[Philmont]: Experiencing Philmont

A couple of weeks ago on SCOUTS-L, we were discussing "What Was Your Most
Successful Scouting Event." Here is my contribution to that thread.

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There have been many. If I have to select one event, our very first
Philmont backpacking trek in June 1989 was my most successful event.

That was our troop's very first high adventure trip and the experience
helped establish a tradition of having at least one annual high adventure
trip. Since then, we've had backpacking crews at Philmont in 1990, 1993,
1995, 1997, 1999, 2002, 2005 and we were recently successful in obtaining
a crew in the 2007 computer generated lottery.

In 1989, we had two crews, each with five 13-14 year old boys and two
adults. Both crews did the same trek. My wife and I were in the slower
crew which was usually last to reach our destination each day -- until our
guys finally decided they were going to arrive at our last back country
camp before our other crew. The boys made sure we got up early that
morning and we made it from the Agua Fria camp to Abreu by noon. When the
other crew arrived, our guys waved and made a few good natured remarks to
their peers. I was recovering in my tent.

I don't believe we could have asked for a better experience to get our
high adventure program off to a good start. The weather was excellent and
we never put on our rain gear. As it turned out, 8 of the 10 boys wound
up as Eagle Scouts. They are all now in their early 30s and I still stay
in contact with several of them by e-mail.

BTW, the Philmont fee in '89 was $205 per person. Other than one adult
who had been to Philmont in 1957 as a Scout, we had no prior Philmont
experience. There was no "Philmont List" back then, Selden Ball's
excellent Philmont web page didn't exist and there was very little advice
other than by word of mouth. Still, we had a very nice trek and seemed to
be as well prepared as most modern crews. Making that reservation was
easy too as all I had to do was call Philmont a year or so in advance and
select an arrival date. No telephone call-in system and no computer
generated lottery.

YiS,

--
Calvin H. Gray
Scoutmaster, Troop 405
Associate Advisor, Venturing Crew 405
Georgetown, Texas
I used to be an Owl (WM-62-2-98 @ Philmont)
http://www.troop405.org/
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