The content of this page is as accurate a description as I can depict of a trip I organized to the Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico. There were 22 of us who paid about $650 and two weeks of time to take this trip. All of us are from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and represented the Hiawathaland Council as the 1998s contingent to Philmont. We left 6/22/98, and got back home on 7/5/98. I began organizing this trip about a year before we left.

The purpose of this page is first of all to give family and friends a good idea of what the trip was like. Another, loftier purpose, is to give prospective Philmont attendees, or anyone interested in backpacking for that matter, a good idea about what you might encounter there. Any trip has good and bad points, but I have to say from my perspective, and that of most people I spoke with regarding this trip, the Philmont Scout Ranch is a jewel of a place, where you can stretch yourself in many ways. If this page inspires one person to visit Philmont that might not have otherwise, all the work that has gone into it will have been worth it.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this writing are not necessarily the views of the people at Philmont, nor the views of the Boy Scouts of America.