Philmont Expedition 727-E1-1994 – 9 August 1994: Day +2: Homecoming / Aftermath

Day +2: Homecoming

It was time to go. Now on our 16th day, the novelty had worn off and we had accomplished all we set out to do. We hiked at Philmont, conquered Baldy, and lived to tell the tale. We saw all the sights Colorado Springs had to offer, at least as many as we cared to see. Anything more was just an unnecessary delay. It was time to go home.

Another trip to the airport, another connection in Chicago. Landing in White Plains left us with just the most arduous part of the journey left to go – the ride that would bring us home. I called my mother from the airport to have her get a pizza for me for when I returned. Such a request would have been unthinkable a year ago, but a lot had changed.

Ron’s wife met him at the airport and I caught a ride with them and Joe, getting dropped off right at home. I was greeted by… An empty house. I guess that pizza took a while longer than expected. Whatever, I could wait. The trip was over.

Aftermath

The summer was nearing its end and there was still a lot to do. No time to look back on the trip just yet. And nothing to look at yet, it would take a couple of days to get the film developed (and I hadn’t finished using the last roll yet). Longer for the panoramic camera and the bad news about it.

I was supposed to start Cross Country practice in a week. That didn’t happen. I had two reasons, logistical and practical. On the logistics side, I still had to visit colleges. In the final weeks of the summer, I would fly to North Carolina (to visit Duke) and spend a few days in Miami (because it was cheaper than flying straight back) and then head out on a road trip in New York (to see RPI, Cornell, and the National Baseball Hall of Fame). It was a full schedule.

On the practical side, I could barely walk. My almost complete lack of preparation had finally caught up with me. Running was completely out of the question, not that the coaches wanted to hear that. In any case, I was the worst runner on the team, so it didn’t really matter. I was only using Cross Country to get back in shape for the next two seasons of track, so recovery was my top priority.

In Miami, I used the downtime to label one set of my photographs. This and my college application essay would be the extent of my documentation of this trip for more than 20 years. That set of photos, my notes from the trip, associated paperwork, souvenirs, and various Philmont relics went into a box to be filed away with other boxes from my travels. I should probably find it…

About 20 years later, I figured it was time to put the story together. But my memories had faded and other things kept coming up. Here and there, I began piecing together the details of the trek. I probably could have just looked in the box, except I never had it on hand when I thought to work on it. In early 2017, I set a goal to have it complete by the 25th anniversary. I had plenty of time.

And then there was a month left. The box hadn’t turned up, but I had a good idea of where it was. I just couldn’t get to it. I had spent more than two years waiting to get everything together before starting, but I was just about out of time. I couldn’t wait any longer, I had to just get it written down now and hope I could fix the details in post.

It would take at least one story a day to get it done. And I needed to figure out what stories to use and how to structure it. Maps and distances would help, but they would take time. Maybe add them in later? And there were things to be scanned and photographed. Things that were still in that box…

20,000 words later, the story is done. Many of the details are wrong or missing. None of the other participants were consulted. I hadn’t even seen or heard from anyone except Ron since I aged out. Accuracy might be a bit lacking.

Box was located, notes were consulted. They confirmed, contradicted, and added detail to what had already been written. Time for a rewrite… The timeline is now accurate, thanks to a detailed log of key times for the entire trek. My notes also contained a complete accounting of all money spent on the trip, some interesting quotes, and the details of how many times everyone threw up (10 times total). All the important stuff.

Egyptian Rat Screw – that was the name of the card game Mike taught us. I had completely forgotten about that probably by the time I returned home… King’s Table was the name of the buffet chain we frequented on the road. Looks like it isn’t around anymore.

Details of who went where in my notes suggest that I had the roles of Ron and Tom reversed on our Tooth Ridge adventure. Might need to get a second opinion on that one…

All of the trek paperwork was in there as well, with key details like the itinerary number and trek number, mileage and elevation chart, and the group photo we took before starting on the trail. Some things weren’t in the box, like the panoramic photos. The search continues.

Details from some of the other stories emerged from old troop newsletters. Dates of key events, troop rosters, and some of the Philmont planning efforts started to come together. But my records don’t go back past the fall of 1991, leaving some of the earlier events shrouded in mystery.

So here we are. True to form, I wasn’t ready for this and pushed through with sheer willpower. Now comes the pain from insufficient preparation. Edits will hopefully be forthcoming as things get figured out. The panoramic photos, while damaged, would be great to have. As would different perspectives. First this needs to get pushed out, then we can figure out where to go next.

This journey never ends.