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Turnerphotographics:
Bonus Day: Tooth of Time
The Tooth
of Time is the iconic symbol of Philmont. Pictures of the
Tooth are on everything. Since the Brumbys had an extra
day before heading home, they asked for and received permission
to take a day hike up the Tooth since it wasn't included
on their trek.
Nick and Matt stayed in base camp
since they'd done the Tooth on previous Philmont treks.
The rest of the crew hit the trail early in the morning,
thoroughly enjoying hiking with light packs, especially
when they met an endless line of crews heading down with
heavy packs.
Upon reaching Tooth Ridge the trail
leveled out, with occasional views of the Tooth itself
through the trees.
The final
climb to the top was steep and rocky, but the view from
the top was amazing in all directions.
There was
Baldy way off to the northwest, the rocky Tooth Ridge itself
nearby, and the broad plains to the east.
Many of the
rocks on the summit were covered with hoardes of ladybugs.
We weren't sure why they were there or what they were eating.
We certainly didn't share any of our lunch with them.
Just as interesting
as the summit were some of the rock formations along Tooth
Ridge, including these near Tooth Ridge camp.
Ever observant,
the crew found a Western Smooth Green Snake hiding among
the branches of a trailside shrub. A small non-poisonous
species, it was much less intimidating than the rattler
they'd found on the rocks coming down from the summit.
Base camp
appeared closer and closer as the Brumbys hiked down the
long, seemingly endless, trail back down. It was just down
below, but still seemed so far away.
Back in camp, we found that Nick and
Matt had sunburned their necks while sitting in front
of their tents playing Game Boy all day. We caught a bus
into Cimmaron for pizza for dinner instead of another
dining hall meal. After taking care of all the checkout
procedures we could, we caught a little sleep before loading
up our bus at 2:00 a.m. for the ride to the Albuquerque
airport.
The 2001 Brumby Philmont Trek was
officially over. The crew had learned and grown a lot
over their days together on the trail. For some, it was
just the beginning of long backpacking trips. Zach and
Marcus took off on a 4-day 50-miler by themselves in the
Glacier Peak Wilderness in the summer of 2002. All the
boys have shared the skills they learned with the other
scouts at home.
The crew met author, photographer,
and publisher David Carter on top of the Tooth. He was
gathering material for a picture book on Philmont, and
Mark exchanged business cards, eventually contributing
four pages of photos of the Brumby expedition to Philmont:
A Timeless Experience, published in November, 2002.
