We will continue where we left off which was day 3.

When we awoke in the morning our Ranger, Aaron had already left. I was not lucky enough to make the next leg of the trek as we had a boy in our crew who was under the weather and he had to be evaluated by medical, so the rest of the crew set off on the 4.5-mile hike with a 1000-foot elevation change. We were checked out by medical and took a vehicle to base camp and then to the next location which was Ponil.

Ponil is the former base camp for the Philturn Rocky Mountain Scout Camp, Ponil has a commissary and trading post. Ponil provides camping and a Western Lore program. Western Lore program includes a cantina, cantina show, chuckwagon dinner, and breakfast, lassoing, branding, horseshoes, and Cowboy Action Shooting. Cowboy Action Shooting involves Colt Single Action Army replica revolvers, Winchester Model 1892 replicas, and double-barrel shotguns.

We arrived about an hour prior to the rest of our crew, but we did get the opportunity to see a black bear on the road near the camp and get a lesson in how Philmont handles black bear encounters. Which consisted of several calls to the radio and a phone call and then a crew was dispatched to watch the area in the event that it may return.

When our crew arrived, we set up camp and the crews got to visit the rest of the camp and take n the Western Lore program. Dinner was a chuckwagon-style dinner and the evening was spent with the crew spending time in the saloon, drinking root beer, eating pickles, and signing western songs around the piano. I enjoyed the branding and the horseback riding the most. The crews also had to go to the commissary to pick up the next few days of meals.

By now getting the crew into their tents at the end of the night and to sleep was very easy, in fact, most were turning in before the sunset.

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