Philmont Scout Ranch - Cimarron, New Mexico - Part 3

This is part three of my blogs about the high adventure trip to Philmont Scout Ranch in Cimarron, New Mexico.  If you want to see the previous post, just click here.

When we last left you, we had just turned in for the evening, and the freezing rain turned into snow.  It snowed for most of the night.  You could hear it accumulate on the outside of the tent.  When we arose the next morning, we emerged to find the most beautiful dusting of snow across the mountains:

It wasn't terribly deep - thank goodness.  Just enough to really make the mountains look like someone had taken a white paintbrush and lightly covered the tops of the trees:

We spent the morning breaking-down camp, as we needed to make our way down to the valley and back to the main Philmont complex.  It was literally the best ending to the days of camping in the back country.  Each day, the weather go progressively worse - which was the perfect sequence of events for the young men.  Had the freezing rain and snow happened at the very beginning, it would have been a much worse experience.  This way, they dealt with the progression of the cold, and realized that they could handle difficult things.  I was so proud of them.  I asked that everyone line up for one last picture, before heading down the mountain:

After traveling down the canyon, the Philmont vehicles came to pick up some of the gear, and a few of the crew.  Since the rain and snow had created some deep mud, the four-wheel vehicles had a tough time getting out of there:

Some of us stayed behind, and hiked further down the canyon, to make it easier for the vehicles to navigate.  We spent some time building a snowman, due to the fresh snow that had appeared overnight:

Don't even ask me what his eyes are made out of...

On our way out of the canyon, I shot this image of a peak called The Tooth of Time.  It was just stunning with the snow covering the hills:

After a nice, hot meal, we took the boys to the Philmont Shooting Range, to give them a chance to shoot some weapons - under strict supervision.  The weapon for today?  The 30-06, a very, very powerful weapon.  To give you an idea - here's the size of the shell in my hand:

I tried to film a little of the session, while still trying to keep an eye on the boys and make sure they were safe:



These were powerful guns, and the kick-back was substantial.  You could even feel the air pressure change next to you when another gun was fired.  Needless to say, it was AWESOME.  A couple of the boys were really intimidated by the guns before we started.  Afterwards, there was a lot of celebrating and comparing of targets ; )
We had some spare time in the afternoon, so we visited the famous Tooth of Time Traders - a store that has a vast array of Scouting and camping merchandise.  It literally felt like a Toys R Us for campers...I saw some fantastic gear that I could never afford ; )

I spent a lot of time in the store, finding cool Scouting patches and writing down all the camping gear that I wanted to save my money for.  I love that place!!

The next day, it was time for us to depart for Austin.  We arose very early in the morning, and had one last meeting with Matt, our Philmont Guide.  He's an incredible young man, and we really loved having him with us on the back country portion of the trip.  As a sign of appreciation, I had all the boys sign a copy of the Book of Mormon - and we presented it to him.

All week, the boys had talked about what they would eat on the return trip home.  We have a sort of tradition with our high adventure trips - we stop at a Cici's Pizza on the way home.  This is sort of a pizza buffet - and all-you-can-eat affair.  In other words, the perfect place to take Boy Scouts:

While in Lubbock, Texas, we stopped for the boys to see an LDS temple.  It's one of the smaller temples, but still an amazing sight in the middle of this small Texas town.  It was a great reminder of the priorities in life, as these boys get older:

Overall, we had an unbelievable time.  This was by far the best high adventure trip in years.  I was so lucky to be a part of it.  So many incredible memories were packed into the week. Not shaving or really showering for a week made me look a little rough:

Fortunately, most of that can be fixed with a hot shower and a shave.  I can't do anything about the rest ; )  I was so excited for the leaders and boys to experience just a little bit of Philmont.  It's a sacred place to me, and I think they saw just how special it really is.  Some of the young men talked about wanting to return.  I'm glad.

Thanks for reading!!