[Philmont]: Caterpillar - small group

David Palmer asks...

I am looking for a "caterpillar" technique for a small group - 7 people. I
have done it with 12 people, but how do you change the breaks for a smaller
group? Do you just take more steps after passing the last person, such as 30
steps instead of 15 steps?

Comment...

I have not done it with a group that small other than for demonstration, but
thinking about it, that would be the approach. The premise of the
caterpillar is that half of the crew is hiking and half is resting, at the
same time. The goal is to make the rest breaks just long enough to catch
your breath before moving again, and the hiking distance short enough that
you don't get seriously out of breath.

At our Council Training weekend, where we teach the caterpillar, we tell
crews that the space between all crew members, whether hiking or resting,
should be about the normal spacing between the crew members when hiking
(usually stated as ten feet or five paces), which works well for a crew of
10 to 12, in my experience. You said fifteen STEPS, which seems to me to be
too far, but I know of others who also say that far or further. But in any
event, adjusting the spacing would be the way to compensate for a smaller
crew.

P.S. For the "what is the caterpillar?" question crowd. While the crew is
going uphill, if one member needs a short break, he calls out "caterpillar".
Whoever is first in line steps off the trail and stops, while the remainder
of the crew continues hiking. When the second person in line (now the first
one hiking) passes the stopped first person by a number of step (the
discussion above), he steps off the trail and stops. When the third person
(first now hiking) gets that far past the second, he stops. This continues
until the last person in line passes the first person who stopped. When he
reaches the second person who stopped, the original lead hiker falls in
behind. At this point, the crew from above looks like a tank tread - half
are like the portion in contact with the ground and not moving while the
other half are like the portion above and moving.

And like just about everything, there are people that swear by the
caterpillar, and those who swear at it...

 - Al Thomson, Troop 236, Schooley's Mountain, NJ
2004 Autumn Adventure
2003 726P2 (short trek)
2002 Autumn Adventure
2001 703E11 (Trek 21)
2000 Autumn Adventure
1999 703K2 (Trek 9, now 4)

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Received on Sun Aug 8 08:47:15 2004