Ridin’ and Ropin’ with Clark’s Fork

By Jordon Shinn
Rough Draft 6-22-09


In the center of South Country, just north of Shafer’s Pass, a group of Program Counselors stands in a wide circle, cowboy hats pulled low, boots heels pressing eagerly into the dirt, wound-up lassoes in hand, loops spinning. In the center of the circle is a wooden stump.

“Go!” one of them shouts. Ropes fly, colliding in the air, hitting the log off-center. The boots scuff, kick up dust, as quick hands retract the lassoes, re-loop and throw again. This time a man with a black hat and an equally black beard ropes the log and tugs it furiously toward him, other lassoes flying desperately to create a tug-of-war. But it’s too late. The man winds up his boot and kicks the log. Game over.

A girl with straight blonde hair dashing out from under her hat jumps up in excitement, stomping her boots down in the dirt. The winner replaces the log in the center of the circle and the game starts over.

One of Philmont’s three horse camps, Clark’s Fork’s official program includes horseback riding, chuckwagon dinner, campfire and calf roping. However, “rope the log” is a unique addition to the camp’s program and an original pastime.

The staff at Clark’s Fork knows how to have fun. Like a big family, the four Wranglers, six P.C.s, one Cook and Camp Director eat meals together, ride, rope, cook, clean and play music for the scouts and visiting staff. In fact, their campfire exhibits some of the most unique instrumentation on the ranch, including a flute and a snare drum. When they aren’t roping logs, free time is spent simply relaxing on their large porch, where work crews and visiting staff can be seen porch crashing on any given night.

But it’s not all fun and games. With a heavy crew load, horses and a constant flow of visitors, working at CF is a demanding job for every staff member, including the Cook, Isabel “Izzy” Hoss.

Izzy is in charge of arguably the nicest kitchen in the backcountry, complete with two silver refrigerators, a three-basin sink, a gas stove, an entire wall of shelf space and a stainless steel rolling metal island. Despite the luxuries, Izzy has a tough job. Without a helper, every day she singlehandedly prepares three meals for sometimes more than twenty people, guests and all—a task she was not expecting. Hired on as the Assistant Cook, Izzy was promoted when the Cook did not show up for work.

“I don’t know how to make a lot of what I’m making. I’m mostly guessing when I just start cooking,” Izzy admitted.

Nevertheless, she uses a cook’s intuition to continually concoct masterpieces.

“Sometimes I’m not even working on a recipe. I just kinda start going. It’s entertaining,” Izzy said.

The Program Couselors are also trained in the art of cooking and cleaning. Before the campers arrived, a health inspector visited CF to train the staff on proper food handling and cleaning procedures for the camp’s chuck wagon dinner—where the staff cook for all the participants.

In the backcountry, it’s all about “keeping it hot, cold and clean.”
“New Mexico is a barrier state, not a glove state,” said [name]. “The regulation requires that your hand be one step removed from any thing you eat. Gloves are a barriers. Tongs are a barrier. Aluminum foil is a barrier. Anything that protects that ready to eat food from your hand.”

Keeping things clean in the backcountry is always a challenge. But at Clark’s Fork, where many crews congregate and eat dinner together, keeping food the correct temperatures and hands and surfaces spotless is vital to preventing viruses and bacteria from spreading.

“Keep it hot, keep it cold, keep it clean. Wash you hands, wash your hands, wash your hands,” [name] said. “90 percent of food-born illness would be cut if everyone washed their hands.”

Besides staying clean, Clark’s Fork is also staying rat-free this summer. A one-year-old black and white tabby cat with a white chest and white paws can be spotted occasionally darting swiftly in and out from beneath the floorboards of the porch. Born at Ponil, then Beaubien P.C. Anne Connealy adopted him to control the mice and minibear population at Beaubien last summer, then brought him home to college.

“He was born and raised in the mountains then I took him to Nebraska. He was not happy about that,” Connealy said.

“It was really interesting trying to bring a Philmont cat home and make him into an indoor cat. He would sit in the window and just cry for hours and hour until I let him out.”

The cat has had a long journey.

“Some hippie-chick commandeered my cat. He was gone for like a month and a week,” Connealy said. “I didn’t think I’d be able to bring him back out here.”

Now a P.C. at CF, she decided to bring him back home, despite the difficulties of backcountry training, where she lived out of a participant tent for a week.

“One morning I woke up to the person in the tent next to my space going, “Get outa here kitty, I don’t wantcha round here no more!” And then I heard “scuttle, scuttle, scuttle,” and then he came into my tent.” Connealy said, laughing.

At Clark’s fork, even the deer feel at home, walking boldly through the front yard in groups of threes and fours, seemingly circling the metal calfs, wanting in on the fun.