Get a Free T-Shirt!

Ok, not a primary reason I've come to Philmont, maybe not even in the top 10, but it was nice that my third crew brought along one of their very bright blue, elaborately decorated, customized crew t-shirts for me. They awarded it to me in basecamp, before we even did most of the required activities. If I were in it for the t-shirts, I could have quit right then and said I was "sick" and tried to get another shirt from a different crew. I'm not. I didn't. It was very nice of them to think of their Ranger, before even getting here. Even if it did have a slightly offensive phrase on the back, but maybe I'm being too PC.

The crew was from near Newport News, VA and was VERY well prepared. They had two crews, mine was 10 and another Ranger had the other 12 (thankfully on different itineraries). Most are military brats, or closely related to same. I was very nervous as the key adult for both crews (carrying a thick notebook with all prep and details for both crews that EVERYONE referred to as "the football", as if it carried nuclear codes), had been on trek before and was already disappointed in the changes that he was seeing. I think they were changes for the good, but it just meant he prepared for one thing (minor things) and had to do something different. He just didn't like to be "out of the know". Military planner and all that.

Not all fun and games, pooping can be challenging!

To top it off, he and one other advisor (there were four) were not in the best of shape. This was clearly their swan song for Philmont and those birds were chirping loud (and the dogs barking too). Hike to the first camp (Toothache Springs) was very short miles (~2 miles), but tough elevation (~700 ft), even for some of the scouts. After a quick break, he would just take off up the trail to get ahead, we would slowly catch up and pass and the cycle would repeat. Except I didn't get to pass, as I am always in the back. I have come to believe that downhill is harder than uphill, and uphill at a centipede pace is harder than downhill. Things I didn't think I'd learn this summer, so that's the upside. Just keeping it real.

In the end, we came to understand one another and things worked out very well. I do think this is one advantage experienced (not older and definitely not old!) Rangers might have over the usual Ranger demographic. With a bit more life experience dealing with a wider variety of personalities, we can flex and adjust. Soothe not bruise egos, persuade not demand things be done a certain way, yield when really not that important and know when that might be. In the end, he was very complementary (and complimentary), so I appreciated that. I guess that book written by a Ranger in 2012 he kept referring to should be shelved.

Stealth photo of me enjoying the ridge above Toothache Springs, darn advisors!

The scouts were great, and like I said very well prepared. I showed them all I was supposed to on the first day, but it was clear they knew the drill, and day two was a cake walk. A Ranger's dream. I might say I'm that good (and demand a gold star), but they really worked at being ready. This made connecting with them easy, which was also nice.

Hiking from our first camp at Toothache Springs into Urraca for some quick COPE exercises was nice and we even had dinner for lunch as the next camp (Magpie) was a dry camp. Turns out that was a misnomer since just as we were leaving Urraca, the thunderstorms arrived and brought cold driving rain and then hail. My experience has been that one bout of hail usually sucks the life out of thunderstorms and it should clear shortly thereafter. Yeah, more Philmont lessons to be learned. It took three bouts of hail, of increasing size (but thankfully still below garbanzo bean sized, on the American gauge) to finally bring out some clear skies. We put on rain gear, packs, pack covers, pointed to the sky and said "stop that!" and hit the trail. Bad idea. Never be mean to the rain gods.

Hail falling so fast, my phone camera couldn't stop them!

More rain and very small hail almost the entire way to the camp for the night. Trails were downhill and running mud. Some trails were through meadows and were swamps. While technically a dry camp, Magpie showed us what can happen when rain follows 8 days of sun that has baked the earth. But the scouts were not deterred and were even in good spirits. One scout said he was having the best time. I hope all my other crews are as positive as we slowly enter the infamous monsoon season.

Not always sunny on the tooth.

A little break in the weather to have our lunch for dinner, finish some training, have some conversation, and then everyone was ready to hit the sleeping bags. At 7:30 p.m. It wouldn't get gray for at least another hour, dark 30 minutes after that. Mine not to lead, just to support, so that's their choice. It was closer to 8 p.m., and I gave up being by myself and headed for my tent shortly after I heard the last rain fly zip shut. I'm glad I had a chance to give my Astronomy talk the night before, no way the sky would be clear and even more no way they would be awake. I could have talked about anything. Hmmm. Maybe there's something there to consider?

An early morning, where I hiked with them to another COPE program, but I hit the trail for basecamp after we had breakfast there together. I did more miles hiking into basecamp by myself than I did with the crew over those two days. Faster too, but I wasn't carrying the great quantity of crew gear and food that they were. Not going to break any records or make a big increase in my stats, but that's not why I'm here either. Well, not completely, sights and miles might be in my top 10 for being here. I'll have to consider writing down the list, but not today.

New crew tomorrow and then a day off after I finish with them. This means I can find something to do in the backcountry and spend another day hiking, enjoying the countryside, and maybe catch a backcountry show. I've got less than 24 hours to plan, so I should go.