camp by 3, and quickly got set up in a light shower. Much, much cooler up here, at what will most likely be the highest campsite I'll ever be a part of. 19,867 steps on the Fitbit, or 9.38 miles, brings us to 85,271 and 48.26mi total--and an amazing 11,303 feet above sea level. Just awesome to consider, being that high.
At bedtime, some of the boys walked back to the scenic overlook to look at the stars, and told us later of seeing a thunderstorm along the horizon, and watching the lightning play over the scene from miles and miles away. Majesty at work indeed.
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| Pre-dawn lightening of the sky, 5:10am |
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| Deeper colors, starting to brighten. |
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| Here comes the sun... |
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| …and morning has broken, 5:30am. |
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| Our conservation project worksite |
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| The boys getting instruction on how we'll build a trail. |
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| John and David working on the trail construction. |
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| Sean during conservation work |
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| The view around lunchtime on the trail up to Thunder Ridge |
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| Around lunchtime, nearing Thunder Ridge. |
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| The ghostly forest and the path through it |
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| Spanish moss? on the trees near Thunder Ridge |
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| Views back down towards where we've come from. |
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| Clouds rolling in, but can't hide how high up we are, near Comanche Peak |
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| I love how this tree grew up and wound up splitting a much older fallen tree in the process, decades ago. |
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