Philmont Scout Ranch

Going on a Cavalcade

Happy Odin’s Day, friends. By the time you read this, I will have left Teengirl at the airport, where she and a dozen or so other girl Boy Scouts and their leaders will be heading to Philmont Scout Ranch for a horseback trek known as a Cavalcade. They have been preparing since last fall with increasing rustic camping trips and increasingly long horseback rides.

(My hot-rod Honda and I will be on our way to Camp Grimes, where most of our troop is at regular summer camp this week. The forecast is rather rainy, but oh, well: a Scout has many rain ponchos.)

Philmont, donated to the Boy Scouts of America in 1938 by oilman Waite Phillips, consists of 140,177 acres in New Mexico. (Fun fact about Waite: he had an identical twin brother named Wiate. Sad fact: Wiate died of appendicitis at the age of 19.) The enormous property contains a variety of ecosystems over which Scouts hike, climb, ride, amble, and stagger. Part of most troops’ itinerary is an environmental service project to help maintain and improve the property.

At overnight stops, the Scouts will do activities such as shooting and learning frontier life skills.

Teengirl will be gone for 12 days. Watch this space in early July for news of How it Went.