We made it! We are at the top of Mount Baldy! We have good reason to
give the thumbs up sign. It was a long hike!
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Tony puts a small figure of Elmer Fudd in the message tube at the top
of Baldy, along with a message written by Gerry.
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On the way down the backside of Baldy (the west side) we came across an
old mine shaft that had to be explored.
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We took the Historic Trail down the est side of the mountain. It was
longer, but not nearly as steep as the common trail.
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Since we had to wait for our guide to show up, we had our lunch outside
the Aztec gold mine.
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Before going into the mine, the guide explained what the mining days of
the Baldy area were like.
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Pieces of gear left behind from mining crews could be seen in one of
the buildings at French Henry camp.
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Crews have a chance to pan for gold at the stream at French Henry,
after being told how to do it properly, of course.
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We discovered that panning for gold was fun ... for about 15 minutes.
One of our crew members did find a very small flake.
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On trail day #10 we were allowed to have two burros to help carry our
gear. Of course, we had to learn how to load a burro first.
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After catching two burros from the mud filled corral (quite an
experience in itself) we were allowed to load gear onto the burro.
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There were times when we wondered if the burros were a help or a hinder
to our Philmont trek.
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After a rain shower, and a much needed nap, a rainbow brightened our
afternoon at Pueblano Camp.
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It rained in the evening at Pueblano, so we held our "staff meeting"
under the front porch of the camp office building.
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As we awoke to our last morning in the Philmont back country, we
noticed a lot of dew. Our tents were quite damp.
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John lead a burro across a stream as we left Pueblano Camp. We were
waiting for the burro to pull him into the stream.
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Our breaks during our hikes were quick and short. We didn't want our
leg muscles getting stiff because we rested too long.
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High ho, high ho, it's to Ponil we go.... We would be leaving our
burro friends at the Ponil corral.
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