Off to Philmont

July 12th is here. We have looked to this day 2 years ago, when we first signed up for Philmont 2009. In less than 5 hours, I will be on the Amtrak Train. Our train will take us through Flagstaff along Route 66. It will then stop at Raton, a city in the middle of nowhere tomorrow evening around 5 PM. We will take a bus to Philmont and spend 2 nights at base camp. Wednesday will be our 1st offical hiking day. Before we leave tonight, we will all have a send away dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory near the train station. All of us along with our family will be there. It will be cool. Then, 23 hours on the train.

I'm having mixed feelings right now. 50% of me wants to go and is excited and 50% of me is saying why did I do this. But hey, July 12th has become reality and I'm going on it. No turning back now. Same thing happened to me before Grand Canyon. I was really hesistant on going but went and had a great time there. It will be the same at Philmont. I will be a different person after completing the 12 day 56 mile hike. Looking at the whole trip, it is basically 4 days of strenuous hiking. The 1st few days are easy and the last few are easy, less than 3 miles. In our layover day, we will hike 8 miles but with no pack. So I am ready for Philmont.

I finished packing all my stuff and will put some stuff away. I have a backpack with all my gear in it including my shirts and stuff. I also have a really small duffel bag with my base camp stuff. It has my towel and clean clothes. I will bring some magazines on the train to read and some playing cards.

Off to Philmont later at 7. It will be a tough and challenging trek but it will be worth it. No blog for me for 2 weeks. But follow me on twitter.com/ktcn15. I will try to see if I can tweet about Philmont.