From: Brian Gannon (bgannon@cox.rr.com)
Date: Wed Apr 17 2002 - 08:54:26 CDT
Here's a question I can relate to...
In 1994, I went on my first Philmont trek. I was 15 at the time and the
other youth in the crew were around the same age. I don't think anyone
was over 16. We had a couple of advisors in the "gray area" (18-20),
and only one person was above 30 years old.
Anyway, we selected Trek 25 (now Trek 33) at the encouragement of our
Scoutmaster. He and a couple of the other leaders had been before, but
none of us Scouts had. If you look at Trek 33, it is the longest trek
at Philmont. It is also the only one that climbs Baldy without the
benefit of a layover day. So what did we do for getting ready?
Absolutely nothing. Our Scoutmaster talked about doing a hike once or
twice, but nothing ever materialized (maybe that's part of the reason
he's gone now...). If only I knew then what I know how about how
important training is.
I was fortunate to spend a week beforehand in Colorado with my family,
which help me get used to the altitude. This trek literally kicked my
butt - and I could tell the others were hurting too. Every day for the
first five days, I thought about giving up. But after five days, I
started to get used to it and kept trudging along. However, we missed
out on a lot of program because we were hiking all the time. We even
missed the campfire at Pueblano because we didn't get in until 9pm! We
also decided not to side hike Mt. Phillips because we didn't think we
could do it plus our regular hike. We were lucky that most of our
advisors were young and in shape. The only older advisor did have some
problems and ended up skipping Baldy. But he made it - in fact, we all
made it. But would I do it again? NO. If this is your first time to
Philmont and you have a younger crew, do yourselves a favor and choose a
trek in the typical or rugged catergories. This is especially true if
your backpacking experience is limited. By spending less time hiking
and more time participating in programs, you will enjoy Philmont more.
Hopefully, others will learn from our mistake...
---- Brian Gannon 718G ------------------------------------------------------- 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. -------------------------------------------------------
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.7 : Thu Mar 13 2003 - 10:37:23 CST