Our last day on the trail

From Journal -

It is our last day on the trail, and it is also our our our scouts' 15th birthday. The crew wanted to head out of camp by 6 am to beat our sister crew down to Cito TurnAround. Our crew leader signed us out of camp at 6:20 am. The hike started out with a steep climb. The whole hike was a little more strenuous that we had anticipated. But we made it in about 2 1/2 hours and we did beat our sister crew, but not by much.

When we got down we celebrated by shooting of Alka-Seltzer rockets and singing happy birthday. Mr Culver also got to lighten his load a couple of pounds by giving the birthday boy a 2 lb bag of M&Ms.

The little yellow bus came to pick us up and we all cheered!

Back at base camp they were very well prepared for us and the checking back-in process went very smoothly.

We were all very excited to use the flushing toilets, eat real food and take a hot shower using real soap and shampoo. I also did some clothes washing so that we would have something clean to wear at the campfire and for the trip back home on the bus. A storm blew through and it even hailed. I was happy to be in the protection of the laundromat.

For dinner we treated ourselves to a dinner in Cimarron at the St. James Hotel. It had just reopened after a renovation and had a very nice dining room. Most of us had 1/2 lb cheeseburger. The staff was all very nice and appreciative to see us.

After dinner we walked into town but all of the shops were closed (it was approx 6 pm). The Cream-ee ice cream shop was open so Mr. Culver treated the crew. The place was really slow and I didn't even get mine before we had to leave to catch the bus back to Philmont. We thought we had missed the bus, but it actually came late.

Back at camp we prepared for the early departure tomorrow. At 8:30 pm we headed to the closing campfire. It was a very nice program. We got to bed at about 9:45 pm.