[philmont] Shake Down Report

The list has been quiet for a few days now so I thought I'd provide a
copy of our last weekend two day shake down hike/campout report. For
what it's worth:

We had a great time hiking and back packing this past weekend out on the
Berryman Trail in Missouri. Everyone learned a lot about what they will
do and not do and things they will change next time we go camping in April.

Our “Thorns and Roses” yielded a wealth of good suggestions once again:

1. Cut your toe nails (so they don’t get rammed into your toes as you
go down hill)
2. Ensure water filter is pumped out after use and before you pack it
in your pack. Otherwise it will drain out into all your gear.
3. Bring a Leatherman utility tool knife to fix broken stoves
4. Breaking in your new boots on a 22 mile hike is not a good idea
but better than breaking them in at Philmont.
5. Remove the plastic cover off the bottom of the boiling pot before
you put it on the open flame.
6. Bring extra socks, some of them got theirs wet experimenting with
how deep they could go in the water with their new waterproof
boots. Also got wet from foot perspiration.
7. Hike with your head up instead of looking at the guy’s boots in front
of you
so you can see the blaze marks on the trees showing the way.
8. Stay together.
9. Bring warm clothes, layers, gloves, hat
10. Stay hydrated . . . electrolytes

My Observations:

1. For being the first time we’ve camped as a crew the boys did
great. The crew leaders, showed outstanding leadership. By the end of
our trek
everyone was really getting into their roles and responsibilities.
For example Kenny did an outstanding job as a navigator.
Despite minimal training he quickly started picking up on reading
the terrain features in the woods and using the corresponding ones
on the topographical maps we had to keep track of our location. He
consistently checked with me and my GPS to verify his estimations
and was always right on the mark – outstanding job Kenny! When we
arrived in camp, crew leaders directed groups of two to set up the
bear bags, dining fly, collect fire wood, purify water and fill
the crew 5 gallon bladders and water bucket.
2. Crew Leaders did a great job keeping their crews focused.
Sometimes they got to focused though on a specific task with one
of their groups instead of pulling back and ensuring all the
different camp set up activities were being taken care of and
checking to see if anyone needed help. This is natural but they
will get better as they have more opportunities to lead and
oversee in the coming months and at Philmont.
3. Boys need to brush up on their knot tying skills. We taught them
the Clove hitch, Bowline, and one other. Thanks Ben for your
expertise!
4. Learned about Dehydration from two first hand experiences. Best
warning sign is
no urination throughout the day. When asked those who had
urinated that day to raise their hands two boys did not. By
coincidence (or not) they were the two who had approached Ben and
I with concerns about not feeling very well. They also were the
only two with out water bladders. The water bladders make sipping
on your water much easier and convenient then to try and reach
around or drop your pack to get your bottle of water.
5. Electrolytes: Most of the boys didn’t know about them and that
they could still get dehydrated while drinking water if they
didn’t replenish their electrolytes.
6. If you don’t tie your boot laces and tie them tight you
will get blisters. I guess it is considered stylish to have your
shoe laces really lose or untied.
7. Getting Lost: When we hike we generally and naturally break into
three groups. I fast, medium and slow pace (usually most of the
adults). Our rule is when you come to a cross path you stop and
wait for the back group to catch up. Once on Saturday that meant
waiting for 45 minutes. As you can imagine the boys up front got
pretty anxious after a while. On the first day they didn’t adhere
to this rule as strictly as they should have and we had one group
take a wrong turn (which I was with) and we ended up down a dead
end trail. Fortunately I had my GPS and we were able to set a
course to intersect back on the trail by bushwhacking through the
woods. The boys thought this was great fun. After a talk with the
lead crew leader he and the boys up front faithfully followed the
rule the next day. However they were put to the test the following
day when we came upon the last cross path and I knew we were only
a matter of several hundred yards from the Trail head and they
desperately wanted to get to the toilet facilities (they'd been holding
it all day).
We had been hiking at a
very fast clip for about 2 hours (3.5 mph) with packs and they
begged me for permission to go ahead since we were so close. I
told them to talk to their crew leader, he was in charge. They had
discussion and decided it would be OK since they were so close to
the end of the trail even though they couldn’t see it because of
the dense woods. However, I stepped in and exercised my
prerogative as the adult adviser because of my safety concerns. I
told them they had to wait for the tail end to catch up. So we did
for 15 more minutes. When the
back end caught up it was like a cattle stampede as the boys went
roaring down the trail. However they all came to an abrupt halt at
another unexpected cross roads about a hundred yards down the trail. There
was a sign posted for three different trails. None of which were
the trail we were suppose to be on. Some of the boys said they
would have picked the right trail and not gotten lost had I let
them go on ahead with out the group but I doubt it. They were so
desperately anxious to get to the toilets that I think they would
have quickly rationalized their reasoning and ended up lost in the
woods. As it was we were all semi-lost but together. Again we
checked our maps and the GPS, discussed the situation and were
able to determine the correct direction of travel after a few
minutes of deliberation much to the relief of the boys. Hopefully
this experience reinforced what we have been trying to teach them
about staying together.
8. In another similar situation, the day before the crew leaders sent
scouts out ahead down two divergent trails while the rest of us
waited because neither were marked and were too close for the GPS
to distinguish. We were thus able in a short time, to figure out
which trail was the correct one.
9. Blisters: some of the boys learned how to put mole skin on their
blistered feet, others learned how to take care of their feet.
10. After several miles of hiking and back packs starting to weigh
heavily on backs instead of legs people started getting interested
in learning how the various straps on the back packs could be
adjusted to shift the weight off their shoulders and onto their
legs. It made a world of difference.

Friday morning before we left we gathered in the church gym and had a
pack weigh in. For the most part everyone was doing pretty good with
their weight. However some need to make some significant changes, others
some and about another third are doing fine (more on this in another
email). Crew Leaders distributed out their crew gear, gave them an
overview of trail conditions, what was expected of them and camp set up
responsibilities. Afterwards we loaded up and headed for Missouri where
we got to see first hand some of the major flooding along the Merrimac
as we drove by. We got on the trail about 12:30. As mentioned the boys
did a great job getting their camp set up and dinner prepared. We
organized our camp into three groups, Crew 1 campsite, Crew 2 campsite
and the advisers had their own campsite where we could keep an eye on
things. After dinner, crew 2 (the older boys) had a fire going and had a
good time goofing around together by the fire. Crew 1, all seven of
them, crammed themselves into their largest tent and played “21” with
their pocket knifes, mini flashlights and do-dads as "chips". They were
really having a great time together laughing and goofing off with one
another – what camping is all about!

Next morning they were a bit slow to rise. We finally woke the crew
leaders at 7 am and told them to get their crews up and going. Crew 1
seemed to have a little more trouble than the younger boys. It took them
almost 3 hours to get ready. Hopefully by the time we go to Philmont
they’ll have that time down significantly.

I was surprised when I checked their camp that morning before they were
up. Usually they toss all their gear all over camp, food wrappers, left
over food, dirty dishes and eating implements lying around. But not that
night. It was evident the crew leaders and their crews were on top of
things. Very impressive.

Overall I think everyone did a great job, learned a lot and had a good time.

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Received on Thu Mar 27 06:07:36 2008