The Littlest Philmont Ranger

My Pack Buddy is Memphis the Tiger and I never hike without my favorite red bandana. Philmont Ranger 2015-2018. Always looking for adventures at HOmE. I’ve been a Girl in Boy Scouts since 2003.

[thelittlestphilmontranger]

36.4540 N, -104.9581 W

Back in October, I finally got the nerve to get the Philmont tattoo I always wanted. I got GPS coordinates and people always ask me what location at Philmont are they? 

Baldy Mountain? Tooth of Time? Dean Skyline? Window Rock?

Actually, none of those. Quite simply -- Base Camp (more specifically the middle of CHQ dining hall if you want to get technical. Hey, food is important.)

But why Base Camp? You have all this back country with more beautiful places than Base Camp? 

Because Base Camp is very definitely the heart of Philmont. People begin and end their journeys there. 

Think about it, every time a heart beats, blood cells exit into the body on a little journey and return changed. Every time a participant or staff member goes to the backcountry they return changed. 

Base Camp is also the gateway to every memory (good and bad) that I’ve ever made at Philmont. I could never choose one location in the back country over the other because each place that holds significance to me represents a different point of growth for me. 

I’ve met the crews that have changed my life in that very Welcome Center  in Base Camp. 

Philmont is like a living, breathing body in some ways. The trails are the veins and arteries, the roads are the lymphatic system, the camps are like mitochondria (aka the powerhouse of the cell), the staff members are like the brain, and base camp is, and always will be, the heart.

[thelittlestphilmontranger]

Me thinking about how my summer on the forestry crew is going to look like:

[thelittlestphilmontranger]

My friend recently sent me an OLD photo of me as a Ranger in 2015 (It’s the first one with that good ol’ foam sleeping pad) from a post that the BSA Visual Storytelling Workshop posted about coming trainings at Philmont this summer. I was shocked and really surprised that someone had captured me during my infant days as a Ranger with everything spilling out of my pack. So, here’s some photos from each summer between 2015-2017, a true glow-up in packing skills and equipment.

But there’s one thing that stands out: the stuffed tiger. His name is Memphis and he might just be more legendary than I will ever be. In 2015, my best friends from high school gave him to me after I was having a really rough time. That coming summer, I decided I was going to carry him around with me as a pack buddy. Most pack buddies are small and typically light weight, but I didn’t care. Memphis is larger and not the most lightweight stuffed animal. He’s climbed Baldy two times and covered nearly 1,500 miles or so at Philmont. Crews and staff know him before they know me. Since 2015, he’s lost the little grey sweatshirt and gained a little Philmont Staff uniform. He’s a little sun bleached, has lost some fuzziness, and his fluff is compacted after many nights of being used as a pillow.

Right now, he’s sitting at my desk at my internship, watching over the start of my next adventure into Emergency Management and full-time career prospects. But no matter what I’m doing, he’ll be there.

[thelittlestphilmontranger]

hi there! im a girl going on the 7-27 7 day trek this summer at philmont and i was wondering if you had any advice in terms of hygeine on the trail. im generally a pretty cleanly person (though i do have 10 years of camping under my belt) so the idea of not having showers and deodorant is a bit daunting. im also worried that i might start my cycle on the trail, so would you have any tips for dealing with that?

Hi! First, I’m so excited you’re getting to experience Philmont this coming summer after all the work we did last summer! It’s an incredibly resilient place. Hygiene on the trail as a girl can be a bit daunting and overwhelming to think about and I have been there before. I’ve been in the backcountry for 7 day treks before and after 3 days you just get used to the smell and the dirt. But even then at the end of the day, sometimes you just want to feel clean, so heres some tips for that:

- a bandana and some water can go a long way of just feeling a little more clean.

- after 5 pm, the scents of soaps and lotions usually linger and that becomes a “smellable” which your ranger will educate you and your crew on more. 

- depending on your itinerary, sometimes you can get a shower opportunity at select staff camps.

Now on to the part about your cycle. This is actually a really good question because most girls might experience that monthly gift come early due to the physical demands that Philmont can put a person’s body through. I always reccomend carrying the products you chose to use normally, and maybe a little bit more. If you get into a jam, a sock or some toilet paper are great alternatives (trust me, those actually work!).

Ultimately, at the end of the day, you know your body better than anyone else. I’ve personally always embraced the dirt and sweat as part of a badass womanly glow. 

You’re going to have so much fun this summer!

[thelittlestphilmontranger]

Six months ago, I was sitting at Turkey Creek Turnaround when we were told that just a few miles down the road there was a wildfire in Ute Park. We left Turkey Creek and rerouted to the South Country, the very next day we were evacuated from the backcountry again and then base camp. In that time period I can remember being a little terrified, but ultimately calm and at peace with myself. I didn’t know at that moment that the path towards my future career had been laid. Fast forward to now and I’m working towards a job in Public Health Emergency Preparedness/Disaster Response all because of a little fire in the northeastern corner of New Mexico.

[thelittlestphilmontranger]

Women blazing a trail at Philmont Scout Ranch - Scouting magazine

Meet four women who help make Philmont a Scouting paradise for all.

Check out this neat-o article about some pretty tough mountain gals working in the 87714!

[thelittlestphilmontranger]

2018: Change(d) Lives

2018 was the year that brought the phrase Change Lives from a sacred saying in the Ranger Department to the overall staff experience, along with Riding for the Brand. The idea was that over the course of our summer we were going to change people’s lives with Wilderness Adventures that will last a Lifetime while representing Philmont and that Bar P, Crazy S brand all the cattle wear.

However, forces out in the universe decided that we needed our lives to be changed. That instead of us delivering those adventures, that they would be delivered to us.

My life was changed as we all piled into our cars or busses and drove to Springer, NM on June 1st. On that day, the jumbling domino effect from that evacuation lead me to finding a passion for Emergency Management & Disaster Response & Mitigation. This spring semester I have an internship with the local Health Department in their Preparedness Unit.

TSI gave me strength, determination, and the ability to see the positive work being done on projects that don’t move quickly.

A lot of us did our Riding for the Brand both on the Ranch and off-Ranch. People were sent to Northern Tier, Sea Base, Summit Bechtel, and local council camps while continuing to represent the Philmont brand. We rode for the brand by doing exhausting work in the backcountry’s unforgiving terrains and elements for the same amount of paycheck we would have received had the summer been a “Normal Summer”. Well, we continued to ride for the brand much like the Night Rider’s Lament by Tom Munch.

Philmont is more than just a place that a lot of scouts go to hike in for 12 days. It’s a place of personal growth and achievement. In 2018, I was given the chance to take a moment and change my own life. I never knew I needed it until after it happened.

(this log really changed my life as being one of my favorite moments from the summer.)

[thelittlestphilmontranger]

If I ever got a tattoo, this is what it would look like.

[thelittlestphilmontranger]

Update: I got a tattoo and this is what it looks like... 😅 it’s the base camp coordinates because every person goes in and out of base camp. It’s the beginning point for journeys and the ending points from wilderness adventures that will last a lifetime. It’s the gateway to the backcountry and all of my favorite places and memories.

[thelittlestphilmontranger]

Philmont Ranger 2018

The Ute Park Fire, The Morris (Moras) Creek Fire, and the cancellation of crews in the backcountry. Staff that stayed helped revitalize the

It’s almost 4:00 a.m. on December 31st, 2018 and I realized that I have never actually shared a link to my video from this past summer. Good things come to those who wait, I suppose. Enjoy!

[thelittlestphilmontranger]

I love BSA and such, I attended Sea Base last year. Was it hard for you to adjust to working in a sort of male dominated environment?

Hi there!

Initially, it was a bit intimidating to be honest. But I think that mostly had to do with a knowledge and skills gap that the guys had that I didn’t when I started in the Ranger Department. I have encountered some minor toxic masculinity moments with a couple of male adult leaders while out in the backcountry with their crews. However, I have had more amazing adult leaders who loved the fact that they could go home and tell their daughters and wives about having a “a strong, hardcore female Ranger”. The scouts typically have a lot of respect for a female staff member too.

For the most part, a lot of the male staff members know and understand that the female staff members are some of the most hardcore women around... and well, if they don’t, they learn pretty quickly. We never really take “no” for an answer and are usually quick to accept a challenge.

The best piece of advice I could ever give you on learning how to work in an a predominantly male environment is to be the most badass version of yourself you could ever be. Learn to be confident in your skills and abilities (even when you feel like you’re not any good), master a really good strong glance that could slice rocks in half (even with sunglasses on), and the predominantly male environment will know you mean business.

[thelittlestphilmontranger]

They say “Set your soul on fire”, but did they ever say anything about what to do afterwards? Ya know, like, how I do I sleep when sometimes I find myself wide awake thinking about how terrified I was sitting my car looking at the burning Deer Lake Mesa or how I almost sat in the middle of the gravel road in front of the Cons Office watching the smoke cloud grow while trying not to cry on the phone with my mom? That’s something they don’t say. #philmont https://www.instagram.com/p/Bnag1bdHH_lqP1ZYj3zk48pyWYpqLncOVgNYW00/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1gpa743xaa6or

[thelittlestphilmontranger]

Forever a RITO. #philmontrangers (at Philmont Scout Ranch) https://www.instagram.com/p/BnYnYoXnApzlhDq_faJuR_22L4hMfzluaC7-wQ0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=4pe3gzpmdf0u

[thelittlestphilmontranger]

Challenges and Changes

On my last run to the back country a few weeks ago, I laid in my tent with a waning phone battery and the notes section open trying to feverently list all the things that I could think of that I had hoped to do this past season, things that I actually got to do, things that I learned about myself. It was a moment of reflection for myself. 

Just yesterday, I sat in my boss’s office at work while we discussed a moment of forgetfulness that lead to a complaint. I was in the middle of a shift change when I failed to mention to the next person that there was an envelope for someone at the front desk. My boss sat there, not fully disappointed, but understanding that we all have moments where we slip up. 

She said to me “This is out of character for you.” 

I didn’t really have a good response to give her, yet I felt that the person I was before the summer, the girl that she remembered, was much different from the girl I am now. There’s no reason to deny that the experiences we had brought along with it some form of trauma. Not physical and not entirely emotionally incapacitating, yet still changing us in different ways. 

In some of my classes, wildfires have already been mentioned as health hazards and the image the sticks out to me the most is the moment I sat in my car in the staff parking lot. I waited anxiously patient to evacuate and could see flames and the large plume of smoke consuming the hillsides and mountians I loved faster than the planes and helicopters could stop it. In that moment, I felt the most terrifying fear I’d ever felt in my life. When people mention wildfire, that’s the feeling I feel and the moment I remember so vividly. That’s “trauma” I gained from the experience. I learned to channel it in to positive energy all season during Timber Stand Improvement and I think that makes all the difference. 

Going back to the list of experiences and things I made hastily with a dying phone battery. I feel compelled to share it, maybe some had the same feelings as I have, maybe the same experience. But what I can tell you is that the positives more than exceptionally out weigh the negatives. 

Things I haven’t done this Summer:

Take out a crew

Teach Hard Skills

Use a sump

Throw a bear rope

Cook on a whisperlite with a crew

Take out a Mountain Trek 

Take out a Rayado Crew

Hike 3 new Philmont mountains in a day

Go to my all time favorite spot on the ranch 

Give a Wilderness Pledge talk with a crew on what Philmont means to me

Finish the 75 miles of trail to complete all the trails at Philmont

Hike Black Mountain

Complete the Mark Anderson/Steve Nelson/Unit #2 Challenge

Things I have done this Summer:

Go to the Valle

Cut down trees

Learn what Timber Stand Improvement is and why it’s important 

Explain what TSI is to visitors and staff not involved with the project 

Learn to have an overall positive outlook during rain

Learned to work in Hail storms and Flash-bangs

Learned Saw safety

Observed how to properly cut down trees and chainsaw etiquette

Learned the difference between a Slash Cut, Open Face Cut, and Stump Shot

Learned how to identify Good Hinges  and Bad Hinges on trees after I’ve felled them

Learned that a tree is heavier on the side with the most branches and will typically fall to that side

Learned how to use tree wedges

Learned how to Buck Firewood

Learned how to build a Slash Pile

Set up Participant Tent City and put the foam mattresses in the them

Planted flowers at the Villa

Made friends from all over the Ranch in different departments 

Drove to all sorts of places

Hiked Wheeler Peak for a second time

Hiked to McCrystal Cabins twice

Learned how to identify invasive plants in Northeastern New Mexico and pass that knowledge on to others

Passed on my love for Philmont to the BSA through articles

Showed my interest in Professional Scouting by networking with other Professionals

Learned that while I can have leadership roles and would do well at the job at hand, I’d much rather not be a Ranger Trainer

Learned that I can lift 80 lb logs and carry them 300 feet in sometimes strenuous and rough terrain

Carried a 70 lb, 8 foot log in front of a Navajo Hotshot Crew (who thought it was pretty rad)

Learned that I can capably do Conservation work and would do well in the Conservation Department 

Learned that I have the work ethic of the Conservation Department: work until the job is done and do it right the first time (because the Conservation Department is working on projects for literal YEARS before they’re completed and to have to fix a ton of mistakes would be a really hard challenge to manage with a multi-year project)

Here’s to all the challenges, changes, and things we never thought we’d learn to do that I and 1,099 other staff members experienced in the 2018 Summer at Philmont Scout Ranch.

[thelittlestphilmontranger]

I wish I could tell you that it’s rained every day since July 5th, but it hasn’t. I wish I could tell you that the south country fire was contained, but it isn’t. I wish I could tell you Scouts were arriving, but they’ll never come. The land that I love is hurting and there just isn’t enough water to quench it’s thirst and revitalize it’s soul. I go to sleep and I smell smoke, I wake up and I smell smoke or I wake up and smell wet ash. The air dries out your nose and smoke itches your throat. However, there’s work to be done. The Burn Zone needs to be repaired and transformed for a new life of hiking that won’t be as original. Watersheds and stream beds need protection from the coming months of eventual decay of things dead and burnt. Trails and camps need to be rebuilt. It’s an endless cycle of destruction and repair as long as we continue to pollute the air we breathe and scar the land we live on.

[thelittlestphilmontranger]

History tells us Stories

In 1965, a 15 foot wall of water ripped through the Rayado Canyon on Philmont. It left behind a path of destruction, including wiping away original cabins at Fish Camp and the campsite that is now Old Abreu. 

In a conversation with Dave Werhane today, we talked about how history repeats itself. The 1965 flood brought us comissary camps, planned itiniraries, better trails, the Conservation Department, and so much more. 

The 2018 fires bring us crisis management, building defensible spaces, forest restoration, and repairation crews. We will have so many stories to fill a 500 page book. 

At 8:15 a.m. on July 5th, the staff were gathered on to the Tooth of Time Traders Lawn. There were speakers and soon a microphone. A team of full-time upper leadership staff came up to the front and Kevin Dowling stood before us. The energy that came from them felt eerie, yet with an early morning bounce. 

As a staff, we had a sinking feeling of days old suspicion on how this announcement would go. 

Kevin Dowling held the paper in one hand and the microphone in the other. 

“After careful consideration of the situation and available options, the difficult but prudent decision has been made that the Philmont backcountry will remain closed for treks and individual programs for the remainder of the 2018 summer season” he said through a fading morale. 

As we sat in a familiar somber silence among our fellow staff members that we had learned to know and love through the Philmont Recovery Corps, some knew how they would tackle their summer. 

I found myself in a position of “Substitute Ranger Trainer” while my current Ranger Trainer is away on a personal trip that was planned long before the summer began. It just so happened I was left with the somewhat daunting task of helping staff make difficult decisions to leave or stay, process their feelings, and pass along information to them as it becomes available to the Rangers. 

“...Philmont.. heres to thee... scouting paradise... out in God’s country... tonight” Kevin Dowling said with emotion ending what has been the most emotional announcement I have experienced in the five seasons I have been here.

Then something incredible happened...

We all stood up, put our arms around each other, and began to sing.

I couldn’t finish the Philmont Hymn as I was overcome with deep emotions and tears poured. 

However, I wiped the days of Timber Stand Improvement off my dirty pants, dried my tears, and took a deep breath. I now needed to move forward, guide my fellow Rangers, and repair my hurting HOmE. 

“Philmont heres to thee”

[thelittlestphilmontranger]

5 days, 1 Uniform, 3 sections completed, and 2nd round of TSI finished. #philmontrecoverycorps #philmontscoutranch #philmont2018

[thelittlestphilmontranger]

I’m spending a month doing various Cons projects, so I invested in a hardhat that I could keep as a momentum afterwards. It was worth it. Now I’m just putting stickers all over. #philmontscoutranch #philmont2018 #philmontrecoverycorps