My favorite places to spend the summer

We’ve managed to have a lot of variety in our summer vacations over the years. There are a couple places that have been a repeat, but they typically have the beach in common.

Our honeymoon was spent over 2-1/2 hot days on the beach of Myrtle Beach, SC, because that’s all the time off my Squadron Commander would give me. I never did understand that, because I wasn’t on a B-52 crew yet, so it wasn’t like I had to go on Alert, or needed to fly some important exercise, it was just him exercising his control on the new guy, despite the fact I had approached him about it six months in advance. The beach was fun; despite the short time there, but that was due to the company and occasion.

Since then, we’ve gone to Bethany Beach, Delaware; Bar Harbor, Maine; Emerald Isle, North Carolina; Wilmington, NC; Duck, NC; Hunting Island, SC; Cape May, and Virginia Beach. We also took the kids out to Anacortes, Washington, and stayed with my folks in our house on the beach. I always loved that place. The beach was rocky and full of driftwood, and a great place for kids to play pretty much all year long. It has a big bay out in front, and a spectacular view of Mount Baker. Great things to do include visiting Deception Pass Bridge, climbing Mount Erie, hanging out on West Beach or Sunset Park. My favorite thing is taking the ferry out to Friday Harbor. What a great time.

Locally, I like going up to Pat & Stew’s cottage, though it’s pretty booked most of the year. its relaxing to just go be in the woods and hang out on the deck. The lake, when the water level is up, is nice to kayak on, and you can even toss out a line and fish every now and then. Only being an hour away makes it a nice getaway. Emlenton, the nearby town, is right on the Allegheny River, and is slowly blossoming with restaurants, a winery, and new brew pub overlooking the water.

Other places I like to hang out in the summer are Lake Arthur, kayaking with Laura; wineries; hikes along the various trail systems we have north of Pittsburgh; and the explosion of brew pubs that are all the rage these days. The Pennsylvania summers make them a great place to just hang out with friends, and they usually allow dogs!

Vacationing with Babe & Loree

 It feels like all we did growing up was move from one base to another, and therefore never went on vacation, but that isn’t true. We DID move a lot, but when I think back, I can distinctly remember some pretty fun vacations that Mom and Dad took us on between all the moves.

The big one when I was very little was a tour of Denmark and Norway in the Red VW camper (I think I was about three). I have no idea the full itinerary, but I know we camped next to a beach (I think near Copenhagen), and we visited a famous museum in Oslo that had a huge Viking boat displayed up on posts. It was glorious!

Back in the States, and living in California, we drove up to Washington to see Mom’s family, through northern California, stopping to see Aunt Jocie in Redwood City, and vising the Redwood forest. We actually drove through the tree back then. That’s also when I sliced my left thumb open trying to whittle on a stick. (I still have the scar). Must have been a long vacation because we spent a lot of time at the beach with all our cousins, and that may be when they bought the beach house from Ken and Carolyn.

Another time, we rented a houseboat on Lake Isabella, due west of Bakersfield, CA. I think we camped for a day or two. That was a lot of fun.

After Dad came back from Vietnam, and before we moved back to George, we drove from Washington to Minnesota to see the relatives on Dad’s side of the family. I remember being at John & Wanda Millers’ house, sitting on the front stoop, and watching a tornado off in the distance. The Moms put a quick stop to that: down to the basement!

In Libya, we weren’t there long enough. In Italy there were three vacations I distinctly remember, though I’m not sure in what order they occurred.

One was a trip to Rome with Grandma Branby when she flew over to visit. Actually the only time I ever remember her visiting us. I think we were there about a week. We took the train down and back, which was another adventure. The most distinct thing that stands out is the tour guide and his very broken english. Very fun and entertaining.

Another time Mom and Dad bought us skis and we all drove over the mountains and spent a week learning to ski in Austria. That was a blast. We were there with a couple other families, so lots of things to do on and off the slopes. The end of the week was a big ski race.

The third vacation was at the beach near Venice. We must have stayed at a hotel right on the water.

After Dad came back from Korea, we moved to North Las Vegas. Dad bought both a Camper and a speed boat.  With the Camper, we drove out to Colorado once or twice and stayed with Don in Snowmass or Basalt. We toured the Maroon Bells, Aspen, Glenwood Springs, and all the places in between. Dave and I went river rafting down the Roaring Fork River. That was a blast.

I think there was a ski trip to Snowmass at least once, because Uncle Don was working at Gene Taylor’s Sporting goods, right on the mountain, so we got some good discounts on rentals.

The move to Luke AFB (Phoenix) pretty much ended the big family vacations for me. To be fair, Dad decided to put in a swimming pool, and that was awesome!

My Senior year was jam-packed with activities, followed by a shortened summer when I was unexpectedly appointed to the Air Force Academy.

Head of Dean

One man alone can be pretty dumb sometimes, but for real bona fide stupidity, there ain't nothin' can beat teamwork.

~ Edward Abbey

None of us is as smart as all of us.

~Ken Blanchard

Daylight broke cool and clear, but we had been up almost an hour. Our goal is to usually be on the trail by 0630 so we can get our hiking done in the cool of the morning. By 1100 or so, the sun starts baking the mountain trails, and if you're not under the trees, the hiking quickly gets miserable. Breakfast is a pretty spartan fare: granola, gorp, beef jerky, and tang. Yesterday we had oatmeal and we boiled water to heat it up, but boiling water for 12 people takes time, and after reviewing the trek menu, we'll only do that one more time. For the rest of the mornings, its something dry and quickly consumed so we can get out on the trail. We hike down the path back to the road and find Enos waiting right where we left him, munching on hay and flicking his ears around chasing away flies. This is a big test: will the boys remember how to re-saddle the burro so that everything stays safe and secure for the hikes ahead? It turns out that it takes a couple of tries, but they get it much faster than I thought they would. Apparently it's impressive enough for Ranger Greg, because with that task complete, he wishes us good luck and takes his leave, heading back to base camp and a few days off. We're pretty impressed because the rumor we'd heard was that most rangers stick around for 3 full days. Either Greg has a hot date waiting, or he's satisfied we'll survive out on the trail on our own. The way the boys are working together leads me to believe it's the latter. Which is a good thing for us, because without "Administrative" supervision, we can relax a bit and enjoy the trek a lot more. And, we decide to put ALL of our remaining food into Enos' saddle bags... a bit more than the 25 lbs. we were limited to by the Wrangler, but probably not by too much: we've consumed three more meals since yesterday morning. Our goal for this morning is to get on the road and back to Pueblano early enough to take advantage of the activities there, and then move on to our overnight camp, Head of Dean, in time to do some activities there too. Having already been to Pueblano the night before, it's a quick march for both us and Enos, and we arrive right around 0830. As I mentioned before, Pueblano is a Lumberjack-themed camp, so the boys get to do some spar pole climbing. Spar pole climbing is how lumberjacks, (and probably some early telephone linemen) climb the tall trees and poles using the waist strap and spur-anchors hooked to the sides of their boots. The safety equipment is quite a chore to don, with a fairly complicated waist harness, safety rope, and tightly cinched ankle spurs. The ankle spurs take some getting use to, because you have spikes coming out the INSIDES of your ankles, and you have to drive them sideways into the pole, then put your weight on the spikes as you step up, moving the belt as you go to keep you in position. It takes a few tries to get the rhythm right, and it's a lot of work, but once you figure it out, you can quickly move up the pole. Our task was to climb up far enough to kiss the eye-bolt at the top that the safety rope was fed through. We had a couple of boys who were a little skittish about the height thing, but after several boys scrambled right up, everyone else figured it had to be a safe operation and gave it a try. There were some very big smiles upon reaching the top! 

From Pueblano we took Enos, left the roads we'd been hiking on the last day and a half, and headed out overland via trail. We encountered some rather steep hills, but with Enos marking the pace, it was slow and steady going and no one fell behind. I found that a periodic poke in the rear by a hiking pole kept Enos at a pretty constant pace. He turned out to be a good hiker and never really slowed us down. After a stop along the trail for lunch, we rolled into Head of Dean around 1330, with lots of daylight left, and the hope that the boys could get the camp's activity, the Challenge Course, out of the way today so we wouldn't have to wait till the morning. As it turned out we were in luck, there were still a couple opening available, so we got our name on the schedule for 1500, and then went down to our camp site to set up for the night. Set up by now had become pretty routine: identify the bear bag hanging area, the sump, and the cooking area, and then pick where we would set up our tents. Hang up the food, set the dishes and cooking gear over by the sump, set up the dining fly in case of rain so we had a place to keep the packs dry, and set up the tents. Oh yeah, figure out where we could get water, and most importantly, the location of the nearest latrine! Priorities, priorities, priorities! The Challenge course was a typical team-building course that almost everyone in some organization or other has been through. I've done them a couple of times in my Air Force career, and as a ground school instructor at US Air. They are a lot of fun, they make you think, and you really do bond a bit more as a unit as you make your way through each challenge finding that everyone has different strengths and insights and all will eventually come out if you stay open to hearing everyone's ideas. 

 The activities of the course consisted of a series of senarios requiring the boys to use their problem-solving skills. They ranged from passing a hula hoop around a circle of bodies, to climbing a ten-foot wall and getting everyone over it without use of tools, props, or other people. To make it interesting, the instructor levied penalties and handicaps on the boys, including making some of the participants mute, some blind, and some forced to say exactly opposite of what they intend. From an observer's standpoint it was very entertaining. From a leader's viewpoint it was extremely impressive that no matter what the obstacle, the boys doggedly worked their way through every problem and succeeded in conquering all their challenges. Again they demonstrated what a strong, cohesive unit they've become. After dinner we had another Advisor's coffee. 

Once again the adult leaders took over the porch and enjoyed cookies, coffee and camaraderie. Unfortunately for some, the staff, which contained several girls, had decided to improve the traditional coffee recipe and actually added cinnamon to the brew! I thought it was a good move as the coffee was brewed pretty strong. Some of the really old-timers thought it was a sacrilegious desecration of some ancient outdoors tradition. Apparently camp coffee can only be made with the stalest of coffee and MUST be steeped in an old used sock. Finally, when ready to pour, it is filtered through an old pot scrubber to filter out the grounds. Any other method is new fangled, weak and contains shades of Brokeback Mountain... who knew?

Head of Dean camp sits at the very head of Dean Canyon. The staff cabin overlooks a long, open valley to the west where we watched the sun slowly set turning the sky all sorts of shades of oranges, reds and purples. It is said to be the best view at Philmont, and on the night we sat and watched the kaleidoscopic changes dance across the evening canvas, not one of us would argue the point.

On the Trail: Sioux Camp

There is a destiny that makes us brothers -
None goes his way alone;
All that which we send into the lives of others,
Comes back onto our own.

~ Edwin Markham

It's finally the big day: the day we head out on the trail and start knocking down our 69+ miles. We woke early, excited about the big day ahead of us.

My first order of business is getting a shower. Seems kind of strange to mention that, but the next opportunity to get one is going to be FIVE days into the future. I've grown up spoiled and much too civilized; I'm not sure how I'm going to feel a day or two from now after miles and miles of hiking and not showering. Better get one in while I can.

After breakfast we have a couple things we need to do. One is a "shakedown," a Ranger-led activity where we pull our beds from out tents, empty our packs of all our gear, and watch as Greg goes through all the things we'll need for the trek, and offers suggestions on what we probably don't. There's the obvious (such as sleeping bags, water bottles, tents, first aid kits, etc.), and the not so obvious: matches, sun screen, bug spray, stoves, fuel, water purifiers... Some things he had issues with - everyone having a pocket knife, carrying a camp stool so that you don't have to always sit on the ground. All the adults had one, and I'm set on bringing mine - I'm sure it is well worth the extra weight. We end up ditching about half the cooking pots, the dining fly poles (we'll use hiking poles) and a couple of the issued tents as almost everyone brought their own.

After the shakedown and repack, we made our way across the camp to a picture station where we had our group photo taken with the Tooth of Time in the background. This was a gaggle because three boys wandered off without saying anything, so we had to send someone back to find them, and they were all too cool to hurry. Pretty much this was the one time when they acted like little kids on the whole trip. However, when it was all said and done, it was a beautiful day with a crystal clear sky, so I'm sure the photo turned out spectacular.

So it's 1000 and we're ready to go. We've moved out of our tents, our packs are loaded, our extraneous gear is stored... unfortunately we have to wait for our scheduled bus time of 1300, as we're being dropped off about 10 miles from the Base Camp and there are only a couple of buses which are busy making drop off and pick up runs throughout the reservation.

There was one last cafeteria lunch, which killed about an hour, and we made a last tour of the trading post, but mostly we just had to hang out and sweat in the shade as the day got warmer and warmer.

Finally, our Trek was called and on to the bus we scrambled. The trip took about 30 minutes, passing through the nearby town of Cimarron, and then up a dirt road for several miles. One of the highlights of the ride was passing a herd of about 100 elk grazing next to the road. They didn't even lift their heads as we passed by. Guess they're used to people who don't threaten them in any way.

Our bus dropped us off at a place named "Ponil Turnaround" which pretty much matched it's name: a cul-de-sac at the end of the line. We tumbled out, grabbed our packs, and watched as the bus drove away in a trail of dust. Civilization was two weeks away.

The first order of business was some instruction from Ranger Greg: the proper way to cross a stream, the importance of sticking together, not getting too close or too spread out on the trail, and the proper use of the Red Roof Inns. Philmont has outhouses spread throughout the property, and though they are mainly clustered near the camping sites, they are located sporadically (though never strategically) along the trails. They can be identified by their red roofs, hence the nickname. In providing his instruction on how to use the latrine (no urine, toilette paper and fecal matter only...) he showed how to use a stick to chase away any bugs or creatures that might be lurking in the privy seat before use. As he went to discard the stick with a mighty throw, he put his entire weight into the toss, but forgot to let go, and followed the stick right THROUGH the wall and out onto the ground outside!!! It was pretty spectacular! Luckily he wasn't hurt, just temporarily humbled as we all recovered from our initial shock and started laughing. Nice ice breaker!

After repairing the Red Roof Inn, we saddled up and started our hike. Today was a relatively easy walk... about 3 miles to get broken in. We followed a small stream for about a mile, then passed through Ponil Staff camp. We looked longingly at the cantina as we passed, but headed up a rocky road for about 500 yards till we found a side trail that took off steeply up the side of a ridge, until we eventually found our camp site for the night: Sioux.

Since it was still early, we had plenty of time to go through the lessons of setting up camp at Philmont: setting up the "Bear-muda" food triangle: cooking gear by a sump; food preparation area/cooking circle; and hanging the bear bags to put all our smellables out of reach of any curious animals (i.e. bears). Finally, locating the tents in a cluster outside the food triangle to preclude bears from stumbling into us in the middle of the night.

Greg went over all these items and then coached the first set of chefs through the process of one-pot cooking. This is the concept of cooking all your menu items together in one pot. That means if you have soup and mashed potatoes and corn bread, you dump them all in the same pot, add water and cook them as one entree'. While this sounds easy (and it is), in practice this seldom worked out as a palate pleaser in a manner that Julia Child would approve! At Sioux we actually cooked a Mexican meal, where mixing it all together was actually pretty tasty. Rice, refried beans, sloppy joes were all mixed together and layered on tortillas. Probably the best meal of the trip, though we didn't know that at the time!

After dinner, our resident expert, Lynn, who had been at Philmont 4 or 5 times, suggested that we take the boys back down to Ponil where the staff put on a cantina show, and serve rootbeer for $1 a mug. The boys were all up for that, so Greg and I escorted them back down the trail about a mile to the cantina. Unfortunately, the place was packed and they had quit serving the rootbeer about 15 minutes before we arrived. The evening weather was cool and clear, and the music from inside the cantina filled the valley, so the boys all sat down and started playing cards and swapping stories, relaxing after two long days of preparation and anticipation.

I think this demonstrated the one thing that impressed me the most about this group of boys. They came from three different troops from diverse parts of the Pittsburgh area, and had never met before we started our practice hikes. Yet they came together, accepted each other at face value, and worked extremely well together as a group. I doubt any life-long friendships developed, but the fact that they all came together and worked well as unit so quickly, was a truly nice surprise.

The cantina show wrapped up around 2100, so we gathered the group up and herded them back through the dark to camp. Definitely a bit harder to follow the trail when you have nothing but a pen light to light the way.

Tomorrow we pick up the burro. THAT should be fun!

Philmont! The Adventure begins...

The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. ~Lao Tzu

The big day finally arrived! We had a 6 am flight out of Pittsburgh International, so we had to leave the house at 3:30 am. Packing and repacking took until almost midnight, mainly because I couldn't decide if we had everything we needed. You only get one chance, so do you take the light sleeping bag and the heavy fleece jacket, or the warmer bag and the light-weight jacket... in the end I just went with the lightest weight stuff and hoped for warm weather. It's the middle of July for goodness sakes!

We timed our arrival to the airport perfectly, walking in the terminal doors right at 4:25 am, second to the last to arrive. Within a minute or so, the last of our party joined us and we were ready to go! A good omen for the trip ahead: 12 people from all over Pittsburgh, all arriving on time with no one forgetting anything... that NEVER happens!

And then we were off! Dressed in Scout uniforms, and lugging backpacks, we made our way to ticketing and baggage check. The goal was no one having packs weighing over 50 lbs, so we woudn't have to pay any extra fees, and again, everyone made it, though one kid had a pack weighing over 40 lbs., a bit excessive considering we didn't have our food or camping equipment yet. The scout uniforms helped move us through security, so suddenly we were waiting for our flight. Two boys had never been on a plane before, so there was a bit of apprehension in the air, but excitement seemed to rule the day.

Our plane was a tiny commuter jet, one seat on one side, two seats on the other, about 50 seats total. It was comfortable enough, but didn't handle very well in thunderstorms, which we encountered in Houston where we had to switch planes. We attempted to land in the middle of a severe downpour, and ended up going around when we were hit by wind gusts just before touchdown. We circled and tried it again, and though I had my doubts, the pilot eventually put it down mid-way down the runway. Our connection was delayed by the storms too, so we didn't miss it, which would have been a real nightmare getting straightened out.

The two hour flight into Albuquerque was uneventful, so we landed pretty much on time at 10:30 am in the midst of a gorgeous day. We were met at baggage claim by our tour guide, a guy named Robin, who hustled us and our packs out of the airport and off onto a whirl-wind tour of the city. Our local Council had contracted with a tour service, Blue Sky Adventures, to pick us up from the airport, get us fed, let us get some sightseeing in, and deliver us to Philmont the next morning.

Our first stop was food, which appeared via a local hamburger joint, Jake's Lottaburger. Not sure what the attraction was for this particular establishment, cuz it was pretty much just a typical fast food place. However, after flying five hours with nothing really to eat, the 12 of us were famished and the burgers were good enough, though a bit on the greasy side.

Next stop: the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History. This museum is still getting set up, so are some gaps, but it has a good start: it covers the subject of nuclear development both for military and civilian uses from the 1800s to the present. It covered Los Alamos and the Manhattan Project fairly extensively, and had replicas of all the weapons I used to sit alert with on B-52s back in the Cold War days. There's an air museum out back, but has very few planes yet, and the ones they have are still dismantled. Give it a couple of years, and it should be well worth the visit.

From the museum we headed into Old Town Albuquerque, where we walked around for an hour or so getting used to the 6,000' elevation and dry humidity. Old town is fairly quaint, with lots of tourist shops, but after browsing two or three, you quickly realize that they all have exactly the same merchandise, none of it worth purchasing and lugging around for two weeks in a backpack.

Our next stop was the Sandia Mountain tram. Apparently it is the longest single span Tram in the US, and runs from just east of the city to the top of Sandia Mountain, up to an elevation of over 10,000'. The ride up took about 20 minutes, but the view was spectacular, so you didn't even notice the time.

At the top we were awed by the beautiful vistas both of Albuquerque in the valley below, as well as the hundreds of miles we could see towards the east off the backside of the mountain. Robin, our guide, did a great job of pointing out interesting sights and facts about both Albuquerque, as well as Sandia Mountain, the orgin of the tram and some local history going back to the Indians. He then led us on a mile and a half hike along the rim to a mountain cottage built back in the 30's by members of the Civilian Conservation Corps. The boys scrambled all over it, posed for pictures and enjoyed even more spectacular views of the wide open spaces. You don't see this far back in Pittsburgh... just too many hills and trees. Not a bad thing, but not the same as out in west, that's for sure.

Our final stop for the night was a local Marriott, where dinner and one last nice bed awaited. Dinner was a mexican buffet, which was attacked with a piranha-like frenzy by not only our scouts, but another group coming in from the Wisconsin area. There was a pool and a game room available for use, but at least for the adults, bedtime was early and dearly sought!

Tomorrow: Philmont!