Troop 53
2008 Philmont Expedition

Trip Wrapup

Advisor thoughts

A few things were hammered home to me again after our experience on the trails of Philmont.

1. Physical conditioning: You absolutely must be in shape physically for a Philmont expedition. Youth or adult, prior physical conditioning is a must. Just because you are in sports in school (unless your sport is cross country) does not mean you are ready for Philmont. Even if, or maybe especially if, you play sports but have a late-season trek (late July, August) you've probably been lazing around all summer in the air conditioning playing video games. Don't fool yourself into thinking that since you ran track in the spring you're in shape. As an addendum to the thoughts on participants' physical condition I would add that leg strength is important. Being able to keep your legs moving for 5, 6, 10 miles up and down mountains with a backpack on is essential to your enjoyment of the "Philmont experience". You don't need bulging muscles, but if you have no muscle definition you will be in trouble.
2. Waterproof, waterproof, waterproof! Keeping you and your gear dry is of extreme importance! We only had one day on the trail without rain. Most days it rained at least 4 hours, a couple of those were 6-8 hours. We had rain in the morning, afternoon and night. You must be prepared equipment-wise to deal with very wet conditions! Waterproof boots, waterproof rain suit, waterproof pack cover, and waterproof sleeping bag stuffsack are crucial. That does not mean water-"resistant". "Water-resistant" means it leaks and will leak bad. "Water-resistant" is OK for that Friday night high school football game or the Sunday afternoon soccer game where it looks like it might sprinkle and if it gets worse you just get in your car and go home to get out of it. You cannot get out of the rain at Philmont. You hike whether the sun is shining or there is a torrential downpour.
   In addition, if your crew is taking your own tents for use on the trail make absolutely sure they will not leak. You can't "bail" on this event. When that downpour comes at 7:00 in the evening you will be camping in it. Whether or not you sleep depends on your tent.
3. Quality boots: Possibly the most important piece of equipment you take. They must fit, be comfortable, be waterproof, and not at the end of their useful life. One of our participants had a sole separation about day 5 on the trail. We tried to fix it with Shoe-Goo™ but that only lasted about a mile. He spent the next 5 days hiking in tennis/running shoes. Not a good situation, especially with all the rain we had during those days.
4. Rain suits: The gear list in the Philmont Guidebook to Adventure states, "1 sturdy rain suit". The key word there is "sturdy". Three of our participants had their rain pants rip fairly early in the trip. Duct tape can only go so far in repairing these rips. In fact, the tape I had wouldn't stick to the FrogTog™ pants that ripped in the crotch. The second issue we had with rain pants, and the reason the other two pairs ripped, is that the "current style" among Scout-age youth is to wear their pants around their butt or lower and let the legs drag the ground and get ripped up. That's a serious "no-no" with rain pants. Wear the waist high — yeah, you'll look like an ol' geezer but the pantlegs won't get shredded, and you'll be more protected in the waist/hip area as well.
   Don't even think about using a poncho. No one in our crew did, but I saw a couple other crews with poncho-wearing members. They looked absolutely miserable.
5. Know how to use your equipment: Especially with internal frame backpacks, knowing how to load it correctly, knowing what all those straps and buckles do and how to use them is very important. If you are borrowing or renting a pack you should try it out at least once before your expedition to learn these things.
Many newer packs are now measured in liters.
4000 cu. in. = ~68 ltr.
4800 cu. in. = ~79 ltr.
6. Get a big enough backpack: I state in our backpacking list that I believe Philmont's listed sizes are a bit on the small side, so take them as a minimum. At one time we carried 5½ days of food; 68 packages of food distributed among 7 backpacks on top of all our crew gear and personal gear. Weight was not the major issue, bulk was. Finding room for all those food bags was a real challenge.

Recommendations for future trips

General:

These apply to any itinerary, or at least to an itinerary that hits any mentioned spots.

• If you come in to Black Mountain from the Beaubien (west) side there is a coal bin at the intersection of the road and the trail above Black Mountain. Get out one of your bear bags, turn it inside out, fill it with coal and take it on down.
• Stay together as a crew while on the trail. Our crew had few problems with this but we ran across quite a number of others that did. Some were split by as much as 10-15 minutes — that's getting close to half a mile! Usually it was a couple of out-of-shape adults lagging behind. If you fit that description you may want to re-think your participation. Slowing your crew that much will only gain you their resentment.
• Don't carry poles for your dining fly. Use hiking sticks or trekking poles instead.
• Consider taking aluminum gutter spikes for tent stakes. They are very light, relatively inexpensive, and can take quite a beating. Get white ones so they stand out when they get dropped on the ground. It makes finding those "missing" stakes easier when you are policing your campsite. If you are using your own tents, you'll only need 8 extra stakes for the dining fly (but take some extras as a just-in-case).
• Take several carabiners. They aren't on the list of crew equipment, but are invaluable for bear bags. At least one should be "meant for climbing" i.e. it has weight holding capacity. It will be used for the "oops bag" rope so it needs to be able to hold (possibly) 100 lbs. with the personal smellables, maybe some food and all the water bottles that'll end up on it. The rest of the carabiners can be the cheap "toy" 'biners. These make it easy to clip water bottles to the oops bag rope so you don't have to put them in a bag.

Specific to Itinerary 13:

We found out a few things, some learned the hard way, about Itinerary 13. Some things you can't do anything about, some you can make a little easier with a little forethought, and some you can avoid.

• Unless you have a fast hiking crew you won't have time to go to Apache Springs from Lost Cabins and do Apache Springs' program.
• Ditto for side-hiking Trail Peak from Beaubien if you have a layover day conservation project or horse ride.
• If your horse ride is scheduled for the morning you leave Beaubien for Black Mountain don't worry about time. We did the ride, hiked over to Black Mtn. and got there just after noon — plenty of time to get checked in, set up camp, eat lunch and do the program in the afternoon. We even had an hour or two for just piddling around in camp before supper.
• While 13 is not an extremely tough or challenging itinerary, there are a few spots you will be tested. The first is Black Mountain to Red Hills. There are two ways to get there:
  1. Do a little backtracking up the trail coming from Beaubien then walk the ridge to the trail leading down to Red Hills.
  2. Hike northwest up the canyon and then do a steep ascent with almost no switchbacks up the side of the ridge.
  We chose Option 2. If you choose the same be aware that while the canyon looks like a fairly easy hike on the map it's not. Creek crossings abound (dozens and dozens of them) and since the trail is not heavily used there's a lot of overgrowth, downed trees and limbs, and the trail itself is not in the best of condition. Allow more time for this part of the trail than you think it will take. It is pretty though, and the steep hike up the ridge is not as much of a killer as I originally thought it would be. Just take your time, take plenty of breaks for water and breath and the top is soon there. About 45 minutes is what it took us.
• Watch the trail from Big Red down to Comanche Pass. We took an unintended "side-hike" when we missed a switchback. We thought we were following the trail and then the "trail" disappeared... Although we didn't walk too far out of the way, and quickly figured out where we were and how to get back to the trail without backtracking, it did set us back a bit. The real trail is marked with rock cairns which are not necessarily big or very visible so keep an eye out.
• Whether or not you decide to go up to Cypher's from Lambert's for any daytime program, be absolutely sure to go for the Stomp in the evening. You won't regret it.
• At Cimmaroncito get the first available climbing session. Hike over to Ute Gulch Commissary to get your food after climbing. It's about a 4 mile round trip but it's not difficult and with as little food as you'll be getting you only need one empty backpack (maybe 2 if you have a large crew). As long as you get to Ute Gulch by about 4:30 you're golden.
• You may not need the two 2½ gallon water containers that are on Philmont's crew equipment list on this itinerary. We carried them but never used them. I suppose that if you end up camped a long way from water at Beaubien or Cimarroncito they might be handy, but other than that they aren't necessary. And I can just about guaran-dang-tee you that you won't be carrying that amount of water up to Tooth Ridge Camp for the only dry camp of the itinerary.
• Speaking of Tooth Ridge Camp, water, and meals, you can save on water by eating a lunch meal for supper that evening. At Ute Gulch we asked for, and received a lunch instead of a supper for that meal. You may not be as lucky though. If you end up with a supper meal you can cook it at Clark's Fork (the last guaranteed water source) before heading up the ridge, but having 2 lunch meals that last full day on the trail gives you more options as to where and when you eat lunch.