Summer is looming large. It seems like five years since 2020’s Summer of Lockdown, which saw our big trip to Philmont postponed and most normal summer activities (going to the beach, going to an IronPigs baseball game) were canceled. Heck, I haven’t slung dice in the real world in 15 months. If last year was … Read more
In January 2020, my son and I started on the trail to Philmont – a six-month training project aimed at developing the strength, endurance, and skills needed for a 12-day, 60-mile backpacking trek at Philmont Scout Rank in Cimarron, New Mexico. We were supposed to go in late-June/early July 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced … Read more
The long, winding trail to Philmont continued in June as I launched into training for a 10K race. I don’t have a particular race in mind, and given the state of the COVID-19 world, it’s likely any race I do will be virtual. That said, this is very much a journey-before-destination sort of thing, so … Read more
April was the countdown to the inevitable. We knew mid-month that Philmont Scout Ranch would update their COVID-19 strategy on May 1 and that announcement could mean the end to our 2020 backpacking trek. Throughout April, NeutronLad and I maintained our Philmont routines and started thinking about how we could kick them into higher gear … Read more