I am in the process of hiking 5 peaks on 4 different hikes that don’t really want to hike, so that I can hike 4 peaks that are part of the highest 179 peaks in New Mexico. I joined the scout troop that I was in as a boy as an adult Scouter Reserve, Troop 166, so that I could hike 5 peaks on Philmont Scout land. Even though I am an Eagle Scout, Philmont would not give me permission to hike peaks on their land unless I was part of BSA. Last October I got one of those peaks. The troop asked me to condition the scouts for hiking before we hike the 4 peaks that I need in mid-September. If I get those 4, I will only be 2 short on my goal of the highest 179 peaks in New Mexico. We met in the northwest parking lot of Saint John’s College at 7:30 AM on Saturday, August 14, 2021 at the Atalaya Mountain Trailhead and were hiking by about 7:50 AM. To my surprise we had 18 people hiking, 9 scouts and 9 adults. I was excited about the numbers that we had because as I am nearing the end of my “goal peaks,” I am hoping to pass my love of peakbagging, backpacking, and camping on to others. The starting elevation was about 7,340 feet. The trail drops a little into an arroyo then heads up. We progressed through a beautiful forest of pinion, juniper, ponderosa pines and towards the top some white fur. There were lots of nice pink granite rocks and nice specimens of quartz. The entire hike is dotted with a variety of colorful wildflowers. This is a wonderful trail at the “doorway” to Santa Fe, New Mexico. The entire group did very well and yet I could see that a couple of the younger scouts were pretty worn out. We reached the top of Atalaya Mountain, elevation 9,121, at 11:05 after hiking 3 hours and 15 minutes. The troop hikes at a much slower pace than I am use to but it doesn’t matter to me because I am happy to get others out on a hike. There is a dividing point in the trail, the steeper and shorter route, or the longer and easier route. We took the easier route and our hike was 4.1 miles with an elevation gain of 1910 feet. We took some group pictures at the top and sat down for lunch for about 30 minutes. The top is mostly tree covered but there are lots of places along the hike with spectacular views. We headed down at 11:35 and I could see that everyone was happy to be going down rather than up. The hike started at a perfect temperature but was getting a little warm as we neared the bottom. We saw a tiny horned lizard, horny toad. We arrived back at the trailhead at 2:20 after hiking for 2 hours and 45 minutes on the way down. The total distance we hiked was 8 miles and our up-down elevation gain was 2052 feet. It was wonderful hiking with others and it did seem like some of my enthusiasm was passed on. I encouraged them to log their peaks online and maybe they will get addicted to peakbagging!
Scouts: Brady, Johnny, Coen, Jacob, Chris, Casey, Sam, Calvin, and Jacky
Adults: Jennifer, Brenda, Geoff, Beverly, Jerry, Dale, Kimberly, myself Phil and the scoutmaster John