if it's meant to be, part 1

Last fall, I accepted an offer to serve as an adult adviser on a Philmont trek with a Venture Crew from Shreveport.



For those unfamiliar, Philmont is basically the mecca of Boy Scouting. It's their high adventure base in the mountains of New Mexico where you go to backpack/hike 60+ miles and participate in high adventure activities over the course of 10 days. It's expensive and requires many months of planning and training, but it's something I've always wanted to do. And, since I am within driving distance (12-ish hours) here in Louisiana, and because I'm not getting any younger, I jumped at the opportunity to go.

insert months of researching and buying gear for the trek, hundreds of dollars saved and paid, and many miles of practice hiking with a 30lb pack completed

Two weeks before our crew was slated to leave Shreveport on Friday, June 15, a wildfire was reported in the vicinity of Philmont. The Ute Park Fire proceeded to grow and burn through the center of the 140,000+ acre property. For days, I scoured the internet for updates, watched as staff was evacuated, and checked for reports on damage to buildings. I knew our trek was in jeopardy, but when staff were allowed to return to the campus, I was cautiously optimistic.

The official announcement came just 10 days before I was supposed to leave: all backcountry treks scheduled from June 8 through July 14 (and later, the entire season) were cancelled.

This was difficult information to process. I knew it was most likely going to happen, but when it did I wasn't mentally or emotionally prepared. For over a day I alternated between non-stop texting everyone who would listen to me grieve (selected Boy Scout friends who "got" what a huge disappointment this was) and walking around in a confused stupor, trying to figure out what to do with my summer which had been so meticulously planned for over half a year.

I didn't have long to figure it out, however, because my first jaunt of the summer was slated to begin with a 14 hour eastward drive on June 7.

(to be continued)

Campcraft

I've been out of state for 3 glorious weeks:

• 1 week at Boy Scout camp in Mississippi
• 1 week of visiting friends and family in North Carolina
• 1 week of Boy Scout camp in North Carolina

Always needing to have some small craft and not wanting to take a lot of supplies, I opted for working on an old-school friendship bracelet in Mississippi

and taught some staff members in North Carolina how to make lanyards with plastic lace, which I forgot to take pictures of

image snagged from https://wanelo.com/store/keys2please

Before leaving, I also finished my t-shirt rug!

Flicker

The flicker of a campfire, the wind in the pines 

The moon in the heavens, the stars that shine 

A place where people gather to make friends of all kinds 

A place where all our troubles are always left behind 

So give me the light of a campfire, warm and bright 

And give me some friends to sing with; I'll be here all night 

Love is for those who find it; I found mine right here 

Just you and me and the campfire and songs we love to hear

I just returned from another weekend in the woods with my Boy Scout troop. I was literally among the pines, under the stars, with friends, around the campfire. The daytime temperatures were in the low 70's and it didn't dip below the mid-50's at night. I can't imagine a more ideal way to spend a long January weekend.

This was my first "real" camping trip with the troop my boys and I joined when we moved to Louisiana, and I am so grateful for the instant camaraderie we find in Scouting. I know I will always find a group of trustworthy individuals who share my love of the outdoors and commitment to teaching young people. Scouts are my go-to people any time I have questions about anything (and I have a lot of questions about life in Louisiana; God bless my fellow leaders' patience with me!) Often our political, religious, and cultural viewpoints differ, but I have never been involved in a discussion with a fellow Scouter where tempers flared over ideology.

When I am camping, I do my best to use my phone as a camera & clock only, and stay off of social media. I returned to wi-fi in the real world this morning and was instantly bombarded with rants from Facebook friends (and truly, they are friends, just hurt & angry & divided) about whatever hit the news cycle over the weekend. We are less than 4 days from the inauguration of a very controversial, unorthodox, and divisive president. The ugliness is not going to end anytime soon.

Which brings me back to the woods: when you are camping, the real world doesn't exist. I didn't hear a single thing about anything in the real world (aside from the broadcast of an NFL post-season game for a devoted fan; it was actually a pleasant accompaniment to our dinner preparations). And it didn't matter. We were happy. We got along, We spent the entire weekend outside. We cooked all of our meals over a fire. If I felt it was refreshing and therapeutic for me, I am even happier about the effects of the weekend on the 9 young men we took with us.

This group of eleven to seventeen year-olds has 3 members who moved to the area from different states in the past 5 months. They go to 6 different schools. Some of them have medical and behavioral and familial challenges. I doubt that ANY of them would voluntarily have spent more than 15 minutes out of doors this weekend, had we not been camping. Most of them would have been glued to a screen of some sort. 

But this rag-tag group of young men had the time of their lives this weekend. A game that seemed to be a zombie mash-up of capture the flag and flashlight tag had them running around in an open field for hours in the dark. The older Scouts taught camping skills to the younger ones. They played card games and identified constellations and divided up campsite chores. They hiked to a vacant treehouse village campsite and created a war game involving pinecone grenades that kept them entertained and exercising. 

And while all of this occurred, the other leaders and I stood aside and supervised. We let boys be boys, outside, where they belong. We guided and corrected when necessary, but very little was necessary. 

This, friends. THIS should be our real world.