From: Dennis Parker (dcp@sgi.com)
Date: Mon Oct 29 2001 - 11:52:23 CST
"Donald S. Roberts" wrote:
>
> Now that it has become far more relevant to me than in the past, I wanted to
> ask about how to get to Philmont. There appear to be three options (Times
> are from So. Cal.):
> Train = 22 hours, no sleeping facilities, how to get from Raton to
> Philmont?
> Plane = 2 hour flight, but driving to airport, shuttle rental from Colo.
> Sprgs or Alb., checkin
> Automobile = 13 hour drive, need to stay somewhere on the way, can cars be
> parked at Philmont?
>
> Certianly, the car option is the least expensive (provided no breakdowns).
> Air travel will probably be more stable by 2003 (I certainly hope so).
> Train is interesting but that's a long time and half the trip is a rather
> tedious desert view (at least the other half has some variety), and sleeping
> in seats is not my idea of fun. Is the bus that goes from Raton to Philmont
> free? Flying is a cheaper ticket (on average), but the shuttle cost seems
> to kill that savings. Should reservations be made for the "Philbus"? Auto
> travel means the drivers, adult advisors, will be tired, and there are G2SS
> issues to resolve.
>
> So, what do others do?
First off, congrats on the reservation. We got a reservation last year
for this coming summer and after reading the discussion about this
year's call-in, I'm smug enough to mention that we got thru in 12
minutes. In fact, two of us got thru within a minute of each other and
we got two reservations. It's not supposed to happen but it did. I
called back the following Monday and gave up the second reservation.
We're going to fly to COS and spend a day and a half in COS having fun
and getting acclimitized to the altitude before heading down to
Philmont. We're going to rent a 15 passenger van in COS. It turns out
that renting the van for two weeks and letting it sit at Philmont is
less expensive than what Timberline will charge for shuttle service.
If we drive, it will be a 20 hour trip. Driving personal vehicles isn't
an option because none of the adults have appropriate vehicles
available. Renting a van here and driving is nearly as expensive as
flying when you add up the rental cost, mileage charges, gas, extra days
of food & camping. Driving will also extend a 14 day trip to 17 or 18
days. That's a *long* time to be gone and the drive back when everyone
is tired would be a killer.
Taking the train is as expensive as flying, would be a 24 hour trip for
us, and would leave no time or place for acclimitization
Here's the trip:
July 10 - fly MSP to COS, rent van, tour COS, find cheap place to stay
July 11 - tour COS
July 12 - get up early, drive to Philmont
July 24 - leave Philmont, drive to COS, fly home
Anyone know of good cheap places to camp in COS? I'm going to look into
the Air Force Academy and the military bases in the area. Anywhere
else?
- Dennis Parker
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