So you’re home for the summer?

Welcome! This is the blog that I hope to keep updated all summer. I’ll post on Facebook whenever I write a new post, you can also subscribe with your email. Hopefully you enjoy it and bear with my inconsistent and dull writing.

Stated above is the question that I think I’ve been asked at least a dozen times in the just shy of two weeks that I’ve been home. Yes I am home for college, yes it is summer, but no I am not staying. I am going very very far away for a very very long time.

I’m going to New Mexico to work at Philmont Scout Ranch as an Environmental Educator in the backcountry. Wait what? Let me rewind and slow down.

Philmont Scout Ranch is near Cimarron, New Mexico. This working ranch doubles as a National High Adventure Base for the Boy Scouts of America. Boy Scouts? Hold on, I’ll get there, stay with me. Philmont covers over 140,000 acres of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains (part of the Rocky Mountains). Every summer over 20,000 scouts and adult leaders go on backpacking treks on the ranch and Philmont employs over 1,000 seasonal staff. Those are the basics. Crews of scouts and adults come from all over the country and go on treks.

The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) has a branch called Venture Scouting. Venture Scouting is largely unknown but is a coed option for scouts ages 16 to 21. I have been a Venture Scout since I was 16 and it has allowed me the opportunity to attend BSA events such as the National Boy Scout Jamboree and my own Philmont experience last summer.

My dad has been a Philmont fanatic for as long as I can remember. He went as a participant and followed that with several summers on staff in high school and college. Given that I had heard so much about this seemingly wonderful place, I knew I wanted to go at some point. Jesper and my dad were going with a group from the local troop in the summer of 2015. It was an all-boys group which is obviously the most common. And there was not a Venture (read coed) group going from Zionsville. When you want to go to Philmont but don’t have a group to go with, look no farther than individual treks! Individual treks are options where the group is formed at Philmont. The individual treks are typically longer and are a bit more specialized than regular treks. What do I mean by specialized? The trek that I went on was a 3 week all girls trek through the Conservation department at Philmont. It was called R.O.C.S. (Roving Outdoor Conservation School). I could write for days about that experience, but obviously delightful because I’m going back this summer to (among other things) co-lead that same trek!

So there are the nuts and bolts of where I am going and why I am going. It’s totally up my ally.

I’m leaving on Thursday which means that I’ve had a total of two weeks of summer vacation. I’m leaving before my brother and the rest of the high school finishes school. I won’t be here for graduation parties, the Indy 500, or lazy days by the pool. Leaving is of course bittersweet. This very well might be the most epic summer ever. But I can’t help but to see the distinct parallels between this new adventure and the beginning of college. Lots of young people going to a place where some know what’s going on and some, including myself, don’t. Just lots of unknowns. Of course college ended up being FANTASTIC and I am sure this will be. But it’s all new and a little bit scary.

Let’s do this.

Just a side note: the name of this blog comes from my favorite quote from my favorite movie, Stick It. “I don’t care if this is nuts and I don’t care if it hurts, I’m doing it. I’m going to climb this insanely high mountain. Watch me.”