confused at one point trying to figure out if we were at Comanche Pass yet or not. Part of this trail is marked with Philmont Arrowheads stenciled on the trees!! Tells you they have not done work on it in a long time. I am sorry I did not get a picture of one. When we got to Comanche Pass it was well marked. We should have guessed that, instead of having almost an hour packs-off break while we were debating. But the rest was needed and felt good. However, because of that we got to Lambert's too late (and tired) to make the stomp at Cypher's. In the morning there was a deer that would not leave our area checking all the rocks for salt .
Day 5 - Aspen Springs - Before leaving, we side-hiked to Cypher's for the mine tour. We skipped panning and blacksmithing-again, the forge was cold). We went to Phillips' Hunting Lodge and took the tour. We took the quick route to Cimmaroncito because neither of the Hunting Lodge staffers could tell us how long the trail past Cathedral and Window rocks would take us and the Scouts were afraid of missing the 5:00PM closing of Ute Gulch. We got caught in a short intense thunderstorm at Cimmaroncito, which we waited out on a porch.We left some Scouts at Aspen Springs to set up camp while the rest went to Ute Gulch for food. There was a Rayado crew with Boys' Life photographers just past the big rock next to us.
Day 6 - Santa Claus - It was a long, long day. We were on the trail for 11 hours. We got into Santa Claus late. Getting in late was a routine for us even though we were usually on the trail by 6:30 AM. Our crew leader was up