Well, yesterday was a training hike (finally) for Philmont. With the economy being so banged up lately, I have been traveling so much its been hard to find a week I can go backpacking. But with Philmont coming up in 3 months, we have to get going. SO, Kyle and I had planned to head up to Linville with another leader from Scouts and do a 10 mile or so out and back trip. Since there was no tour permit, we made sure the parents knew we could not hold the Scouts responsible. This was just a trip period. When the other Scout leader showed up without his son, we were left with one adult. Not a serious problem considering it was 2 15 year olds with a lot of outdoor skills. So I took 2 boys and off we went. It was overcast and cool, but not cold. We saw a few sprinkles along the way but nothing to stop us. We got on the trail at about 9:30 and made it to the top of Shortoff Mtn by around 10:15. We looked at a few views and then proceeded to head towards the north part of the gorge and the chimneys. Kyle hasn't been doing much lately and was really just getting back in shape after some damage to his foot and shoulder this winter. Wrestling injuries. So as we started up the climb towards the chimneys, he was having a hard time. We tried to switch him to a lighter pack but I could tell we were killing him. So we turned back knowing we still had a couple climbs. About the time we stopped for lunch at 12:30, it started to rain steady. Not heavy, just steady. Neither Kyle nor Colt wanted to put on a rain jacket but the old man (me) did. I really was pretty comfortable but it did get a bit cold the wetter I got. We made it back down to the car about 4:00 PM. I estimate we did a round trip of 10 miles. Not bad at all. It really is a pretty place. Maybe the next post wont be so dang long in coming.....
