We have train tickets for this summers’ trip. Amtrak was having a big sale. We were able to get round trip tickets at nearly 50% off! That was a great help to the budget.

Our Philmont trek is getting closer.

This weekend our crew got together and reviewed all the treks. They did an amazing job. After about an hour, the scouts took 35 treks, decreased them to 6 and got them ranked. We are ready to submit them for the trek lottery. Hope we get our first or second choice. Now to wait a month for the lottery.

It’s earlier than in the past, but the Itineraries have been released. Many of them seem much shorter than in previous years. this probably has to do with the fires and a large portion that still cannot be used.

There are a lot of relly fun treks with a lot to do.

Our scouts have filled out the activity survey and we”ve compiled their preferences.

Next will be narrowing down the 35 treks to about 10 for them to shoose from.

Submission is different this year as well. Probably more fair than in the past. Now you have amonth to submit and modify. Then they will run a program to decide on the trek you get. Should be interesting to see how this works.

We had our first Philmont planning meeting over the weekend. It was a great meeting with a lot of useful information shared by those who had been to Philmont in the past. It was great to have scouts who had just completed a Rayado trek this summe to tell the other scouts and adults what to expect. We had a nice mix of adults and scouts that had been to Philmont before and those who had never been there.

Tim went over the gear. What to bring and just as important or more important, what not to bring.

We used the 1st meeting outline that is available for download on this site. We went over the budget for the trek and showed the video from the 2016 trek. The scouts filled out the trek survey.

A great start for next years trek.

Our Troop is under 1 year away from their next trek to Philmont. After having the 2018 trek cancelled due to the fires there, we are looking forward to returning.

We will be having joint training with another local Troop that is also going in 2020.

I just found that none of the videos would play after the software updated.

I have corrected the plugins and videos and all seem to work correctly.

I also loaded in a video from OKPIK and our 2016 Philmont Trek.

Our 5 scouts taking part in a Rayado Crew left today. They will have an amazing journey. And stories to tell for years.

I believe we have them well prepared. I am excited for their journey and sad that I can never participate .

Can’t wait until they get back and hear about their adventures!