[Philmont] Augmenting and Stripping meals

Back from a three-day shakedown on the "roller-coaster" section of the
AT - "Ow" - so able to respond.

Several folks have already made the most important point about
meal-stripping; that being, you can't meal-strip until you know whether
your crew is fighting over the pot scrapings, or fighting over who has
to carry the smelly, 5 pound yum-yum bag. Even during the 2002 year of
"cracker-mania" (an *unbelievable* amount of food), there were still
some Crews checking Rt. 64 for road-kill.

As with so many aspects of Philmont, you learn whether you have a flock
of birds or a pack of ravenous wolves on your shakedowns. If they're
eating everything in sight and complaining that they're still hungry,
you have your answer.

 From the deep archives (aka the back of the rack), here are some
years-ago comments I made on meal-stripping and bringing auxilliary
snacks from home. Keep in mind, this advice is now pretty dated, and
doesn't take recent (significant) menu changes on the Ranch into
account. So don't crucify me if it isn't quite up to date, cause I'm
telling you up front it isn't. Nonetheless I think it will give you
some insights.

----------

On extra food, yes, we bring some stuff from home or buy it in Colorado
Springs. If you're kicking butt on average weight, then an extra pound
or two per man isn't a problem, and can greatly enhance certain meals.

In general, I buy things that experience has shown are popular with the
Scouts. Thus, for lunch and/or trail snacks, extra beef jerky and slim
jims, and dry-style granola bars. One of the most popular items are
small bags of cashews (buy them in bulk to keep the price reasonable,
then double bag them yourselves, about a cup per bag is enough for the
Crew for one snack.) Trail mix (without meltable chocolate like M&M's!)
can also be bought in bulk and handled similarly. Those little vending
machine 6-packs of peanut butter crackers (or other flavors) are
decent. Chewing gum (cinammon is best) is great for climbing Baldy,
Phillips, or for long, dry hikes; bring 4 sticks per trekker.

On breakfasts, we go for extra nutra-grain bars or equivalent. Small
boxes of raisins are always popular. I have brought other types of
dried fruit from home, too, but Philmont provides more of these than
they used to, so I wouldn't bother on that anymore. If you do, I'd go
for the dried pineapples (the sugar-cured type), or the freeze-dried
apples. Dried mangos are quite popular on my shakedowns. Some of these
new rolled fruit strips are also a popular item.

On dinner, I bring one meals worth of a Lipton-Rice dinner, usually
Cajun Beans and Rice. One packet per two trekkers. There's usually one
meal that doesn't do much for me (the mashed potatoes and gravy come to
immediate mind), and so a substitute can be made. Otherwise, you can
split it and use it to supplement two of the weaker dinners. Another
lighweight meal item is 1 packet of Raman Noodles per trekker - and this
can also be handled as a replacement or substitute. [Note added in
proof (2007): This is how I would have handled last year's infamous
"Hawaiian Chicken". However, it seems that most dinners are pretty good
these days. I hope I don't live to regret the latter comment this
July.]

Keep in mind, you now know that this isn't just additional stuff - we
toss a lot of Philmont food upon pickup for either expediency (all BF
items needing hot water) or because past experience has shown the Scouts
won't eat it (half the Spreadables, all BF and Lunch drink mixes, one
third to half the pemmican bars, etc.) We don't carry stuff we won't
eat, and we replace it with stuff that we will eat. Why carry it if
you're not going to eat it? Easy enough. The removed food can be
offered back to the Commissary Staff (they like drink mixes), or put in
the swap/swipe boxes.

In general, all this extra food is kept in one or usually two well
marked bags, and are carefully controlled - it's not a free-for-all.
Or we cut small holes in the Philmont bags to remove the items we
aren't going to eat, and add the new items in their place - more time
up front, less time later when it's time to eat. Seal the hole with
tape. Don't make the mistake of dividing it up into a bunch of little
supplemental packs for each trekker (bad idea). Additional items
leftover from the meals may be tossed in also, but we usually don't have
many of those that we care to keep (the granola cereal, maybe some of
the Power Bars). Most leftover items get donated to other "starving"
Crews or to the next staff camp.

Enough "food" for thought?

- Dr. Bob

-----

And here is another post you may find pertinent:

> - When you field-strip the Philmont food, what exactly are you doing?
> I'm imagining removing excess packaging and discarding things you
> won't use.

Actually, we rarely remove packaging, and suggest you don't either; it
helps protect and also identify the food. What we do is strip out
certain meal items we won't use. We never cook breakfasts, so oatmeal,
hot chocolate, Cream of Wheat, etc., are history. This also saves a lot
of fuel, and a lot of time every morning. We also don't drink flavored
drinks for Breakfast or Lunch, so most of the BF and L drink mixes get
tossed, too. However, I say "most" because we do augment the drink
mixes in some dinners that are a little short. BTW, I highly recommend
you put water only in your canteens - no flavored drinks in the canteens
or water systems. Even though it's allowed, it's a VERY bad idea.

On lunch, we usually get rid of half of the Spreadables and Pemmican
bars. This is based on prior experience; that's about all the Scouts
will eat. No need to carry it if they're not going to eat it. You can
usually toss half the jelly packs, too, but that's a Crew by Crew call -
some guys love jelly, others not really. They do give you an awful lot
of it. Some Crews love the dried fruits; others hate them - dried
bananas, dried apricots, and mixed fruits, are less popular; dried
apples, raisins, and dried pineapples are more popular.

On dinners, most Crews are not enthused with the cobblers - way too
sweet, and difficult to prepare and a mess to clean up. Up to you on
that one. Certain other "meals" are also variably popular, e.g., the
mash potatoes and gravy - some kill for it, others would rather kill it.

When you trade all this stuff in, get peel and eat stuff for BF and L,
and better meal items for dinner. Packages of dried fruits and squeeze
cheese, peanut butter, more crackers, anything else that looks good.
There are usually stew dinners of some sort in every swap box. If
you'll take the time to clean out the swap box, the commissary guy will
usually let you take whatever you like.

-----

> - You mention taking along supplemental food. What items do you
> usually take with you?

We bring extra beef jerky, slim jims, nutra-grain bars (and the like),
those little 6-pack packages of cheese or peanut butter crackers,
packages of cashews, raisins and pineapples, and enough Lipton Rice
dinner packs to augment/replace two dinners (I like the Cajun Beans and
Rice, myself). Figure on 1 pound per Crew member, and keep it all
together in a "goodie bag" for use as needed. Makes a real difference
when the Scouts are eating things they like, as opposed to having to eat
things they have to, to keep going. [Some Crews bring flavor/spice
kits, too, but we don't.] This food is one of the bene's to keeping
your pack weight low; you can afford to carry extra stuff like this.

Hope this helps. email back if you have any more questions on this
issue.

- Dr. Bob

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Received on Sun Jun 17 21:28:38 2007