[Philmont] Digging Up The Past

Joseph Jansen gave me the springboard I needed, so here goes.
   
  Thomas Jefferson was a scientist. He hired Lewis and Clark not for another "explore the West" expedition but for the first real scie3ntific expedition the United States had undertook. And yes, there journals are quite interesting.
   
  I am a among other things, a scientist, more specifically a degreed biologist with emphasis in freshwater ecology. That is the microscopic and macroscopioc bugs in the water column.
   
  OK, so much for that.
   
  Being that as it may, I take notes. Remember way back when you first looked through a microscope and the teacher had you draw what you saw? Well, that is what I do.
   
  I found out early on that we remember very little of what we hear, see or smell unless we take notes in one form or another.
   
  The toughest college course I ever took was a marine biology class. You know the kind wehre you take notes on the important stuff. Only problem was that everything the professor said was important. It was a Tuesday-Thursday class so by the time class was over your arm hurt like the devil from writing.
   
  So, being cleaver as I was, I fittee the then new cassette tape recorder into a briefcast with a hidden toggle switch and recorded the lecture.
   
  I then took notes as best I could leaving spaces on the page to fill in later.
   
  After class I would go to the library and transcribe the recording into my incomplete notes.
   
  I was shocked to learn that I could listen to the recording about three of four times before I could recognise everything as having heard it before. I was in the class and listening and yet missing a lot of what was said.
   
  This opne class proven to me the value of written notes on one's thoughts and observations.
   
  IT became just what I do.
   
  I often work alopne and recreate alone so I have plenty of time to my own thoughts and I write it down.
   
  I'm a hunter and an old woods walker and I enjoy being able to go back and refresh my jaunts by reading and re-reading my notes.
   
  I recognise that this isn't for everyone, but it is important to me and some of the most enjoyable moments is reliving an expreience by referring to my noites. Often what we remember as the way it was is a lot different than our notes reveal.
   
  I hvea a deep respect for Bill who went to Philmont in 1957. Even though he says he doesn't remember a lot of the details or what camps they went to, it is interesting to compare the changes from his 1957 trek and my 1959 trek. NOt much had changed, but there were some subtle changes.
   
  As Calvin Gray states, Bill has a real good feel for where he is int the woods. This comes from doing it alot.
   
  Being an old East Texas boy, woods is pine trees adn lots of them. I've always been a good navigator but the first time I went Elk hunting in Colorado, that was a different ball game. Some of my 1959 Philmont experiences prepared me sonewhat for that trip. It was in the days before GPS and a map and a compass was what we used.
   
  The side trip up Trail Peak in 1959 was my first mountain bushwhacking experience in the mountains. Contrary to rumor there was no trail, nor trail signs up Trail Peak at that time. There wasn't then, nor ever a bulldozer trail that the recovery teams made. To get there, we simply identified the peak from the Bonito valley, pointed our boots up and climbed it. It sounds easy, but it wasn't for a group of boys that had never even seen Trail PEak before.
   
  I've said it before and I'll say it again, it's the experiences that enable a Philmont trek to be a learning experience rather than a marathon footrace.
   
  Just a note on my cooking skills. I may or may not be as good as cook as Calvin states. Just remember he had been eating PhilFood for several days, so justa bout anything tastes good after that, even Simple Simons pizza.
   
  First off I learned to cook as a Boy Scout on an open fire. If you can cook on an open fire, a stove, any stove, isn't any trick at all.
   
  Second, I always carry a food repair kit. It's akin to a magicians kit bag for food.
   
  Third. For good results, always start out with the best ingredients available.
   
  And finally a comment of PhilFood.
   
  I'll let youj do your own browsing, but as far back in time as Philmont goes, multiple things were cooked in the same pot, so that isn't anything new, just a tradition.
   
  At the following website you can browse some of the menus and cooking instructions given out at Philmont through time.
   
  I found it very interesting to read through the 1959 menu and cooking instructions. Then as now Veg-A-Rice still gets a big grin from this Cajun who knows what to do with real rice.
   
  Have fun digging up the past.
   
  http://philmontdocs.watchu.org/other_documents.htm
   
  John Leblanc
   

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Received on Wed Oct 17 21:41:56 2007