Yep, that's 1988. Ronald Reagan was president, and would be for another six months. The Berlin Wall still separated East and West Germany, and wouldn't fall for another year. On the big screen, the fare included movies like "Big" with Tom Hanks and "Good Morning, Vietnam" with Robin Williams, but "Rain Man" with Dustin Hoffman would win Best Picture. On the tube, shows like "Cagney and Lacey" and "Hill Street Blues" and "Alf" and "St. Elsewhere" were still in prime-time. The radio gave us tunes like Elton John's "Candle in the Wind," the Beach Boys' "Kokomo," Bobby McFerrin's "Don't Worry, Be Happy," and Kathy Mattea's "18 Wheels and a Dozen Roses."

   A long time ago? Yes, but in some ways it seems like only yesterday when, in 1988, I returned to Philmont with members of my troop (Troop 455 of Atlanta, Ga.) for the second of two expeditions to Philmont. The first expedition was a year earlier. (A link below will take you to that journal.)

   On this trip, we selected Trek 10 because it offered a little more difficulty than the year before but still kept us in the beautiful Central and South Country of Philmont to re-visit programs the Scouts had enjoyed in 1987. The same trek today (year 2000), with a minor change, is known as Trek 18.

   I kept daily notes on both expeditions and wrote a journal after each trip. Each crew member received a copy, and one copy of each was presented to the Seton Library at Philmont for the files.

   At the time, few crews had published their journals. Or, if so, few had placed copies in the Seton Library. In the conventional technology of the day, publishing a journal was a fairly tedious task. First, the document had to be typed on a typewriter. Then it had to be edited and corrected and finally a print-ready copy had to be produced. Then, someone had to feed it through a photo-copier to obtain the desired number of copies. Back then, few of us were aware that something called an Internet would ever exist and computing was something you did mainly on machines at the office.

   Times change. I've junked my old clunky portable typewriter and I've learned a little HTML. So here is the 1988 journal, utilizing today's technology.

   A precautionary word to those heading to Philmont for the first time. Philmont procedures, programs and even trails described in this journal may have changed since I wrote this. Please read this not so much as a specific guide but more as an account of what it's like to hike Philmont's "magic mountains.