YOur-SEMITE!

A great friend of mine is leading the adventure life cycling across the country. His latest stop: Yosemite National Park, first protected in 1864. Hats off to Marc & John’s dream for the trip, and Carrie’s enthusiasm I am fortunate enough to be working with this summer. The best part about Philmont is the chance to work with various people who have spent different parts of their Phil-career working with other excellent people. In the end, it’s because of all those excellent folk of the past that you can stand on the shoulders of giants.

Cycling for Conservation

I had the grandest time exploring our nation’s third designated National Park just over one month ago. I was able to see a ton of the park thanks to my Philmont friend, Carrie, who works in the park for Nature Bridge, tirelessly educating the youth of California and also thanks to Dennis, a friend I made on this trip in Louisiana who came out to Yosemite to backpack for his very first time. I devoted 1/3 of my time shadowing/guest teaching with Carrie as she taught a group of 11 eighth graders about our natural world and our place within, 1/3 of the time cycling and hiking around with Dennis seeing waterfalls, big trees, and towering cliffs, and the rest of the time backpacking and hiking Half Dome with both of them.

Carrie passionately explains the geology of the park. Navada Falls is on the right.

It is a rainy on the second and…

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I have already been at Philmont for two months and it’s only just picked up speed.

Around this time at Philmont is a busy time. Friends are reunited since the last time they saw each other in August. Each meal in the base camp dining hall is another chance to see a familiar face or sit and get to know new ones. People get to experience the thrill of a new position in a different department than they’re used to, and suddenly topics on risk management, first aid and policies is fun and exciting simply with a change of scenery and new faces presenting the topics.

Within this amazing machine of “training,” which has been set in motion as early as May 15th, and will conclude shortly after June 8th – all Philmont staff will complete two weeks of training on a variety of topics from customer service to how to camp responsibly following Philmont procedures all while being inspired to be the best at their jobs for the next 90 days.

Coincidentally, Philmont is the only place I have ever experienced a formal management training session.

By June 8th, these 1,130 staff members will all be ready to receive the summer’s first crews of participants ready to hit the trail the following day. Each summer the training sessions are similar: the running around in “free” time between meals or after office hours trying to ready the next day’s materials and presentations never take less time than the year before, but the feelings of pride and accomplishment build each passing day.

Our group of Environmental Educators have been steadily filling their brains with lesson material about subjects such as ecology, astronomy, habitat management and Leave No Trace ethics. Our program is fortunate to have standing ties with professionals from the natural resource field who lecture and demonstrate hands-on lessons for us leading up to our first participants. Just the other day at “work” was the classroom pictured below.

While I’ve been enjoying the mountain rains and chilly mountain air, the E/V Nautilus and Corps of Exploration has begun making a historic passage through the Panama Canal. Going through the canal was streamed live on Nautilus Live  as she enters the Pacific Ocean for the very first time. Check out a great time-lapse of the first lock here.

Two months from now I will be at sea.

Two hours from now I have to be finished packing and getting some sleep in a real bed, before 10 nights sleeping in a tent under the starry skies of God’s Country in the backcountry, continuing to teach others about trail building, place-based education and expedition protocol.

Legacy Impacts

Driving in as the plains meet the mountains, it’s all familiar… the view through my windshield and butterflies felt in my stomach as I approach my second home. I have enjoyed all my positions at Philmont, each summer and position offering new challenges, new friends and new knowledge. In our line of work in the Conservation Department, we strive to educate through example, as our motto portrays: “With right, comes responsibility.”

Many tasks await a Conservation staff member for their 90-day contract:

• educate Scouts about conservation and provide leadership for youth backpacking treks
• design, construct and maintain 300 miles of hiking, horseback riding and mountain biking trail (photo credit: Doyle Maurer)
• maintain over  2,500 backcountry campsite features such as latrines, fire rings, sumps and bear cables
• build best use practices for sustainability of an audience that fluctuates from 30,000 to 300
• gather data points with GPS units about structures, campsites, fences and more to produce in-house maps of our 137,000 acre property and neighboring lands (that’s between a staff of 5 people!)
• use cultural, chemical, mechanical and biological controls to control and eradicate invasive weed populations, in addition to monitoring and educating Scouts about the detriment Invasive Plants pose to our region and the world

I am fortunate to work with a dedicated staff of 100 in Conservation that fall within a larger pool of 1,000+ total summer staff (2014 summer all-staff photo credit: Bryan Hayek), who I also look forward to collaborate and create alongside.

I am confident that the message of responsibility toward environment, ourselves and future generations will ring loud and clear this season.

This is just a glimpse into what the summer holds ahead, even so, the view is pretty good from here.