Hankins Tales: Working as a Ranger at Philmont Scout Ranch

(Originally posted to social media on May 17, 2022)

Many years ago and back when I was only about 18 I worked at Philmont Scout Ranch as a Ranger. This was a massive scout facility in the high mountains of Northeastern New Mexico. It was an incredible experience on every level and I got to see vast parts of the reservation. When a new crew came into camp I had to meet with them and teach them the Philmont method just as it had been taught to me.

My legs back in those days were about 9 feet long and I could walk a normal human into the ground. I remember that even back then I was telling stories for the various crews that came from all over the country. One of the things that I was very proud of was my ability to hang a world class bearbag. In many of the camps it was common to have black bears come into the camp at night searching for food. So for that reason it was important to hang the food supply out of the camp perimeter and up a large tree. It could not be close to the trunk or the bear would just climb the tree and swat it down. I remember a night at Lover’s Leap in particular. Lovers Leap was a starter camp and crews coming in normally had a full supply of food to last for about five days until they could resupply. This was one of those camps where it was common to hear a cougar scream off in the rimrock.

After a fairly uneventful night we went to bed and the fire died down and we were waken up by the unmistakeable grunting of at least two bears. From what I could tell the animals were just passing through but one of them spotted my bear bag hanging about 25 feet off the ground. It was 10 feet from the trunk but one of the bears shimmied up there and tried to ease out along that branch like some kind of ballet dancer. When he got directly over the bag he leaped at it and tried to pull it down. At last he fell and he started up the tree for another try. By this point the boys were slamming cooking pans together to scare the animals off. I got my boots on and walked out into the dark to find myself facing four starving to death kamakazie bears. The one up the tree was the momma and the rest were just ballast waiting for the food to fall.

I knew better than to crowd them so I pulled the kids back away from the tree and we just watched the show. At last fatso in the tree got so far out of the limb that it broke with a loud crack. The kids were still beating on the pots and pans but these bears did not care. The bear descended on that bag and they began to rip it into a thousand small fragments. They feasted on dehydrated Spanish Rice and dehydrated beef stroganoff. It took them almost two hours to eat that stash and they drug the bag back into the underbrush for good measure. At some point they went down to the creek and drank a massive amount of water. Within 25 minutes the two little ones exploded and the big bear balloned up to twice her normal size. The other bear seemed unaffected but he was a freak anyway. In the morning the campsite looked like a warzone. I still have a picture somewhere back in my stuff but it just looks like a big tree branch and a bunch of trash. You can still see small pieces of the baby bears up in the trees. They should have known better that to eat all that food and then get a drink. It did not matter there were plenty more bears where they came from..…

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With permission of the author, these stories by noted scouter and storyteller John Hankins are featured here at Natahwop.Org. He shares these as part of the history and lore of Camp Powhatan, Camp Ottari, and the High Knoll Trail, where he spent many years of his youth. John has an incomperable first-hand knowledge of this scout reservation, as he blazed most of the original trails for High Knoll, and has hiked the rest of them several times over.

John Hankins grew up in Troop 50 (Woodlawn United Methodist Church) in Roanoke, VA. He attended Camp Powhatan as a young scout, then worked at Philmont Ranch as a ranger. He returned to the reservation to serve on camp staff from 1968 to 1978. He was a legendary naturalist who could interpret the outdoors unlike any other. As a teacher, John often relied on the element of excitement to get his point across. His weekly lectures at the nature lodge, for example, introduced scouts to either a live rattlesnake or copperhead – usually dangling on a stick within a few feet of the front row.

John and several others first envisioned the now-legendary High Knoll trail system. They took it to council leadership for prospective funding, where the idea gained several key advocates (but no funding). John recalls how – in those days – they couldn’t pay the staff with money, so they gave them patches. The High Knoll Trail would go on to become one of the best outdoor programs in the country.

John applied in 1979 for the open job of Camp Ranger, but the council said he needed more experience in that post. With his rejection letter in hand, he was immediately hired by Camp Chickohominy, and then by Camp Brady Saunders where he served for 33 years as Camp Ranger. John moved with his wife, Cheri, to West Virginia where they enjoyed the spoils of retirement: grandchildren, travel, and the great outdoors. As of 2024, they are living on the outskirts of Richmond where they can be closer to family.

(“Hankins Tales” are shared here by permission of the author. Each story is copyrighted by John Hankins, and may not be reproduced in any form without his express written permission.)

Hankins Tales: Working as a Ranger at Philmont Scout Ranch

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