Back to Normal

Just 1 week after I visited the Dr., I am feeling like new.

My aunt asked me if I had a good time and I said yes. She asked if I would to it again, and I said yes.

After the hike

I have had a bit of a tough time since the hike. The first days after the hike my legs felt like they were going to burst. I think it was the fact of the sudden no exercise, and the decrease in elevation.

The next couple of days my right knee began to swell, and I had pain through my whole leg. I went to the orthopedist, and the good news is that I don't have any major damage. I have water on the knee from overuse. I received a steroid shot in my knee and a sleeve to help with the swelling. I am also putting it up and putting ice on it.

I think that it will just take a bit of time to get back to normal.

Photos of Trek

You can find all of the photos I took of our Philmont tip at the following link -

http://picasaweb.google.com/KarenPlanoPics/2009Philmont?authkey=Gv1sRgCJCg_Jnltu3TTw#

I hope to get the photos from the other photographers and create a DVD. If you have photos, get them to me.

Thanks.

On our way home

From Journal -

I woke up at 4:40 am. I was cold most of the night since I didn't use my sleeping bag. The boys all made it to the continental breakfast at 5:454 am, on time after making a pack line at the Welcome Center. Breakfast was a pastry, fruit and juice/coffee. It was enough to keep us until lunch in Amarillo at the Golden Corral.

Lunch was nice. The place was huge and was able to handle all of us and their regular crowd. All of the boys filled themselves. I had a salad (good to have some fresh greens) and a little bit of different types of dishes.

I think that lunch took a bit longer than planned, since we were not allowed off the bus on 6 hours back to Dallas. We stopped in Whitcha Falls for a driver rest, and we were a bit upset we could not get out. However, they did provide water for us, so we were ok.

We got back to the Council Center at 8 pm. It was great to see our loved ones. Unloading of the buss was easy, and after out "after" picture we all headed our separate ways home.

This will be a trip that we will not soon forget.

Our last day on the trail

From Journal -

It is our last day on the trail, and it is also our our our scouts' 15th birthday. The crew wanted to head out of camp by 6 am to beat our sister crew down to Cito TurnAround. Our crew leader signed us out of camp at 6:20 am. The hike started out with a steep climb. The whole hike was a little more strenuous that we had anticipated. But we made it in about 2 1/2 hours and we did beat our sister crew, but not by much.

When we got down we celebrated by shooting of Alka-Seltzer rockets and singing happy birthday. Mr Culver also got to lighten his load a couple of pounds by giving the birthday boy a 2 lb bag of M&Ms.

The little yellow bus came to pick us up and we all cheered!

Back at base camp they were very well prepared for us and the checking back-in process went very smoothly.

We were all very excited to use the flushing toilets, eat real food and take a hot shower using real soap and shampoo. I also did some clothes washing so that we would have something clean to wear at the campfire and for the trip back home on the bus. A storm blew through and it even hailed. I was happy to be in the protection of the laundromat.

For dinner we treated ourselves to a dinner in Cimarron at the St. James Hotel. It had just reopened after a renovation and had a very nice dining room. Most of us had 1/2 lb cheeseburger. The staff was all very nice and appreciative to see us.

After dinner we walked into town but all of the shops were closed (it was approx 6 pm). The Cream-ee ice cream shop was open so Mr. Culver treated the crew. The place was really slow and I didn't even get mine before we had to leave to catch the bus back to Philmont. We thought we had missed the bus, but it actually came late.

Back at camp we prepared for the early departure tomorrow. At 8:30 pm we headed to the closing campfire. It was a very nice program. We got to bed at about 9:45 pm.

To Harlan

From Journal -

Today was a very nice morning. The boys were to wake up at 6 am to leave camp by 7. I anticipated our hike to be 5-6 hours. We left w/o eating breakfast a little after 7 am.

The hike out was a bear. It was about 500' climb in 1 mile. I had a very hard time to keep up, and had a hard time to breathe. The boys were nice to wait for me :-). We had breakfast once we reached the top of the mountain.

After breakfast we were a bit confused because the trail sigh to Harlan did not match the trail on the map. Our navigator decided we should follow the map and we all agreed.

It was very evident that the trial had not been used in quite awhile. We continued on and after awhile the trial disappeared. It took us awhile to figure out were we were on the map. Thank goodness we had the GPS.

We had to make our way down a ravine over boulders, over a fence and then back up to the road we were supposed to be on . This caused us about 1.5 miles and 2.5 hours added to our hike.

We finally got to Harlan. The leader of the camp was very entertaining. They had coffee at all times on the porch. They also had alot of games for the boys to play.

The activity here is shotgun shooting and reloading. We skipped the reloading and went straight to shooting. I was happy, because I even hit 3 out of 5 clays.

We had a great campsite - #3. It reminded us of Slippery Falls because it had alot of rocks to climb and sit on. We decided not to go to the burro racing. Instead we celebrated the birth of our country with RWB glow lights and by singing patriotic hymns.

On to Dean Cow

From Journal -

I had a great night's sleep. The ground was flat and the temp was just right. The boys wanted to leave camp by 7 am so that we could get to Dean Cow before 9 am to get in the rock climbing.

The boys did a very good job at accomplishing this. We even had time to eat some breakfast before we left.

The hike was a very easy 3.7 miles downhill. We got into camp at about 8:30 am (first ones in). We set u[p camp just before it began to rain. The boys did rock climbing at 10 am. Another scout and I washed clothes and showered (a great treat).

The boys were not that thrifty when it came to showers and clothes washing. An advisor from another crew was very rude about it. They unfortunately were camped right next to us, and so I avoided them when I could.

The advisors coffee was nice. We talked with the advisors of our sister crew. The boys tried to break the wall climbing record of 10 seconds. They also played several volleyball games.

Beautiful sky

Today we also did an exercise to try to get the boys to understand the impact of negative comments. Each person filled 2 Nalgenes and all were placed into a backpack. The boys then felt how heavy it was. We then went around the group to say positive/nice comments, and removed the Nalgenes. Some very nice things were said. I hope it works, and wish we would have done it earlier in the trek. But I guess better late than never.

Tomorrow it is our 8+ mile hike. I hope my knee will hold up. Almost time to go home.