Our horseback ride was delayed due to lightning. When we were able to set off, I was grateful to be riding rather than walking but I was also apprehensive about the upcoming climb to Ponderosa Park. The ride was a very pleasant walk and was more in keeping with the anachronistic pace of Philmont than the frenetic pace that some of the mentally or physically younger members of our trek would clearly prefer. We got back to Clark's fork and had to wait a long time to do branding. The propane tank was empty and the branding irons had to be heated over a wood fire using an old piece of cardboard to fan the fire and get it hot enough. This turned out to be a good thing as my wallet was not real leather and my boots were synthetic. A really hot branding iron would have been a calamity.
Bar PS is the Philmont brand and is used for cattle. Lazy S is the Boy Scout brand and is used for horses at Philmont. I also had my hat branded.
After branding, we cooked our dinner and prepared for our hike up many hundred feet to our dry camp site. This would mean we could avoid carrying the 5 to 7 liters of water required to cook dinner and clean up. It also would mean we could avoid setting up a dining fly when we planned to get up at 4am for our hike out over the tooth.
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