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Troop 506B at Philmont Scout Ranch

Recently, Troop 506B went on a trek in the Philmont Scout Ranch, which is located in New Mexico. The boys crew was made up of Gavin Stransky, Chance Rynearson, Colin Hayward, Max Busboom, Hunter George, Mr. Stransky, Mr. Schantz, and Mr. Busboom. Opened in 1938, Philmont Scout Ranch is a national High Adventure base, where tens of thousands of scouts visit every year.

At Little Costilla, one of Philmont’s peaks, Troop 506’s crew had a run-in with a lightning storm and several forest fires (however they were all put out quickly). Moving down from the peak during the lightning storm was also dangerous, as they were all possible lightning rods while on the top of the mountain. Instead of hiking the 11.8 miles the Philmont guide had said it took to summit Little Costilla, they had gone 16 miles, taking 10 hours to finish their hike.

Philmont requires visitors to perform a conservation project before leaving, in order to keep up the natural beauty of the Scout Ranch. On the morning of Troop 506’s conservation project, the crew woke up at 4am, and were ready to leave at 6am. They were 2 miles away from the project site, and had to be there by 7:30. At 7am, before they were at the project site, the crew came across a river. They tried to make many plans to get across the river without getting wet, but they were all too dangerous or unrealistic. Max Busboom eventually decided to run across the river, with not a single care about getting himself or his gear wet. After reaching the site on time, the crew went to the main office, but were not greeted by any staff members whatsoever. Looking inside, Hunter George saw a group sleeping in the mailroom, most likely from the Rayado program. The Rayado program is a twenty day backpacking trip at Philmont only for experienced backpackers. After a while, the Troop 506 crew was able to finish their conservation project after staff appeared to talk to them. 

Thank you to Hunter George for all the stories about Philmont, they were the backbone of this article.

Image Source: Rebecca Vandewalle. (2017). Retrieved August 2021, from Wikipedia.org: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philmont_Scout_Ranch#/media/File:Philmont_Scout_Ranch.svg

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