[philmont] I'll be thinking of y'all

Rich,
   
  What great reminisces into the past. Isn't it fun.
   
  Now thinking about these youngsters and their Infernal Internal Frame Packs, just remember this.
   
  "Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill every single time"
   
  I had that woodburned into an old cypres board and it hung above my desk in my classroom. Every once in a while I would refer to it and then sit back and watch the students bust their buttons to overcome obstacles I put in front of them in a science experiment. They accepted the challenge as it was meant to do and reached greater heights in so doing.
   
  These younsters on this list will do the same thing from my challenges and that's what it's all about.
   
  And week after next while they are scheaming to beat up on me instead of doing productive work at their place of employ, just remember that I'm at Philmont casting a dry fly in those beaver ponds just upstream from Miranda while my lovely wife cooks supper and Mark L. cleans the dishes all for my two patch collection. A bargain is a bargain.
   
   I'll be thinking of y'all.
   
  And by the way, I think that first canvass BSA pack that slipped over the pack frame horns was called the Cruiser. It was all the rage back then.
   
  Somewhere I still have the how to do it article from an old Boys Life that illustrated building a pack frame the same way your dad built the one you described. Those wer good days when fathers taught sons building instead of shopping skills.
   
  John LeBlanc
   
  ****************************************
   
  John,
   
  I bought the original Kelty Tioga when I was in high school in the early seventies. My mates over the years have referred it as Big Red especially since I have the extension bar on the top which I strap a pad and tent to. I used it in SE Oklahoma on the Ouachita Trail during Spring Break of my senior year. It took it’s next major trip in Rocky Mountain Nation Park August 1974 several days after I turned 18. It’s been on three Philmont expeditions now besides other New Mexico , Colorado , and Texas trips.
   
  It’s got metal zippers. It has the metal buckle on the waist strap. The kids always ask me why I stole the airplane seat belt and put it on my pack.
   
  Some of the nylon is getting weak but I have a plan in case it finally wears out. A guy in my troop who is older than me and has seen the last of his backpacking days has my pack’s twin. I’m going to have to talk him out of it someday.
   
  But now I have a problem. Roy Fisher is calling packs like mine (70’s) “collectors items”. Should I quit using it? No I’m NOT serious.
   
  But I could quit using it and go back to my OLDER Kelty or my original Yucca pack I got around 1968. My dad still has the wooden frame that he and my brother built for the Yucca which includes a metal buckle. I still remember him soaking the wood and then using nails on a big board in an arc shape to mold it so it would go around one’s back/butt when hiking.
   
  Actually, the pack I took to Philmont in 71 & 72 is probably in my Dad’s attic too. It was the official BSA pack whose name escapes me (Camper maybe?). It was canvas and had the pockets at the top on the back that slid on top of a separately purchased metal frame. My brother used it in 1970 and he swears it didn’t have a waste strap but I think it did.
   
  For what it’s worth my oldest son used a modern Kelty Tioga, but the next two sons used internal frame packs. I stepped on a plastic waist buckle and broke one this summer when we rearranging the garage. Dang. The new one has to be sewed on.
   
  Rich Wenneker
   
   

       
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Received on Mon Sep 10 00:07:17 2007