Re: [Philmont]: stripping meals

Stripping meals is an interesting practice that not all crew partake in.  In 2002 and 2004 the crews I was advising quickly learned that there are just some food items that not everyone will eat.  No amount of reminding about how Philmont meals are well balanced for the time we're on the trail will convince some scouts to even try specific food items.  There are some items that I won't even touch.  (The contents of the can of chicken I got in 2002, looked more like a food challenge on a reality show and I swapped my 2004 can for some squeeze cheese (yum)

There are several views on stripping.  1) eliminate weight and bulk of items that won't be consumed, 2) rearranging meals so that you are eating the heavier ones first, etc and 3) combine 1 and 2.  In 2002, at one commissary stop, we eliminated approximately 30 lbs of food we knew we wouldn't consume (powdered drink mixes, food bars, canned meats, oatmeal, etc). 

We also watched what our crew consumed and found that we were human sumping too many dinners, as several of the scouts were augmenting their meals with snack bars, etc, and they just didn't eat enough, so with a few of the meals we swapped out main courses (I seem to remember 5 packages of stroganoff and 5 packages of ramon noodles getting reduced to 3 and 3, with the remaining meals consumed the next night when beans and rice were the main meal item)  In 2004, it was different: tastes changed, the kids were bigger and eating more, we actually felt that a few of the meals were a little short.

In the spring, you will be able to obtain the summer menu and use this to help make some of your food planning decisions on the trail.  What meals you want to augment with your own items, etc

happy trails,

Tom Fitzpatrick

74, 02, 04, 06?