My father was recently in the hospital for some surgery. While recovering he was in the room with Chris Simonetti, a fellow scouter. My pap came home joking that he needed to take his trader patches in so they could swap some patches. I realized that my dad can’t even go to the hospital without being somehow involved in scouting.

Here is a list of everyone we met along the way and the names of our crew members:

Advisors: Don Walters
               Julie Sutsko
               DJ Walters
Members: Charlie McKarchy (crew leader)
                 Jared Wagner
                 Wyatt Wagner
                 Cody Cooper
                 Robert Bowersox
                 Michael Cavanaughal (chaplian)
                 Tiffany Bollman
                  Kelli Walters
Ranger: Trent Mullett (Florida)
Pueblano boys: Karl Sparks (Archy)
                        Jared Wicker (Oscar)
                        Frankie Shako Dioguardi (Frank)
                        Andrew Brownele

Travel day 5

Friday, July 31st, 2009

Pittsburg-Lewistown. Finally home!

We'll be at Lewistown around 11. We got into Pittsburg around 5. I slept the whole way from Chicago to Pittsburg. It was so nice to relax and catch up on some much needed sleep.

And as Greenday's "Good Ridence" plays in our minds, our 16 day journey finally ends here.

"And I hope you've had the time of your life...."

Travel day 4

Thursday, July 30th, 2009

Chicago-Pittsburg

We got to Chicago on time. I've read 127 pages of my book from Raton to Chicago. I finally got a Chicago sweatshirt. and charged my Ipod. It's been a smoother ride this time. Next stop: Pittsburg, Pa

Travel day 3


Wednesday, July 29th, 2009

Base Camp-Raton Train Station

Well, today we leave. We didn’t get the chance to go into Cimarron but we saw the Villa and the Seaton Museum.

We got to see Trent before we loaded up on the bus to go the Raton. We had pizza from a local delivery pizza place. Trent brought us Oatmeal Crème Pies. We compacted 2.5 pizza boxes into the oatmeal box. It was packed full! Our bus comes at 3 to take us to Raton. And our train comes at 5:45. So we have an hour to waste in Raton.

GPS stats: (Around Base Camp) : 4.39 mi

Thorn: Leaving Philmont

Rose: Having a great day at Base Camp before having to leave. And pizza with Trent

Bud: Safely getting home

Trail day 11


Tuesday, July 28th, 2008

Flume Canyon to Ponil-Base Camp

GPS Stats: Mileage: 6.98 mi

Today is a short 3 mile day. Wyatt Wagner got kicked by Cracker 3 times and Zeus stepped on my foot while we were packing them.

We got to Ponil today and then another ¼ mile to Ponil turnaround. We got root beer at Ponil and played some horse shoe. Linda, our bus driver back to base camp was a crazy driver. We hit a mud puddle and the back tires were off the ground. I probably went 6 inches out of my seat. DJ and I hiked the last 3 miles of our trek in our FiveFingers. It was ok as long as we avoided the huge, sharp rocks, mud puddles, and the burrows feet.

Back at base camp we got some free time. I spent $140 at Tooth of Time Traders not including what I spent before hitting the trial. We (Tiff, DJ, and I) got some wash done and cleaned everyones class A’s. After that was finished Tiff and I went for a shower. It was so nice to get clean seeing as how we hadn’t showered since Miner’s park.

Closing campfire was the same as it was 2 years ago, but was still touching.

Thorn: Zeus stepped on my foot while I was wearing five fingers.

Rose: Showering, hiking out the last day in FiveFingers, getting ice cream and root beer.

Bud: ‘real food’, hopefully seeing Trent before we leave and going home.