In 1999 I attended the Philmont Staff Association Reunion and participated with the Ponil Creek Fish project. The following is an account as how I saw it.

819 THURSDAY - My girlfriend (GF) and I flew from Milwaukee and into Colorado Springs, arriving late morning where we rented a car for the drive down to Philmont. We made good time, getting into Raton in time for lunch so we decided to eat at La Cocina, a little neighborhood eatery that's been in town almost forever. The Mexican food there is just wonderful!

A quick stop is made at COLD BEER, that middle-of-nowhere drinking establishment that, if anything, sells cool t-shirts, and we buy a couple.

Heading in to Cimarron on Highway 64 showed Philmont covered with rain, but it was pretty clear when we checked into our room at the Kit Carson. Next stop was Red River, where I have a friend, an old Phil-friend from 'way back. Hans got mountain fever when we were out on staff and he now runs a cash register, taking money from tourists and getting enough money on the side to live in God's Country.

There's pretty much one way to describe the Moreno Valley: Condominium. Eagle's Nest is spreading out, and Red River now has suburbs. Land is for sale everywhere. The wide open spaces are being fenced in, neonized, and subdivided.

We find Hans, it's not too hard to track him down, and we buy him a couple beers at the Bull O' The Woods saloon and catch up on how things have been. Some things never change and Hans is one of them.

It was good to see him again.

GF and I make our way back to the Kit, and we call it a night.

820 FRIDAY - We check out of the Kit Carson, head over to Philmont and check in, and get a tent over in PTC. The Reunion doesn't really get going until the evening, so the GF and I decide to play tourist and went off to Taos for a little sightseeing. Is Taos changing or am I just getting old? It seemed the Old Charm of Taos was gone, the art galleries, the little shops, many still there, but a lot less than there used to be, they giving way to cheap t-shirt shops and the peddling of cheap souveniers.

We have a good time, but we remember times when it was better.

It's back to Philmont, and we get an idea; it's late in the season but maybe they're still running? We decide to run down to Rayado to see if it's still open. Nope... it's shut down. Ah, well...

However, on the way back, on the backside of Urraca Mesa, we spy a herd of about 50 elk in the distance. We have field glasses and get a good view of them. Opposite way out on the plains we spot some antelope. We take a good while watching them, enjoying the scene and the scenery.

Special moments like this aren't found in cheap t-shirt shops.

Eventually, we get back to Philmont, eat dinner, and start running into other old timers who have arrived for the Reunion. This is what we came for.

821 - SATURDAY - It was the usual: the PSA held it's annual meeting, everyone was glad to see each other, but say "the usual" makes it sound trite. It's always good to be back! This year was a little special; the meeting was held in the new Staff dining hall in CHQ, bought and paid for by donations from PSA members. We could actually raise $300,000?! Wow!

After the meeting everyone was pretty much on their own, but there were other activities. Quite a few were camping at Ponil, some for the weekend and some for the Trout Project. The GF and I were here for the trout project, so we checked out equipment from the Services building and drove out to Ponil. It was a fairly wet year so the vegetation was prime, and there were fields of sage slashing out huge tracks of silver within the green meadows.

Camp was set up, everyone getting a warning about mountain lions. They've been spotted in the area and had stalked some of the staff in previous weeks. None would be encountered over the next few days, but everyone tread a little bit more lightly than usual. Wildlife out here is generally uneventful, but for cats to be stalking people? Caution was to be exercised.

In the evening everyone gathered for a campfire, a real Philmont campfire. It just doesn't get any better.

822 - SUNDAY - It seemed that back in the days of being on staff, mornings were usually best spent sleeping right through, if possible, but everyone was up at a reasonable time. It's not often we get to come back so these moments are to be savored.

A number of day hikes were scheduled, people gathering in groups depending on the hike they selected. GF and I chose to go to Dan Beard, a fairly easy hike. At least, we were told, it was a nice, easy road the whole way up.

Well, it was a road part of the way. The route eventually broke off onto a trail, but the trail followed a stream, and that meant rocks and stream crossings. Overall it wasn't that difficult, but some people in the group chose this hike because they weren't in condition for a more strenuous destination, so it did prove to be more difficult than expected. Regardless, Dan Beard was reached and lunch eaten on the porch. Dan Beard was shut for the season so we had the entire Upper North Country for ourselves.

For the hike back, we decided to go up the hill behind Dan Beard and take another trail into Ponil in order to cover new territory. Not a problem, but because of the almost constant fires in this area, there are a lot of roads and trails that have come about from fire fighters that aren't on the map. We took the right trail, but we missed the turn that went down into Horse Canyon.

The trail we were on dead-ended at a cliff. It was threatening to rain, and there were lightning strikes blasting away in the distance. And there we were, up high, and no way down.

It wasn't too hard to figure out where we were and where we went wrong, but the weather was demanding action, so we chose the best possible route to bushwhack down the cliff. It wasn't that bad, but it was slow going and strenuous. Not the kind of hike for out-of-shape hikers.

The rain managed to avoid us and we made it down, but it also made for a long, tiring day. We got back into Ponil at about 5:00 PM, which isn't that late, however, everyone was responsible for cooking their own dinner and it was just going to make a long, drawn out process to clean up and cook and everything else before we could really take it easy and rest up.

Then again, there can be advantages to arriving late. Dinner was over for others, and Dan Ashton and his family were pretty much finished, so they practically begged us to eat their leftovers. We gratefully obliged, and I never thought in my life that cold macaroni and cheese could beat the fixin's at a 4-star restaurant.

We were tired, but no longer hungry, camping at Philmont, and it just doesn't get any better. I already said that, didn't I?

823  MONDAY - By now the only folks left were those here to work on the Trout Project. This is what was involved:

Rainbow trout are not native to this area. Our job was to remove ALL the fish in the South Ponil Creek so that Cut-throat trout could be re-introduced and not cross-breed with the Rainbow. This was accomplished by literally walking up every inch of the creek with a device that injected an electrical current through the water and shocking the fish. People with nets would catch the fish while others would haul them with buckets onto nearby vehicles. A lot of the creek had been covered during the summer so the PSA was to finsih the job. Next year, if the plan stays intact, a chemical will be put onto the creek to ensure that any fish that escaped would be killed off to prevent contamination of the gene pool.

Sounds easy, but that creek doesn't exactly have regular landscaping performed on it weekly. Getting through the brush and vegetation was a chore and could make it tough going.

When it came to be lunch time, most people jumped into vehicles and back to Ponil. However, we were pretty close to Peublano, so the GF and I walked up to there to eat our lunch. I was on staff there in 1978 and probably had some of the best times I will ever have in my life that year. I've been back since so it wasn't exactly a homecoming, and the camp has changed greatly, too. The old cabin is gone, the new one being in a different location. Some of the scrub oak that I remember being waist high is now 20 feet tall. Either I'm getting old or the times are changing.

A lot of Burros passed through, they being let loose to graze for the time being. 1978 or 1999, it didn't really matter; just to be out here again, if only for an hour, it was just a good feeling. Both Pueblano and I have changed, but it was still just that: a good feeling to be here.

The afternoon was spent with more fish shocking, a good haul being made. One thing that was of interest; as the group makes it way up the stream, people have to go back to the vehicles and drive them up for the next couple hunfreds yards or so. That meant the GF got to drive a Phil-vehicle. Though it may have been only 200 feet or so, she got to drive a Phil-vehicle! There are staff who go for years striving for this goal but fail in their quest for being able to claim they drove a Phil-vehicle in the Back Country. Some things just aren't fair.

When it was time, everyone piled back into the vehicles and drove back to Ponil for the evening. We had food to make dinner, but the GF and I got to thinking. Our car is just right down at the turnaround, Cimarron has restaurants... so we and Dave Kiffer, a good friend from past PSA treks, went on into town and had us a right fine dinner at Hecks.

That evening, at Ponil, the moon was almost full. When the moon is gone you can talk about how the stars look out here at Philmont, but the moon! It's just unbelievable how much light that thing gives off when you're away from the city. Just unbelievable!

824 TUESDAY - Back to shocking fish. We make it into Pueblano and that's about it for this phase of the project. A grand total of 428 fish were captured, relocated, and saved from the poisoning to come next year.

In order to thank us for our help, Philmont treated us to a Buffalo Feast. Buffalo! MMMmmmm! Even some of the vegetarians in the group took a nibble just to try it.

There's just not a whole lot to say about the day. It was hard work, but to be at Philmont, back with friends you haven't seen in years, to be able to make new friends, and camping in the mountains.

You know what I mean.

825 WEDNESDAY - GF and I get up early, we wanting to drive back to Colorado Springs so that there'd time to do some sightseeing. We also have a passenger with us.

I don't even remember his name. To us he's just a kid, maybe 22. He's been on staff, but wasn't this past year. I forget why he came out here now. Regardless, his goal was to get to Yellowstone where he had a job waiting for him, but only if he could get there by Thursday or Friday.

I didn't ask any questions, but I got the impression the kid was supposed to be in college but fell out of it for some reason, didn't want to go home to face the music, and was kind of winging his life on a day-to-day basis.

Stupid, dumb kid. I keep my mouth shut, though, because that was me 20 years ago.

We make the drive to the Springs, getting there late morning. I keep driving past our exit. I'm looking for a truck stop to drop the kid off at, but there doesn't seem to be any north of town. He knows we're looking to drop him off somewhere so he picks an exit off the interstate where we can pull over and we leave him on his way. I feel guilty because there's no way he's going to get to Yellowstone in time and he hasn't enough money and I feel like I should give him some, but I don't. I was stupid once, and the money isn't going to help him with the problems he has. He'll make it, eventually, out of whatever is eating at him, and get on with his life, but it won't be today.

Our plane leaves tomorrow morning. We have half a day left in Colorado Springs. We grab our motel room and set out sightseeing.

First, we tour the Garden of the Gods. Fascinating place. We walk through, the sun hot, bright, adding to the aura of these true Gods of Stone.

Pikes Peak. We drive up Pikes Peak. What gets me is the vastness of that mountain. You could spend years hiking through the valleys and meadows and never be off the mountian itself.

It's close to evening, so we then head for Cripple Creek, and old gold mining town that is now a resort area and sprinkled with real live gaming casinos. I sit down at a poker table and win some gas money, and just like that, the trip is over.

We make our way back into Colorado Springs and the motel, reflecting on the past week. Just to be at Philmont, camping hiking, working, with some of our old friends...

It just doesn't get any better...