On The Rugged Road with Troop 617 in Poway: 08/01/2012

Friday, August 31, 2012

Poway Days Kick Off

Our troop was one of a couple of troops asked by the Poway Chamber of commerces to help present the flags at the opening ceremony of Poway Days 2012.

Here are a couple of pictures.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Hi every one, I've been a bit lazy abut getting things onto the blog, and I am sorry these pictures of the boys at are so late. Philmont

Saturday, August 25, 2012

We all woke up for the first morning on the trail, and I remember feeling extremely groggy. I now remember it as the slowest moving morning, but at the time it felt like we were booking it. We filled waters, packed up, and got on the trail. I was still getting used to my pack and how heavy it was with food, so I was glad it was a fairly short hike day. We went past our friend we met the day before at the forest conservation booth, past the hunting lodge, and up to window rock. The view was great up there and it was cool because Coach talked to us about protecting the wild. We ate lunch and climbed on the rocks and then we were soon on our way to Cimmaroncito. We arrived at Cimmaroncito around four. After we set up camp, we went to go free climbing inside the hang out, raided the swap box, and returned back to camp. Before we left the porch though, we were informed that there was a mountain lion sighting near our camp. We returned to camp and for the rest of the evening, it was the “buddy system” . This was the worst for me when Justin had to use the bathroom and wash his hands before we went to sleep. So, we took precautionary measures and armed ourselves with sticks and a flashlight, and ventured out to the spigot. Nothing really happened, but I heard rustling in the bushes around us multiple times.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Another day at Philmont

Philmont is a place of firsts and dreams come true.

By Ben Roderick

As a scout you do things that you thought you would never do. Such as getting up at 3:30 in the morning to hike 15 miles. Half of it at about a 20% grade, this was called BLADY MOUNTIAN. During this hike there were two teams, the “Urgals” and “Eragon”.

Team Eragon was to get to a clearing to ambush the Urgals. So we left an hour early because we were slower. The Urgals unfortunately caught up with the valiant team Eragon. It was a glorious “battle”. But we lost. When we finally made it the clearing with a small hill, we met our sister crew from North Carolina.

Their scoutmaster was a fine southern gentleman with an amazing accent. I personally think that this phrase will go down in troop 617 history. “CARL GET ON DOWN HERE!!!!!!!” is the iconic phrase. Since there was a hill, J, Matt, and Zac had to climb it. J decided to tie a shirt to a staff and called it a flag. They ran up that hill. They claimed it for troop 617. Then we summited the intrepid monster known as Baldly. There, Mr. Adams gave Kyler a big hug and then we ate lunch. After lunch we went back into the two groups, and trekked to the Baldly town food pickup.

When we finally got back to camp we played a game called logger ball which is the same as baseball. While the kids were away the adults cooked dinner. This is one day from the place of dreams, Philmont.

More tales from Philmont

Philmont day 3 of itinerary

by Matt Adams

We had woken up after staying the night at cathedral rock, the air is cool and smells of ponderosa pines. Off in the distance we can see a large mass of rock sticking out of the nearby mountain, Coach tells us that it is called cathedral rock and we will be climbing up to it today. We start the day slowly, pumping water and eating breakfast, which is still bland. As we set off on the trail Coach stops us to show us how to use the katadyn tablets and how to bleed the threads properly. As we start up the steep uphill out of camp we continuously hear Justin talking about transformers and Ben’s attempts at singing. We get up on top of the hill and onto a road leading to the hunting lodge; we take a break here and take a drink. We notice that Coach has not let the katadyn tablets work long enough to take its full effect on the water, we question if he will be alright or if he will be in the red roof for the rest of the day.!

When we continue again we hike on a rugged trail following every contour of the mountain with a lot of ups and downs all along being able to see a smooth flat road no more than 10 feet away and being tempted to just walk on the road but Coach keeps us on the trail. About 10 minutes later we again cross with the road and yet again take off away from the road, as we hike on Justin has joined Ben in singing.

We continue on and we begin to hear some complaining and arguing between a few scouts, it escalates to yelling and shoving. As the fighting dies down we come up on the nature lodge, where jut yesterday we had received a wonderful talk about forestry from a man named Sam, who seems to be one of Coach’s closer friends. We take yet another break here but only for a moment to figure out where we are going, I as the navigator sort out where we are and where we need to go, but am still pestered by constant criticism from other scouts that believe I am incompetent with the task of guiding us.

We come up on the road that leads up to the hunting lodge again and I direct us to head back down the road towards the nature lodge, as I announce this I am again assaulted with remarks of criticism from the other scouts. We go down the road and come across the trail we are supposed to take and we head up it. We are shortly confronted by a fork in the road and another crew coming from the left, we ask them where they are heading and then inform them that they are heading the wrong way. Once we start up the hill again we come across the large mass of rock we were able to see from camp and we take a break to take some photos from the top of the rock.

We continue to climb up the hill, we continue towards window rock where we will stop for lunch. Once we arrive at window rock we rejoice as this will be the highest point we will go today. Before we eat lunch Coach gives us a speech about how he came to Philmont and how much he loves this land and what we can do to help preserve it. During lunch a couple scout climb on top of the large rock, most of us just sat down in the shade of the rock. Lunch that day was crackers and squeeze cheese, with a cliff mojo bar and some pecan cookies.

During lunch we talked with another crew with many stories, one of which being that their wilderness pledge guia had killed a Mini-Bear. When we finish lunch we begin to walk away from window rock, Justin realizes that he had left his bandana on top of the rock, he drops his pack and runs back to get it.

The rest of the trail was mostly downhill until we came close to camp. Right before camp we had about 10 switchbacks we had to climb then walk down into camp. When we walk up to the porch we are told to drop our packs and come up to receive our porch talk. Once we are given our campsite number we walk down the road towards camp. We come up to fork in the road and we turn left, after some time of walking I am again assault with more criticism, Not 2 minutes later we arrive at camp and begin to set it up!

We Finish setting up camp and then walk down to the rock climbing gym to have some fun. When go in we are suddenly blasted with loud rock music, which after 2 days of hearing scouts sing is a pleasant treat. We rock climb for about 2 hours, within the first 30 minutes a couple scouts and I take on one of the easier courses. Towards the end of the course I had made a wrong step and ended up in a bad position to finish the course, I decided to jump for the end and hang there as we were instructed to do to finish a course; I sat there swinging for 10 seconds before I let myself down. There was another course most of our crew had attempted called hangtime, it required us to literally crawl across the ceiling, needless to say only 2 scouts had managed to finish it and the rest came close. As we returned to camp we were told that there was a mountain lion hanging around campsite 25, we were in campsite 23. We went on normally for the rest of the day, Ate dinner, cleaned up and went to bed. The one thing that struck us that day was at the end of the day, When we all realized that Coach would leave us tomorrow.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

The Fast and the Furious

My dream of going home and seeing all my friends was scattered abruptly by a tapping on my tent. It was 4:00 am, and today was the day that we were to summit Baldy. the troop was divided into two groups, the Urgles and Team Eragon.

Eragon went first about 30 minutes earlier. As the Urgles left, the sun was about to peek over the mountains. I was the pacesetter, and we took off at a furious rate, scrambling up the base, resting only to drink and eat occasionally. It was hard work, and it was even harder when about a third of the way up was switchbacks only. I ran back down the mountain alone to retrieve a forgotten nalgene bottle.

Only about an hour or so into the hike, we caught up with team Eragon. We let them go ahead, only to catch up with them again. That time, we passed them and went on up to the meadow, about 600 feet below the summit. We stopped here for a while, and once everyone had caught up I decided to exhaust myself even further and run up a hill at the meadow to admire the view. The lack of oxygen was rather discouraging, seeing as I collapsed after sprinting about 10 paces. However, me and Kyler decided to go on ahead and start the Zenith. It was harder than I could have imagined, with the angle of the slope being almost 75 degrees the entire time. I passed Kyler along the way, and pushed myself to almost the breaking point. However, when I was only 10 paces away from the peak strangers started cheering for me and told me to run. So, I sprinted to the top of Baldy and fell, gasping for air, seeing the indescribable view spin before my eyes.

The Campfire

We arrived at the Pueblano Campfire at around 8pm. There is a good sized crowd of people there, some of whom we know from the trail and others we've never seen before. The campfire is started off with a song by the Pueblano boys and the mood is set for our cheerful, yet serious evening. As the evening progresses, song and laughter fill the cool summer air. The Pueblano boys seem to have a talent for taking us from side aching laughter to edge of your seat captivation by their stories. As the campfire winds to an end the crowd begins to thin and the songs become more somber. We wait as long as we can to capture just one more song to remember the Pueblano boys campfire by.

"I AM THOR"

When I first joined the troop we all slept outside so on the last day of the trip I slept outside. At first it was clear, then it got cloudy then the thunder started. Flash! BOOM! and this went on four hours, then it started sprinkling so I covered my face.

A while later Mr. Gamble yelled out - over the gale, "Zach! Get outta the rain!" So, I strolled over into the rain fly and the next morning we joked about it and Mr. G said, he thought a lightning bolt almost struck a tree within 20 feet of our camp. He said he looked over and saw me sleeping soundly with the rain pouring down onto my sleeping bag. I AM THOR.

"Caaarl, Git Down Here"

After hiking all morning and about to ascend Baldy's steepest section, the air was thin, patience was thinner, the sun was burning overhead. We all lied down to take a break, have a snack, and hydrate. Sitting on a log with the air crystal clear, suddenly a scream, "Caaaaarllll! Git down here! It's time to climb the mountain!" the southern accent was thick as molasses. Cracked me up. I laughed off my...

See a video of the after affects at:
http://www.facebook.com/gregory.adams.108#!/photo.php?v=10151035074564527