RE: [Philmont]: RE: Pace of Backpacking

When I went to Philmont as a youth (the dark ages, all the packs were
internal frame and I had 1 of 2 external frame packs at Philmont that year,
talk about a reversal) The three slowest hikers were first through third in
line then an adult. That was Philmont's policy then. We only hiked as fast
as the slowest person.

Jim Moss

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-philmont@troop47.com [mailto:owner-philmont@troop47.com] On
Behalf Of Dave Parmly
Sent: Thursday, January 12, 2006 12:40 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list philmont
Subject: [Philmont]: RE: Pace of Backpacking

I commend the participants in this thread. This is the kind of sharing of
experience that makes this site so valuable.

Crew 506 had a widely-varying array of athletic abilities and hiking speed
capabilities in Summer 2004. (It seems like yesterday.)

I believe our experience most closely matches Don Roberts when he observed
that they had a method / madness to the first 3 in the order.
We did the exact same in that we put a moderate to slow fellow at #1, a
faster fellow at #2 and an advisor at #3 in the file. The guys developed
this methodology a year out from Philmont during a 5-day Appalachian Trail
trek. We actually found putting a peer "ramrod" right behind the #1 man
helped him go at a faster rate than he normally might have while the adult
monitored to be sure he wasn't pushed too hard.
We rotated #1 slot around so that it wasn't always the "slow" guy up front
and sometimes put the slower guy at #2 to restrain his jack-rabbit buddy.
Also got more people to play the Navi-guesser role. Again, the adult can be
near the front in the event of navi-guessing sessions or to "suggest" a
break, change of pace man, etc.

Of course, we employed the Caterpillar on most tough uphill grades which
also keeps everyone together in the setting in which it's most likely to
have a break in contact.

Philmont / Backcountry Principle #1 should be : "Everyone stays together
the whole time on the trail." We saw plenty of 2 man crews, followed a
few minutes later by a 6 man crew, then even later, by a 4-man crew.
Unsafe at any speed, my friends. Use the prep hikes to work on these things
and it will make the trail much smoother out west.

Dave Parmly
Knoxville, TN

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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.
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Received on Thu Jan 12 15:46:31 2006