Troop 57 - Garland Texas - Frank Rand 1999

We arrived at Frank Rand on Sunday, July 10. We did a quick shakedown, had supper, and got ready to hit the trail the next day.
	We drove from the camp to Jack's Creek in the Pecos Wilderness on Monday morning. We hit the trail and headed up to our first camp site. Along the way we had lunch, struggled with the altitude and mountains, but we had a great time.
On Tuesday, we packed up and headed out early for our next camp site, Pecos Baldy Lake. This would be our home for the next two days. We were not there long before we had a visitor, a friendly mountain goat! This site was AWESOME! From our camp site, we had a view of the mountain and of Pecos Baldy Lake. The site was sheltered and comfortable.
	On Wednesday, we took a great day hike up to the peak of Pecos Baldy East (12,500 ft.). There we had lunch and looked at the world from the top of the sky. We saw a heard of elk on a plateau across a valley, we saw a big horn sheep rookery, and we were visited by our friend, the mountain goat. After we enjoyed the view for awhile, we headed back to our camp. Our afternoon activities included fishing, wildlife education, naps, and a snowball fight! Later that evening a front came through the mountain pass, the wind picked up, and the temperature dropped....
Thursday morning we awoke to a howling wind, fog blasting through the trees, and frigid temperatures! We all put on our warmest gear, our rain jackets, and went to work. We had a great breakfast, packed our gear, cleaned up our camp site, and headed back down the mountain. Once we got off the top and into the trees, we immediately warmed up. Off came all of the warm gear. When we stopped for lunch our guides, Diego and Richard, found a wild strawberry patch! Lunch was extra good that day. The afternoon hike turned out to be hard and hot. Water ran low and we had to go cross country for a few miles to find a trail lower on the mountain. The camp site that night was a welcome sight, with a spring running next to an aspen grove.
	Friday was our last day on the trail. We took our time getting up and enjoyed the morning. After breakfast we headed back down to Jack's Creek and our van. The showers at Camp Frank Rand were great. For supper that night we went into Chimayo and had a wonderful New Mexican food dinner. Later that night we attended the camp fire and were asked to perform a skit. Naturally, we chose a great scouting skit, the Spitting Contest. The results were amusing and there were some surprised scouts! If you've never seen the spitting contest, send me an email and I'll send it to you. Saturday morning we had breakfast and then waved goodbye to New Mexico, USA.

Camp Frank Rand, New Mexico

July 10-17, 1999