Philmont

Several years ago, in the summer of 2007, a couple Boy Scout friends and I went down to New Mexico. The reason we went down there was Philmont Scout Ranch. Philmont is a scout camp located in the mountains of New Mexico. While scouts are there, they hike around in the mountains to different camps that the people have set up down there. There are plenty of awesome things to experience down there. It is a very well set up scout camp that I would love to go to again.
The first day you get there isn't very exciting. You spend the whole time at base camp. In this time at base camp, you do a few different things. First of all, you have meetings. In these meetings, you assign the leader of the trek from your group. Generally this person should be a good leader and and if they have any background of Philmont that pretty much puts them first on the list for the leader. In our group there was only one person who had been to Philmont before. So, yes, he was our leader.
After these meetings, the next thing you do is make sure everyone one is eligible to go still. Once more, everybody has their weight and height checked. There are certain slot limits for weight within height limits. This is just a safety precaution. When everybody clears those, then it is time to get the gear. The gear includes everything you'll need from tents to food to the utinsels you'll need to cook that food with. Then we also had our bags weighed and were told what things we should bring and what we shouldn't bring. Every single ounce is crucial.
The second day is also another slow day. You wait around base camp alot until it is time for your trek to head out. It seems like a very long wait and can be quite boring. When your trek finally gets out on the trail, there is a ranger along with you. They start you out with a very easy day. My first day was only 2 miles of hiking. Then we set up camp.
For the next week or maybe even a little more, we spend hiking around to different places. We had a 12 day trek. The first and last day were spent at base camp. The other 10 were up in the mountains. We got to see many interesting things. My favorite was probably the toughest hike of them all, but well worth it. It was hiking up Mount Baldy. Mount Baldy is about 12,441 ft. We started out in the campsite Miranda that morning. The hike totaled about 13 miles that day. With alot of steep climbing. When you got on top of that mountain, it was an awesome sight.
In the end, we totaled about 84 miles of hiking. The last day of the trek was spent in base camp. We turned all the equipment back in, washed our pots and pans, had a bonfire, and then headed back to the tent for the night. The next morning we had everything packed up and headed back to Minnesota.
If I had the chance to go back again, I would. It was a very wonderful experience and I would love to do it again. If anybody ever has the chance to go I would tell them they should. If you don't try to make fun out of it, it won't be. So go and enjoy it. It's an awesome time and it is beautiful country.