[Philmont]: Burro Packing

Here are postings contained in Selden's Philmont Pages http://www.lns.cornell.edu/~seb/philmont.html#2.4.8.1
It's one of the best sources of information on Philmont.
The debate on Burros will continue. There are lots of fun things to do at Philmont. This is one activity that you can't do anywhere else.

Philmont Burros YES!
Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2003 15:39:02 -0500
From: James Kramer
Subject: Re: [Philmont] - Burros YES! In response to Wally Feurtado's remark:

"Having said that, burro packing prevents the crew from hiking over Wilson Mesa. That is too high a price to pay. What I would do is to learn how to pack a burro but then decline the use of the burros."

I must disagree. I went to Philmont in 1963 and lead (pulled) a burro along the Northern trails. Packing and tending the burro is the clearest memory from that trip 40 years ago. I've been on hikes in 1997, 2000 and 2003 with each of my sons. The first two did not have the opportunity to take a burro and we had great trip. I agree that the view of Baldy Mt. from Wilson Mesa is one of the best sights on the ranch.

In 2003 my crew selected #21 that includes the option of taking burros from Ponil to Miranda via Pueblano and Head of Dean. I left the decision up to the boys and they chose burros over hiking over Wilson Mesa. Having the burros was the favorite thing that the boys did at Philmont. The boys were totally responsible for the burros. Neither advisor helped to harness or load the burros or to round them up in the morning and convince them that they wanted to go for a hike with us and carry some of our gear.

Having the burros did slow us down leaving Ponil (especially as our sister crew was late to the corral) and made for some interesting adventures along the way. We reached Pueblano too late to sign up for spar pole climbing as there were lots of crews in camp. We had a chance to relax and enjoy the camp and staff and "logger ball" and enjoyed the campfire, "The Real Philmont Story." The next morning the boys got the burros ready and loaded before we climbed the spar poles.

The hike to Head of Dean was short and we arrived with plenty of time to do the conservation project. We did not have time for the challenge event. ( We came through Head of Dean later in the hike and did the program. It was excellent and really brought the boys together as a crew.)

We reached Miranda from Head of Dean before lunch, including time to unload and unharness the burros in the Miranda corral. We were sad to leave the burros. We had time to throw tomahawks and shoot black powder at Miranda. Even with a food pickup at Baldy town we finished dinner at Ute Meadows by dusk.

While we missed the view from Wilson Mesa we had many opportunities to see Baldy Mt. advance and retreat as we hiked the trails and ridges. We climbed Baldy Mt. on our lay-over at Ute Meadows and did the loop to Copper Park, Aztec Mine and French Henry. That was another great, long day.

I was impressed at how well the boys cared for the burros and how much the enjoyed them. The fact that they smelled, kicked and didn't want to be caught each morning only made it more fun. The days we had the burros we hiked slower than without. The burros don't carry enough weight to make your trip any easier. They probably added two hours to each day's hike. (We were always up by 5 a.m. so we had plenty of time.) Catching, currying, harnessing, loading, pulling, leading and cussing the burros, unloading, unharnessing, feeding the burros was an experience that the boys enjoyed and will never forget.

While I agree that the scenery is great at Philmont, the best part of the trip was seeing the boys take a challenge and have a great time succeeding. Our crew would much rather see Baldy Mt with a burro in the foreground instead of the pond on Wilson Mesa.

There are no bad hikes at Philmont. Let the boys select their programs and enjoy the good time. I'll be willing to bet that in 40 years my crew' s fondest memories will involve the days they had the burros.

Jim Kramer
Scoutmaster, Troop 8, Fort Dodge, IA
These "thumbnail" images link to much larger pictures.
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See also:

    * Selden's Philmont,
    * High Adventure and
    * Scouting Web Pages

The content of this Web page was provided by Jim Kramer. Please contact him directly for more information.

This Web page is maintained by Selden Ball at Wilson Lab.
Please send any comments or corrections to seb@lepp.cornell.edu

Philmont Burro Etiquette
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2004 08:46:14 -0600
From: John Wisinger
Subject: RE: [Philmont]: Burros

I know this topic has been beaten to death on this list, but I figured I'd through my 2 cents in. I worked at Philmont as the Roving Prospector for the summer of 2002. For those not familiar with the Roving Prospector, it was a job first created in 2001, and there has been one each summer since. This person gets paid by Philmont to wander aimlessly around the ranch with a burro and entertain/educate campers with stories about the mining days (or anything else we feel like talking about for that matter). Anyway, the main point is that I spent 3 months with a burro everyday except my days off. I had named him Sir Robert Animalia Chordata Mammalia Perissodactyla Equidae Equus Asinus Esquire (or Bob the Burro for short). For the first few weeks, I was ready to leave Bob at every camp I passed through. By the end of the summer, they had to pry him away from me. I was ready to load him on the plane and take him home.

Needless to say, I learned a lot about burros. There is one basic thing that everyone hiking with burros should know. There is no difference between the stubbornness of a "been there done" that grumpy old fart (90% of advisors), the stubbornness of a "I could do things better" teenager (90% of scouts), the stubbornness of a "I know everything" college student (90% of the phil-staff including myself), and the stubbornness of a "just let me eat grass and poop" burro (100% of burros). To be successful in life, most people have learned to deal with the first three groups of people. Basically, most problems can be solved by better communication. Since burros don't speak English (Bob had mastered horse, cow and burro speak, so I was impressed), you can't talk at them or yell at them. They also respond quite poorly to physical violence or rope tugging. They are herd animals, and they like to follow their friends. If you have a big group of burros and you lead one, the rest will follow him anywhere (assuming that you lead the one established as the leader). So to get a burro to follow you, you just have to establish yourself as the leader. Based on the odor and facial hair thickness of most people in the backcountry, that's a lot easier than you might think.

In short, be nice to your burro. Feed him, take care of him and don't yell at him. When you start walking, keep moving. Every time you stop, that's a signal to the burro that it's time to eat, so don't stop unless you want to take a noticeable break. To get the burro started, face away from him with your head down. That's the way a lead burro would do it. If you look at the burro and pull a rope, or if half of your crew is standing around behind the burro not ready to go, he won't realize that it's time to move. Stay on the trails/roads and avoid getting too close to high grass. If you were hiking through a field of cheeseburgers and someone forced you to trek on to get to Supper #9, you'd be mad too. And remember, not everyoe Our crew would much rather see Bane who has dealt with that burro in the past is as nice as you are (which is very unfortunate). Therefore, it may take a little while to gain it's trust. And most importantly, remember that your burro his your friend, but sneaking up behind him will get you a quick hoof in the crotch ... and burros kick hard.

The boring engineer formally known as "Prospector John",
John Wisinger
See also:

    * Selden's Philmont,
    * High Adventure and
    * Scouting Web Pages

The content of this Web page was provided by John Wisinger. Please contact him for more information.

This Web page is maintained by Selden Ball at Wilson Lab.
Please send any comments or corrections to seb@lepp.cornell.edu

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Received on Thu Feb 17 09:07:06 2005