I am happy to announce that I will be spending my summer working at Philmont Boy Scout Ranch in Cimaron, NM as the Camp Director of Clark's Fork.

Philmont (named after the original land owner, Waite Phillips, and the location of the ranch at the base of Sangre de Christo mountains) is a high adventure backing camp which sees over 10,000 scouts each year. Participants, ages 14-18, hike on a 10 day trek where they carry everything they need from camp to camp over Philmont's 137,000 acres. The average hiker will cover 60+ miles and endure elevation changes from 6,000 to 12,000ft. Over the course of their 10 days, hikers will spend some nights at un-staffed camps and some nights at staffed camps where they can participate in "program" like rock climbing, mountain biking, black powder shooting, horseback riding, and spar pole climbing.

I have been to Philmont twice as a participant, once when I was 14 and once when I was 18. I have also served on staff for two summers, once as a Ranger and once as a Backcountry Program Counselor. A Ranger is a staffer who escorts each trek through their first three days at Philmont: Day One in base getting food, gear, medical check, maps, shake down, etc, Day Two is first day on the trail, Day Three is second day on the trail, Day Four is the Ranger's "hike-in day" where he hikes from wherever he is on the ranch back to base. A Backcountry Staffer runs program at any of the 32 backcountry camps that participants visit on their trek. While a ranger will have maybe 15 or more crews in four day intervals and will hike all over the ranch, a back country camp will see up to 13 crews in one day with a whole new set of 13 crews arriving the next day. My second year on staff was as a Program Counselor at a camp called Clark's Fork. Clark's is a western camp where the program consists of horseback riding, branding, roping, chuck wagon dinner, and campfire. This year I will be returning to Clark's as the Camp Director.

My stay at Philmont will be from May 1 – August 15 (approx). At Clark's we do have electricity and running water in our one cabin. The CD stays in the cabin (with the radio in case of emergency) and all PCs sleep outside in 2 person walls tents behind the cabin. We have an outhouse (hole in ground) and a shower house (4 shower heads mounted on wall of open air concrete square). We have no TV, no newspaper, no internet, no cellular phones. We have one supply truck which brings up a week's worth of food every 7-10 days. We typically work from 7AM-9PM everyday, with 7 days on followed by 2 or 3 days off. The days are very hot, topping out in the high 90s, and although our location is in the mountains (not the dessert) it is a very dry heat. A humid day is anything over 5%, although towards the end of July it will rain every day for 5 minutes between 1-2PM (this is jokingly called "The Rainy Season"). Hail is pretty common. The nights are dry and cold with lows between 35-50, depending on altitude. We have almost every type of animal imaginable including deer, elk, buffalo (our own herd), mountain lions, and bears (we lock our garbage in a bear proof metal box, the campers hang theirs 15 ft in the air from "bear cables"). Although I wouldn't describe this lifestyle as "roughing it," I am sure many of you would. It is a hard lifestyle, but a fun one. Which brings me to my request: WRITE TO ME.

Four months in the middle of nowhere, even seeing 100+ campers per day, you miss your friends and the comforts of home. As I have done before, I promise I will write a letter to anyone who sends me something. If you mail me a letter or a package, I will write you back with an update on how things are going. Letters telling me what is going on with you are great. Anything which tells me what is going on in the world is great (one year my friend Phil summarized important news stories).

BUT, we always like packages best. Food is excellent (home-made desserts are most valued, then store cookies and candy). Anything I can eat is excellent. Contraband is also good (cigars, news/entertainment/sports magazines, um other kinds of magazines, toys (I once got a GI JOE), mix CDs, etc). Surprise me. Go crazy. We are always so excited to get mail, we break down weeping with joy and gorge ourselves on the edible contents.

Derek Walden
Staff - Clark's Fork, Camp Director
Philmont Scout Ranch
47 Caballo Road
Cimarron, NM 87714

I leave Cincinnati for my cross country drive on April 13 or 14. I have a pretty good outline and timeframe, but there is time built in to simply stop and check out anything that I think might be interesting. Possible destinations include Louisville, KY; Atlanta, GA; Columbus, NC; Tallahassee, FL; New Orleans, LA; Dallas, TX; San Antonio, TX; Grand Canyon, AZ; Las Vegas, NV; and finally Cimarron, NM.