The last month before Philmont. Whoa. Eighteen months of prep comes down to this … the final run-up to Philmont. Whoa. It’s hard to believe – even now – that it’s actually happening. Part of me kept expecting reality to snatch away the football at the last minute, but here we are, almost at the … Read more
April and May are a blur. To recap, in January and February, four members of our crew decide not to go to Philmont. In March, we teamed up with another crew in New Jersey, giving us a total of 13 members. We didn’t join up with a crew though; we joined up with a Patriot’s … Read more
The Trail to Philmont started moving a lot faster – and got a lot more real – in March 2021. As I mentioned in the February update, during the winter we lost four members of our crew to COVID concerns. That left us with six participants, and two below the minimum crew size of eight. … Read more
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 motivated, and it got harder when subsequent storms dumped more snow on our region. At … Read more
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. on Jan. 1, 2020. I lost 21 lbs, dropping to 200 lb. by early Fall … Read more
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 at campsites next to the Millbroad Road Trailhead. On Saturday, we hiked from the Millbrook … Read more
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 Mexico. We were supposed to go in late-June/early July 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced … Read more
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 hike on the Rattlesnake Swamp Trail and Appalachian Trail (AT) in Delaware Water Gap National … Read more
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 will be virtual. That said, this is very much a journey-before-destination sort of thing, so … Read more
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 by June; it became staying motivated when that trip is now more than a year … Read more