“Depend on your feet and you can climb the highest mountain”-Lao-Tzu

Wise words to live by—and words that I came across in of all places, inside of a fortune cookie my friend ate at the Ultimate Chinese Buffet in Colorado Springs.  Life can often be full of surprises, but without those surprises, my amazing journey that cumulated at that buffet would have never possible. I learned that without struggle and adversity, there is no joy, and without adventure life loses some of its vitality.

I was extensively involved in Boy Scouts from second grade on.  Scouting has given me great friendships and amazing outdoor experiences including more intense trips for older scouts are called “high adventure trips” and include treks to Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, and to the Summit Bechtel Reserve in Summersville, West Virginia. For Boy Scouts, Philmont Scout Ranch in Cimarron, New Mexico is the oldest most famous destination for these “High Adventures” and oftentimes seen as the pinnacle of the scouting experience. Philmont includes a variety of backpacking treks and activities.  My troop went for the most intense experience at Philmont– a twelve-day, 102-mile backpacking trek that also included side activities such as shotgun shooting and burro racing. Since I was eleven and a brand-new Boy Scout, I had looked forward to going to Philmont.  I heard amazing stories about Philmont from older scouts in my troop but, unfortunately, due to changes in leadership and the sheer amount of planning that goes into such a trip, my opportunity to go to Philmont was put off until the summer of 2018. Needless to say, when we finally began the preparations for the trek, I was very excited.

A lot, obviously, goes into planning such an endeavor. We booked flights to Denver and contracted an outfitter to get us acclimated to the higher altitude before our hike.  The contractor ran a shuttle to transport us from Colorado to Philmont. In addition, beginning in August of the previous year, we began a grueling series of training hikes to prepare for hauling 40-pound backpacks for our 100-mile trip. These training hikes started without packs.  Soon, we donned light packs and then gradually added more and more weight until eventually carrying the forty pounds felt like nothing. After months of preparation, we were making a final plans for the trip when, in early June, we received news the Ute Park Wildfire had spread to Philmont Scout Ranch. A few days later, the troop received an email notifying us that due to the fire, our Philmont Trek had been cancelled.  In fact, the Philmont Scout Ranch would eventually close for the entire summer because of the devastation. Now, the twelve of us who had trained for a year for the adventure of our lives, were stuck with plane tickets, an outfitter contract, time taken off work, and months of training that seemed a waste.  With only five weeks until our flight left from Pittsburgh to Denver, we somehow had to find an alternative.