January and February of 2021 were tough. The short days, the post-Christmas/holidays pandemic surge, and walls of snow from a 3+ foot blizzard made this one of the hardest stretches on the trail to Philmont. It was hard to stay[…]
Read more
Category: Trail to Philmont
Trail to Philmont – Year’s End
After a year on the trail to Philmont, it’s time to take a look back at where I’ve been, where I am, and where I’m going. Weight-wise, I’m near my goal of 195. I started the trail at 221 lbs.[…]
Read more
Trail to Philmont – September 2020
After one false start and two 5-mile primer day hikes, our Philmont crew finally went on an extended backpacking trip. We did a two-day hike in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area in New Jersey. Friday night we stayed[…]
Read more
The Trail to Philmont
In January 2020, my son and I started on the trail to Philmont – a six-month training project aimed at developing the strength, endurance, and skills needed for a 12-day, 60-mile backpacking trek at Philmont Scout Rank in Cimarron, New[…]
Read more
The Trail to Philmont, July/August 2020
After six months on the trail to Philmont … we finally got on the trail. In August, we went hiking twice: first a 5-mile day hike on the Monocacy Creek Trail in Bethlehem, Pa., then a more rigorous 5-mile day[…]
Read more
The Trail to Philmont, June 2020
The long, winding trail to Philmont continued in June as I launched into training for a 10K race. I don’t have a particular race in mind, and given the state of the COVID-19 world, it’s likely any race I do[…]
Read more
The Trail to Philmont, May 2020
May started with our trip to Philmont being canceled. We moved our reservation to 2021 in the hopes that we’ll be able to travel (and hike) by then. The challenge used to be getting ready for a 60-mile backpacking trip[…]
Read more
The (Extended) Trail to Philmont, April 2020
April was the countdown to the inevitable. We knew mid-month that Philmont Scout Ranch would update their COVID-19 strategy on May 1 and that announcement could mean the end to our 2020 backpacking trek. Throughout April, NeutronLad and I maintained[…]
Read more
The Trail To Philmont, March 2020
We started actively training for our big 12-day backpacking trip to Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico in January, and got into a good groove in February. And then everything changed. During the first half of the month, we maintained our regime of working[…]
Read more
The Trail to Philmont, February 2020
I expect to learn a lot on the Trail to Philmont. In February, I learned that if you run a lot … you need to periodically buy new running shoes. I bought my Hokas when I started running again after[…]
Read more