From: Bruce_C_Drouin@KeyBank.com
Date: Wed Oct 23 2002 - 22:06:42 CDT
Others probably will disagree, but becoming a member of a Philmont crew is
not akin to joining the Army Rangers, and I think a reasonable degree of
flexibility and common sense should prevail in the preparatory efforts.
Probably the most important thing to do is to start the preparatory work
early, incorporating it into part of your troop's outdoor activity schedule
in the year prior to the actual trek. If you schedule a fairly large
number of preparatory activities, then having each boy or adult miss a
couple during the year due to scheduling conflicts or other competing
interests is not going to endanger the overall preparatory effort and
outcome. Certainly, a minimum threshold of participation should be set (I
like the contract method several have outlined, though we didn't use it),
but 100% participation in all events is unreasonable to expect when
well-rounded people have other things going on in their lives besides
Scouting. Scouting is meant to promote well-roundedness, so shouldn't
become about penalizing boys when they are trying to strike a balance
amongst their competing interests and priorities. Also, if your crew is
doing some fundraising for the trip, recognize that that will be part of
the teambuilding effort as well. I think a threshold level of
participation in that effort is reasonable to set as well, but again,
expecting 100% participation is unreasonable and probably
counterproductive. For fundraising, a fair scheme of apportionment should
be set to incentivize/reward participation, but that should be the topic of
a whole different e-mail..
My troop sent two crews to Philmont last August and in preparation for the
trip, during the year leading up to the trip, we conducted a total of 6-7
preparatory hikes, starting out with a couple of mountain climbing hikes
with day packs in the 8-10 mile range and working up to a couple 3-day,
full-weight backpacking outings in the 15-20 mile range, involving altitude
gains of 4,000 ft.-plus during the trek. Places hiked included Mt.
Washington, Mt. Madison, Mt. Chocura and South and Middle Moat Mountains in
the White Mountains of New Hampshire, and Mt. Katahdin and Bigelow Mountain
in Maine. Several of these are very challenging treks--far harder, we were
surprised to find, than anything we encountered at Philmont itself, even
though at much lower altitude. We required each boy and adult to
participate in the majority of these treks, but not all. We placed
emhhasis on these hikes being interesting and fun as well as challenging
experiences that the crew members came on because they wanted to, not
because they had to. After all, this is what Scouting is all about. You
can't force a boy to be a Boy Scout, it has to be something he wants to do.
Our boys were pretty young--mostly 14 or 15. They were experienced
overnight campers and day hikers, but had not had a ton of serious
backpacking experience, because many of the Troop's regular camping trips,
due to the range of ages and abilities involved, are structured as "car
camping" trips involving setting up a base camp and then going somewhere
from there on day hikes (sometimes sending the youngest boys on an easier
route than the older boys).
The shakedown activities we scheduled into our program provided plenty of
opportunity for all the boys to figure out whether their hiking boots were
comfortable, to learn "one-pot" cooking techniques using backpacking
stoves, to learn setting up backpacking tents and tarps quickly, and to
learn what they should and shouldn't carry in their backpacks. They also
provided plenty of opportunity for the crew leaders to work on becoming
good leaders, and I don't think the learning experience was adversely
impacted by there being only 9 people involved in a particular activity
rather than 11. It also became very clear early on who had to work on
their conditioning levels, and I can tell you that it wasn't the boys, it
was me and a couple of other adults. Peer pressure, personal pride, and
fear that Philmont would prove even more challenging than what we were
doing locally, due to its higher altitude, motivated those who needed to
increase conditioning to do so. With the boys and the adults wanting to be
on these trips, the team building process took place pretty naturally with
everyone soon pitching in to do doing their fair share of the work at hand
with a minimum of cajoling and direction from crew leader or the adults.
Similarly with the fundraising activities we did, which included a yard
sale, hiring out to do leaf raking, organizing a silent auction, etc., the
boys were incentivized to participate by getting funds credited to their
trip costs in accordance with their hours of participation. The money
proved a good motivator for participation, so the participation level
mostly took care of itself although there were a couple of scrambles for
enough laborers.
Our actual trek at Philmont turned out wonderfully. No blisters. The only
physical impediments were a couple of bloodied knees from tripping on the
trail, and a stomach ache or two. When those things happened, the crew
took some weight off the person who was under the weather, and we continued
on at the pace the person could handle. Everyone stayed together without
complaint. We got up and out very early when we had a long day's trek
ahead of us, and with one exception, the long day's hike over Mt. Phillips,
always got to our next program area before lunchtime. This gave the boys
plenty of time to do the program and to have some afternoon free time as
well. The boys decided right on the first day, when we got dropped at the
Zastrow trailhead at 10:30AM and did the mountain biking program before
hiking in the afternoon up to our first campsite at Old Abreu, that they
didn't like hiking in the afternoon's heat, so getting up and out in the
morning never became an issue.
In summary, my recommendation is to start the shakedown activities well in
advance of the actual trip and to empower the participants with some
flexibility on selecting which ones they attend, while requiring a
reasonable minimum participation level. Careful scheduling to minimize
conflicts is also something to strive for. Perhaps it makes sense for the
very first and the very last prep trip to be mandatory, and perhaps if you
are a Council-sponsored crew with only limited time and opportunity to
schedule preparatory activities, a higher minimum participation level might
need to be set right from the outset.
I had not been to Philmont before this past summer, and I have to say that
from the tenor of this chat room during the year prior to going, I had
built up in my mind that the backpacking would be very rugged indeed. It
motivated me to lose 30 pounds and spend a considerable amount of time
improving my aerobic conditioning, especially in the last two months prior
to the trip. I still went off on the trip pretty well above the ideal
weight for my height, but certainly in far better shape than the first time
I strapped on my pack for a shakedown hike. When I got to Philmont, I
found that the trek was a very manageable physical challenge with any
reasonable amount of preparation. Most of the trails are structured as 8%
grade switchbacks that seem like spacious highways compared to the
boulder-strewn, 10%-25% grade"straight up" (and eroded) trails we usually
climb here in the Northeast. After the shakedown hikes I participated in
and my time on the treadmill at a 15% grade, the Philmont hiking was at
times tiring, but not grueling. Admittedly, our sister crews were assigned
into a typical-level trek, averaging about 6 miles of hiking per day, due
to their young average age and first time to Philmont. The assigned trek
was structured by the Philmont base staff, as most are, to spread out the
altitude gain such that about the biggest gain in one day was 2,000 ft.,
and most days were no worse than 1,000-1,200 ft. The hardest day
physically was about 9 miles long and about a 2,000 ft. gain and descent.
So, some reading this might say that I didn't fully experience the physical
challenge Philmont can be structured to be. My response would be that
while I acknowledge the physical challenge level can be boosted, I think
both our boys and our adults could have quite readily handled more mileage
on most days of the trek without finding the overall challenge a whole lot
different. Extra miles to create a more strenuous hike mainly would have
ended up rebalancing the daily mix of hiking time to campsite and program
time by perhaps an hour or two a day. In regards to that, I would like to
make the point that having now been there to experience it firsthand, I
believe that for most crews, unless they especially desire to make it so,
the Philmont experience is not and should not be about maxing out the miles
covered. Philmont I think very wisely has evolved over the years into
offering a multi-faceted experience, with our boys finding the various
program activity experiences every bit as rewarding and memorable as the
challenge of the hiking and camping and wilderness experience, and the
team-building experience. And, there should be time to stop and look
around once in a while even when aiming to reach the next assigned campsite
before lunchtime. So, if your crew is looking to complete a trip well
balanced between program and physical challenge, then also set up the
preparation schedule to suit the physical challenge level you plan to take
on. If by the mutual agreement of the crew you are planning to max out the
physical challenge of the trek (at the possible expense of missing out on
some of the programming), then perhaps the preparation schedule has to be
more mandatory, less flexible as well. Easy or hard, considerable
preparation is required, but after all, you generally know 18 months ahead
of time that you are going to Philmont, so there is plenty of time to get
prepared without being completely rigid about it.
One or two last comments about preparing for the physical challenge of
Philmont. During my trek, my pack weight varied between 44 lbs. and 54
lbs., based on the number of meals and amount of water being carried.
Plus, there was one day I picked up several extra pounds of gear on top of
an already full load, helping out with one of the boys who was a bit under
the weather. I am only 5'8" tall and any weight over 50 lbs. really did
seem to disproportionately affect the hiking comfort level. Being down at
44 lbs. pack weight practically put bounce into my step. One of the other
adults about the same height as me carried well over 50 lbs. the whole time
and while he kept up just fine and never complained, the weight of his gear
had to have affected his Philmont enjoyment level a bit. Not long before I
left for Philmont, after our shakedown hikes, I reevaluated my gear and bit
the bullet on buying a lighter weight, more compressable sleeping bag
(REI--35 degree) plus a lighter weight backpack (Mountainsmith), even
though I already owned good quality gear. Those two investments alone
shaved about 4 lbs. off my basic gear weight, and I shaved another two or
three pounds off by other sensible gear switches and gear eliminations.
I'm never going to give up some of the creature comforts and safety items
the ultralight backpackers do without on the trail, but besides completing
some reasonable amount of training and conditioning, the biggest favor you
can do for yourself before going to Philmont is to figure out how to to get
the pack weight down to a level comfortable for your size and strength.
This is my first contribution to the ongoing dialogue and I apologize for
it being far longer than necessary to make the basic points. I have
enjoyed reading some of the other responses to the missing boys and mom
issue. There is a lot of collective wisdom about the Philmont experience
amongst the contributors, though on occasion the responses pile on until
the topic overkill level, as mine probably causes to happen on this topic.
I plan to keep on reading the e-mails in preparation, hopefully, for
getting back out to Philmont in 2004.
Yours in Scouting,
BCD1997@aol.com
Troop 35, Yarmouth, Maine
Philmont 8/11/02-G-1
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