Epic Novel, The Philmont Edition Part 1

This is a reading from the journal of Gib written on a scrap of paper while on the bus ride to the Albuquerque airport. Please enjoy the feature presentation.

Day 1 Base Camp -- Today was really boring. We did all the prep work and medical stuff and we're still not done; there is more tomorrow. The food here is okay I guess, definitely not as good as my mom's LOL. I went to the trading post - the ice cream is really good there. At 8pm there was a campfire that was awesome (I really like to look at the flames). During the campfire the staff that worked there had many different skits that explained the history of the land which I thought was pretty neat, although I have always loved history. When we went to Tent City (it's where all trail bound and home bound people sleep at base camp) the beds were really annoying because every time you move they make a loud noise like a screech.

Day 2 -- Finally finished all our prep work although I had to run back to grab medicine in my pack (oops). I forgot to mention we met our Ranger yesterday his name is Evan Bowser (Mario is our crew leader, he is hilarious by the way, says Peach is hiding somewhere) he is pretty cool but really monotone. He teaches all the academy rangers and was taking a break from that and took out a crew (OURS) to take a break from it all. He chose our crew because we have a sweet itinerary. At dinner I accidentally left my nalgene in the cafeteria - that was embarrassing. Finally we took a bus to Zastrow turnaround and on the way there we were told all about Philmont with a lot of jokes about the mini bears (A.K.A. Chipmunks) like the make excellent toilet paper replacements when you run out. When we got to camp a mile later at Rayado River Camp Evan made sure we knew the basics of backpacking. He also taught us what the sump was. Basically you dump your dishwater and spit out your toothpaste in it. It has plastic netting aound the top and there's this thing called the sump strainer that looks like a frisbee, but it isn't. The dude who gave to us at the equipment check out place yelled at Ried for calling it that. Not like yell-yelling but like no it isn't a frisbee. After that Evan told us the secrets of the backcountry that keep you alive like how to not get hung up in the bear bag (pssssssssst the secret is to not tie the knot around your foot). We made our powder food into actual food (somewhat) we had chicken and rice and mashed potatos. We used tortillas to make burrito-like things. It was okay I guess. Then we played cards and went to sleep.

This is the end of today's entry. Stay tuned to learn more about the PHILMONT EXPERIENCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!