[Philmont]: Hiking Boots

Here's a story that will curl some of you hiking maniac's nose hairs. At
our trek last year, we had a 100% pack check five days before we left.
Everything was good to do. We told the kids to put everything in one place
and that way, they could just grab it all on the morning of our departure..
All of the kids showed up for the drive to Philmont in traveling
clothes--mostly Class B's and tennis shoes (in retrospect, we should have
had them wearing their hiking boots, even if they changed out before the
drive started). We specifically asked if everyone had their boots and got
all nodding heads. Well, about 2 hours into the drive to Philmont, one of
our senior scouts (who had been on a trek in 2002) realizes his boots are
still sitting next to the couch at home. All he had was a fairly
lightweight pair of running shoes that he had been using for several months
already (and were to be his camp shoes on the trail). Of course, he tells
no one, especially his parents who are BOTH advisors on the trek until we
get to Philmont. After lots of wailing, gnashing of teeth and discussions,
he decided that it would be better to do the trek in his tennis shoes
rather than buy new boots and wear them on the trail. If his feet fell
apart (physically), then he would have to be taken off the trail. We
grudgingly acquiesced and we hit the trail. Well, to make a long story
short, the only problem he had was with the fact that the tennis shoes
weren't waterproof (and we hiked during monsoon season), but the flip side
was that they dried out MUCH faster than other folk's wet boots. His only
COMPLAINT was that his feet were more tired when we hiked over the Tooth
and into base camp on our last day. This is certainly not a situation we
want to find ourselves in, but the ending to the story was happy.... The
main factors for his success were probably his youth and the fact that he
is a hiking stud in great shape. So, at least in this case, physical
ability trumped bad gear.... YIS. Mike ('76, '02 & '04).

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Received on Mon Jun 6 10:21:16 2005