Fullerton to Raton New Mexico

1032 miles

Travel To    images

       If you look at the image at the top of this page you see the twelve crew members heading for Philmont Scout Ranch in Cimmaron, New Mexico.  Nine scouts and three adult advisors have planned and prepared for the last two years after reserving their slot for the two week Trek in August of 2003.  The following pages are written from the point of view of one of the adult advisors.   There are almost 500 images in the following pages which attempt to capture the essence of a Trek at Philmont.   This tribute's main intent is to relay crew 809F's experience in a chronological fashion.  For those that were not able to go on this trek, but may be inspired to go on a Trek in the future when they satisfy the age limit of 14 years old.    According to the survey taken after the trek, most the boys would repeat the trip if the opportunity arose.  It is my hope that each crew member may consider going as and Advisor in a future trek with their children as troop leaders.  With his donation to the Boy Scout Organization, Waite Phillips has given every young man in scouting a location where the values and skills of the Boy Scout program may be challenged and strengthened.   The programs offered at each of the camps not only build on Scouting skills, but are enjoyable as well. Each Trek is not without hardship. The crew must work together to achieve the goal.  This crew was able to pull together and achieve the goal, trek 2,  at 50 miles in ten days.  Great Job guys.   With that said Let's Begin....

        The time is 4:40 PM on August 7th in the year 2003.   The crew and advisor's are at the train station in Fullerton, Ca. waiting for the train that will transport them to Raton, New Mexico.  The plan was to take the train to Raton, New Mexico.  Then catch a Philmont shuttle bus to the Scout Camp.  Raton is a city about 45 miles north of Cimmaron and should only take about an hour to make the trip.

      When the train arrivds all quickly said good-by to their family members and friends that had come by to see them off.  The conductor showed us to our seats.   Everyone settled in for the long ride.  Some brought CD players or Video games to pass the time.  Others played cards and talked about video games.  Once the train was on its way the crew began to explore, they found the dining car,  the snack car, and one car playing a movie.   The train seats reclined and had ample leg room and foldout leg supports. As nice as they were the comfort did not match a bed.  

      The next morning the conductor announced that breakfast was being served in the dining car.  Some of the Crew had  breakfast in the dining car.  The rest of the crew had pizza or hot dogs from the snack car.  The train ride was going pretty well until we left the Albuquerque station early in the afternoon.  The train was climbing a steep grade very slowly when the air conditioning shut off and the diesel engines were quiet as we came to a stop.  In a very short time it began to get stuffy, since the windows on the train do not open.  Forty five minutes later,  the engines repaired, we were on our way once more.  Now we know why they have multiple engines pulling a train.  Our Train had three engines and still we had to stop.  That stop and a few others ate away at our projected arrival time of 5:40 PM.   We reached Raton almost 2 hours later than expected.  The Philmont bus driver was still waiting to to take us to the Camp.  We quickly unloaded our backpacks from the train and loaded them into the bus.  The bus driver was kind enough to stop and let us get some food before we began the ride.   By the time we left Raton it was about 8:10 PM.  We were not going to get there in daylight.

      As we headed south out of town it grew darker much faster than normal.  Lightning strikes and thunder began moving closer.  It began to rain.  Soon rain was pounding on the Windshield of the bus. The oncoming traffics headlights made it difficult for the driver to see the road.  Several lightning strikes hit the ground within a couple of miles of where we were.  The advisors looked at each other and asked why did we leave California?   It rained all the way to camp, but the thunder and lightning had moved to the south and it was now only still lightly raining.  We unloaded the bus and made our first pack line.  The crew leader, Robert went to let the staff know we were there and get tent assignments for the night.  After finding our assigned tents we went to sleep with the patter of rain on the canvas.   Great I thought ...  here we are.