Two years ago I went to Boy Scout Troop 166, that is the troop I was in as a boy and both my sons were in, and asked to join as a Scouter Reserve to hike 5 mountain peaks legitimately that I needed on Philmont Scout land. I told them I was joining to get the peaks, but would be happy to help out as needed. Last autumn I organized a peakbagging adventure to get Black Mountain at Philmont. I still need 4 peaks on their land and am organizing a Philmont Autumn Adventure in September to get them. They asked me to organize some conditioning hikes before the Philmont hike. I am organizing 4 peakbagging conditioning hikes on peaks that I do not need, so that I can get 4 more peaks that I do need. I hiked Chicoma Mountain once before with my daughter Christina in May of 2012.

Saturday morning, we left Albuquerque at 7:15 AM July 31, 2021, and drove to Espanola, New Mexico. In Espanola we headed north on highway 285. We turned west on Forest Road 144. The street was named Fairview. We headed west for 27.5 miles on a gorgeous drive with spectacular views, then parked. I drove this road a couple of times before and a passenger car would do, but not this time, a high clearance vehicle is required on this rough road. There were 4 scout leaders; Jerry, John, Gunner and myself. Two of the men came with their sons; Brady and Johnny. It was a slightly overcast morning. We started hiking at 11:00 AM at an elevation of 10,950 feet. There is a nearby mountain peak, Peak 11,110, that has not been entered in the top 178 peaks. It has a prominence of 200 feet. We climbed that first, having to do lots of bushwhacking to get to the top. The entire hike there were many beautiful “fairytale” red mushrooms with white specks on top, some as big as a dinner plate. They are called Amanita muscaria, commonly known as the fly agaric or fly amanita and should not be eaten. “Fly” refers to the practice in some European countries of crumbling the caps of this mushroom into saucers of milk to attract and kill flies. It only took us 30 minutes to get to the top of our first peak and it was about ¾ of a mile. The top was mostly tree covered but there was an area with nice views to the north. We headed down the way we came, then started climbing Chicoma Mountain, elevation 11,561. The map shows a trail to the top, but it was not to be seen. We did lots of bushwhacking and had to go over many logs to get to the top. Some in our group saw elk as we went through the dense woods. We saw little strawberries just ripening. We could hear some thunder crackling around us. We arrived at the top at 1:45, 2 hours and 45 minutes from the start. We hiked 3.2 miles and had a total up-down elevation gain, including the first peak, of 950 feet. I rarely sit down for lunch and was looking forward to enjoying lunch with everyone when I discovered I left my lunch at home. Oh well! The top is partly covered with trees but there are places with wonderful views. We stayed about 20 minutes then headed down. I led us down slightly north hoping to find that elusive trail on the map but it was no where to be seen. Usually on a hike I see many different types of trees, on this hike I only saw blue spruce. We did lots of bushwhacking and went over hundreds of downed logs. I could tell a few in our group were getting a little weary, but we made it down and to the road. Our total hike 5.7 miles in almost 5 hours including lunch and some short stops. The total up-down elevation gain was 1125 feet. It was a great pleasure hiking with others. I mostly go by myself having burned out family and friends.
6 more to go…………Hopefully 4 of those in September with the Philmont Autumn Adventure.

See pictures of highest peaks in New Mexico: 1 of 62 of highest 184 NM peaks. Part 1 YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAjCsjbhYMw
See pictures of highest peaks in New Mexico: 63 of 124 of highest 184 NM peaks. Part 2 YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrFMjoB9zNY

List of highest 184 peaks in New Mexico (Now 190) A very inclusive list!
https://peakbagger.com/list.aspx?lid=-925606&cid=1477