We woke up (early) to the sounds of turkeys and cows. It turns out that the Mead Base was directly adjacent to an active farm.

The Base was a former Boy Scout Camp that was active in the 1950's, but is now maintained for public use. The site was in excellent condition. I couldn't find much evidence of the Boy Scout Camp itself aside from this sign on the back of a shed near our site.

Wakeup time was set for 6:30 AM. Here's the campsite that we found ourselves in when the sun came up. Very nice.

We collected water and the patrols went to work cooking breakfast. We had a big hike ahead of us and many calories to be consumed. I was particularly impressed by the bacon-egg sandwiches prepared by Christian K's patrol, shown below. Delicious, and very low in cholesterol.

This picture was part of the Mead Explorer Base history display and it shows that Scouts have been cooking delicious breakfasts on this spot the same way for many years.

Our site was at the foot of Mr. Israel (2,620') and we were on the trail up by 9:00 AM under partly-cloudy skies. Per instruction of Expedition Advisor Dr. Sharpe and Crew Advisor Mr. Flynn, the members of our two Philmont Crews were using this climb as a shake-down for their big trek in July. This meant that some of the scouts and adults made the ascent of Mt. Israel with full packs. Hard work!

We used our usual climbing configuration with the SPLs on point (leading) up the mountain and the Scoutmaster on sweep (trailing, barely able to keep up) making sure that nobody was left behind.

The trail conditions were much better than we expected. There was mud in a few places, but clear and dry otherwise. Towards the top we started to encounter a bit of snow in the valleys:

The SPLs reached "the summit" in 90 minutes and broke out a gas stove to cook lunch to complete requirements for the Cooking Merit Badge (photo exhibit #3746-23B has been entered into evidence for review by Ms. King).

After a review of our bearings and a bit more climbing the team was on the summit by 11:30 AM. Here's the group fully assembled:

Mr. Rogers took this excellent picture of the view from the top. As you can see, we had a spectacular view.

After returning to camp the Philmont Team did some more work preparing for their July trek. Philmont has strict rules about keeping food and other good-smelling things out of the reach of animals, and particularly bears. The Scouts practiced rigging a bear bag between two trees near our camp site. The photo below shows Scout Thomas Z as he throws a weighted rope into a tree. The rest of the Crew is looking on and sharing some "constructive feedback" on his technique.

We didn't see any bears in the at Mead Base so the bag wasn't tested under real-bear conditions, but I can say that none of the cows in the area even attempted to climb up to the bag, The arrangement must have been effective.

Given the bad weather forecast, the Senior Patrol Leaders made the decision to shorten our trip and return to Wellesley after dinner rather than camp overnight in the pouring rain. All tents were put away and the Troop set to work cooking dinner just as the rain started. Very good timing.

As usual, some excellent Troop 185 cooking skills were on display. Here Scouts Nate F and Johannes E are preparing an impressive stew to go with a modest serving of pasta.

The Taylor A patrol cooked some excellent grilled potatoes and the Scoutmaster's menu included a grilled lamb chop with gravy and garlic mashed potatoes.