RE: [Philmont]: Gear Check

Mick,
 I'm curious as to what you were carrying in your kit if you were
carrying 'way too much first aid gear"? What items would you leave out?
My kit is about 1.5 pounds and has the bare necessities for a crew in my
opinion. We expect each crew member to carry the basic personal
requirements for mole skin, band-aids, etc.. We also rolled about 5 feet
of duct tape on an old credit card and had each crew member carry one
(this adds up to almost a whole roll for the crew and came in handy).
The first aid kit should not be a warehouse for routine supplies, but
should have everything you need to handle what comes up. We even carry a
suechor kit (sp?), because we needed one once and had to use a sewing
kit. (Yes we have a guy that can do that stuff.)
 First aid is something I don't ever skimp on, my day hiking kit weighs
about 2lbs. because I find that I am frequently patching up civilians
that I encounter on the trail. I also carry an extra liter of water for
those same civilians I come across without any. You would be amazed to
see how often I come home with that bottle empty. We live in outstanding
hiking country and get a LOT of newbie's up here from the cities who
could use some help. They think it's 'cute' when they find out that they
were helped out by an old "Boy Scout". I find it a bit annoying, but I
won't leave someone stranded on the trail. I also give them more advice
than they would like to hear about being responsible for their actions.
Lately, I've been thinking of carrying extra maps to hand out (or sell)
on the trail because too many of the people I encounter have no map or
compass. When I pull out my map to help them, they are amazed that such
a thing exists. It IS scary.
 
 To answer your general question: I never used my chap stick, foot
powder, extra nylon line, bug dope, used sunscreen once, and only used
the water filter twice. I would just use the polar pure next time. I
wish I had brought: fleece gloves, more photo lithium batteries (very
light), 4 sets of socks instead of three (because we didn't have good
drying days), saline nasal spray, a fleece hat (for the mornings), some
sort of mirror, a couple of envelopes with stamps (postcards don't hold
much info, so I wrote my wife a letter), and a thank you gift for the
ranger (something to remember us by, like a Troop patch). I made a
mistake and changed coffee filter baskets an hour before we hit the
trail and regretted it the whole trek. Next time I go with old faithful.
The things I debated taking, but took anyway and was very glad I had
were: Long sleeve wool shirt AND a fleece jacket, sitting tarp (a 2'x3'
piece of reinforced plastic sheet which we used as the food prep area
several nights), pack cover, and GPS (used twice, but worth it).
 Approaching my 50th year, I never hike without my poles anymore, they
are just too useful and also hold up the crew tarp. I second your advice
on this score, and add that using 2 poles is 4 times better than using
just one.
Happy Hiking,
 Tom

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-philmont@troop47.com [mailto:owner-philmont@troop47.com] On
Behalf Of Mick Meyer
Sent: Saturday, September 04, 2004 5:52 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list philmont
Subject: [Philmont]: Gear Check

Hi:

I'm curious about what gear you didn't use on your trek this year and
what items you needed but didn't have in your pack. Our Ranger wanted
us to leave our ski gloves at base camp. Most of the guys who did then
wished they had the gloves on cold mornings. I was hauling way too much
first aid gear and only used the triple antibiotic ointment, moleskin,
duct tape, and band-aids.

Coop's gear list is excellent and the only suggestion I have is to
strongly recommend hiking poles for all adults. They saved my bacon a
bunch of times, especially when hiking down the creek bottom from Black
Mountain to the North Fork Urraca trail camp.

Best regards,

Mick Meyer

701-Q3

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Received on Sun Sep 5 10:16:33 2004