The site was down for a couple of days due to server migration.  As usual, everything did not go as smoothly as expected.  As of last night, I think all of the settings are fixed and everything is working properly again.  I can see the blog again, so thats a good thing.

Hopefully, everything is smooth from here on.

Its hard to believe that we are less than 7 weeks away form Philmont.  Yea, everyones getting excited.

Its even tougher to believe that today’s 6 mile hike was only our second time out after 6 inches of SNOW last week.  Thats not even funny.  Not even a little.  Then it warmed up, and we had flooding on the route we normally train on.  The weather has improved,and its time to get serious about getting ready.  We had a good pace and finished in an hour and 50 minutes.

For those planning to go, I strongly recommend getting out with your pack twice a week for a 6-7 mile hike.  Get the boots broken in, figure out combination or type of sock works for you.  Start out with about 15-20 pounds in your back pack and learn how to adjust your pack.  Gradually work up to 45-50 pounds as that’s probably about where you will be when you leave camp with you clothes, camping gear, crew gear, water and food.  Its amazing what even 15-20 pounds does to change how you walk and distribute weight.

 

Our scouts put a lot of time and effort into selecting the top 5 treks that they wanted to do this year.  Today was the day to put in our selections.  At 12:30 Central time, our trek was confirmed.  We have Trek 24!  Our first choice.  In 6 treks, I have gotten our 1st choice 5 times and 2nd choice once when we were going with a sister crew.  Going through the selection process is a little stressful and takes planning. Just make sure you follow all of their directions and get everything you can preloaded.

We are excited.  We will get to see the T-Rex track, see Metcalf Station and the train tracks.  We will go over Baldy and tooth of Time.

It has several camps that I have been through, but never stayed at – Anastazi, Baldy Town, Santa Claus, Pueblano.  It also has camps that I have never been to – Dan Beard, Deer Lake Mesa, Metcalf Station.

And camps that I have stayed at – we go through Indian Writings, Cimarroncito, Shaefers Pass.

It had a great combination of programs and trail camps. 

Should be a great time!

Training has been in low gear for the winter.  Now its time to get serious!

We are still looking for our 12th member.

Its getting closer. 4 months and counting.   Our final payment has been sent in.

We met to have the scouts fill out the trek survey to get an idea of what activities they feel are most important.  Now the adults will sift through the treks and select 8-10 that fit their choices.  We will have one meeting for the scouts to rank the selected treks and that will be our final list.

Its hard to believe that march 13th we will know which trek we will be doing.

Now if the snow and ice would go away, we can get to the serious training.  The backpack is clean and I know the weights I will start with and add to.

We still need to figure out this years t-shirt design, finalize scout positions for the trek and tent partners.

It’s all coming together.

Looking forward to another great trek.  It will be my 6th trek.  Hopefully the second time over Baldy and and see some camps I haven’t seen before.

A great first meeting for planning for our 2018 Philmont trip.  Lots of good information about the trip, transportation, explaining the cost and the trip itself.  Went over all of the gear, needed, optional and crew.

Lots more to decide upon at meeting 2 such as scout leadership positions, t-shirt designs, the activity survey for the scouts to fill out and start looking at last years treks.  Hopefully, they wont be making major changes to the treks for 2018.

 

It’s going to be another great trip!

We are under a year to go for our next trip to Philmont.

Next week we have our first planning meeting.  Then it starts to get real!

We have 11 going, but still have room for one more.

Oh yea!!! we received the email that we passed through the lottery and have a 12 day trek for 2018. It’s going to be another great adventure.
Not sure if I will be going on this trip or just helping to plan this time.

Looking forward to working Jamboree 2017, then we will see about what happens for 2018.

Hope you all have a great year!!!