[philmont] Shake Down Report

Your report sounds like it was a good first test. The following are just
observations and are intended to help your crew grow not to slam them to the
ground.

If your crew regularly takes three hours to get out of camp, not only will
they spend more time hiking during the hot (and frequently rainy) part of
the day, but they will probably find that they will miss out on
participating in a majority of the programs. This became a MAJOR [emphasis]
issue with the other crew in our contingent a couple of years ago. I don't
think they got to participate in more than two or three programs because of
late start times. Due to their tardiness, they also missed climbing the
Tooth of Time because of an approaching thunderstorm.

If your crew is spread out by 45 minutes and something happens, it is almost
assured that the things you need most, will be with the other group. This
is not a good thing. The fast hikers need to slow down and the slow hikers
probably need to speed up. One thing that can help is to redistribute
loads; if the fast group wants to go fast, they need to help the slower
hikers so that they can hike fast too. Making the slow hikers packs lighter
can help them keep up easier. You said you weighed your packs but didn't
indicate what "doing pretty good with their weight" means in terms of
poundage. And besides weighing, I would also look to see what is inside.

You should also be practicing Leave No Trace camping techniques. Your
description of the campsite makes me think this is not a normal practice.
It needs to become automatic before you get to Philmont. While we don't put
all of our personal smellables up at night (no bears and not enough bear
bags) we do put up the food - for practice and to keep it away from raccoons
etc.

Concerning the Thorn about cutting your toe nails; I recommend members of
our crew cut their toe nails two days before we leave for Philmont. That
way they aren't hiking with sore toes because they cut the nails too short.

Good luck with your future hikes.

Happy Trails,

Roy Fisher

Everything is within walking distance if you have enough time.

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Received on Thu Mar 27 23:14:33 2008