Re: [Philmont]: Caterpillar - small group

Alan.

Thanks again for the help. I am one of the "swear by." Used this on Wilson
Mesa, "The Wall" and Baldy.

David K. Palmer
SM Olympia (Wash.) BSA Troop 266
----- Original Message -----
From: "Alan and/or Brenda Thomson" <abthomson@comcast.net>
To: "Multiple recipients of list philmont" <philmont@troop47.com>
Sent: Sunday, August 08, 2004 6:08 AM
Subject: [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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>
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>
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>

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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.
-------------------------------------------------------

 
Received on Sun Aug 8 21:13:40 2004