From: Phil Brown (philbrown@enterinfosys.com)
Date: Wed Apr 17 2002 - 05:52:27 CDT
We had some of the same issues last year. No one had ever backpacked more
than 2-3 days at a time. Our crew was mostly 14 and 15 year olds. We had
youth that weighted 85, 105, 117 and a 6' that was considered underweight at
130 lbs. These lighter youth were given maximum pack weights during the
health check at CHQ.
The crew selected trek 21. At the end, everyone was happy with the trek
selection, but I don't think anyone would have wanted a more difficult trek.
Had we not done the proper preparation, it could have been a bad experience.
Some things you can do to prepare include:
Do not let anyone carry anything extra in their personal gear. This is
important in any crew, but is critical if you have smaller youth. On this
list we picked up some great ideas for keeping weight down.
Keep the crew gear at a minimum. We carried only 2 stoves. We knew that we
could get by on one if necessary and decided to not carry a third stove as a
spare. We carried our own tarp which was much lighter than the Phil tarps.
Our cook kit was only a 4qt and 6 qt pots which worked great. Again, on
this list you can pick up some great ideas for keeping weight down.
Make sure everyone understands that a "fair share" of crew gear does not
mean an "equal share" of crew gear. In our crew some of the larger youth
and the adults had to carry more crew gear to keep the pack weight down for
the smaller guys.
Understand that you will not be setting any land speed records (not a bad
thing in my opinion). We started most days before our sister crew (a much
older and larger group). They would pass us on the trail.
Know your crew members and what they can do. Our 105 lb. scout was told to
limit his pack weight to 25lbs at the health check. He left CHQ with a 35
lb. pack (including water). He had carried this much on our shakedowns
without a problem and did so for 10 days at Philmont.
Make sure everyone is getting in shape. Often we focus on the adults, but
the youth should also be doing a workout program. Video games and computer
chat will not get you in shape for Philmont.
And finally, your crew leader should be the one to decide how to divide up
the crew gear. Not the parents. Make sure he understands the issues
involved.
Phil Brown
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-philmont@troop47.com [mailto:owner-philmont@troop47.com]On
Behalf Of Gary Dodge
Sent: Monday, April 15, 2002 7:30 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list philmont
Subject: [Philmont]: A couple of rookie crew questions
Our crew is entirely new to Philmont trekking and we need a couple of
questions answered (so far!).
First, our scouts have just made their selections of treks and we're
about to send the choices in, hoping for availability. The concern,
however, is that their selections are all at the very high end of the
difficulty scale. We (the advisors) are worried that they may have been
overly optimistic about their own capabilities (not to mention ours!).
None of these boys have done any extensive, multi-day backpacking trips
in the past. In their quest to fully exploit the Philmont experience,
are they going to make themselves too miserable to enjoy anything? How
should we counsel them?
Second, we have a couple of scouts participating who are pretty small
(~120 lbs). They, of course, haven't expressed any concern about the
necessary pack weights, but their parents have. We've heard conflicting
answers about how the assignment of crew equipment is done. We've been
told (by those parents) that they've heard that the equipment/food will
be divided so that nobody has a pack weight > 30% of their body weight.
We've also heard that the equipment/food will be distributed evenly and
each will carry approximately the same load. Obviously both answers
can't be correct. Can someone help us out based on actual recent
experience with crews of various size/age boys?
Thanks!
Gary Dodge
Old and feeble, but still a fox!
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As you gather around this virtual campfire with fellow
Scouts and Scouters, do your best to be trustworthy,
loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient,
cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.
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Scouting E-mail Discussion Lists @ usscouts.org
Subscribe/Unsubscribe at http://usscouts.org/lists/
Listserv Commands at http://usscouts.org/lists/lc.asp
-------------------------------------------------------
Send listserv commands to: listserv@troop47.com
Send postings to: philmont@troop47.com
List FAQ found at: http://usscouts.org/lists/faq.asp
List Administrator: philmont_owner@troop47.com
-------------------------------------------------------
As you gather around this virtual campfire with fellow
Scouts and Scouters, do your best to be trustworthy,
loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient,
cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.
-------------------------------------------------------
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