Philmont--Day 5

Day 5, July 3

Woke up at 5:45 AM this morning, packed all the camp gear, got the bear bags down. Left Indian Writings at 7:17 AM and started on the trail to Hart's Peak (this was the highest point of the trek so far), Danny went fast for the first time, and it was a long hike. Ate breakfast on the trail and the peak was cool. We reached the 7,979 foot peak at 10:15 and saw Mt. Baldy, Little Castilla, Tooth of Time, and the Spanish Peaks off in the distance. We had to wait for about two hours for one of the crew members to get better because he became sick from the altitude, we think. It was cool to chill on the peak and hack up there. We made it to the next camp, Ponil, after about an hour (around 12:45 PM). WE got to our campsite and pulled out our lunches and walked to the Cantina and grabbed some root beer. Then we went to ride horses, which wasn't very good but oh well. Chuck wagon dinner was okay, we hacked and saw some girls our age. Got some more root beer and rinsed clothes. Now time for sleep.

The Ponil camp is a large trail camp in Philmont and is known for its large horse stables and it's Cantina which serves scouts root beer for $0.25 a cup. A $0.25 well spent, the root beer was great. The girls we saw were apart of a Girl Scout group hiking Philmont, yes girls can hike in a Boy Scout ranch.




-Jamie

Philmont--Day 4

To those of you who are intrigued by my adventures in New Mexico or for those of you that are just casual readers, I'm very sorry for being so slow at posting these things but here is day 4!

Day 4, July 2

Woke up at 6:45 AM (MST) this morning, packed, ate, and finally left camp at 9 (very slowly). The hike was short today, 45 minutes (without stops). Got to the Indian Writings camp and had a porch talk with the staff. Four our campsite, hung the food up in the bear bags and went to the Petroglyph tour. We saw Paotie Man and some other artifacts. Ate lunch, then went and did our conservation project. Straw was everywhere. Didn't play Anasazi ball, but drank sulfur water. Chicken and mashed potatoes for dinner. We get pound cake tomorrow!

The Indian Writings camp was our second stop on our trek and it had a bunch of artifacts and drawings from an old Indian camp that lived in the valley where the camp was. It was pretty neat and here are a few pictures:

Also here is some pictures of the beautiful scenery from the hike:





























-Jamie

Philmont--Day 3

Day 3, July 1

Another 5:30 AM (MST) wake up call. Got dressed in Class A uniforms and went to breakfast. We had our "shakedown" , cleaned out our tents, and put our packs atthe welcome center. Crew picture was next, then we "hacked" at the trading post. Talked at 6 gates, after car ride about Red Roof etc. Everyone bought hackeys! Danny led us on our first 2 miles. Went at a good pace saw rattlesnake. Yay, I'm tired. Spahgetti, corn, biscuits, and cookies for dinner. Attempted to put bear bag up--sucked royally. Purified water from a creek and it's not too bad. Campfire--"Thorns and Roses" and "Outdoor Stories". Time for bed.

Tent City and Red Roof Inns (AKA Bathrooms)

-Jamie

Philmont--Day 2

Day 2, June 30

5:30 AM (CST) wake up call this morning. Put our sleeping bags and maps up, got dressed and all that jazz. Ate donuts and raisins, with OJ for breakfast. We left Amarillo a little after 7 AM (CST) and reached the TX/NM border a few minutes after 9 AM (CST). Made a gas stop and got back on the road to Philmont. Made it to Philmont 15 minutes after 11 AM (MST). Unloaded the packs and me out Ranger, <--Cory.He's really tight, and talked to this girl Nicole at the Trading Post. Today was a hurry-up and wait day. The bathrooms are nice and because of the thin air, our skin should clear up? Danny got an awesome hat. We played a name game and called our mommies. Camp fire is tonight. We leave at 1 PM (MST) tomorrow. Danny is stupid and whipped still, even after Haley broke up with him. We picked up food and gear today; tomorrow will be the "shakedown." Dinner consisted of Chicken Fried Steak, mashed potatoes, a roll, corn and one of the best brownie's ever (according to Danny). Went to a Catholic Chapel service (saw people from different states, including New Jersey). Went to campfire, it was decent. Then we went to the "cantina" (snack bar) chilled and "hacked" (played hacky sack) for a while with Cory. Took shower, now going to bed.

-Jamie

Philmont--Day 1

In the summer of 2005, I trekked across northeastern New Mexico in the Philmont Boy Scout Ranch. Here is a bit of history behind the ranch: Philmont land was first donated to the Boy Scouts of America in 1938 from Waite Phillips who was a wealthy oil magnate and wilderness enthusiast who amassed much of the land from grants in the 1920s. Since then, the ranch has amassed about 127,000 acres of beautiful wilderness. Scouts travel in groups of 7-10 people and cover between 50 and 100 miles. I was apart of Trek 630H1 and hiked itinerary 3. We (Me, Danny Lutz, and J.C. Francis) traveled with a group of scouts from Troop 874 because our troop, 753, did not "win" a spot at Philmont. I will find a map and trace my route as soon as I can. I know it has been two years since then, but during the trek Danny Lutz (good friend and fellow Eagle Scout) and I kept a little journal of our daily adventures. So, here is the 10 day journal with all the details. I will differentiate Danny and myself with different colors.

Day 1, June 29

Got to the church a little before 8 AM (CST). Waited for everyone to arrive, then we loaded up and headed out. Danny, J.C. Francis, and I rode in a van so we were able to bring a TV and some DVD's along with us. Today, we watched Pulp Fiction and Old School About an hour or so (approx.) a tire on the trailer blew out. Luckily we had a spare, so the adult leaders quickly changed it and we were on our way. We stopped at a highway rest stop to eat lunch at about 12 PM (CST). At about 30 minutes after 4 PM (CST), we arrived in Amarillo and found Boy Scout Troop 80's "troop hut." The hut was a large room that serviced as a meeting room for the troop and they rented it out to other scout troops on their way to Philmont, because Scouting rules do not permit more than a certain amount of travel hours in a day. We ate dinner at Cici's pizza and then returned back to the "hut" where a fencing meeting was taking place. Since we had free time to kill, we watched the people fencing, played Foosball, air hockey, pool, and cards until about 10 PM (CST). Lights out was at about 10:30 PM (CST), so we all got ready for bed but most of us didn't get to sleep until after 11:30 PM (CST). That's all for today, bye for now.

More tomorrow. Thanks for reading.

-Jamie

Summer is here

I am so glad to be out of school and back at home with nothing to do--for now. I am in search of a job right now. I could go back to Boston Market, but I would like to try to work somewhere else. I have applied for a job at the Angelika theater in Plano and that would be a very cool job for me to have. Besides trying to get a job, I don't have anything to do right now. Summer classes start the 4th of June and then end on the 3rd of July and it's M-Th for 2 hours, so it shouldn't be too bad.

Besides school and work, I'm gonna get a new phone this summer but I'm not quite sure which one I want. A smart phone would be nice because it'll let me access my email and the internet but some of the new "dumb" phones look pretty interesting. I need help, if you have a new-ish phone and you like it a lot, please tell me what it is so I can do some research on it. That's about it for now, summer is starting off slow, which isn't a bad thing because I'm sure it will start flying by before I know it.

-Jamie

Gov't Mule--Cain's Ballroom, Tulsa

Sorry it has been so long since I wrote last, I was bogged down with finals and such. Well, the Wednesday before finals (5/2) Trevor (friend and next-door neighbor from OU) and I drove out to Tulsa to catch Gov't Mule's only show in Oklahoma. We arrived at about 7:20 PM and waited around outside till the doors opened up at 8 PM. There was hardly anyone in the ballroom when we went in so we got pretty fantastic spots on the floor. Before the show, I looked on the Cain's Ballroom website (link) and found out it was "college student night" or something like that and the band was gonna hand out a bag of free goodies if you presented a college ID. So, I went to the merchandise table and picked up my bag of goodies which included a Gov't Mule Koozie, Pen, and Post-it notes!! Here's a picture of the stuff:


Trevor decided to wait till the end of the show to get his bag, but unfortunately they ran out of stuff. However, he did get one of the drummer's, Matt Abts, drumsticks. So after I got my stuff, we watched as the ballroom filled up and waited until the band was ready to go. Finally about about 9:15 PM the band came out and starting to jam. This was my first concert experience ever so it was pretty amazing. Since we were so close to the stage I was about 6 feet away from the famous Warren Haynes. Here is the link to the wiki on Warren Haynes. I was able to take some great pictures of the show because I was so close to the stage:

Warren Haynes

Matt Abts

Andy Hess

Danny Louis

This was an awesome show and even with this being my first show I could tell it was pretty awesome. To those people who are concert veterans, I'm sure this show would have blown you out of the water, it was that good. All of this "new" music that I have been listening to lately has been pretty awesome as well. The Allman Brothers Band, The Grateful Dead and Gov't Mule are all spectacular performers and it is easy to hear in any of their live recordings. If you want any of their stuff live, it's free and I can point you in the right direction. We ended up getting back to the dorm at about 2:30AM but it was well worth it, I'm just now catching back up with sleep because the night after this concert I went and saw the premiere of Spiderman 3, which is pretty good btw--go see it. I leave with some more of my favorite pictures from the show, if you want to see anymore, just post a comment or whatever and I'll get them too you.

-Jamie

I like Digg

I like Digg, please don't kill it. The founders have stopped taking HD-DVD stories so stop posting them. Why must people always ruin the good things in life?

Mayday

It's already May and I have a week left of school. Again, the end of my first year of college is almost over. I can not believe how fast this year has gone by. Although, it has been a very great year and I have lots of memories to take from it. Oklahoma has been a great place for me this past year. The atmosphere around here is awesome especially for sports. This year I have turned into a Women's Basketball fanatic, who'd thunk it. I'm not gonna lie, I can't wait for summer but I think next year is going to be even better.


In other news, the Mavericks staved off elimination thanks to Dirk's two 3-pointers and a monster block at the end of the game. Can the Mavs stop the Warriors in the next two games? I think they can, especially after this game. This has been a great series no matter what, but seriously if the Warriors (8th seed) beat the Mavs (1st seed) I think I might cry and I'm not even a crazy, fanatical fan. Don't get me wrong I love the Mavs but I don't keep up with them during the regular season. For one, I'm in Oklahoma and I don't get to see many games. Second, the season is 80 games long and its so hard to keep up with everything that is going on, so I get my daily dose of Mavs from Sportscenter. I'm pulling all the way for the Mavs, lets see if they can do it.

Last Saturday, Adrian Peterson was drafted number seven overall by the Minnesota Vikings in the NFL Draft. I hope and think that this will be a great place for AD (Adrian's nickname "All Day") to start off is pro career. Some pro football analysts think that he will be the Rookie of the Year. That'll be a tough feat considering JaMarcus Russell and Calvin Johnson will be getting a whole lot of playing time. AD was a great player for OU and I know that he will be an amazing professional. The Vikings practically added the entire OU football fan base to their fan base, so good job Vikings--heh.

That's all I've got for now, I'll try to post more but with finals coming up it might be a while in between posts

-Jamie