Yeah nice views here but, I kinda prefer the ones at home

Yeah I don't know if I'm gonna be able to go hiking again this weekend cause Will traded with somebody for days off. I don't know maybe the rest of us will go do something. Cobra hasn't done the Tooth yet so mybe we'll go up there again. Hit up some rock climbing and sunsets this time.







































Well, hope you guys are doing good, and I'll talk to you all soon! I will get days off again in a day so I'll tell ya what's gonna happen. Love you guys and gals.

David Verdery

Random Pictures

Enlarge if ya can. Really cool layers.















I thought this was a pretty cool picture.

Philippians 4:6-7

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God

which transcends all understanding,

will guard your hearts and your

minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:8

Finally, brothers, whatever is true,

whatever is noble, whatever is right,

whatever is pure, whatever is lovely,
whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent
or praiseworthy - think about such things.

So there I was, staring into his beady little eyes and him staring right back into mine. We didn't move for what seemed like days. People walked by, but still we held our deathly gaze. I felt so uncovered as he stared through my eyes like they were shallow pools, and I just waited as he seemingly watched my fear being revealed to him underneath the clear liquid. I stayed still, trying to deny that he could see the fear eat me alive.
This wasn't the first time that this has happened, I remembered, as I thought back to this morning. I sat in front of my tent with the flaps open so that the heat from the unyielding sun could not reach me. I sat in peace until I saw something move in the distance. A ruffle of grass, then a few pieces of gravel kicked out from behind a boulder, then a tent flap swinging. "Was it just the wind?" I thought to myself. "No, it couldn't be," I told myself as I tried to peer around the side of the tent trying to see my stalker. Suddenly, there, he apeared as he almost joyfully hopped around the corner. his attitude surprised me at first, but as he sat there in the grass we locked eyes, and he began to gather my inner most feelings of terror, almost feeding off of them. Satisfied with the anxiousness that he had solidified in me, he left in much the same manner in which he had come, with nothing but his head and cartoonistic figure for me to see before his departure was complete.
With this image burning furiously in my mind, my present dilemma was made even more real. With his eyes he beat down my soul until I had nothing left to be subdued. As he jumped down from his crouched position upon the neatly stacked wood against a brown stucko building, he began to crawl towards me poised as if he was about to pounce upon his prey. This, although he was in plain view of me, struck a terrible fear in me to where I could not move or run to safety. Trembling in my seat, I could only watch as he pounced in all of his fury upon the acorn and run off into the bushes with it. He left only an image of his bushy tail and those black beady eyes to haunt my every thought. I live today in the knowledge that the two counterparts are eating their spoils just beyond the corner of that house or in the high grass outside my tent. I, my friends, am doomed to a life of running and hiding from persuers with one horrible thing in their minds. To instill fear in men.


These events are real. None of the names or places have been changed to protect the innocent. If anyone feels the need to bring to my attention any grammatical errors they will be accused of having no since of humor and will be immediately and soundly punished.

Work. . . Yeah right

Here at Philmont we stand beside our commitment to keep you safe while on trek.
Our purpose is to give you sunsets like nowhere else while delivering service to your every need in the process.
This is just an example of our persistant pursuit of keeping you safe on the trail. This sign is posted in packs & gas aka. (passin gas) where hundreds of campers come through every day. Signs just like this are posted all throughout CHQ in random places.
We promise to keep you as comfortable as possible going on and coming off the trail. This is one of our ergonomically designed pillars (EDP) specially designed for your comfort. As you can see, we are proud of the ways we make you feel welcome here at Philmont. Book your travel plans now and save!!!










Actually the first and third pictures are a product of a boring day in packs & gas. Some guy bought some Crayons and a coloring book for that day an I kinda went crazy. The second picture is the sunsetting while I was laying down on the chapel benches. Awesome sunsets here. The fourth is obviously a camper sleeping, but what is truly mystifying is that he didn't just get off the trail but instead is about to go out the next day. It will be interesting to see him in ten days as he gets off the trail. So It's going pretty good here. I miss everyone in GA & TX & CO & MO. Especially MO. It's getting harder to get along with some of the people here. Some of them have something against me just because I am a Christian and I really do believe in what I say I believe. I have found people here that not just ignore Christ but almost hate him and therefore hate me. So I'm getting better at walking on eggshells. I don't understand why people seem in full rebellion of Him. What else can I do other than hope God's persistant love will drown out their own voices long enough to listen to Him, right?


Quote: "What is spirituality without discipline? It is a vain search for good feelings and happiness that when subjected to heat, or anything requiring more than what they already have, allows them to be shaken to their very core, either seen or unseen by those around them. It is their own religion that will never see the joy of whole-heartedly seeking anything. A faithlessness masked by self-reliance."

This came up after a discussion with some people here. It didn't seem right to me, some of the stuff they said, so I had a while to think about it.

Crater lake & Fish camp continued

Alright blogger messes up the order of my pictures so here we go. Alright, this picture is from lookout peak. About a 400 foot climb from the trail we were on. Nice lookout.
This is actually on the way back to Zastrow turnaround from Fish camp, about an 8 mile hike.
Hey Dad, if you can't remember this is trail peak with the B-24 wing. I remembered that we had a picture of you and me here and I decided that you should just insert your picture here. The trail coming up this side is straight up and loose rock so it was a little harder than hikin the side from beubien. Other people look hard enough and ya can see Baldy in the background above my arm. I'll be hittin that up in a week or two. Tallest peak in Philmont.
So this is the cabin that we got to stay in at Fish camp. Pretty awesome I know. We got cots to sleep on, a hot meal, dishes to clean(like I care after tuna & maccaroni and cheese, and fried squash), and friendly talk. We got to see the fly fishing demo and story time. Alright story time is a semi dirty romance/fantasy novel that they make fun of every night. Don't worry it wasn't bad. just a whole lotta fun people to hang out with there though. In the morning one of the guys pulled out a mouse trap with a mouse on it. By mouse trap I mean bear trap and by mouse I mean an ROUS. (Rodent Of Unusual Size)

Alright, so I gotta story for ya. I'm sitting there at fish camp on the porch, and a guy starts playing a song on his guitar and I start to recognize the chord proggression. I sit there trying to figure it out and he starts singing "world apart" by Jars of Clay and I'm like AWESOME! So when he finishes I say "that's jars of clay right?" and he's like "yeah, their best song in my opinion." So we start talking and then later he busts out "How Great is our God" and even with people around and talking and stuff we start worshiping! After that I said, "that's like the first time I've had worship in 2 weeks" and we continue into a conversation for a while about why we are where we are in Philmont and how important fellowship is and how much he wanted me to come back and how much I wanted him to come in on his day off. I was just so suprised that out of all the camps that I could've gone to I went to this one with a man passionate after God's heart. Wow.

So the map is, Dad, We started at just past Zastrow turnaround went to Abreu to Crater Lake to Trail peak, back down the way we came up and on to Webster Pass where we went up to Lookout Peak, back down the way we came and went down to Fish Camp and out down Rayado creek (I think) to Abreu and out to the car again. Awesome scenic trails even on the way out of Fish Camp.

Crater lake & Fish camp

This is a picture of the Tooth of Time from the trail to Crater Lake from Zastrow turnaround. (Dad, if ya wanna check) This is the time that the band at Crater Lake allowed us to use the soul stealing devices to capture them in their 10 poses. If you can see. They let us stay in a staff tent behind the cabin. No beds, though we didn't hafta pack up wet tents in the morning.
These are the guys I went with on the trail. Left to right is Richard, Me, Cobra( also known as David who is also from GA), and Will.

This is me capturing them on my soul stealing device without them knowing. Sweet. Guy in the top hat was awesome on the washboard. heh! Oh yeah that's the Tooth in the background.

First hike!

Hey guys,
I'm having a pretty good time out here, but still miss all of you. I took a hike up to the Tooth of Time on Sunday. The hike was about 9 miles and we did it in the middle of the day... bad idea. i drank 3 qts. in no time. Sorry for the 2 pictures up top. Computer illiteracy. Anyway, the guy in the red hat, guy with the white hat and long hair, and some other guy I haven't met yet are the ones I'll have days off with. I'm kneeling in the middle. The bottom picture is the Tooth of Time on the hike up. 2 middle pictures are on top of the tooth. Battling the heat and the lady bugs (who inhabited the summit of the tooth we finally made it and proceeded to start the trek back to tent city. Tired by the time night fell I then went to the staff lounge and wooped-up on unsuspecting strangers playing ping-pong. So today we stocked the wall of food (boxes upon boxes of squeeze cheese, fruit roll ups, and clif bars) and we get pretty much our fill of everything we want. DANGEROUS. So I hear everythin' is going pretty good back at home. I really miss you guys. The friendships, the food, the closeness and everything that goes with that. Well, talk to yall later. Love again, to everyone.

volcano and PHILMONT!

Hello family, friends, and Morgan! These are some pictures of the volcano that I was able to hike on before getting to Philmont(Sunny outside pictures). The other pictures are of tent city with the Tooth of Time in the background as the sun sets, and of my tent with my stuff inside. I'll try to get up more pictures in a bit. I love you all and miss you guys. Special love and missingness for you Morgan! Talk to ya later and look forward to your posts.