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I’ve been gone since July 1st, visiting family in Colorado and at Philmont Scout Ranch backpacking and filming.  I’ll focus on the Philmont stuff on this post- but I had a blast in Colorado as well.

For those of you who don’t know Philmont, it’s in NE New Mexico in the beautiful Sangre De Cristo Mountains.  It’s a national Scout Ranch and nearly one million people have been there since 1938.  I’m one of those lucky people, and I was joined by a good friend, Andy, who I worked with at Philmont since the early 90′s  (By the way, if you are still really intrested in finding more about Philmont- feel free to purchase my, “Philmont Documentary Collection” on DVD or Blu-ray!  Yes,  this is a blatant advertisement!  Buy it- buy it now!  www.Philmontmovie.com)

So Andy and I both met our wives at Philmont and most of our best friends work at Philmont, and it’s been a very big part of our lives- so as you can imagine there was much back slapping, rib poking and ‘remember whens’.  I filmed a bit too.

I’m happy to report to anyone who has been to Philmont- that it’s still good ol’ Philmont.  But one striking difference this year is how dry it is!  The ranch foreman said it matches the Dustbowl drought.  Everything is brown, creeks are empty, trails are dusty, Crater Lake looks like more like Crater Stink Hole.  You get my drift?  So filming was frustrating since I already had so much better stuff from my doc.  We visited the following camps: Clear Creek, PJ, Crooked, Beaubien, Crater Lake, Black Mtn, Pueblano, Head of Dean, and Baldy Town.

My favorite was going back to Black.  I worked at that camp for 4 summers and I consider it my home as much as any other.  It felt good to stand in that cabin again!  But weird not to be wearing interps.  And sad not to smell that coal burning in the blacksmith forge (because of the drought).  I felt like a geek in my hiking shorts- which I guess I am.  But the staff was as friendly and accommodating as ever and they didn’t kick sand in my face and call me, ‘old man’ so that was nice.

There was a fire on Wilson Mesa the night we stayed at Beabien.  They had to evacuate all the crews from the North Country and it caused for a lot of excitement over the radio but fortunately the fire crews put it out quickly and only a few acres burned.  Unfortunately the smoke blocked my beautiful moonlight time lapse of Beaubien about half way through. http://vimeo.com/27780275

The next morning an eerie smoke filled the Beaubien meadows.  I managed to film up on Wilson Mesa as the fire crews were wrapping up 2 days later.

Another highlight from the Philmont trip was visiting Black Horse cabin which was this really cool mining cabin half way up Baldy.  The views were amazing and Andy and I just stared at it for a nice long time.  Have you ever noticed the mines from the 1800′s always had the best views?  Yes the miners had black lung, died young, were underpaid, and overworked- but at least they had great views on their lunch breaks.  I remember they were repairing the Black Horse cabin there in 1999 and had thoughts of opening it up as a staff camp because it had a mine right there.  I remembered saying that if they did open it- I would come back to work there at that camp.   Come to think of it- maybe that’s why they never opened the camp…

Oh yeah and I also visited the St. James in Cimarron a couple of times.  It’s a cool old hotel that many western outlaws frequented.  I heard a rumor they serve alcohol there too.

Speaking of which, it’s a nice night so I think I’ll go find a seat outside where I can put my feet up and drink a cold beer and remember.  Cheers!

-Larry

The group I was filming got off the trail about 2pm today.  And just in time.  As we were getting in our cars at the trail head, the winds started picking up and the clouds grew dark.  We drove to a nearby bar and grill for lunch.  It was nice to not have a camera in my hands and be able to kick back and relax.

I awoke this morning at 5:30 feeling pretty wrong.  Big headache, quesy stomach, all the symptoms of a proper hangover but in my case it was altitude sickness.  In all my running around filming, I wasn’t drinking enough water, and I have not been sleeping much over the last few days.  I grabbed some water and headed to the nearby meadow to check on my camera which was taking photos every 30 seconds for a time-lapse of the stars. The camera battery was dead as expected.  I had to restart the time-lapse after a couple hour attempt a few hours earlier because I forgot to turn off the autofocus on the lens.  If the camera can’t autofocus (which it can’t when its that dark) then it won’t take a picture.  Bonehead move- I learned my lesson.  I blame it on my sleep deprivation. The results from my second attempt look pretty cool because it shows the full moon moving across the sky behind the trees and it looks like the sun.  The only bummer is the batteries died a little earlier than I would have wanted them to- making the shot shorter than expected.  But it’s definitely something I can work with.  I’ll attach one of the photos here. Might be hard to see in the conversion.

A few things I’d like to improve upon next time:

1. I have to lighten my pack load somehow- although I’m not sure how.
2. I have to take better care of myself next time (BTW, I felt pretty good a couple of hours and liters of water after waking up.)  But need to sleep more and fuel my body better.
3. I need to figure out a more comfortable way to carry my monopod with camera.  It’s about 10 pounds and really drags on the arms with each mile.  I didn’t weigh the pack, but I would wager it’s well over 40 pounds.  Thinking of having a fast release clip from my belt to take the weight off my arms.  Another idea from one of the people I was filming (Paul), was to create a big neck strap similar to the way a machine gun is carried.  He used to be in the Marines.  He said my monopod was about the same size as a machine gun (or army rifle- my apologies for lack of firearm knowledge).  Regardless, the caparison between my camera set-up and a machine gun made me feel cool.

I got to use a bunch of cool new items for camping so I’ll share some thoughts on a couple here.   When I did manage to sleep, I slept really well.  So I’ll focus on my sleeping stuff.  I wished I had taken a photo of my tent set-up but I forgot so I’ll post links and to the product page if you want to check it out.  Here’s my new sleeping stuff:

1. Mountain Hardwear Sprite 1 Tent http://www.rei.com/product/810016/mountain-hardwear-sprite-1-tent.  An awesome tent that weights about 3 pounds and I loved the little side nook near my head for storing my cameras and such.  I love the easy access side door that unzips down most of the side of the tent.  I set it up in the dark with a headlamp- which was pretty quick and easy.  Love the screens all around in case I ever want to keep the fly off and gaze up at the stars.
2. Mountain Hardwear Ultramina 15: http://www.rei.com/product/747894/mountain-hardwear-ultralamina-15-sleeping-bag.  It did it’s job, was light weight, warm and compacted easily- but the thing I wasn’t crazy about were the two short side zippers that only ran about a third of the way down the bag.  Made getting in and out a bit of chore.  Also the hood design was sort of funky.  But it was fluffy and comfy and since I am a side sleeper, it was a bit wider than my last bag and more comfortable.
3. The Exped SynMat Air Pad http://www.rei.com/product/811907/exped-synmat-ul-7-air-pad.> – Smartest.  Purchase.  Ever.  If you are like me and don’t sleep well in a tent, check this little baby out along with the pillow that’s next on the list.  Amazingly comfortable and so lightweight!  I love it!  Didn’t slip off like I do on others.  And it packs down to the size of a nalgene bottle.  Highly recommended.  
4. Exped Air Pillow – Okay, so for many years backpacking, I just used my clothes for a pillow and I didn’t sleep all night and my neck was sore in the morning because that’s what I thought real men do.  But I was just young and silly back then.  This pillow is light, super comfy and packs really small (about 2 by 5 inches).

As I write this, I am bringing the footage of the last couple of days onto my computer.  I shot about 2 hours worth and it looks great.  I’m off to shoot some B roll tomorrow (which is additional footage to help tell your story).  On Saturday I’m filming a group of volunteers from Volunteer Outdoor Colorado on a trail service project.  There are expected to be over 100 volunteers broken into 8 person crews- so it should be fun.

That’s a wrap for today.  Keep on the sunny side.

- Larry

What a beautiful day it has been. Clear skies, mountain air and a great shoot.

I’m writing this in my one man tent at the end of a long day. I barely have coverage so we’ll see if this posts tonight.

I am following a great group of REI members who are all working in education and out on their first summer trip. A couple brought their very cute 8 month old daughter on her first trip camping. I look forward to editing some great stuff together.

I’m worn out, and have set my alarm for 3 hours from now to check on my camera that’s taking some time lapse pictures of the stars. It’s a full moon tonight, so it will be interesting to see how it works out.

Unfortunately it’s a short trip- we are heading out tomorrow. But nobody is in a hurry to leave so it should be another great day.

I’m off to bed now.