Our Philmont Experience: Cross Timbers Trail

Today we got a real taste of what it would be like at Philmont. Several scouts from our Philmont Crew and 3 scouts working on 2nd class and the hiking merit badge took a hike at Cross Timbers Trail under the direction of Mr. Mullins. This is the first time that the boys and I got to try out our backpacks. We had them loaded at 20-25 lbs. The weather was in the high 30's low 40's and it was windy. The nice thing is that the sun was shining.

This was a tough trail. It had alot of ups and downs, but the most difficult part is that the trails were washed out in places so there were alot of tree roots and rocks exposed on the trail.

The good news was that we all made it. Though, there was complaining by some of being hungry and wanting lunch about 1 hour after we started the hike. The designated crew leader (Mike L) kept them on the path. He did a great job at leading us, and only had a couple of times of having no idea where we were on the trail.

At lunch Mr. Mullins had the boys play two team building games. The boys had a good time with it, though would not admit it.

I personally strained the muscle in my lef knee so going down the hills was painful for me on the last 5 miles of the trip. I discovered I do need to wear my knee braces for hiking as I do for skiing. Also my GPS died in the middle of the trip, so I need to monitor it better to see if I just had bad batteries, or there is an issue with the unit.

We ended up doing 11+ miles, had no major injuries, had no lost scouts, began the team building process so it was a successful day.

Some pictures at lunch are included below.