[Philmont] Backpacking and baking

        I'm curious too as to how cooking goes for everyone at the higher altitude. Anyone use high altitude directions for baking, for example?
   
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  Actually, using PhilPhood, crews don't do any cooking at all. I got into a good discussion with one of the PhilAdmin about this and his take was they strive to introduce many different things foodwise to crews for the Scouts experience so they can make good shoices when they backpack on their own which many will be doing in just a short few years.
   
  Boiling water and adding wall paper paste just isn't cooking in my books. But I don't have any complaints about the PhilPhood except that it is loaded with cheap calories (read sugar) instead of complex carbohydrates.
   
  My question to the PhilAdmin was have they considered a no cook, no heat just nibble and hike menu. And they had but decided to leave at leat one "cooked" one pot meal and the boil water, stir and eat as most of the breakfast menus are.
   
  It would be nice to teach some baking skills with dutch ovens, but in the last few years the drought has almost elimated that option with fire bans.
   
  I think we finally reached the point where no active rangers had been on the trail where they actually baked a ranger cobbler for their crews. That used to be a tradition and those skills were picked up quickly by crews. A crew will pick up anything a ranger does even combing their hair the same way.
   
  I've heard that there is a concerted effort to encourage campfires south of hwy 64 and that is good. Maybe the 2002 fire got the point across that no fires leaves too much fuel around for a real fire. Time will tell. Thw whole Western US is suffering from a "put the fire out right now" mentality that has been ongoign for decades which means when fires get started they tend to be much bigger adn longer lasting because of increased fuel loads. We are suffering fromm years of bad decisions by foresters whose jobs were to protedt timber (read lumber) at all costs.
   
  Back to Philmont.
   
  It used to be that a crew hurried to the staffed camp to make sure they did not get left out of getting a dutch oven. Maybe those days will return.
   
  Crews going to Northern Tier still report of baking something every day on the trail. Thats been ongoing there for decades. First in reflector ovens then in modified dutch ovens utilizing the twiggy fire.
   
  Somehow Philmont traded Scout cooking for Scout program. Maybe the program can include Scouts baking something again. That would be nice.
   
  But backpackers or the generations we have known for the past thirty or so years are not interested much in baking or even cooking, but mere nibbling along the trail. And if that gets them from point A to point B, that is the purpose of backpacking isn't it?
   
  Personally I enjoy baking on the trail whether it be canoe trail or backpack trail and I think there is value in it
   
  As an adult I ponder these things in the program at Philmont. As a Scout in 1959 on the trail at Philmont, I really enjoyed sopping gravy out of the pot with biscuits we baked. Adn the peach cobbler we baked wasterrible, but we ate it all! There was a lot of comradrerie around the cooking fire and I'm glad I experienced that instead of some of todays "programs".
   
  As I prepare to go to AA next month, I've sharpened my axe and put a new blade in my pocket saw and cleaned up my lightweight dutch oven and the only thing that will prevent me from taking it on the trail next month will be a fire ban. Then I'll leave it in the trunk of my car. If not a fire ban, I'll more than likely do some baking on the trail and I'll let you know how it goes.
   
  The one thing I do know about food on this AA right now is that on two of the suppers we will NOT be eating PhilPhood.
   
  I've tried thinking of ways to fix shrimp gumbo but short of dehydrating the shrimp it can't be done and dehydrated shrimp just isn't shrimp at all.
   
  Therefore two of the PhilMeals will be substituted with chicken and dumplins for one and pinto beans and homemade Mesquite smoked sausage for another. I don't know which PhilMeals will bite the dust, but two will.
   
  Or maybe I'll substitute raccoon for the chicken like we did on another trip.
   
  For those two meals we will eat real food.
   
  John LeBlanc
      

       
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Received on Sun Aug 19 22:36:24 2007