Happy Halloween!

Well, it's been a long time since I've posted anything, and today is Halloween, so I thought I'd share one of my personal weird fears.
Whenever it's rained really hard and the sidewalks are still all wet, worms like to come out and wriggle about on the sidewalk. I don't really have a problem with worms or with them wriggling about--that's generally just what they do. However, when they lie on the sidewalks en masse and flail about it really disturbs me.
They just blend in with little sticks and other debris and you're about to take a step and it moves and it's a worm and you don't want to step on it. I just don't really want to step on a live worm--it doesn't seem like it would be a pleasant experience for anyone involved. I don't really want to step on a dead worm either; that's just gross.
Mainly it's just the fact that there are large amounts of worms everywhere and they're hiding and I don't want to step on them, which makes it difficult to walk down a sidewalk like a normal person.
Happy Halloween everyone!

Classes Begin

Well, I'm all moved in at school. Today was the first day of classes after a long few days of orientation sessions. This trimester, I'm taking FREN101: Elementary French, MATH121: Calculus II, and PHIL100: Family Values-- The Ethics of Parent-Child Relationships.
I got to meet all my professors and have my first class meetings today. Tomorrow I will begin my work-study job at the Post Office. I already have my hands full of homework and textbooks.
Friday will be the activity fair, and I'm excited to sign up for a few extracurriculars, especially CANOE (Carleton Association of Nature and Outdoor Enthusiasts) and the Quizbowl team.

Philmont Scout Ranch Staff 2015, Update #7

Any images, information, and opinions expressed on this site are neither approved or authorized by the Boy Scouts of America and/or Philmont Scout Ranch.

On days off, I went with some friends and caught both the Ponil cantina show and the Rich Cabins campfire. Both were very good-- Ponil's show has a strong storyline and slightly more modern music than is generally used at a lot of the backcountry camps. Rich Cabins' show included yodeling, fantastic story-telling, and talented musicians.

My final backcountry assignment was to visit the two most remote camps on the ranch: Black Mountain and Crooked Creek. These are the only two camps that have no direct road access.

We were dropped off at the Black Mountain drop-off point, and hiked down the steep staff trail. The camp and surrounding areas are beautiful, and vaguely jungle-like. The staff members carry all of their supplies up and down the staff trail to and from the drop-off point. The cabin they live in is historic, but it's pretty cool-- five of them all live there, and it's just exactly enough space to fit bunks on one side and a wood-burning stove and table on the other side. The cabinets are designed to fold down and create counter space when needed. The program is black powder rifles and blacksmithing. The five camps with forges are definitely worth visiting-- it's a pretty cool program. One of the staff members at Black is planning to start a business blacksmithing. We spent the night here.

The next day, we hiked from Black Mountain to Phillips Junction to Crooked Creek. Crooked Creek has two burros they use to carry their supplies from Phillips Junction. They are a homesteading camp with a cow and a calf, burros, chickens, and goats. We spent the night here, and planned to hike to Phillips Junction for a ride out in the morning.

However, due to heavy rains that night, all backcountry rides were cancelled for the day. We hiked to Phillips Junction and then had to decide what to do from there. We decided we would hike out-- there was no guarantee of when backcountry roads would be open again. We hiked down to Fish Camp, through Webster Pass, then Fowler Pass, and stopped at Crater Lake. We hiked on from Crater Lake to the Lovers Leap Turnaround, where we hoped to call someone and get a ride out. We were nearly at the turnaround when we met Rod Taylor on the road. He picked us up and drove us the last few miles back to Basecamp. We were very thankful.

The hiking was actually really pleasant, but the afternoon rain shower was very heavy and we had hiked some extremely muddy roads and trails that looked a lot more like rivers. It was a longer day than we had expected it to be, but we got to see more of the Ranch.

Today is my last working day. It's been an awesome summer and I'm definitely going to apply to be out here next year. Staffing is a completely different experience from a trek, and you get to see a lot more of Philmont from a very different perspective.

However, it's also been a long summer and I am extremely ready to head home and work on preparing the Venturing crew for a new year and preparing myself for college before move-in day.


Edit: See PhilNews Issue 9 here.

Philmont Scout Ranch Staff 2015, Update #6

Any images, information, and opinions expressed on this site are neither approved nor authorized by the Boy Scouts of America and/or Philmont Scout Ranch.

The previous week we worked on the flood issue. I spent most of the week working on the first two parts of the main article, researching the science behind flash flooding and the Rayado Flood of 1965. That issue is out in print today.

Last Sunday I hiked Wheeler with six others from my department. That was a pretty challenging hike, but now I've climbed the tallest mountain in New Mexico, 13,159 feet above sea level. The view was pretty nice, and we ate watermelon at the top.

This week I was in the backcountry on assignment. We started at Harlan and then hiked to Ute Gulch. After dinner there, we hiked to Cimarroncito for the night and then after a few pictures in the morning, hiked to the Cito Turnaround just barely in time to catch the bus.

Harlan's program is 12-gauge shotgun shooting and reloading. Ute Gulch is another commissary camp like Phillips Junction that I would consider working at next year, but I'm not sure which I liked better. Cimarroncito is a climbing camp, and also has a really cool bouldering gym, where we spent the night.

After making it back to base, I went back out to the Cito Turnaround with another photographer to spend the night and next morning at Clarks Fork, one of the Western lore camps. The Clarks Fork campfire area has a view of Cimarron's city lights, and the camp also has hot water, showers, electricity, and possible cell phone reception.

I'm not sure, but I might try to make it to Ponil's cantina show, which is supposed to be exceptionally good this year, and maybe Rich Cabins as well.

Next week I will be in the backcountry on assignment again. I believe the plan is to start as close as possible to Black Mountain, hike in to the camp and spend the night there. Next day, we would hike to Crooked Creek and spend the majority of the day there. Then we could hike to Phillips Junction and spend the night there to be sure to get a ride out in the morning. Black Mountain and Crooked Creek are the only two staffed camps that do not have direct access by backcountry road.

Edit: Read Issue 8 here.