Phimont Trek!

Talmage joined our new Boy Scout Troop on a 2 week 50 mile trek at Philmont.  It was strange to have him gone, but I know he had some good growing experiences that he needed.  He was so exhausted when he got home :)

He was asked to give a talk about his spiritual experiences from camp so I am including that for his account :):
  
Our family moved into the ward over the summer. I got here in time to join the scout troop on Philmont trek. While we were there, I had a great time and was able to enjoy the mountains of New Mexico. Along with the fun experiences of camping, ATV riding, and hiking, we had many spiritual experiences. I am going to talk about two that really affected me.

About halfway through, on day 6 we had a long way to go, about 6-8 miles. We never left at a good time during the whole trek, which is typically 7-8am. That day we picked up our new stash of food and placed it in our packs, which added plenty of weight. Everyone was probably carrying more than we should have.

When we set out, it was about 10:30 in the morning. We did fine until we started hiking the last 3 to 4 miles in the canyon. The weight finally got to us, and some of us started struggling. We finally made it out of the canyon and hit the meadow. By then it was about 7:00pm. We hiked for another hour after a thirty minute break. It was getting dark out, it was starting to rain, and we couldn’t find our campsite. We had to admit that we were lost. We sent a group to find a campsite while the rest of us huddled together and waited for them to contact us.

Luckily for us, they found a site. They radioed us and we found them at a little cleared space under some trees. Someone said they thought they saw a sump, where scraps of dinner are dumped from the campground, but we didn’t think much of it. A few minutes later we sent someone to check it out, and there was a sump! Energized, we searched and found a fire pit. Eventually we found the bear cable and tied up our food. I know that we were guided by Heavenly Father to a campsite! It was just what we needed. Heavenly Father helped us to find a campsite and to hike the miles we needed to with overstuffed packs.

My second experience I wanted to share was on day 11 and 12. On day eleven it was a Sunday, we were hiking well, and making good time. Our designated campsite was Lower Sawmill, but we could make it farther to the Minette Meadows campsite. Eventually we decided not to go the extra few miles for many reasons, one of the more prominent was that it was Sunday and we wanted to keep the Sabbath day holy and not hike more than necessary.

The next day we started out and after an hour or two of hiking we came to a junction. We saw an obvious path of to the right, and kind of saw an overgrown path off to the left.  We decided to take the path to the right.  After a little bit we saw some rangers were coming up the path. We told them where we were going, and contrary to what we thought, the path to the left actually lead to Ute Park turnaround, which was our pickup point. We followed the path the rangers pointed out and after a while we realized that had we left and gone on to Minette Meadows we would have 1. Missed the little trail, and 2. After I saw the Minette Meadows campgrounds, I realized we would have completely gotten lost again.

Heavenly Father and Jesus were always there for us to help guide us in getting to our destination and to help prevent us from getting lost. If we didn’t have their guidance, we would have had more problems than we did. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ were always there for us whenever we needed them, even if we didn’t know it at the time.

I would like to bear my testimony that I know this church is true, and that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ will always be there for you whenever you need them, even when you don’t realize it. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.