Re: [Philmont]: Double H

Ditto here on the Double H questions. We were there in mid July. email me at
emuss3@ipass.net. You can see pictures at bsatroop357.org. Click on the
Double H sidebar link.

Basically you prepare like Philmont, with a few exceptions.
1. You need to plan on 6 liters of water per person per day if you are on
the class 2 or 3 treks. There is absolutely NO surface water on the ranch,
save the irrigation pond for the hay field , which you only see from the
distance...

Basically you hike from windmill to windmill where you have water and camp.

2.Learn to navigate, map, compass etc. There are no trails. It is a
deliberate cross country for low impact and to spread the impact. It is
critical to have good map skills.

3. Get a GPS and learn how to use it! Double H issues a GPS but you may not
be familiar with it and your Wilderness Guide is unlikely to be an expert
either. Good GPS skills are a must as a major activity is geocaching,
looking for a tupperware box in the middle of 110,000 acres! Plus it helps
you get to the camps.

4. Water Filters- Double H does not issue polar pure. The water sources are
windmills. If you are lucky the wind is blowing and you can collect water
from the mill outlet. If you are not, or you go to particular water
supplies, the livestoch tanks are the nastiest! We ruined two filters at one
stop. You need a minimum of 1 filter per three people and 1 if not two extra
cartridges.

4. Treking poles! A must for all adults and the kids liked them too. Again
there are not trails! When you are not hiking in the sugar sand of a canyon,
you might be running a contour line of a mountain with nothing but slippery
talus underfoot. It is murder on ankles, knees and all. I would concentrate
on "core abdomen" work, to help stabilize your load under the slippery
conditions. Your boots must be well broken in and will get a major workout.
Synthetic boots will be cut to pieces, they will last, but not be useable
for much afterward.

5. Gaiters- get those little ones that cover the tops of your boots to keep
out the sand and pebbles.

6. Clothing- you can drop a warm layer and get by with a long jon top, t
shirt , and wind shell, may be a long sleeve shirt or a vest. You will be
6-7500 feet so it is a bit warmer than Philmont ( remeber you loose 3
degreess F for each 1000 ft of elevation. You could still need rain gear,
but it is more arid than Philmont.

Here is some other information that I sent out when we returned this summer

We had a blast, it was amazing, it was by far the toughest hiking I had ever
done, it makes most Philmont treks seem like a walk in the park and we can
only hope that the program succeeds! To be honest, we were a Class 3 trek,
advertised as the most challenging, and it exceeded our expectations. We
were told that we were only the second and third crews to finish a level
three trek without an itinerary change.

In short the program involves getting from water source to water source via
map and compass and gps navigation. There is plenty of water at the
campsites, more on that later, but absolutely none in between. Consequently
it was necessary to carry 5-6 liters per person or more. We arrived in our
designated campsites with little or no spare water, and on one occasion had
to side hike to get
water to make our campsite. This extra weight was a challenge and many crews
were showing up with 2-3 liters of capacity per person. We had a minimum of
4 and two 10 liter bags for the crew. Obviously since someone had to carry
the big water bladders, the crew had to carry that brave souls' share of the
crew gear and food.

Campsites were designated next to water. Generally it was a windmill which
pumped into livestock tanks. If you were lucky the wind blew and you could
collect water from the outlet pipe. This only required polarpure, not
filtering. If you were unlucky, with no wind, or at one of several tanks
with
no windmills, then filtering was necessary. The water was extremely dirty.
Even with double filtering with bandanas, adding a coffee filter to the pump
inlet hose we had to clean filters every half to 1 liter of pumping and at
one water source abandoned pumping all together in favor of boiling the
water and then polarpuring. Some water supplies did have solar powered
pumps, but they seemed
in a different states of reliability or operation.

Pulling into base camp is a bit like the opening scene of the movie "Holes",
and you wonder what the heck you have gotten into. Base camp is established
in the middle of the prairie, literally 15-20 miles from nothing. The bus
driver directions were to pass through Magdalena and turn right at the first
tree! They were very accurate. There's only 1 large cottonwood for miles.
Fortunately
for us we had met a group returning from Double H and they assured us it was
better once they took you to the mountains for the hiking. It was, but
that's relative. The primary forest is juniper and pinion pine, with a
smattering of ponderosa. The footing is treacherous, very rocky, loose
talus, that is unless you are walking in the canyons. There you find your
choice of very soft, silty sand and deposits of boulders and gravel.

Despite all of this the scenery was breath taking, the amount of "life"
amazing, from rattlesnakes, to deer to elk, to horned toads. The flowers
bloomed in a multitude of colors, until it got hot anyway. You are
accompanied by a Wilderness Guide, not to be confused with a Philmont
Ranger, they took pains to tell us. The guide does the training, helps with
navigation and puts on programs such as astronomy, search and rescue, first
aid, leave no trace etc. Your trek is greatly influenced by the skill and
personality of your Guide.

This was a tough trek and we heard of daily reports of people plucked from
the trail with sprained ankles, knees, severe dehydration and such. It was
particularly hard on adults. You do not hike on any established trails and
usually the shortest route from point a to point b was the least desirable.
We
were told that some of the class 1 treks did hike jeep trails and did a lot
less ridge running. All of the campsites were accessible by vehicle, which
made evacuation easier.

At the midpoint you passed through the Martin Ranch. There was water, a food
pickup, chuck wagon dinner, black powder shooting and a guitar playing
singer available, as well as some shade.

Thats just a start, send any specifics on to us and we'll be glad to help.
You will enjoy it if you go in with an open mind and remember that it is not
Philmont, its like Philmont. There are not activities to do every day and
you are really on your own, even though the wilderness guide stays with you
for the week.

YIS
Hiking Czar a.k.a.
Fred Mussler, Scoutmaster
Troop 357 Raleigh, NC
Eagle Class of 75
Philmont 1990,98,00,02
Double H Ranch Charter Hiker 2004 -717-AA1 and 2

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Received on Tue Nov 16 19:02:25 2004