We woke up at 5:00 again. I slept much better than last night. We left for breakfast, which was at that same place as yesterday, at 5:56. It was a little better than yesterday. We left at 6:57. We headed towards Pike’s Peak and passed Garden of the Gods at a distance. We got to that Cog Railway Station at 7:25. Our train left at 8:00. The ride to that top was scenic and lasted a little over an hour. We saw big horn sheep, elk, and marmots. Along the way, the grade was as steep as twenty six percent. From the top we could see to the Sangre de Christo Mountains, at the edge of which Philmont is located. I also had one of the Summit House’s famous donuts. We left for the descent at 10:00, and got back to the bus at 11:20. We stopped at Furr’s Family Dining for lunch. It was a huge buffet, and rather good. We wandered around a shopping center for a little, and left at 1:45.

We arrived at Ontero Junior College in La Junta at 4:10. We put our stuff inside the gym and went over to the Kiva, which is run by a local troop. It has one of the world’s largest collections of American Indian artifacts. The caretaker went over the schedule with us, and we went to dinner at the community college’s student center at 5:00. It was not very good. The Koshare dance program at Kiva started at 8:00. It was their alumni night, so the program was more special to them but it meant that they did certain inside things that we did not understand. The performance was very good, but a little long. We got back to the gym at 10:30, but did not get to sleep until after 11:00.

We again woke up at 5:00. It is annoying because the college does not allow us to walk on the gymnasium floor with our shoes or boots on. Breakfast was at the student center, the same place as last night’s dinner. We walked back to the gym, packed, and left for Philmont at 6:54. We stopped briefly at the Colorado-new Mexico Weigh Station. We got to Cimarron, New Mexico, elevation 6427’, where Philmont is located, at 9:25. We still had to drive through the town, and past a parade, so we did not get to headquarters until 9:40. We checked in, met our ranger (Jason), and waited to get into logistics, but it was time for lunch before we got in. After lunch we went to logistics and had a medical review as well as some additional training. By the time that was finished, it was time for dinner. We went to religious services and to a opening show afterwards. Almost everyone in the crew went to the snack bar for ice cream before returning to our section of trail-bound tent city. We went to sleep around 10:30.