Whenever my Scouts indicate that they want to take a road at Philmont
because it's "shorter" (which frankly, is only a rare request in my
Crews), I don't tell them they can't - rather, I suggest they first
check the ***density of the contour lines*** versus the appropriate
trail. For example, the Miranda to Five Forks jeep road (a nasty piece
of work) versus the Miranda to Maxwell to Five Forks trail. That
usually results in a rapid attitude adjustment. After that, they are
more receptive to a discussion of the other factors - i.e., sun
exposure, hard-packed and rutted surfaces, and the possibility of fast
moving vehicles. [Trail Profiling strikes again....]
Jeffrey Knoll wrote:
> At our Advisors' Meeting Mark Anderson made it very clear that crews were to
> avoid roads whenever possible. The main reason given was safety (due to
> vehicles), but many of the other factors mentioned in previous posts were
> also given as reasons.
>
> Unfortunately, IMO, this is not stressed enough by the rangers and staff. A
> quick look at a map often makes a road look like the shortest route, so
> there is a tendency for the youth to want to take it. But, as mentioned,
> there are many reasons why the shortest route is not the best route. There
> is often the assumption that the shortest route is also the quickest, but
> this is often not true, due to the differences in grade and tread.
>
> -- Jeff
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> Jeffrey W. Knoll
> Grand Canyon Council
> Phoenix, AZ
> '02 627-H1 Trek 26
> '04 610-D Trek 31
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Received on Fri Jul 2 20:23:06 2004
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.8 : Wed Jul 26 2006 - 11:59:48 CDT