I woke up today at 4:00, hardly believing that I was going to Philmont today. We got the airport, and checked in, and hopped on the plane. We flew to Denver, and then transferred to Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was about lunchtime, so our first stop was Blake’s Lotaburgers, which is sorta the equivalent to Norcal’s In & Out. Its hella good. Ed, our tour guide, reminded to drink plenty of water, so he gave us free “Blue Sky Adventures” Nalgenes. Our next stop was a 2.7 mile long tram ride, making it the longest in the world. Thinking that a 3 in thick cable was in charge of our lives was a bit scary, but we made it up and down safely. At the top, there was a restaurant and ski lifts for the winter season. We visited the Atomic Bomb Museum next. There were replicas of Fat Man, and Little Boy. There was a bunch of stuff about Bombs and Radiation. We Walked to Old Town Albuquerque which was nearby. There were old stores and a rattlesnake museum. We drifted around the area until we were taken to Poncho’s Mexican Buffet. This buffet is different from the others because, you don’t take the food yourself, they do that for you. When you wanted more, you raise a little Mexican flag on your table, and they’d come and give you more of whatever you wanted. After eating our fill, we settled down at our hotel Marriott. There was a pool, game room, fitness room, and ping pong. It started raining, so swimming and playing ping pong wasn’t such a good idea. We got some board games after getting bored of arcade games. We watched some TV, and fell asleep.

Today we started the day off with a nice continental breakfast at the hotel, and hopped onto the bus for a 3-hr drive to Cimarron (base camp). I fell asleep in the backseat. At the rest stop, I bought some sunglasses. $10! Cheap! We got the basecamp and checked in. Then we met our ranger, Paul Hugues. He’s a pretty cool guy, and wears glasses/contacts. We went to our tents which were all the way in the farthest corner of tent city. We got medical rechecks, and our itinerary got switched to the south, because there was a fire in the North where our original trek was to be at. We had some time to go check out the Trading Post and the snack shack. The Trading post is called Tooth of time Traders. It was basically like a mini REI with philmont stamped on everything. The snack shack was really cheap. Most everything was about a $1 or 2. After dinner, we went to catch crickets. We went to watch the welcome campfire. The skits were all historical, and quite boring for my taste. I went to sleep looking forward to my first day of hiking.

Today we woke up at 6:00 and cleared out of our tents. We emptied out our packs and got crew equipment and food. Crew Equipment includes sump Frisbee, sump scraper, dining fly, micropur Tablets, Pots and Spoons. Then there was a crapload of food. But before that, we went to take group pictures. I stayed back at the commissary to fix and choose stoves. I was kinda late to lunch and had to eat in 10 minutes. We saw the museum brifly and walked back to the trading post area. We played cards and hackysack. We ran over the the welcome center at 2:00 to find out that we were supposed to wait there at 1:00. We took a short bus tour to lover’s leap turnaround. The tour guides/rangers were hella funny. We learned about red roof inn’s. There are 3 types of RRi’s: Pilot/Co-pilot, Pilot/Bombardier, and a hole in the ground. Then we started out on our trek. We hiked 2 miles on the Lover’s leap trail camp. On the way, we had a story about lover’s Leap, which was a rock structure. The story was about 2 lovers, and the man was rejected for marriage, so he jumped off the rocks to the bottom. Some Native Americans found him, dead. A week later, the woman was found dead from a broken heart. At the Campsite, we learned about bear bagging, cooking, water, and basic camp safety. We reflected on our day and put up the Oops bag. Diner was really good and not bad at all.

Today we woke up at 6:30 to go to crater lake. The hike was very short and relatively easy. We got to crater lake which was really just a small pond. The Theme was a 1914 logging company. We set up camp and ate lunch. Then we went to go spar pole climbing. I was the first and it was really fun. My hands and legs got tired 2/3 way up. After everyone finished and we were heading back to camp, It started raining on us. So everyone put on rain jackets and covers. We stood outside in the rain for no apparent reason. It also started hailing, which kinda hurt. My pants gosoaked. I went insid the tent and played some harmonica. Then we ate dnner and went to the campfire. The cam[pfire was really entertaining. They played some songs with 2 guitarists, a banjo, harmonica, and a mandolin. They also acted the story of how wade Phillips gave Philmont to Boyscouts. They were really funny. We all headed back afterwards for roses and thorns and went to sleep.

Thoday we set off from Crater Lake at 7:30 without Paul. The hike was okay until we reached the North Uracca Fork. There were about 20 or so River Crossings. About 30 minutes from the camp, we encountered some rain and thunder. We finally arrived at Balck Mtn Camp around 12:30. Oddly enough, Paul was there as well. The theme was 1900’s Civil war. We set up camp and met at the forge at 1400. We made a j-hook that you put on a wall and hang stuff with. Then at 1530, we shot balck powder rifles. I shot my neckerchief twice. However, I still ended up with 6 holes. We returned back to camp for dinner. After Clean up at 1930, we went for “Recruit Training”. It was basically marching drills. We had roses and thorns and went to sleep.

We awoke this morn at 6:00. We ate breakfast, packed up and left the camp for beaubien. We hiked up switchbacks for about a mile with 800 ft elevation gain. We hiked a little more to the conservation trail building site. We sorted out our gear to bring up with us. So old Byrons were there to watch our packs. We got trained with tools and trail terms. We worked on the trail with spoons, matics, and pickmatics. About a hour later, we finished and hiked back down the mountain to get debrifed. We ate lunch and packed up for a short hike to beaubien. We got a porch talk and got walked to our campsite. The there is wild west. We ate a fat dinner bacasue of the dinner loaded swap box. Then we watched the campfire. We had roses and thorns and went to sleep.

We woke up today at 7:00 and got bearbags. It took us a long time to eat breakfast and get ready. We got lectured by our advisors. We started our hike up to trail peack at around 9:00. There was a ton of poop on the first section of the hike. Thus, Richard and I dubbet it Mt. Schitz. At the top we visited the b-24 Liberator wing. Then we walked to the peak where we ate lunch. There was a whole bunch of ladybugs in the bushes and trees and logs. We made a welcon to Mt. Schitsz sign. After Lunch and clean up, the slower group, Mang, Jon Hsu, dick, and I went to the wing so I could pee off it. We walked down and saw Phling and Jonny on the way. We got to the bottom and took a crap. We ditched Phil in the RRI. At 5:00, we went down to eat chuck wagon dinner. It was delicious. It was also beef stew, peaches in syrup, and pound cake. It was delicious. After returning to camp. Me’n Peter laughed 20 straight at the word “zooids” Lawl.

We woke up today at 6:00. I found out the my pack cover wasn’t on and my pack was totally soaked. After packing, we met up at the main cabin. We started off on the wrong trail, but we found the right one. A mile from beaubien was phillip’s Junction camp, which had a commissary. We reloaded on food. Our packs got super heavy again. We looked through the swap box for any goof food. Peter got a whole crapload of oriental trail mix. We left Phillip’s Junction after eating and fillung up on water. Aftere 2 hours or so of hiking we arrived at crooked creek camp. Their Theme was homesteading. We ate lunch and had a tour of their cabin. They had a suitors candle that allowed them to raise and lower the candeld depending on how much they liked the suitor. When the candle burned to the tom fot eh stand, his time was over. I learned the that the floor was dirt and blood mixed together. It was basically a fat scab. We went outside and started chasing chickens. That ws fun . We then hiked to wild horse camp. We ate and got a lecture about our habits for packing ahd cleaning up. Its really cold up here at 10400 ft. At night, Brandon decided that it was too cold to got outside of the tent to take a piss, so he relieves himself right outside the tent door.

Today, I woke up at around 6:00 and immediately started packing. We were highly effiecent and packed everything in about 45 mintues. We set off for clear creek. We got to clear creek way before most of our other sister crews. On the hike there, it was mostly rocky/sandy, and there was a lot of red/white firs. Many of the twigs with needles still attached fell on the ground. It was cloudy, but there was no rain. The theme of clear creek was Mountain men. We did Tomahawk throwing. I got a tomahawk in! That was cool. After eating breakfast and getting water, we started up to Mount Phillips. The trail was either really rocky/sandy or littered with fir twigs. It was also either really steep or flat. It was quite warm and shady at the same time. We saw the conservation staff guy Dan. At the last stretch the trail disappered. It was all rocka dn coarse sand. It also becam really wandy and there waere minimal trees. We ate lunch at the peack and saw a few minibears. Our campsite was about 300 yards away from the peak. It was about 2:00 when we finished all our set up. We had lots of free time to play cards. We at dinner at 5:00. After roses and thorns, we played some mafia under the dining fly. We’re sleeping early to catch the sunrise tomorrow.

Today we woke up at 6:00 again. I got the bearbags down sngle-handedly. We packed up before 7:00. We started down My. Phillips. There was a lot of rocks and sand. We lost the trail in the beginning. We had to go all the way back up to find the trail head. It was switchbacks down to the bottom. Then we hiked up toe cmonche peak. The restof the way was downhill to cipher’s Mine. We saw lotsa fir trees on the way down. The trail was dirt and rocky. At one point we saw the valle to our northeast. It was a great view. We also saw Mt. Baldy. At cipher’s Mine, we ate lunch and did some gold panning. The creek there was very nice. I got some flakes and gave them to jone. We resumed hiking at 2:00 and went on the wrong trail. After we found the right way, we continued following the creek down for 4 ish miles. There wre many trees and bushes. Soon, we got to hunter’s lodge. There said they were closed and that we could come back tomorrow. Cimarroncito was only 30 mintues away. We saw ranger zip line on the way. We had a porch talk and got to our campsite. We at dinner, R and T and sleep.

We woke up sometime around 6:00. We met at the main cabin after getting stuff ready. We were led to the rock climbing area. We climbed either “don’t touch the tree” or “turtle’s head” rock. Then we rapelled down a 40 ft. slab. I did the turtles head. It wa very easy. I hooked myself to a safety line at the top and walked my way to the rapelling area. Rapelling was fun There was some very brittle rockj a the bottom. Me ‘n Rich was throwing it around. After everyone climbed, we went down and hiked to the hunting lodge. We got a tour of the cabin. There were bear rugs and animal pacards on the floor and walls. We saw the kitchen wich had an ice box and wood burning stove. They were baking apple pie. After leaving the hunting lodge, we went to window rock and ate lunch. We met another crew on the way up. It wasn’t that steep, but there were a few trees and many bushes and plants. There were big rock formations near the top. After lunch, we hiked up to the top where we were met with a heavy thunderstorm. I found out the I forgot my rain jacket at camp. We started down and the rain was pouring on us. We started counting interval to see how far the lightning was from us. At one point, it was 2/5 of a mile from us. We decided to hike 30 ft apart from each other to avoid getting struck. I was getting soaked, but not too cold. The faster group got ahead and wen to the commissary to get food. Bandon, jeff, mrs. Xu and I walked back to camp. We played some cards. We also signed up for the nature hike, but we didn’t tell staff, sw we didn’t do it. We ate dinner and Mrs. Xu went to the advisor’s coffee. We played hearts and had a little conflict. Then we all drank Gatorade and got really really high. We were kicking trees to shake water, stealing water bottles, having lightsaber fights, running around like ninja’s and pling ate a moth. G’nite.

Today We woke up at 6:00 for the last time. We packed up and left for the hunting lodge. We ate a short breakfast there and discussed our route. There was no water at shaefer’s pass, so we filled up on water here. We hiked to shafaer’s pass camp. On the way, we saw my trees and some good scenery. We cooked dinner for luch at shaefer’s pass camp. We hiked on a rocky trail for quite a long time until we got to tooth of tiem fork. We set up camp and Me ‘n Brandon hiked up to the tooth. The view was spectacular. We had a 360 degree panoramic view of the whole area. We traced out our whole route. After going down, we me the rest of the guys who also went to climb some rocks. Richard and I went to catch sunset and climb some rocks. Some guys tried to pull an all nighter, but it kinda failed.

We Woke up today at 4:30 to go catch sunrise on the tooth. Me ‘n Brandon knew the way pretty well, so we were up first. I hid in a hole and slept for a while. When the sun camp up, it was quite slow at first like a slug inching its way up. As soon as it passed the horizon ( and the cloud covering it), it exploded in a spectrum of colors. We headed down to camp and packed up for our last hike as Crew 2 in philmont. Our hike down was silent, until… Ya-YUHH!! YA-YUH! Oh-KAYY!!! Oh-KAY !! HU-WHATT!!?!? HU-What!!?!? Li’l JON?! What the fu---?!? Piece of Shi… Piece of sh….HEY! SHUT UP!!! We were greeted with “ welcome back, you made it!” sign. Though there were no cheer girls, no parents, and not even other guys, to congratulate us making it back, we all had a sense of accomplishment, that we had just conquered philmont. We found our tents and checked everything back into the commissary. We attended the Campfire, which was a whole lot better than the opening one. I’d be going home tomorrow.

I’ve always wondered when I’d be going back.