Derek at Philmont

And I'm spent

derek@derekwalden.com (D) — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 21:21:00 +0000

So this blog is officially closed. I have returned to Ohio and started law school. While I plan to post up a ton of photos and a few more recaps from time to time, the majority of my posts from August 21st onward will be housed on good ol' derekwalden.com.

To all my Philmont friends and family, I want to say Thanks for a great summer. Whether it was unending tent crew, being kind of a big deal, choir practice at the James, forking Cito's lawn, bears in trees, getting lost schwacking down Black Mtn, anything that happened "in broad daylight," flying sticks of frozen butter, midnight healthlodge cases, digging a trench, chopping wet wood, the failed sierra lima, falling off a horse and breaking your finger, learning to two step, stolen cars from the turn-around, days off debotchery, or any of Larry's continuous antics - I wouldn't change a thing. Clark's Fork saw an amazing 3 months and I was just glad to be a part of it.

Love,
D

PS: Whose raiding Ben's cabin in Dec or Jan with me?
PPS: IWGBTP already...

OH IO

derek@derekwalden.com (D) — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 20:58:49 +0000

Welcome home.

St. Louis

derek@derekwalden.com (D) — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 16:12:13 +0000

Go Reds. Screw the Cardinals.

McDs

derek@derekwalden.com (D) — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 14:08:51 +0000

The breakfast of champions for a long drive home.

KU

derek@derekwalden.com (D) — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 01:00:43 +0000

One flat tire later, Ashley and I are cruising around KU. Estimated time of arrival in Ohio... NEVER.

Still alive

derek@derekwalden.com (D) — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 22:44:00 +0000

Hey guys! Just a quick post to let everyone know that I am still here and still doing well. Very busy and very few days off.

Everything at camp is going great. The summer is almost over and we are all looking forward to going home. I have two weeks left from today - a blessing and a curse.

I miss you all and can't wait to catch up once I return to civilization.

Santa Fe

derek@derekwalden.com (D) — Sun, 16 Jul 2006 20:05:35 +0000

Days off.

Home for wedding

derek@derekwalden.com (D) — Sun, 25 Jun 2006 18:47:15 +0000

Congrats Patty and Matt

In the backcountry

derek@derekwalden.com (D) — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 04:24:00 +0000

As of tomorrow at noon, I will be at Clark's Fork. This day is long over due.

I will post as often as possible, but since my first day off is probably going to be July something, that may be a while. So, write me. And send me cookies.

Derek Walden
Staff - Clark's Fork, Camp Director
Philmont Scout Ranch
47 Caballo Road
Cimarron, NM 87714

Snakes, why did it have to be snakes?

derek@derekwalden.com (D) — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 18:25:00 +0000

So it's not pushing a bear out of tree, but a little exciting nonetheless.

This morning on my way to the BackCountry Warehouse, I almost killed myself by stepping on a rattlesnake. It was sitting in the middle of a path sunning itself, and I wasn't really paying attention. After the typical flipping out and un-scoutlike explatives, I found a stick and push/aggrivated the snake until it was off the path. The snake was not a fan of this and decided he would not be very cooperative. It didn't really like us poking it too much and the reason I know this is because it coiled up and started rattling (just like in the movies).

I then went over to the warehouse, grabbed a shovel and came back to move the snake around some more. We were trying to get it to go into some nearby bushes, but it found a hole in the ground and simply slide down there. Even in the hole, it continued to rattle at us for a few minutes. Good times.

Stepping on a live snake - undoubtedly an exciting way to start off the morning.

Now I can two-step

derek@derekwalden.com (D) — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 00:42:00 +0000

PC Training continues. Today was 8 hours of First Aid training. Yea.

My staff is excellent and I am very excited with the prospects of an excellent summer. I will write more about each of them later, but so far they are all great. I like them all and we seem to get along very well.

Tonight I am letting my staff cut my hair (who thinks this is a good idea?) and then we are having another jam session. We have multiple guitar players and a mandolin player. We actually played Whiskey in the Jar a few nights ago (more Irish version than Metallica) and I was totally stoked about that. We sound awesome - campfire is going to compete for title of Best on the Ranch.

And finally, last night was a crowning achievement in my professional development as I continue to strive for a leading roll in Cats. Last night I learned to two-step. My boots, tight jeans, and big hat all went to the Philmont dance (with Rod Taylor and his band) where many patient female colleagues let me step on their feet. All those years of marching band totally paid off. Thankfully by the end of the night, I was the one leading my partner, as opposed to her leading me. Now all I have to do is learn some ballroom before I get married and my dancing career will be complete.

PS: I found on Boing Boing that a law student at OSU has written a scholarly essay on the legal implications of the word "fuck." Bastard stole my idea. I haven't read the paper yet, but I downloaded it to my hard drive and will read it soon. The abstract sounds interesting, but more importantly - Well done representing OSU, buddy.

Staff Arrival

derek@derekwalden.com (D) — Mon, 29 May 2006 00:34:00 +0000

So my staff is arriving/arrived today. Very exciting stuff. So far I have met 4 of them (out of 8) and more should be arriving this evening.

In case you will be in the neighborhood of Cimarron, NM in the next week, I wanted to share my Program Counselor Training Schedule. Feel free to drop by fro BSA Aims and Ideals or the Phil-First Aid Round Robin. Also feel free to point out spelling and grammar mistakes in the schedule but know that a. it has already been printed up and b. as is my standard practice, I don't really care.

Also, I mailed out a huge batch of postcards today. So if I have your address, watch the mailbox this week. And if I don't have your address (Alex, Ruvym, Brooke, and others), you better email me your current address. philmont@derekwalden.com

PS: Funny moment of the Day: In the middle of the afternoon (while working on Staff Rules and Regs) a fellow CD comes over to my tent and says, "Want to see something funny?" I go, "Sure." "My Mom just sent me this text message," she says as she hands me her phone. The phone read, "Brad and Angelina had a girl."

Ranger Miles

derek@derekwalden.com (D) — Wed, 24 May 2006 22:55:00 +0000

Sorry for the long delay in posts, but things are starting to get busy. I'll give you the 10 scond recap then tell some funny stories (because let's face it, me listing all the things I've done is borning as all get up, but me telling you about stupid things is funny).

-Last week we finnished setting up all the tents in Base. Kyle and I passed on our leadership duties to a few other tent crew and they continue doing other things around the ranch this week.

-Last weekend myself and 3 others went in to Taos. Saw DaVinci code and I really enjoyed it. Thought it captured all the salient points of the novel. Well done. Also got the oil changed in my car (does anyone know how to reset the "Service Engine Soon" light?)

-This week is CD training. We sit in a little room and learn how to do our jobs for 8 hours a day. All the CDs are great people and as different a collection of folks as can be imagined. But we all love Philmont and love our jobs, so that's something.

Now to the funny:
I've been talking to a lot of the first year Rangers that were in my tent crew about the good and the bad of being a Ranger. One day we had sat down and spoken for almost an hour about all my favorite memories. Later that day, I had remembered something that I wanted to tell my guys. So that night we had all gone in to Cimarron for ice cream and we are all sitting around a picinic table and I say, "Oh hey. I totally forgot to tell you guys about "Ranger Miles." But as soon as it left my mouth, I was interupted by someone else. We didn't get back to my little comment for a few minutes until one of the guys goes, "So Heavy D, who was Ranger Miles?" I am confused, "Uh, what?" "Dude, you said you were going to tell us about Ranger Miles. Was he some Philmont bad ass?" At which point everyone chimes in with their own theory about who they think Ranger Miles was and what he did to go down in Philmont lore. This is the point in the story where I am looking at them all like they have "tin heads" (Hi Mom and Dad!). I can't believe that everyone took the same exact interpretation of "Ranger Miles." I start cracking up laughing.

As anyone who has been to or worked at Philmont knows, the funny part of this story is that Ranger Miles is not a person, it is a thing. A "Ranger mile." A unit of distance. Some random camper asks you how far away something is and you reply, "Just a Ranger mile." The actual distance is entirely irrelevant - it can be 500 yards or 5 miles. It is a way to force the participants to read their own map and think for themselves, rather than relying on us.

So, after laughing profusly, I explained this to my little group of first years and we all had a good laugh. Now we have a running joke about this mythical Ranger Miles. Anytime someone asks about an impossible feat or some test of skill, we all reply that it was once done by the legandary Phimont bad ass, "Ranger Miles." Who hiked to the Tooth and back in 3 hours? Ranger Miles. Who hiked the Ranger Marathon blindfolded? Ranger Miles. Who can leap tall buildings in a single bound? Ranger Miles.

Other jokes which I have to write down or I will forget later (which will not be funny to anyone else):
Everything which is anything important is KBD
When taking the lord's name in vain, replacing "Jesus Christ" with "Joseph Smith."
Women are care givers, men have "magical powers" (like D&D hit points or something)

PS: 2 more weeks til I get to the Backcountry.

A brief visit to Clark's

derek@derekwalden.com (D) — Thu, 18 May 2006 02:17:00 +0000

Nothing out of the ordinary happened today. We set up many many tents. My crew is coming together nicely. I was pleased to receive a personal compliment and handshake from the head of the maintenance department today. Apparently the other two guys I have been working with said some nice thing about my help organizing the crew, and he passed on his appreciation. So that was nice.

In other news, I got to visit my camp today. A Conservation crew was being picked up out at Clark's after dinner and I was able to tag along. The camp looks to be in pretty good shape, but a lot of thing have changed since I was there in 2001. The chuckwagon area that they were building in 01 is completed and looks great. And all the camps between now and then have done projects which change the appearance of the camp slightly. The biggest change that I noticed was our cabin. They have extended the porch and added a good-sized patio. An addition was also put on the back of the cabin for a CD room (I think). The interior of the cabin has also changed. It looks like they took down the kitchen wall and moved it over a few feet. Exciting, exciting.

I was so glad to get into the backcountry, even if it was just for about 10 minutes (plus 30 minutes either way in driving).

PS: Per Ruvym's choice, I posted my 15 on 15. This month is cereals.

Laundry Day

derek@derekwalden.com (D) — Wed, 17 May 2006 02:35:00 +0000

Our forecast from yesterday was true and our motley crew of 6 rocketed to over 20 people today. Which was great. I am estimating that we set up around 400 tents today alone. And, not surprisingly for anyone who knows we, I was in charge. My crew has nicknamed me "Heavy D" because apparently last year there was a really fat guy named Derek and everyone called him Heavy D. I am not fat, nor do I really care, so I am OK with it. And in my love for nicknaming people ("Ash" "Ter" "Al" "B"), I was happy to have someone else assign me a name. At dinner one of my crew comes up to me and in front of the whole table goes, "Um, Heavy D, we didn't sign the sign in sheet." I thought it was so funny.

BUT, my favorite quote of the day was from a fellow CD, Kyle, who I have been working with on Tent Crew for 2 weeks now. He comes up to me at the end of the day and goes:

Damn man. You take to leadership link stink on shit.

Inspiring, isn't it?

Second favorite quote of the day came from dinner. I was meeting a random guy who I'd never met before are introducing ourselves (as is the custom here since virtually nobody knows anybody else). We had the following exchange:

ME: So what's your name?
GUY: Shiny.
ME: What?
GUY: Shiny, like the sun. (me making a confused face) S H I N Y. (he spells it)
ME: Oh. OK. Well, that's a cool name. Never heard anyone named that before.
GUY: Well, that's my last name. I go by that because my first name is normal and boring.
ME: Oh, what's that.
GUY: Derek

I thought he had read my nametag and was totally screwing with me, but after a moment of me assuring him that it was also my name and him doing the same, all he could say in between laughter was, "Oh man... what a coincidence." We even spell it the same.