[Philmont]: 609-A Trek Notes - Trek 26

Troop 39 from Cumming, GA returned from Philmont Trek 26 on Tuesday June
22. I wanted to get out some quick notes regarding our trek but simply
did not have any time until today.
 
We got slammed at base camp early afternoon on the 9th with back to back
hail storms that rolled over Uracca. Many lightning strikes, gale force
winds and about an inch of pea to marble size hail stones covered the
ground. Temperature dropped dramatically. The only other severe
weather we encountered during the trek was a snow / sleet storm and high
winds that hit us just as we were about to summit Phillips. There was
some lightning that kept us off the summit for about a half an hour.
 
The mosquitoes were exceptionally bad nearly everywhere in the back
country, even on Phillips and Comanche Peak Camp. The worst place was
at Comanche Camp below Clear Creek. Despite the use of repellent, the
darn things hovered thickly around your face to the point of breathing
them in and eating them with your dinner. We all had to resort to
putting our rain jackets or polar fleece on to keep them from biting our
backs.
 
Our Ranger, Shan from MA, was great. Any crews lucky enough to get him
will be very pleased.
 
The staffs at Uracca, Black Mountain, Clear Creek, Sawmill and Hunting
Lodge were great, particularly P. J. and his staff at Uracca. These
staffs exhibited a level of customer service that is to be commended.
I'm afraid I can't say the same for Miners Park or Clarks Fork. The
staff at Miners seemed to be more interested in flirting and carrying on
between the sexes than in hosting advisors coffee and interacting with
the advisors. The boys however loved the rock climbing program.
 
The chuck wagon dinner at Clarks Fork was total chaos. The staff had no
idea how many crews were suppose to be scheduled for dinner, and many
crews in the general area that were not scheduled decided to invite
themselves. They ran out of food twice that evening before everyone had
their first serving. We noted several advisors that tried to help the
staff but they only seemed to want to complain about the situation.
Many of the crews that were suppose to help with cleanup walked away
after dinner. Our two boys who stayed to help cleanup did not return to
our camp until abut 9:00 PM; they were the last ones there helping the
staff. We were very proud they stayed and helped. The wrangler staff
was very good and the boys loved the trail ride.
 
For this trek our crew abandoned the MSR Whisperlite stoves for the MSR
WindPro stove that uses MSR IsoPro fuel canisters. Our crew of nine
took three stoves, and nine fuel canisters. Honestly, we could have
gotten along with two stoves and five fuel canisters for the entire
trip. The stoves worked great, no fuel to spill or contaminated fuel to
deal with. We just wish that Philmont would stock this type of fuel at
the trading post.
 
When picking up food at Ute Gulch, the staff allowed us to swap a cooked
dinner for a dry lunch for our last evening meal on Tooth Ridge. Thanks
commissary staff for allowing us to do that. There were only two
breakfasts during the entire trek that required boiling water,
everything else was cold which allowed us to break camp and immediately
hike, stopping to take breakfast on the trail. This worked out great.
All in all, the trail menus were good and filling. Philmont needs to
consider individual tuna packs for lunch rather than two-person portions
- less messy. And they need to eliminate the cans of chicken in favor
of a pouch. It seemed that nearly every breakfast and lunch has gorp.
By the middle of the trek our guys were no longer eating gorp and
dumping it in the swap boxes. Also, way too much GatorAid, this too was
dumped in the swap boxes. Our two favorite meals were the Black Beans
and Rice, and the Chili Mac.
 
Forget about the spring at Shaefers Pass. Despite some good April / May
rains in the area, it was completely dry. We each carried 4 liters of
water, and had taken three one gallon MSR dromedaries, and an additional
two liter dromedary in surge capacity for our dry camps. This worked
out well at both dry camps, Tooth Ridge and Comanche Peak. We highly
recommend the MSR Dromedary for extra water capacity, they are bomb
proof.
 
On our final evening, we caught the sunset on the Tooth. We hiked down
tooth ridge to base camp the next morning in two hours.
 
All in all, a great trek. Our crew was experienced and well prepared,
no injuries, one trail illness (a mild cold, nothing serious). We are
now thinking about 2006.
 
Karl Hebert
Troop 39
Cumming, GA
 
 
 
 
 

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Received on Sun Jun 27 12:04:21 2004