From: Douglas Fasching (palisade14@hotmail.com)
Date: Mon Apr 22 2002 - 08:39:38 CDT
All,
While you may have thought we had covered all the topics possible for
preparing the best Philmont experience, I think there is one left worth
discussing. Not stoves(btu, gas, airline), itineraries(best, worst, trail
conditions, changes), gear, water, dynamics, travel, or bears (though I will
likely throw in my controversial two cents at the end). I would like to
suggest some things for interacting with the Philmont summer Staff.
Now this may be in the guide by Wally and Coop I don't know but I doubt it.
While my experience on Staf was limited to the years 87-96 I still feel like
I has a pretty good handle on the rapport between Staff and Camper. Mr.
Gannon has from time to time put in his experiences from a recent Rangers
point of view and I invite him to temper my comments with more contemporary
Staff interactions.
I am always reading you guys list your number of times to Philmont so here's
my resume:
82 - Camper
84 - Camper
86 - Camper
87 - PTC Food Service
88 - PTC Food Service
89 - Ranger (finally, and thank God lastly)
90 - PTC South Tent City Manager
91 - PTC Services Manager
92 - Urraca CD
93 - Santa Clause CD
94 - Ponil CD
95 - Cimarroncito CD
96 - Beaubien CD
Ahhhhh.....IWGBTP. Sorry, got nostalgic for a second there...
Its really only the last 5 years that make much difference since its the
Backcountry Staff perspective I would liek to focus on.
I never actually met anyone that did not love working at Philmont in any
capacity. We heard rumors, but surely those weren't true? But this is NOT
summer camp. These folks are generally all in college and have chosen the
less lucrative option of working at the Ranch rather than a summer job at
home or an important internship somewhere. Often, they are not even
historically Scouts and may never have been to Philmont before. They may be
friends of a previous Staff members.
Most of the Staff members that are in the Backcountry are returning Staff
and have chosen or been chosen for their particular Camp because they wanted
to be there but not always. In any case, they are well trained for their
positions that summer. But what is it that they are trained for?
My guess is that you, the Camper, see them as being trained in rock
climbing, black powder, ropes, horse back riding, and so on. But this is
only the most obvious part of their work. They also get to handle things
like: checking in crews, cleaning showers, cooking for the Staff, handling
radio emergencies (both real and the ones campers fabricate), fires,
advisor's coffee, and managing commissaries.
Enthusiam starts high in June rides pretty well through the 4th of July,
lags mid July, picks up again around Phil-fiesta (~ July 25th), then
trickles off steadily toward August 20 or so.
All these activities occur in the most beautiful of prison cells.
Imagine, you've just been slapped together with 5 other people that you
never met, thrown into the woods with no tv, electricity, or normal hygeine
systems, told you'll get 8 days on and 2.5 days off and oh, by the way, the
walk to your car is 3 hours away.
Interestingly, you will see a Staffer spring off the porch greet your crew
with an outstandly warm welcome invite you to some bug juice and usher you
cheerfully to your campsite for the evening. Later that day or the next she
will teach you how to rope a plastic cow, rappel down a rock face, or milk a
cow. Or he may help you contact Base with a Crew need of some kind, IT
change, health lodge case, or some other thing.
They will stay up till nine or ten at night, every night, playing music,
singing songs or telling ghost stories. And maybe twice a summer they will
get woken up a 2 am for a litter carry, fire, or lost Scout.
So basically its a mixture of high enthusiam, hard work, and long days.
The best way to keep it this way for you and all those Crews that follow you
is to respect and appreciate what these young people do everyday, both what
you see and what you don't.
Staff get very little in the way of private areas (physical and emotional)
So to help respect the space they do get:
-Only enter a cabin when invited
-Please respect signs regarding Staff shower times on camp showers
-Think twice about serenading a cabin at 6am when you depart
-The radio isnt God. Most likely the Staffer in front of you knows more
about your problem AND the solution than the guy at the end of the radio
Other behavior tid bits:
-Talk to the Camp Director (CD) diectly about a concern you might have with
a Program Counselor (PC) first. The evals you submit at the end of the trek
may not get read for a month or more
-There may not be a happy solution to your problem; the solution may involve
more hiking and a few days
-Just because you see roads and 4x4's on them doesn't mean they are at your
beck and call
-leave your work at home if you can't dont come
-Your Ranger really doesnt know everything about every camp
So I will wrap up there and leave my bear rant for another time. There were
a ton of other thngs I wanted to say, but I felt that I was already
unorganized and negative and didnt want to go too far down that path.
I will glady respond privately or publically to whatever responses or
questions you might have. My opinions are my own and don't represent any
particular organization.
Douglas Fasching
palisade14@hotmail.com
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