(LONG) Letter from Philmont

I would like to share with you portions of a letter from my daughter who is with
a Philmont Trail Crew (July 21 - Aug 18). After 3 consecutive summers, I didn't
get to go this year, and the summer has just not been the same. Letter was
dated
Aug. 1, bears a Baldy Town postmark, postmarked in Cimarron NM on Aug. 7, and
received here Aug. 10. Her crew is based at Maxwell Camp.

Hey from Philmont!
. . . . . . . . . . . . . Trail Crew is not as exciting as
I thought it might
be. This is Day 12 of our 18 work days, but actually only Day 10 out
here at Maxwell. We had to stay an extra day in Base Camp to move
tents into rows instead of horseshoes. So now you can remember that
it was our crew that placed them that way.
There was not even a hint of rain until July 30, Day 10 out
here.
On July 30 it rained for 20 min and on July 31 for over 3 hours
intermittenly -- so much for monsoon season. Today has been the
best day yet & things are looking up. We left late and got up to the
work site (about 1/2 mile uphill) at 8 am instead of the usual 7 am
and left at 3 pm instead of the usual 4 pm. The work is hard, but the
meadow where we eat lunch is refreshing. . . . . . . from Utah has to
read "Crime and Punishment", so we read the parts aloud.
Today we also found out that on our day off, Aug. 3 is . . .
. . .
from MD's birthday and we are going to hike up Baldy Mt., which
means that it will be a side hike w/o packs and we don't have to fit
it into our trek. Tomorrow is a food drop & one of our foremen is
on day's off, so we get to sleep in and wait for the food. The I think
we are going to hike to Baldy Town tomorrow evening and stay there
a night before out trip over Baldy.
We planned our trek. It starts in the North and goes South. We
get dropped off near Indian Writings, then Bent, then some other stuff,
Cypher's and Mt. Phillips (which I really want to do), Crater Lake,
Shaeffer's Pass, than into Base from Tooth of Time! Sounds great,
and everyone is happy, except . . . . . . . . from MD who wanted to go
to Seally Canyon in the Valle Vidalle (I also wanted to go there, but
I chose Phillips as my input.
I got your letter because we get mail every time a visitor
comes,
which is almost daily. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
We have had a bear problem, but it ended a few days ago. They
told us to start talking when a bear comes and to gradually get louder
and then break into the "Brady Bunch" theme song. So for the first
2 nights everyone sang the song for hours, and then the next 2 nights
everyone sang while I slept. We figured out that there was a mother
bear who slept in the meadow and raided our bear box while she sent
her two cubs to be babysat by us. It was like a sort of nightclub for
them. Because we were extra careful, though, we fared better than
Miranda and the bears got nothing but a book and 2 water bottles from
us. At Miranda they left open their box and have been attacked twice
& lost lots of food. Then a bear came onto their porch while two
other bears ganged up on it and tried to destroy it.
Well, life is simple here and good with the slight tedium of
oatmeal for breakfast, pb & j for lunch and rice & beans for supper.
But tomorrow is pancakes & the company is good, so life is bearable.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Enjoy the remaining days of this summer.
I
love you,
Lindy

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