Staffed Camps
There are 34 staffed camps at Philmont, where staff members reside during the summer to run the camp's "program", which consists of a wide variety of activities. Camps often carry a historical or modern theme, such as logging (Crater Lake and Pueblano), mining or blacksmithing (French Henry, Cypher's Mine, and Black Mountain), fur trapping and mountain man life (Miranda, Clear Creek), challenge events (Dan Beard, Head of Dean, and Urraca) or western lore (Beaubien, Clark's Fork, or Ponil). The program in a camp is run by staff known as Program Counselors. These Program Counselors are supervised by a Camp Director.
Specific program activities include black-powder rifle loading and shooting, shotgun shooting and reloading, .30-06 shooting, trail rides on horseback, burro packing and racing, rock climbing (on artificial towers as well as actual rock faces at Miner's Park, Cimarroncito and Dean Cow), tomahawk throwing, branding, search and rescue training, mountain bicycling, Mexican homesteading, blacksmithing, goldpanning, obstacle courses, archeological sites, spar pole climbing, and a variety of campfires and evening programs.
Most staffed camps contain several campsites of the same sort which appear in trail camps (with the exception of French Henry); however, the primary distinguishing factor is the presence of one or several cabins. There is always a main cabin, where an arriving crew is given a "porch talk" by one of the staff members. This includes information about available program, location of trash receptacles, and other timely information such as the presence of "problem bears." Camps in the Valle Vidal (Seally Canyon, Ring Place and Whitman Vega) have yurts, large circular semi-permanent tents which allow for bear defense but may be removed in the off-season in the interest of leave no trace camping, rather than cabins.
Most staffed camps have a swap box—a box in which crews may place unwanted food and take anything they might desire. Predictably, swap boxes tend to fill up with foods that people tend not to like, get too much of, or food no one wants to carry.
With several exceptions, staffed camps accept garbage (not trash), send and receive mail, and offer purified water. The exceptions are those camps which have no road access or where the camps receive their supply shipments by burro. All staffed camps also contain radios, by which staff members can communicate with Logistical Services, the Health Lodge, or each other. The radio is used for all manner of communication, including notifications of the movements of the ranch's various vehicles, logistical inquiries between camps and Base, major and minor medical issues, and a nightly itinerary read-out which often includes world news and a weather forecast. The ranch's non-stationary staff are assigned unit numbers, by which they identify themselves on the radio. The ranch also employs a variety of esoteric radio ten-codes for rapid communication.
Read more about this topic: Philmont Scout Ranch Camps