EXOTERIC - Information Worth Sharing: ex·o·ter·ic
-adj
1. Not confined to an inner circle of disciples or initiates.
2. Comprehensible to or suited to the public; popular.
3. Of or relating to the outside; external.

We took a bit longer to pack up camp after all of the rain, but we managed to hit the trail by 8:30am. Packing up soaking wet tents is not very fun. We headed up and over Webster Pass on our way to Fish Camp.

Fish Camp is a nice log cabin where the Phillips' would spend time fishing out of the Rayado River. It is at the junction of the Agua Fria and Rayado Creeks. We arrived there about 10:30 and got a tour of the cabin. The program activities there were fly tying and fishing. We did the fly tying, but didn't have enough time to hang out and fish. The fishing was catch and release around the cabin and you needed to be farther away if you wanted to keep the fish. You also needed to purchase a fishing license in order to fish. For the scouts it was only $2.50, but a one day license for adults was $17.50!

We had lunch at Fish Camp and it started to rain. Thankfully, it was a very light rain and we were able to continue our hike to Apache Springs. The hike up the Agua Fria Creek was spectacular with all sorts of wild flowers in bloom. The farther into Philmont we hiked, the better and better the scenery got.

Apache Springs is a staffed camp, and we were going to have a layover day there. The program activities there were Apache Indian Life, archery, sweat lodge, and we were also able to do our conservation project there.

We had our first food pickup there, and we were able to score some real tortillas and make chicken, rice and bean burritos for dinner. That night we got hit again by rain showers. We are actually getting used to being soaked every day.

The next morning we got up and walked about half a mile to where the conservation project area was. We did 3 hours of trail work. There was a new trail built recently and we were decommissioning the old trail by burying logs across it to stop erosion and allow plants to fill in over top.

After lunch we did some laundry at the staff cabin wash basin, and then did the sweat lodge. Sweat lodge was interesting. There is a big bonfire where the staff heats up buckets of rocks. You fill up several buckets of water and take them over to a small hut which is covered in canvas. We had 5 scouts in one hut, and 4 adults in the other. It was very wet, muddy and cramped. Then in comes the bucket of hot rocks and a bucket of water. The door is covered up and it gets very dark inside. You sprinkle the water on the hot rocks and get an instant sauna. The temperature inside was soon up to 150F and we were all just pouring out the sweat. We stayed in the hut for about 20 minutes and were just about ready to pass out from the intense heat. When you come out of the hut, you douse your whole body with a bucket of cold water. This closes up your pores and cools you off nicely. It was the best shower we had on the whole trip! I felt amazingly clean after this, even though we didn't use any soap.

Things in camp were just starting to dry out completely when we had another huge afternoon thundershower hit us. This unfortunately forced the cancellation of the archery activity that afternoon. It was nice having a day off of hiking, now we just need a day off of rain.

Photo album for the entire trip is here (click on the arrows at the top of each page to navigate).