In June of 2009 my friends and I set out on the greatest adventure of our lives. We had been planning and saving for almost a year in order to go on this expensive and demanding excursion. Our excitement for this trip had been boiling over ever since we had first made reservations to Philmont back in 2008. In my mind it would be the perfect camping trip and I'm pretty sure that's what everyone one in our group was expecting. So it was just our luck that the first night on the trail we had to sleep right in the middle of a raging thunder storm! To make matters worse we really weren't that good at setting up our Philmont-issued tents yet. The ends of the tent were suppose to be staked into the ground to create the tension that held the whole thing up, but my tent buddy Caleb and I felt that there was no point in carrying around the extra weight for 2 weeks so we made due with several large rocks that were laying about the camp site. It wasn't the best idea cause the rocks slowly slide inward releasing the tension which resulted in a sad droopy tent.

So there we were at the bottom of a wooded ravine, it was the first of 8 camp sites that we would occupy over the next 10 days. Everyone was just settling in for the night when it happened. An earsplitting boom shock the night and almost made me jump out of my sleeping bag. It didn't feel like any thunderstorm I had ever experienced. It wasn't till the second lightening strike that I realized what was up. The sky was lighting up at the exact same moment as the thunder boom! The lightening was striking the top of the ravine!I don't think that I've been that scared since. Whenever I had been in a storm before that I could always count at least 6 seconds in between the light and the sound. That means that the actually lightening bolts were quite a few miles away and that the chances of getting struck were pretty slim. That night at Philmont I knew that my chances of getting struck were higher that ever so I did the only thing I could think of, I cured up in my sleeping bag and shut my eyes. I actually manged to get some sleep except for a few times when I accidentally kicked something hard and round.

In the morning everything was soaked. The thunder had brought with it a heavy rain that seeped into our poorly assembled tent which had miraculously withstood the wind and the rain. Unfortunately Drew and Cameron weren't so lucky. Their tent had collapsed some time in the night prompting Drew to seek refuge from the storm in mine and Caleb's tent. It turns out that it was Drew's head that I had been kicking in the night. As for Cameron we found him tangled inside the fallen tent we all of their stuff and a decent amount of rain water. Needless to say the day had started out crappy and their was a general feeling of misery in the air. Not only were our cloths and packs weighed down with rain water but we had a 9 mile hike through the mud to look forward to. It was in that moment when things were getting tough that we decided that we were gonna make the most of it. We realized that we had invested too much into this trip to go through it with poor attitudes. We decided to be happy then and not wait for things to get better and that made all the difference. I believe that's true in life too.

I love to camp. Camping is at the top of my list of favorites next to food and girls. It's not just the sleeping outdoors and enjoying nature aspect of it that I find appealing, but also the many activities that are available while roughen it in the backwoods. Exploring caves, climbing trees, and hunting small animals are all things I like to do while camping. There are also other things that require more time and equipment that make for great camp activities, like shooting firearms and rock climbing. Now I've been camping since as far back as I can remember, with the scouts, my family, or just a small group of my friends. Most of those trips only included a portion of the previously mentioned activities that I so enjoy......... except one. It's called Philmont Scout Ranch and it's the mother load of all camping destinations. It's the boy scout capitol of the world, located in the mountains of northern New Mexico that thousands of avid campers flock to each year. It takes all of the coolest parts of camping and rolls them into a two week backpacking adventure that would blow your mind! (Unless you don't love camping , in which case you can go ahead and stop reading this blog right now. Shun the nonbeliever!) It's so awesome that literally every third memory that pops into my brain is from my Philmont adventure three years ago. I had to throw out an entire year of 7^th grade social studies to make sure I keep those precious memories at the forefront of my mind. What made Philmont 251extra special to me were the people that were there with me. Rex Self, my older brother was there along with my two favorite cousins Drew Shumway and Cameron Allred plus one of my best friends Caleb Layden. I don't always get along with my brother but I'm sure glad that we were able to share in that fun experience together. I haven't hung out with any of those guys since and not reminisced about our time together at good o'Philmont. The stories never get old even though they've been retold countless time. You know when someone tells a story and then no one laughs so they say “ you had to be there”, well this isn't one of those times. These stories are funny and entertaining to anyone, unless you hate camping then I would ask that you please review the fine print above. I've been meaning to write down my experiences from Philmont for a while now but I could never find the time. Now I record these stories and share them with you at the same time as I receive college credit! And with all of these memories written down I can finally have room in my noggin for the Periodic Table of Elements or the names of books from the Canon of Literature. It can't get any better than this! Each week I plan on writing a few of my adventures and sharing them with you. I hope you enjoy.