[Philmont] Increased Participation

> is there any information on the treks of which treks were
> asked for most and
> the treks that were used the most? Do the higher #ed treks
> not see the
> traffic that the lower #ed treks see? Was there any treks not chosen?

The information available for this summer might not be meaningful due to
the last minute route changes resulting from the Rivera Fire. Most
southern treks were rerouted into the north.

 
> It's not a rumor. The Philmont administration definitely was starting

> to plan over the past summer for increasing the number of participants
next
> summer. I believe the figure was about 15%, as someone said. This
would
> amount to about 50 participants per day, or roughly five crews. There
is
> concern among the staff about whether the land and the program can
handle
> the increase.

IMO the concern is justified.

In a situation like the Ponil Complex Fires in 2002 and the Rivera Fire
in 2006 trying to juggle five additional crews per day would be an
extreme challenge. In our crew's case we were doubled up in several
campsites due to a lack of space and too many crews. At Ute Meadows,
there were two crews in nearly every site and it appeared that some
crews were camped wherever they could find space - i.e. no fire ring,
sump or number plaque that I could tell. There also appeared to be some
doubling up at Upper Dean and Ponderosa Park.

If the Philmont Administration does add additional slots, I certainly
hope they try to maintain the two-crews-per-itinerary procedure that has
worked so well in the past. Again, the staging camps going over Baldy
(mainly due to the closures in the South) and Tooth of Time were
*packed*. It is possible to love something like Philmont to death.

Happy Trails,

Roy Fisher

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Received on Tue Sep 26 21:43:18 2006