June 8, 2006

Philmont Training 2006 Training this year was quite a trip. We were a big crew, 10 in total and our fearless Ranger Trainer, Reed, did a great job. Our first day we hiked to Old Abreu which was only a few miles but it felt really good to get out of base. The next morning we went to Fish Camp but stopped off at Crags to take a nap and eat and enjoy being by the river. Once we got to Fish Camp and set up we started out First Aid training. The next morning we finished up training by doing fun things like making splints out of bed rolls and taking a test. Then we hiked over to Bonita Canyon to be ready to build a radio receptor tower the next morning. Not going to lie, our crew was probably one of the hardest working crews out there that day. We carried the metal towers to the top of the mountain then stayed up there all day mixing the concrete which other crews were bringing up in back packs. We had to dig big holes for the guy-lines which pitted our muscle and ingenuity against some pretty significant rocks. We were the first crew up and the lst crew down that day. After we finished that we loaded our packs and hiked on to Beaubien for Ranger Rendezvous the next day. Ranger Rendezvous consists of a series of games which test our skills ina variety of areas ranging from water chugging skills to fauna and flora recognition. We pretty much rocked out all those games and then had a great dinner prepared for us by upper leadership. Then we once again loaded everything up and headed to Black Mountain Camp. We spent the night in a shanty which was much morefun than trying to set up tents. The next morning we got up at 3 am and hiked up one of the toughest climbs on the ranch to watch the sun rise. From there we hiked the rest of the way into base camp over the Tooth of Time. Lots of amazing vistas, wildlife, and some pretty serious laughs. All in all things are going well. I have picked up my first crew and am heading out on the trail tomorrow.