Re: [Philmont]: White Gas

Our crew also got bad fuel in August 2001. A Baldy Camp storage tank turned
out to be the source of the bad fuel. It wasn't Philmont's fault,
however -- their supplier refilled the tank with the contaminated fuel. It
just did not burn! We burned the remainder of our base camp fuel, and it
lasted long enough to get us to the Ute Gulch Commissary. There, the staff
purged the bad fuel and replaced it free of charge, with their only comment
being, "Another crew with bad fuel!"

A small lesson here: it pays to refill and test before you're totally out of
known good fuel. The scouts avoided the opportunity to learn a much bigger
(and more interesting) lesson: how to prepare the available food, frustrated
and tempted by wood fuel everywhere, with a no-fire ban in effect. I
remember learning that lesson at age 13, when my dad and I were camping in
northern Quebec and he handed me an unopened can of green peas for dinner:
a scout's ability to eat cold food rises proportionally with the hunger only
a teenager experiences. That's the long way to say it; my dad summed it up
in a word: COPE.

Gary Gibbs
Troop 1001
Birmingham, Michigan

> Just when you thought you'd heard everything.... Wow. I must admit,
> this is the first complaint of this type I have ever heard. One
> observation and two comments: First, I strongly doubt if anyone coming
> off the trail with bad fuel would ever be so flat out nasty as to give
> same to another Trailbound Crew! <snip>
 - Dr. Bob
>
>
> Runonall6@aol.com wrote:
> > One can of new white gas from a reputable dealer is usually better than
> > two cans of potentially used and abused fuel straight off the trail. A
> > crew of ours two years ago bought fuel at philmont and found it to be
> > contaminated to the point that it would not burn in the stove. Not a
> > good thing when you are several days out from base camp.
<snip>
> > G. Nuessly
> > Troop 125
> > Wellington, FL

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Received on Mon Feb 23 14:51:08 2004