Blog Post #1

Hey I realized I never posted my first blog due to technical difficulties so here it is now.

When I was in seventh grade my boy scout patrol was lucky enough to be able to go on a mountaineering trip down in Philmont for two weeks. Philmont is a large plot of land in New Mexico That was entrusted by Wait Philips to the Boy Scouts of America with the condition that Boy Scouts take care of the land. One thing about the outdoors is there are bears-it seemed like bears were everywhere- And bears have a really good sense of smell. So the way to avoid having bears ransacking our tents is, every time we set up camp we would put all of our “smellables”(food toilet paper trash) in a “bear bag” and string that bag up on a cable running between two trees about 20 feet from the ground. During the second day we had arrived at crater camp. Like all of the campsites in Philmont it was breathtaking and completely unique. The layout of this campsite was a spot 500 meters or so from a rushing river that had eroded a gorge. It should be Noted that when we went the drought had ended that summer and we experienced rain almost everyday. As a result the environment was thriving there was ground cover of ferns, lichen, and a lot of moss. That night it was my turn to string up the bear bags. Somehow when I was throwing the rope over the cable I managed to tie a perfect knot onto the cable. And I spent the next hour along with my buddy trying to get the rope untied. And with no success my buddy went to go eat while I stayed trying to wiggle the rope off the cable. At one point I just stopped what I was doing and listened. I could hear the water rushing through its course, while still being able to hear the absence of movement around me. And the green life around me was highlighted by the light mist from the recent showers.