One spring, the teens in our homeschool group took a field trip to pick up trash with our wonderful neighbor, Ms Kathy. She is devoted to keeping the litter cleaned up around our neighborhood so we were glad to help. We had fun exploring the area and put a good dent in the litter while we were at it.
“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.”
-Les Brown
This has been my motto during this passed cross country season. At the end of my post last year, I said my goal for this year was a 23 minute 5k. I wasn't sure how possible that would be. I quickly found out that it was possible. More than possible in fact.
The season started off strong when I placed second in time trials, coming in 30 seconds behind my friend Kailey and cutting about 2 minutes of my time the year before.
For the first meet, which was on September 5, I made three goals. I wanted to run a sub 20 4k, place in the top 10 and beat Kailey. I ran an 18:26 (beating my PR by 2:01 minutes), placed 10th and did in fact beat Kailey.
The second meet (Sept 21) was a chilly morning at a fairly flat course. A perfect morning for a PR. And PR I did; my 4k now a 16:59. Another minute and 27 seconds shaved off. Although this was my final 4k PR for the season, I kept steaming on ahead.
September 28 I arrived out of breath because I was late; only 30 minutes until my race started. I was at the biggest meet of the season. If you're a runner in the Midwest, you might know exactly what I'm talking about when I say Rim Rock Invitational. You may now pause to cringe. It was cold, drizzly and muddy. Mud like I have never experienced. Despite my many near-death experiences on the trail, it was surprisingly fun. The first mile was flat and didn't have too much mud. And then it went down hill from there. And uphill. Lots of painful uphills. Going up those mini mountains was hard but coming down was just a controlled fall. If you could keep it in control that is. I quite near did a face plant multiple times while other people actually did end up tumbling down the muddy slopes. I skidded right off the trail a few times, came to complete stops to regain balance and almost wiped other people out as I slid all over. Needless to say, there was no point in hoping for a good time. I, instead, focused on staying upright and finishing without ending up unconscious. I finished the race in 18:32, my worst time of the season but still almost 2 minutes faster than my PR from 2012. I finished 80th out of 238 in the Blue Varsity division.
October 7 was a rescheduled meet. When we had shown up in McLouth, KS a few weeks before, the JV teams were able to finish their races. But just as I was lining up with the varsity girls, the thunder and lightning struck, causing the rest of the meet to be cancelled. So here we were back at McLouth high school. We did a run through and I thought that the course seemed like it would be fairly easy. Nope. It turned out to be deceptively hard. I was struggling at the end, not really wanting to push it in. But I could hear a girl from my rival team right behind me. In fact, she passed me. No, I would never be able to forgive myself if I let her beat me. It was one of those days that I dug deeper than I thought was possible. And yet my time still wasn't close to what I wanted.
Carl Ozarwick is an interesting meet because it isn't run by team but rather by age group. You run individually and there is no team score. Although a little hilly, I still like the course. It was a very strong race in which I came in 4th in the junior division with a time of 17:32 (4k).
The 14th was my first 5k of the season. My goal at the end of last year was to hit the 23 minute mark for a 5k this year. I got a time of 23:17 on the hilliest course second only to Rim Rock and placed 2nd. It was the least competitive meet of the whole season so I wasn't exactly pushing too hard. I locked in my second place win at about the quarter mile mark.
At West Platte, the 29th, I was determined to do a sub 23 and I was fairly confident that was possible. I invited my first track coach and his family to come watch me. His son ran to different points on the course calling out my splits and telling me that I needed to catch this next person to get my goal. I can say that was one of the most helpful things anyone could have done for me during that race. I crossed the finishline at 22:36, ecstatic that I had actually done it!
October 23rd was the last meet before homeschool nationals. I remembered that last year at the Richmond meet I had a lot of energy during the course of the race. I always feel like I could have done a little better in all of my races but this one in particular I knew for a fact that I hadn't used enough energy to make the race the best it could be. This year I was going to redeem myself. I'm not sure if it was the course, but I felt that extra energy again and said I was going for a sub 22 this time. At this point I was getting doubtful that I could keep meeting these insane goals. After all, I had already cut a minute off my PR last week; how could I do it again? They had altered the course slightly from last year which took out a very steep hill so that made me feel a little more comfortable. I started the race easy for the first quarter to half mile but broke free soon after. I was getting my goal and that was final. Every once in a while I would hear a split called out which reassured me that I was on pace. The finish was just about come into sight when I heard a split called out that made me happy. I'd have to run hard but I could do it. I battled that last quarter mile knowing very well what I wanted. I crossed the finish line truly exhausted but eager to see if I had done it. I hobbled over to my coach, almost hesitant to ask, fearing disappointment. He smiled at me and showed the time he had written down: 21:33. My eyes widened as it sunk in. That was another minute and three seconds from my PR set a few days before. I had redeemed my self-that's for sure.
Homeschool Nationals was the first weekend of November. We got to Springfield earlier in the afternoon to check in with the friends that we always stay with when we're down there. Later, KEW and I went to the course with the team to do a run though. After which, we went to Fazoli's to fill up on pasta. Most people were staying in a hotel so I, along with KEW, tagged along and hung out in the lobby for awhile. Most of us girls painted our nails like we had done last year.
The race day weather was very similar to last year: a bit chilly for spectators but perfect for the runners.
I placed very differently this year ranking 5th in varsity rather than 4th in JV. But I was still crushed because I had finished with a time of 21:45. I had reeeeally wanted to go sub 21 and didn't even break my PR. On the bright side, I now knew that the PR I had made the week before hadn't been a fluke and I really could stay under 22. A college coach from the area had been there to watch and said if I had been on a flat course, with the way I had been running, I could have easily broken 21. This course was extra tricky and I had run my heart out so it wasn't all bad.
Some of the team stopped at Golden Corral for dinner. I ate a lot of salad because I wasn't ready to break my sugar fast quite yet. This is my dear friend, Emily, enjoying her ice cream in front of me.
The Awards Banquet was the next week. I got my letter pin, was
recognized for being in the 300 Mile Club this year again and presented
our coaches with a book about the season that I had made.
In the past, this would usually have been the end of the season (except for the end-of-season bonfire which I was not able to make it to this time). But no, I was able to extend my season for a few more weeks! We were made aware of a club team, the Brocaw Blazers, located in the area. Joining this team gave KEW and me the opportunity to practice with a coach twice a week and go to a fairly large meet in Kentucky.
We got on tour buses bound for Kentucky the afternoon of November 21 and drove all day, ate pizza on the road and stopped in St. Louis at a hotel for the night. The next morning we ate the breakfast the hotel provided and drove until we got to Louisville, KY. Our first stop when we got there was the race course to do a run through and take a team picture. We ate at Golden Corral for dinner and then headed over to our hotel for the night.
The buses left in shifts the next day. My bus left first, bright and early at 7. My race didn't start until 10 so I just took a nap on the bus until it was time to warm up. Warming up seemed like it might be a slight problem because it was so cold but I was layered up enough that once we finished our 10 minute warm up jog, I was sweating. As soon as I took off my sweats, just before my race began, the cold hit me but not as hard as I thought it would. That day, I learned the trick of slathering baby oil on exposed skin to block some of the wind. After only maybe a half mile, I was warmed up and into the racing groove. This was the flattest course I had ever run on so I felt good about this race. I knew I wouldn't be placing very high but a PR was there for sure. In fact, I wanted a sub 21 minute 5k and I knew it was in there. I finished the race in 24th with, sadly, a time of 21:12. Not the sub 21 I wanted but it was still a huge PR! Here is a video of the race. I show up plenty of times but even better, I am interviewed after the race.
This is an album of pictures taken of my race. wowtrackshots.com/p1038179884
After our races, my friend, Henry, and I ran around watching all the races. He actually did some videoing of the action. This is the video he made of the whole trip up until the end of the meet.
I failed to realize that there was an ongoing awards ceremony until after the time I was supposed to be there. I also hadn't realized the I had placed in the top 25 so I would have gotten a personal award. At least I made it in time for the team award. KEW's race was the very last one. He didn't do as well as he had wanted to because he got boxed in for part of the race but you can click here to watch his race. I stuck around for his award ceremony and took some pictures of him getting his personal award. Unfortunately, it was getting unbearably cold so I went back to the bus before he got his team award.
As soon as the last of the awards had been handed out, the team went to Ryan's for dinner. Because we had already checked out and packed the buses that morning, we were able to get on the road as soon as we were done with dinner. We were driving straight through tonight, so it was mostly watching movies and sleeping the whole way home. At about 3am, we pulled into Lee's Summit where our dad picked us up.
Now that the season is over--OK it was over two months ago (I'm a slow writer, I know)--I look back and have no idea how I did what I did. Although I'm not in the elite group, I still went from beginner to semi-competitive in just one short year. I shot for what I thought was the moon and ended up hitting the sun on accident. I wish I knew how I did it but I hope I can keep improving and make next year, my last year of high school cross country, the best it can possibly be. So I'm going to make my new insane goal: sub 20.
Originally, I was planning on going to EFY at MU. But, with the way my summer schedule turned out, I had to choose a different location. The next closest location was in Nauvoo, Illinois which was a special edition (aka $100 more expensive).
But, backing up a few weeks before, I had commented on a picture on Instagram about which session I was going to. Another girl replied to my comment and said she was going to the second session of Nauvoo too.
Flash forward to when me and roommates were sitting in our room during some free time. I decided to go back and look to see if I had seen or met the girl from Instagram. I found that I had not only met her, but that she was sitting right across the room from me. She was my roommate!
Instead of staying on a college campus like most EFY session do, we stayed in the Nauvoo Family Inn. I shared a hotel room with 6 other girls. We ate breakfast (waffle supreme as seen above) in the hotel dinning room and our other meals down the street in the nearby stake center about a half a mile away. Many of our other activities were held at the stake center so we did a lot of walking. Yes, we walked everywhere except for the day that we did some touring and used tour buses.
I drove to Nauvoo and back with our family friend Kim. I put a lot of hours on my driving permit that way. We got there a little early so we ate lunch at a sandwich shop. Then I headed back over to the hotel to check in. Many of the counselors were there greeting everyone. As I stood in line, one counselor was making an effort to say hello to as many people as possible. He seemed very familiar. In fact, I knew I had met him before. But where? When he got to me, I asked him if he had been a counselor at the KU EFY that I had went to the previous summer. No, that's not where I knew him from. After a few minutes, we finally figured out that he had severed part of his mission in my ward two years before!
I met one of my roommates while I was signing in so we walked to our room together. We met our other roommates and settled in. Then we met our counselors and the other kids in our group. Turns out Jake, the counselor that I'd met before, was going to be one of my counselors.
Here are pictures of the majority of the people in my company. Counselors above, roommates and company friends below.
So, basically what "special edition" means is: we go with the flow because we don't actually really know what todays schedule looks like. Because we weren't on a college campus like most sessions, there had to be changes to the usual schedule due to the special opportunities we had in Nauvoo. I'm not going to go into a whole lot of detail on this entire event, mostly because I can't remember the day to day schedule, which might be refreshing compared to some of my looong posts. If you want to read a more detailed post about EFY, this is my post from last year.
During the opening orientation, they showed us a video clip of Jimmer Fredette, who they met in the airport.
On the second day, we did a little touring of the town. We walked
through a grove of trees, went to the family living center, the Browning
home & gun shop, and blacksmith shop.
That night we had game night which we played in the field in front of the temple. One of the games was stick pull. All four of my counselors observed Tuck in Tuesday.
Each company came up with their cheers and performed them for the judges. The first one here is my company's and the other video is the top four finalists.
We had pizza night before bed.
The third day was spiritual day (which is usually on Thursday). The main activity was going to the temple for baptisms.
The fourth day was spent touring some more but we had tour buses this time. We went to an old cemetery, Carthage Jail and a few more sites in town.
We also spent some time on the Mississippi River.
The last day was a little more relaxed.
The variety show is always a favorite event. This session had some pretty fun talents.
One of my roommates convinced our entire company to do something. We didn't tell the boys what we were doing until auditions and just told them to follow along to add to the comedy. One of the boys does ballet so his flexibility ended up being pretty useful.
Sorry that there was basically no detail in this post. I guess a simple recap every once in awhile is OK. To finish, here is a compilation of random videos I took of my company and counselors. It'll give you a taste of what it was like to hang out with this cool group of people.
"Sad news, I didn't get the scholarship. Yes I was disappointed, but now I
know there is something else I need to do in July, even if I don't know
what it is yet. There will be opportunities to do other fun and
important things this summer and I'm excited!"
Sure enough, there was someplace else that I needed to go to instead. It came very last minute but if I had committed to leaving the country for a month, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to accept this invitation. At times like this, I always wonder why I even had to go through the trouble of something that would fall through in the end. But I figured that out too. If I hadn't set aside the month of July, I might have signed up for EFY during that time too. But because I was expecting to be gone during that time, I signed up for EFY in August which left the entire month of July still open. Open for something that I am very glad fell onto my path because I don't think I would have sought it out any other way.
One day, some time in June, my dad asked me if I wanted to go to Philmont. I had heard of this place just a few months earlier but still didn't know exactly what it was. He explained that he had recently met a man at a Scouting function who was an adult adviser of a Venturing crew and he had asked if I would like to go to Philmont. This crew would be leaving for Philmont in less than a month and there had been someone who had to cancel very last minute so they needed to fill the space as soon as possible. They were even willing to give the spot at a discounted price. The offer was very tempting. But I would have less than 3 weeks to prepare for a backpacking trip that many people have a year to get ready for. Was I up for the challenge? After about of week debating with myself, I decided to take the plunge and see what would happen. I made the phone call and right there and then, I was committed. Committed to go to New Mexico for two weeks with complete strangers and live with them in the wilderness. What was I thinking? I had less than two weeks at this point and I began to panic. So much to do, so little time. My dad helped me locate a backpack to borrow and took me shopping for all the supplies that I would need. I was able to meet Mr. Gdanski, who would be the adult leader in charge of my crew, and go through the packing list with him. A few days before leaving I went on their last practice hike where I met a few other people who were going.
I was at youth conference for 3 the days leading up to the time that I had to get to the train station. I wouldn't be home to make final preparations. This certainly did not help my nerves. Thankfully my mom was at the conference and was willing to take me home for an hour that afternoon so I could check everything over even though there wasn't much I could do at that point. My dad also called to say goodbye and good luck. He could tell I was really struggling at that point and gave me a short pep talk to let me know he was proud of me. I left the dance early that night and my mom drove me to the train station where I met everyone. There was no going back now. Headed into the unknown and I was getting pretty excited.
I was immediately greeted and handed tags to put on my luggage. Then I was able to officially meet everyone that I would be traveling and camping with. I liked them all right away. By the time we got on the train around 11pm I was happy to be there. It was going to be a hard two weeks but I knew I could do it with their help.
After getting settled on the train, our group went to the observation car and played mafia and card games for a few hours until we decided to go to sleep for a few hours. We got up bright and early and played more cards and talked until we got to the Raton train station in the afternoon.
Real quick about our train conductor guy (I'm not sure of his actual title). Javiar was hilarious and kept us laughing the whole train ride. He said he had been on many train rides with scouts and that they were all enjoyable people...but sometimes they just stink up the car!
"I don't understand why you guys even bother bringing your clothes home. It's not like your mothers are actually going to wash them!"
We were hit by the afternoon heat of Raton, NM as we stepped off the train. Quickly, we helped to unload our luggage and put it on the waiting bus that would take us to our final destination. We made a stop in a town with a few fast food restaurants for lunch where I got an Arby's sandwich and then we were on our way to Philmont base camp!
I woke up from my bus ride nap as we rolled into the driveway next to the welcome center. After hopping out, we grabbed our luggage and made a packline in the pavilion. Packlines are the way everyone there keeps their packs together and organized. What are they exactly? A line made out of all our backpacks. Complicated, I know.
One of the first orders of business was to take a crew picture. Not only as a keepsake but it would also be used as identification if anyone went missing. With that pleasant thought, meet Crew 630-H-02 2013.
It took me awhile to figure out what it all meant but here is the translation. We arrived on 6/30, each troop/venture crew (crew 2286 was the one I had joined up with to come on this trip) is assigned to a letter-ours being H, and because there were actually enough people from venture crew 2286, there were two Philmont crews formed from it-mine being number two.
After the picture, logistics was our next stop. This is where our youth and adult crew leaders, James and his father Mr. Gdanski, worked through some more logistics. While we waited for them, our assigned ranger, John, went over our rout on a map.
The Gdanskis still weren't done so we played several rounds of President with cards.
At least an hour later, we were able to go put our packs and other luggage into our assigned tents and make our way over to the health center where they went over our physicals. And that's when monsoon season started. No joke, monsoon season started that day. It had only rained a few inches in the last year until that day. It poured buckets of water and then began to hail. It rained for a good 15 minutes and then it was gone as fast as it came. It was also 20 degrees cooler. Just our luck, that happened every day while we were there at Philmont. Some days not as bad as others. Some days we would only got a sprinkle while other days it rained for over an hour and soaked everything.
We were finally free to go back to our tents and check if anything had gotten wet.
Then we headed to the dinning hall where we had our first Philmont
cafeteria food. Not much to say except that it was...well...cafeteria
food. Because it was a Sunday, everyone went to chapel after dinner. Turns out there is an LDS chapel on site so I was able to go to sacrament meeting. I met back up with everyone else at the welcome center where we had opening campfire. Opening "campfire" didn't have fire because, one, it was raining again, two, we were under a pavilion and, three, Philmont was on a strict fire-ban. In any case, said campfire was a skit about the history of Philmont put on by the activities committee. It was bedtime after that with only a cot to sleep on; a great way to ease into sleeping on the ground for 10 days.
Morning came and we went to breakfast, after which we went back
to our tents to make one last check that we had everything we needed in
our packs. Then we went to get the cooking equipment that we didn't
have, the first set of meal packets for the trail and my tentmate, Jasmine,
and I needed to get a tent. Once our packs were full, we weighed them on the heavy duty backpack scales. Mine came in at just about 40 lbs, a little overweight for my smaller body but I knew I could handle it.
After making a packline at the welcome center, we had some time to kill while we were waiting to leave later that afternoon. I spent some time at the Tooth of Time Traders (the trading post/store) and then we walked across the street to the Philmont Museum and Seton Library. In the library, they had The National Geographic Magazines from all the way back to 1917.
When we got back from the museum, we did some more waiting and ate lunch. The last of the "normal food" (if you can count cafeteria food as normal) we would eat for over a week.
Then it was time to wait at the welcome center for our bus that would take us to our drop off point, "6 mile turnaround". We went over safety procedures and our map one more time. And I took a 2 minute nap.
Shortly before loading our packs into the bus, the storm of the day rolled in. By the time we were driving, the rain had really picked up and, not to scare anyone, but our bus slipped once very near a deep ditch. As we got to the drop off point, the rain had become torrential with plenty of thunder and lighting. Our bus driver was willing to let us stay on until the storm settled down. After 15 or 20 minutes the storm let up and we got out to get our packs. The bus drove away and we were alone. You know how your mom used to say (or maybe still does) "you'll just have to walk home"? Yeah, that's how I felt right about then. Except this time it was pretty much true.
Only about a mile into our hike was our first stop. Supposedly, the only remaining/documented T-rex track in the world is laying right there off the path. We only spent a few minutes looking at it and headed on our way.
Roughly another mile and we were at the edge of our first camp, Anasazi. It was a good first day, only walking 2 miles, but that was by far the shortest hike. Ranger John helped us pick a campsite and went over the procedure of how to set up camp properly with bear bags, tents, our packs, etc. Bear bags were going to become a necessary chore. Anything that smells like food goes up out of reach of bears for the night. No, not even chapstick could be kept in our tent at night.
We got dinner going as fast as possible. Cheesy lasagna anyone? I didn't get how that would work in freeze dried package form but it wasn't half bad.
See that hill in the background of that picture? John decided to take anyone who wanted to go on a quick hike to explore it at dusk. Most of us kids agreed to go. It was taller and steeper than it looks and I was in my croc-like camp shoes so the little bouldering that we did was interesting. Thankfully we found a smoother way back down.
We got up at about 6 to break camp. We had decided to break a record that John had told us about the night before. That is, on the first day, none of his passed crews had been able to break camp in less than a certain time on. I have forgotten the exact time but it was something like an hour and a half. It was tight but we beat that record by a few minutes. (Sadly, when we saw John back at base camp after the trek, he told us that his next crew after us had crushed our record.)
With our packs on, we began our second day on the trail with 6 miles ahead of us until our next camp. We ate breakfast as we walked.
We arrived at the staff camp Indian Writings mid-morning. The first thing you do when you get to a staff camp is a "porch talk" on the cabin porch where the staff goes over the activities and rules of that particular camp. Indian Writings is an archeology/history site about Native Americans.
With some time to kill until our tour, we played President with cards.
Our tour began with the Indian writings or petroglyphs then moving onto a burial site and the remains of a house. As soon as the tour was over, we got back on the trail. We decided to get a little farther on down the trail before we ate lunch.
We found a nice place to eat under the overhang of a few trees. We sat and ate our food until it began to rain. On went the rain gear and we scooted farther under the tree where I found a very comfortable place to take a nap. If there was one thing that I learned on this trip, it was that taking a nap in the rain, with proper rain gear, is actually very relaxing.
A bit more hiking and we made it to our campsite, Old Camp. It was still drizzling and yet sunny for the most part. We caught rain drops on our tongues. While we were making dinner, we found this heart-shaped puddle.
Let us now pause for a jiffy to mention the Red Roofs. They're probably one of the closest things to a modern convenience that we got while in the wilderness. A latrine with four walls and a roof-a red roof as the name implies-is a happy site as opposed to open air latrines and digging cat holes.
After breaking camp in the morning, we were supposed to do our conservation project. Unfortunately, the trails we were going to work on had become a little flooded so we weren't able to do that. Instead we listened to the conversationalists give us a lecture for awhile on what we would have done had it not been too wet.
It was a 10 mile day so we saw plenty of scenery. Right before we got to the staff camp Dan Beard, we skidded down the steep path off the mountain we had been traveling on.
Dan Beard is a COPE course camp. We started with a few group games including Human Knots.
Because of our mileage that day, we didn't have a whole lot of time to do much so we just did two challenges.
The first challenge: swinging, one at a time, from one wooden box to the other and fitting everyone on the second box without touching the ground. This didn't end up working so we got to cheat. Anyone who was blindfolded was able to touch the ground with one foot after crossing. With this new rule, after a few tries, we finally got it.
The second challenge: escaping the prison. Each person had to clear the wall with help from everyone else.
We ate lunch and then continued on. Our path lead us out of the camp as we walked through Elliot Barker State Wildlife Area for a few miles. We found bones along the path many a time but this looked like the whole animal was still there.
I took a nap most days, and people started following my lead.
There was a quick storm, with hail, right about the time we entered back onto Philmont property. In the new mud, we found fresh bear tracks. Every time there is a bear sighting or signs of one, you are supposed to tell the staff at the next staff camp. We took a few pictures of the tracks and moved on. Not 10 minutes later someone in the group called to everyone and pointed to a bear running up the mountain in front of us. Now we could all say we had seen a bear on our trek.
After 10 long but mostly enjoyable miles, we made it to camp Sioux where we would be sleeping. I washed my dirty socks in a plastic bag and hung them on the line that had been put up.
I also discovered that the back of my legs soak up the sun very well. A little too well in fact. It was my first, and gratefully, only sunburn while I was there. I made sure to use sunscreen after that. Thankfully it didn't hurt too bad. It was just a little uncomfortable and stiff for a few days.
Not even a mile from our camp, was the staff camp Ponil where our first commissary stop was. After breaking camp, that is where we went in the morning.
We decided to go through our meal packs and take out the food we didn't want so we didn't have to carry unnecessary weight. It was a really good idea but unfortunately for me, I liked most of the food so I had to carry it all anyway.
Some of us decided to climb to the top of this big rock and pose for pictures for fun.
Besides the commissary stop, our other reason for stopping in Ponil was to get a burro. After a little introduction class on burro care, we chose our little donkey friend from the 10 or so that were in the corral. We'd be stuck with him for two days. But it would be fun to have a temporary pet, right? Maybe...
We saddled Bill up (this was the name that we finally decided on for him), took a quick break in the little trading post and then set off. The good news: Bill carried our food while he was with us. The bad news: burros are stubborn and slow. We took turns leading the ornery animal and tried not to take too many breaks because once we were stopped, no one knew how long it would take to get Bill shuffling along again.
After a long day with the burro, we arrived at Pueblano. There was a corral near the camp where the burros were kept so that's where Bill spent the night. We set up camp as fast as we could so we would still have time to do some spar pole climbing.
After dinner, we went and watched the campfire performance put on by the Pueblano staff. It was a bunch of songs, stories and silliness.
In the morning, it was time to get the burro from the burro pen. The Gdanski's went to get Bill and didn't get back until nearly an hour later. Apparently Bill wasn't in the mood to get up early and haul our food so it took them awhile to get him going. After Bill was saddled up, we were ready to hit the trail. Unfortunately he still wasn't ready to go. We got him to the entrance to the trail and then he refused to move. After a lot of coaxing and shoving, our sister crew came along with their burro. As soon as Bill saw his friend, he was perfectly willing to move. We hiked with our sister crew for the rest of the day so that Bill and the other burro could walk together. When we took a break at the staff camp Head of Dean, we parted ways with our sister crew. Thankfully Bill was in more of a cooperative mood by then.
After a long day of trudging along with our dear frienimy Bill, we made it to our campsite Maxwell where we set up camp. Then we headed to the staff camp Miranda to drop off Bill at the big burro pen there. We said our bittersweet (but mostly sweet) goodbyes to Bill in the rain and went up to the Miranda cabin. There we threw tomahawks and shot black powder rifles.You were supposed to have brought something to shoot-like a bandana or a hat-to use as your target. Somehow I didn't get this memo so I just shot at another persons bandana. I didn't really care that I didn't have a target for myself. Just holding and shooting that gun made me happy. Yeah, I really like guns.
We hiked back to our campsite in Maxwell for the night and made dinner.
In the morning, we got up super early. We were going to hike back up passed Miranda, up baldy mountain, down to Baldy Town and back to Maxwell. Two of the girls weren't feeling well so Mr. Gdanski stayed behind with them. We had a long day ahead of us, so we ate breakfast "on the road".
The hike up the side of the mountain was long but enjoyable. We stopped to see old cabins and mine ruins along the way.
We made it to a beautiful meadow right at lunch time so we stopped there to eat. As we sat there for the next hour, we could see ominous storm clouds starting to gather. There was only so much time before it would be too dangerous to climb to the top. We could hear thunder in the distance as we started to climb the "bald" part of Baldy. As we slipped across the loose rock, we went as fast as we could but it was very steep making it was slow going.
We finally made it to the very top as the first of the raindrops began to fall. With
only minutes to spare, we enjoyed the breathtaking view before we had to
scramble down the mountain as the storm got worse. We made it to the tree line as the lightening and thunder crashed right above us.
The storm continued as we quickly made it to Baldy Town. It was definitely the biggest storm we had encountered so far and possibly the largest of the whole trip.
We made it safely to the porch of Baldy Towns cabin where we sat and shivered for over an hour as the rain kept coming down in buckets. The hour passed slowly but not without a little adventure. One boy came up to me and asked if I knew how to swing dance. "Not really, but I can try." I replied. "Great!" he said, "Lets do it." He wasn't joking. Because I had nothing better to do, and I knew it would make his day, I agreed. So, without music, we did a few swing moves.
Once the rain finally let up, we were able to get our meal packets from the commissary and hike back to Maxwell where we would be staying another night. Making dinner and getting ready for bed was miserable that night. Everything was soaked and we were freezing. It was still drizzling, so we squeezed as many people as we could under the dinning fly as we ate our macaroni and cheese. I was very thankful to crawl into my warm dry sleeping bag that night.
The next day was just spent hiking to our next campsite with no staff camps to stop at to do a program along the way. So, our "activity" was an extra long nap on the trail.
Our camp, Black Jacks, was a dry camp so we stopped at the nearest watering hole and filled up all our water containers.
The campsite we chose didn't have any seating around the firepit. Thankfully, there was a tree that had been cut down and chopped into smaller logs nearby, so some of the guys brought enough over for everyone to have a seat during dinner.
A steep hike down the mountain side was our first feat when we left the next morning. It wasn't a 10 mile day but it sure felt like it.
It was day 9 on the trail where we came in contact with outside civilization, for the first and only time, as we passed under this bridge. It is a well known secret among Philmont hikers that you can call a pizza shop in Cimmaron, the nearest town, and have them deliver pizza to the the bridge.
But no, we didn't get any pizza. We just filled up our water bottles in the nearby stream and kept hiking.
Another thing I learned during this experience: I'm very good at taking a nap and eating lunch at the same time.
One of our stops, just a few miles from our next camp, was this lake. It doesn't look like a lake? Yep, it was totally dry.
Just when we thought we'd be hiking for forever, we finally went around the last bend and saw the Harlan shooting range. But we got our hopes up too fast because our walking didn't stop there. The actual campsite was still at least another half mile away. The Harlan cabin was a wonderful sight for sore feet. After our porch talk, a staff member showed us our campsite, another quarter mile away.
After setting up camp, we went back down to the main program
area where we loaded our shotgun amo, had a gun talk and then went trap
shooting. Did I mention I love guns? I had never been trap shooting but I
really enjoyed it.
We were the very last group to shoot that night so it was getting a little late. Some of us still wanted to try burro racing so a few of the others decided to make dinner while we were gone.
Who knows what we were thinking when we thought this would be a good idea. It started out fun and then it got crazy. Crazy scary.
Each crew chose a burro. We chose Eore, who seemed nice at first, but proved otherwise.
There were two practice rounds before the actual race.
The first round I lead Eore. Getting him to move was a trick but once he got going, I almost got trampled. Eric (on the left) took him on practice round number two. Before he had gone ten yards, he kicked Will (right) square in the thigh. A few minutes later, he narrowly missed kicking Eric. By the final round, we decided to sit out. Eore was out of control by now and we didn't want to risk any more injury. Of course, after the fact, a few of the staff members mentioned that Eore was that worst choice. Thanks guys. Real funny.
Day 10 came, we broke camp and we started hiking. This routine was starting to feel like the new normal. Our midday break was our last commissary stop we ate lunch and packed our backpacks with our new food. Our backpacks would only be getting lighter from there.
We made it to Cimarroncito in a timely manner. This was our third and final staff camp that we'd be staying at. We had our porch talk and played with the humming birds. They were the tamest little things. If you held your finger next to the feeders, the birds would land on your finger.
Cimarroncito is a rock climbing camp. It was probably my favorite. Even better, this was another staff camp we'd be staying at so we had more time there. We spent a lot of our time on the indoor climbing wall. The rocks were on all surfaces except the floor. No harnesses. Just spotters.We were told to make "spoons" out of our hands when we were spotting someone. So we jokingly said we were spooning. Aha ha...OK moving on.
For some reason there was murder scene investigation tape on the floor. No idea why. But of course I had to see if I fit.
In the morning, we got up early enough to do some real rock climbing and repelling before we had to leave. It was pretty easy but way fun.
I found a chair someone had made out of rocks at the base of the repelling rock so I volunteered to sit there and help people unharness.
We decided to change our route a little bit and make a stop at the Hunting Lodge. Before we got into the camp, Sean put on his Gandalf garb that he had been carrying the whole trek and yelled "You shall not pass!" as another crew passed by us. They just looked at him like his was completely crazy.
Thankfully there was a better reception when we got to the cabin. One of the staff members was sitting there reading The Hobbit. She looked up in amazement as Gandalf and the rest of his crew came onto the porch. "Was that you that yelled 'you shall not pass'?", she asked. "This is so surreal!" Sean proudly showed her the map and the gold ring he had been wearing on a necklace. Needless to say, her day was made. We toured Waite Phillips Hunting Lodge, the cabin Mr. Phillips built for him and his friends when they went on hunting trips.
We stopped for lunch at a shelter just off the road near Cathedral Rock. This shelter was actually for forest education. There were two men, both volunteers, who were placed there to talk about forest conservation. They said we could use there tables to eat on if they could talk to us about trees. Seemed like a fair deal. After they were done talking and we were done eating, some of us girls took a nap.
We arrived at Clarks Fork in time to be able to just hang out there for a few hours. Some of us took this advantage to take another nap. Other than that, there were board games on the porch, lassoing practice and best of all, branding. I got everything branded that I could. My boots, my nalgene, camp shoes, hat...
Sadly, we didn't get to stay at the staff camp over night. Instead, we went to one more camp ground over called Upper Clarks Fork. This was our last camp so we partied.
We got up super early so as to get a move on. We'd be sleeping in base camp that night!
We stopped at this beautiful outlook for breakfast. Pictures can't capture the magic.
We continued our hike along the mountain ridge until we got to the Tooth of Time.
We bouldered our way to the top where we enjoyed the spacious view. The best part, the weather wasn't threatening to storm on us this time! The cruel part: we could see base camp. So close. And yet still hours away.
Sean brought out yet another LOTR prop. Gollum himself had come along to see the view.
Mr. Gdanski brought a package of lemon drops because it is a little crew tradition to eat a lemon drop at the top of The Tooth.
Our eleven day trek was only a few hours from finishing. A little while after we left The Tooth, we stopped for lunch. The last of our trail meals.
We snaked down the long, gradual switchbacks as base camp slowly, very slowly, came nearer. Bushwhacking was exactly what I wanted to do at that point. Honestly, this was the hardest part of the 11 days for me. Physically the easiest it had been, but mentally very trying. Although it was probably only about two hours, if felt like the longest, most boring thing I had ever done. This is when being a runner really got in the way. I wanted to just run the last few miles but staying together was mandatory.
Finally, we hit the flat of the valley. It was a mere 10-15 minutes before we got to the hiker entrance.
Never has a welcome sign been so welcoming.
To the Welcome Center we went. Looking at those fresh campers waiting to leave on their trek was very satisfying. I laughed quietly to myself thinking, "Do they know what they're getting themselves into?". We got our tent assignments and the key to our locker.
Most of us decided to take the bus into Cimarron for dinner so we took
quick showers. Not near enough time to even make a dent in the thick
layer of dust that had basically become part of our skin. This, folks, is what they call a Philmont tan. Less of a tan, more of dirt. Lots and lots of dirt.
The bus was crowed so we had to stand. Totally worth it for the pizza. I mean, yes its pizza and that's exciting enough but after trail food, this was a feast.
I wanted to go to church since I had been on the trail that passed Sunday. I took the early bus back so I would be able to make it to sacrament meeting, which was held every night at 6 or something like that.
Closing campfire that night actually had a fire this time. A small one, but it was still the only fire I had seen this whole time. It was basically a review-congratulations-award ceremony activity.
The girls spent the rest of the night in the laundromat doing our laundry...and using the wifi. My has iPod never looked so weird. After very little technology for a week and a half, it all seemed so new. It felt like I was remembering how to use it from a previous life.
After breakfast the next morning, we found John who tagged along with us on the Villa Philmonte tour. Villa Philmonte was Waite Phillips' ranch house in the 1920s and 30s.
We took the bus back to Cimarron for lunch. This time we ate hamburgers. Very satisfying after eating a lot of canned chicken and spam.
Before we knew it, we were on the bus back to Raton train station. By now I was on about my 3579873th nap in the passed two weeks.
After stopping at a grocery store to pick up snacks for the train ride, we arrived in Raton. It was still awhile until the train would arive, so we had a chance to explore a little bit. My exploring stopped at the sandwich shop where we ate an early dinner. They had wifi. Need I say more?
The train came and we were officially home bound.
Our sister crew had been one of the other crews that had come on the same train to Philmont and were now on the train back. We had become friends with them over the last two weeks which was exciting because-more friends for the long trip home! We played an exhausting amount of mafia games and then more card games. I finally went back to my seat to sleep at a very late hour but some of the kids pulled an all nighter.
We arrived in KC that Saturday morning, very happy to be home. My whole family was there waiting for me.
Here I am entering reality again. Changed. I'm finding that getting off a large transportation vehicle means I probably just went through a life changing experience. This time was no different. My family cheerfully greeted me. We went to First Watch for breakfast and that's where elevation sickness hit. No, the elevation didn't bother me going up the mountains. It was coming back down that was my problem. I spent the rest of the day recovering and by the end of the day I was fine.
This is the back of my shirt, along with my pass port (we got a stamp at each staff camp), conservation patch and the special 75th anniversary Philmont patch.
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I almost got the opportunity to travel abroad for free. Instead, I had to pay for this experience. So, was it worth it? With no doubt in my mind, yes. In fact, I'm glad it didn't happen any other way. I felt that applying for that travel scholarship was what I was meant to do and yet I didn't didn't work out. Why? Because it helped me make the decision to go to Philmont instead.
My family has watched this video a few times recently and it explains my situation quite well. In fact, it's almost deja vu as I listen to this story. Dead ends can be one of the best teachers and door openers in life.
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*IWGBTP: I Wanna Go Back To Philmont
A big thank you to everyone who took pictures! I only took a few of the pictures above so I'm glad there were plenty of people documenting our trip.
