Re: Philmont
Alan Houser (troop24@EMF.NET)
Sun, 1 Sep 1996 22:52:08 -0700
Jan Mussler <mussler@SPOT.COLORADO.EDU> asked:
>All the posts about Philmont being wonderful, without words to describe,
>etc. have piqued my interest. How much of the ambviance of Philmont is the
>terrain itself? It came home to me the other day when Rex wanted some
>"high adventure" in the Ohio area. There aren't the public land resources
>in Ohio, for instance, that there is here in Colorado. I live with
>National Forest all around me and within minutes of "wilderness". My
>Scouts will never lack for places to camp or backpack when they are old
>enough. And it seems so difficult to get in to Philmont. Would I find
>Philmont as wonderful, given I can visit the desert within 4 hours of
>where I live? Would Scouts be just as happy with say, Elkhorn High
>Adventure?
I can only share with you the experiences of our 1993 trek. Like your
Scouts, we have a mountain range, the Sierra Nevada, in our "backyard"
that compares favorably with any in the country.
We also had rain, lots of it, on every day but the first and last.
The Scouts narrating our slide show went on and on about it, including
mentioning the two cases of hypothermia. Knowing how they actually
felt about it and fearing that we were perhaps losing candidates for
a 1997 trek, I asked them afterwards, "Let's see, you hiked in the
rain for 9 days, and you would give up working on staff at Wolfeboro
[our council summer camp] next summer to go back?" The answer was,
without hesitation, "In a minute!"
We had twelve sign-ups that night, including two veterans of the 1993
trek, and we'll be sending two crews.
You can also read an account of our trek, written by the Troop Historian,
at http://www.emf.net/~troop24/history/philmont.html
Alan R. Houser ** Scoutmaster, Berkeley Troop 24 ** troop24@emf.net
** WWW page ** http://www.emf.net/~troop24/t24.html **
Scoutmaster, Mt. Diablo Silverado Council Contingent Jamboree Troop #3
Terry Howerton Sakima Group, Inc. SCOUTER Magazine Kansas City |
