Philmont Day 6 - Deer Lake Mesa to Baldy Skyline

Originally published November 2, 2012

On day 6 we departed Deer Lake Mesa at about 6:50am and began our gradual climb down towards the Cimarron River. We saw a buck on the way, keeping our deer-spotting streak alive at 7 straight days.

After crossing over the river and under the highway we took a break. Feet are sore. The mileage isn't bad (no big climbs) but clearly we're seeing wear and tear on the feet.

We had a restful lunch in the Santa Claus valley, likely hanging out there too long as it was hard to get moving again.

After climbing out of the valley we entered the wasteland remnants of the Ponil Fire in 2002. In middle of the burn area, Jacob yells “FROG!”. It was actually a squirrel climbing a tree. During the entire hike we were dogged by a crew we passed earlier coming up from the river – it made us keep pushing because we hate to be passed.

Our program area was not the final camp, but Head of Dean where we would try out some team games (or rather, the boys would). They opted for the shorter course with the highlight being Matthew's face plant into the wall climb (video coming soon).

Our last very long day ended at Baldy Skyline camp. We had an outstanding fire ring area there with good sitting logs, though the camp was too slanted for our taste. Here we had probably our favorite meal: Stovetop stuffing with canned chicken.

This article is part of my Philmont 2012 series. You can find all articles here.