Thank you Roy, for introducing “morale boosters” into the thread.
I feel this is an item that the advisors need to carry or arrange. It’s
amazing how something as simple as a letter (birthday cards) from home or a
piece of candy can add energy to the youth when things are falling apart.
I had the misfortune to activate the morale boosters on two treks, 2002 and
2004. There were different circumstances leading up to where the kids were
seriously questioning why they were out at Philmont, 1000’s of miles from
home. Jolly Ranchers and M&M’s certainly turned the days around…
In 2002, I was the lead advisor for a young crew (oldest was 15) and we had
a day that went from bad to worse in about an hour. It was our 3rd day on
the trail and after a miscalculation of where we were on the map and an
extra mile on the trail because of a missed turn off and the steepness of
the terrain, we had 3 youth members and the other advisor ready to call it
quits…
I was bringing up the rear trying to move people along and from the front of
the line I heard a scream and a scout shout “Mr Fitz, ‘X’ just snapped his
Achilles tendon”. Going to the aid of the scout, I found that our crew
leader was lying on the ground next to the victim, totally exhausted due to
lack of nutrition and proper hydration (it’s tough to monitor those platypus
bags tucked into backpacks and all the breakfast bars that he was eating
weren’t supplementing his meals, but were actually his meals). Another
youth was approaching a dehydrated state and my back up (the other adult
advisor) had been popping Advil like they were candy for the whole day. A
wave of panic washed over me as I looked at the map to calculate an
evacuation/rescue strategy and looked over the youth to see who I could send
for aid…
Suddenly I remembered a special package that I had packed for an occasion
just like this – tucked away in on of the youth packs was a newspaper
wrapped package marked “Bear Bag”. I knew who had the package and asked him
for it. As he handed it to me, he question what it was: “Signal flares” was
my response (I still don’t know why I said that to this day) If you remember
2002 was a year with major re-routing of treks due to early season fires.
Pealing off the newspaper, I revealed a package of Jolly Ranchers hard
candy. Declaring a packs-off break, I started tossing the candies to all
the youth and in a matter of minutes they had a change of heart and were
ready to get back on the trail… (The Achilles tendon injury wasn’t an
injury at all)
Lessons Learned:
1) Morale Boosters worked well
2) A review of the maps the night before by the crew is very important
3) We’re in this as a team and we’re all responsible for the health of the
crew. If someone is not eating/drinking right, alert the crew
leader/advisor right away
4) Monitoring of food and drink consumed is necessary for at risk youth
5) An early start on the trail avoids the hot mid-day sun
2004 found us in an entirely different situation: rain & hail caught us as
we were setting up camp after a hard days hike. Before we knew it, two
people were exhibiting the early signs of hypothermia. We were fortunate
that this time the crew was older and more experienced. We worked together
as a team during all the shakedown hikes and this day wasn’t any different.
This is one time where I stepped in and activated my advisors role to take
charge: Dinning fly went up first. Two crew members were assigned to start
boiling water and prepare an early dinner. Other crew members set up the
tents, and the 1st one up was assigned to the two ailing trekkers. Into the
tent they went with instructions to peel off their wet clothes and climb
into their bags…
About this time the water came to a boil and we topped off a couple of
nalgene bottles with the hotter water and handed them to the youth in the
tent – “put these in your bag to help warm you up”. Two more youth members
were now starting to ail and they were also instructed to get into their
tent. Additional water bottles were prepared. About 30 minutes later, the
rain started letting up and we settled in for dinner.
The warm meal was just what we needed and I chose that time to pull out a
care package for one of the crew members who would be having a birthday the
next day. He had been carrying it for 6 days and the only thing he knew
about it was that it was marked “bear bag”. I was advised about the
contents and knew it contained cards and treats from home. I also knew the
receiver would share the contents. He read off the Birthday cards and
shared his M&M’s. Our spirits were lifting and the crew’s health was
improving. (And I still had the package of jolly ranchers in reserve)
Our sister crew wasn’t so lucky. They were about 2 hours behind us on the
trail and 11 out of the 12 were not doing so well. Four of us went over to
our sister crew and repeated the process. When we arrived at their site, 11
members were huddled in their tents trying to get warm. The more seriously
ill youth got hot water bottles in their sleeping bags and our crew cooked
dinner for them. At that time their crew advisor pulled out a package of
candy and distributed it to the crew. About 9pm, on the way back to our
site, we were alerted that something large and loud was circling the
perimeter of our site and was presumably a bear and we should make a lot of
noise.
Lessons Learned:
1) an early start on the trail avoids the mid afternoon monsoons
2) keep the dinning fly handy (we used it as a giant umbrella the next day
when we got caught in another nasty storm)
3) be resourceful and adapt to the situation at hand
4) having experienced youth mixed in with newbie’s is better than a whole
crew of newbie’s
5) Moral boosters work
6) A birthday celebrated on the trail is more memorable if you have the
youth in question carry his own care package ;)
I agree with others on the list that Philmont is the Disney World of scout
camps and can say that after 3 treks under my belt that it’s one of the more
exciting rides I’ve ever been on.
Yours in Scouting,
Tom Fitzpatrick
----Original Message Follows----
From: "R Fisher" <ghotier@texas.net>
Reply-To: philmont@troop47.com
To: "philmont List Member" <philmont@troop47.com>
Subject: [philmont] Pizza at Cimarron River
Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2006 19:07:29 -0500
> Another idea would be to find out if you can get the world
> famous Abreu cantina root beer elsewhere on your trek.
That is what I consider one of the neat aspects of itinerary 28; there
is the opportunity to have Cantina Root Beer on the first Day and the
last Day (Day 2 is at Rimrock Park - 1/2 mile from Abreu and Day 12 ends
up at Ponil). Kind of puts "QUOTE MARKS" around the whole thing.
It will also be interesting to note the reactions to the rootbeer at
both places. Day 2, its not that big a thing since they just left
civilization. By Day 12, it might be a really big deal.
Regarding your other post, I whole heartedly agree with your comment
about being where you can be found if need be. We are scheduled to camp
at Cimarron River camp about 1/2 mile from the bridge and it looks like
less than 100 yards from the actual road, just up a steep bank. From
that standpoint it really is a non-issue. In fact, Phil Staff would
have to drive right by if they were looking for us in a hurry.
I also plan to take some "moral boosters" - Li'l Debbies, M & M's,
something - because there will be at least one day when the whole
adventure turns to CR*P and the crew's spirits will need a little lift.
Happy Trails
Roy Fisher
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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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Received on Sat Apr 15 00:43:56 2006
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