A Scout Is Resilient: Philmont Staffers and the Ute Park Fire Half an hour into the trek that would complete her training as a Philmont Ranger, Meghan Ciupak and her fellow trainees saw flames over a nearby ridge and realized they needed to turn back. That same day, May 31, 2018, commissary clerk Noah Miller saw the flames from another perspective as he and a friend drove back to Philmont Scout Ranch from a day off in nearby Taos, N.M. Within hours, everyone at Philmont could see the flames of what became known as the Ute Park Fire, as could Scouts and Scouters across the country who would watch the fire’s rapid progress via social media. What those far-flung Scouts and Scouters couldn’t see as
clearly was the massive effort to salvage the summer for the tens of thousands of participants whose Philmont treks would be canceled in the coming days. (Initially, Philmont officials canceled the first half of the season, but were forced to cancel the entire season as the fire grew to more than 36,000 acres, most of them on Philmont property.) The effort demonstrated that the Philmont Ranger’s motto — “Scramble, Be Flexible” — applies to everyone in the Boy Scouts of America. It also showed that “A Scout is resilient” might be a good addendum to the Scout Law. Here are the stories of three Philmont staffers.
Meghan Ciupak Growing up in Oklahoma City with a father and brother who’d both been to Philmont, Meghan Ciupak knew all about the BSA and its iconic New Mexico high adventure base. She joined a Venturing crew at her high school and completed her own Philmont trek with that crew the summer before college. Last spring, she snagged a job as a Ranger, which meant she would be spending the summer preparing crews to head into the backcountry and accompanying them for the first couple of days of their treks. Mother Nature had other plans, however, and Ciupak evacuated to the fairgrounds in nearby Springer with the rest of the 1,100-strong seasonal staff. Staff members continued their training there, while enjoying a “human rodeo” and performances by various backcountry staffs. When it became clear that no crews would be venturing into the backcountry, Philmont officials began working with other high adventure bases and council camps to accommodate displaced crews — and to provide those facilities with extra staff members. Ciupak signed up to serve as a guide with Denver Area Council’s Tahosa High Adventure Base. “They originally had three trek guides, and we added another three,” she says. “And we were out almost every week; I think I had only one week off the whole summer.”
state law. When she wasn’t guiding, she helped drive crews to shooting ranges, climbing venues, and rafting trips, which partially made up for the backcountry programs they were missing at Philmont. “Everybody was very thankful for the Scouting community as a whole,” she says. “Being able to go to those different camps enables everyone to see the greater Scouting mission, where everybody helps each other out.”
Credit: Meghan Ciupak
Ciupak guided crews from Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa and Texas, staying with them for their entire treks, as is required by 8
