[Philmont] Ranger 2008

Matt,

Congratulations on being selected as a Ranger at Philmont. What a wonderful opportunity for a young man or woman.

Here is my two cents on advice, since you asked. Ha! I have been to Philmont once so far, but plan on many more trips. I went as an advisor in 2007.

We had a wonderful young man as our Ranger, however, IMO he was so proud to be a Ranger that he let a little arrogance influence his training of our crew. He allowed opinion to become policy. So, here is what I would encourage you to do . . .

Be sure you understand the process of check in at tent city. We were the first crew ready for process and the last to finish because our Ranger kept splitting us up and he kept leaving us so the next station wouldn't start our processing until the Ranger was with us.
Be sure you know how to "cook" before you try to train your crew. I'm sure that our Ranger never cooked anything before his Ranger training. He trained our crew to use too little water and what he told our Scouts was a gospel. so all our food was so thick and heavy that after it was cooked we had to add water. The first night on the trail he cooked for us and burned the dinner so bad we were scavenging snacks left over from our trail lunch.
Our ranger trained our crew that they didn't need to wash their personal eating dishes, ever! This proved to cause problems later in the trek when the adults insisted that dishes had to be washed..Our ranger advised the adults not to carry cups because all the camps provided cups at the advisors' coffee .  BIG MISTAKE. We ended up having to beg . .
Our Ranger did a great job during our shakedown at basecamp. We had one wild boy who ignored all guidance and advice (even from his parent who was in the crew) and didn't bring rain pants and did bring too many changes of clothing and toiletries. Our Ranger basically told this Yahoo! that either he got the right gear at the trading post and left the unnecessary gear at tent city or he didn't go. Yea!

Oh yea, keep in mind that this was the first year our Ranger worked at Philmont and we were his 1st Crew that he advised alone without a "senior" ranger with him. I'm sure that by the end of the season he was much more effective with his crews.

All said, we had a great trek and had wonderful experience.

Good Luck and Congratulations!

Kevin Aldrich
Crew 617-G6 (2007)

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As you gather around this virtual campfire with fellow
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Received on Thu Nov 22 09:20:48 2007