The Philmont Files: Waffles

No not the tasty breakfast item. Waffles was a donkey. Actually I guess he was technically a burro, but he was stubborn as a mule. Those might all be the same thing, I don't really know. We teamed up with Waffles about half way through our trek. His job was to carry part of our load and we had been looking forward to getting to use the burro for just this purpose. We soon came to find out that he wasn't worth the trouble. Waffles would randomly stop walking on the trail and would only get going again with the insistence of a sharp poke on the ass with a trekking pole. All he was allowed to carry was our food, and not even all of it. We probably only lost a pound or two from each of our packs. We had to load him up every morning and unpack him every night. Whenever we stopped for a break, someone had to be assigned to hold his bridle or else he would just walk away. That was the worst. After hiking with 40 pounds on your back for 5 hours, all you want to do is sit down and eat your lunch, but for a couple days, some unlucky bastard had to hold Waffles' bridle and watch everybody else eat until they were relieved. Luckily I had been elected the leader of our group so I got to assign who that was. Hehe. One peculiar thing about Waffles was whenever you rubbed his nose, he would immediately start to get an erection which we all found rather odd...and amusing. Waffles was frustrating but we missed  him nonetheless when we parted ways. He had a personality about him that made him one of the crew and I think we were happy to get rid of him, but still felt like part of the group was missing the day after we left him behind.

Waffles and I

Daaaw what a cutie

One of the crew

-Me, The Backpacker

The Philmont Files: Introduction

I've been an avid backpacker since middle school and an outdoorsman for even longer. I have spent countless weekends on the Appalachian Trail and loved every minute of it. With every trip comes a new story. Something about backpacking is addictive for me and I always feel better after a night or two away from civilization. It does me well to just forget about the stresses that plague me in the real world and just escape for a couple days. 

My backpacking career reached its climax the summer after my Freshman year in high school when I spent two weeks on a trip in the back country of New Mexico with ten other guys. This reserve in New Mexico is known as Philmont and it serves as a kind of Mecca for backpackers in boy scouts (yes I was a boy scout. I even got my eagle!). Backpacking trips always had an anti-depressant effect on me but this trip was much more than that and I believe that my trip to Philmont is one of the most important experiences of my life so far.

As you could probably imagine, a lot can happen in two weeks. I have so many memories that I could probably write a book on the experience but because this is a blog, I decided to break up all the stories into their own individual blog posts. So without further ado: the Philmont Files.

I climbed a tree

-Me, The Backpacker