[Philmont]: Philmont info, part 1: trek 26,program, weather, bugs, food

Our crew, 616-G2, completed trek 26 last week and here is some hopefully
helpful info. Trek 26 starts at Zastrow turn around. We stayed at the
following camps: Rayado River, Urracca Mesa, Miner's Park, Black
Mountain, Comanche Camp, Comanche Peak Camp, Sawmill, Hunting Lodge,
Clark's Fork and Tooth Ridge.

We also participated in program at these camps: Zastrow, New Abreu, and
Clear Creek. I was very disappointed with the staff at Urracca Mesa.
Or at least their program attitude. When we arrived in a pouring rain
they offered hot water for cocoa or apple cider on their porch. That
was nice and very much appreciated. Because of the rain the afternoon
program had been canceled and later the "campfire" was held on the porch
of the cabin. It was awful. Full of inside jokes and sexual innuendo
that I did not enjoy or appreciate. In fact if I hadn't been blocked in
on the porch I would have left. All of my crew expressed the same
thought during our walk back to camp later. The next morning, it had
stopped raining during the night, we packed our gear and waited until a
little after 8 a.m. to leave just to take part in the program. The
staff was up and sitting on the porch. When our crew leader asked if we
could do the program they told him, "You don't have to do the program,
are you sure you want too?" He replied yes and the staff debated for 5
minutes who was going to do the program with us. As we were leaving the
cabin going to the program area the staff member told us "You only have
time for the one hour program." I felt like that should have been the
crew's decision whether to do the one or two hour program but we took
what we could get. I didn't see this "attitude" anywhere else during our
trek. Black Mountain, Hunting Lodge and Clark's Fork have very
enjoyable "campfires" and much better attitudes. I made mention of all
of this on my comment sheet also. Hopefully this "Urracca problem" will
be addressed before you go.

Weather conditions: it rained, sometimes with hail, each afternoon on
day 2, 3 and 4. Lowest temperature was at Black Mountain, 39 degrees at
5 a.m. Highest temperature, 85 degrees at Hunting lodge at 2 p.m.

The mosquitoes are or were out in full force. The only camps we were
not tortured by mosquitoes were Rayado river, Clark's Fork and Tooth
Ridge but they were not as bad at Hunting Lodge as else where. Anytime
we stopped for a break on the trail between these camps we were swarmed
over with mosquitoes. There were more mosquitoes than I've ever seen
anywhere, even worse than on the AT. They were even on top of Mt.
Phillips. As someone else mentioned, we had to wear rain gear at meals
to help ward them off. Our ranger had advised us (a crew of 8) to leave
all but one 2 ounce bottle of repellent behind and we ran out early in
the trek.

There is still lots of crackers in the meals or at least too many for my
wife and me. We sorted all of our food, removing the stuff we did not
want, breakfast drink mixes, extra squeeze cheese and peanut butter,
half of the crackers plus miscellaneous items we knew we didn't like. We
also repackaged everything into one gallon zip lock bags after removing
the cardboard and other unnecessary wrappings. Our first food issue was
for 13 meals and our weight savings was over 2 pounds. All of the meals
were tasty and adequate. The supper meal has no drink mix included,
which I don't understand. One thing I wished they'd do is include
Gatorade in each meal. I made that suggestion on my comment form and
maybe if enough of us do so that change will be implemented in the
future.

Wayne White
CC Troop 222
Moulton, AL

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Received on Mon Jun 30 10:16:05 2003