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69RoadRunner

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69RoadRunner last won the day on July 8 2022

69RoadRunner had the most liked content!

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About 69RoadRunner

  • Rank
    Senior Member

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Virginia
  • Occupation
    Programmer
  • Interests
    Backpacking, cooking
  • Biography
    Scoutmaster

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  1. Perhaps I worded it poorly. We are there for scout safety, first and foremost. Sure, we help out. We should not be viewed as replacements for paid staff while being charged full price and burning personal leave.
  2. We were told they had 50 people sign contracts and then not show up. I do sympathize with that problem. At both Philmont and Summit, it just seems like the paid adult staff see adult volunteer participants as just being an extension of their paid staff rather than customers.
  3. When we were sentenced to Camp Covid at Philmont this summer after an adult tested positive, I was awakened by everyone singing Happy Birthday to a mountain lion. Allegedly, 1 person saw a mountain lion. When we saw several sets of eyes in the woods adjacent to the camp, a 19 year old ranger thought we were surrounded by mountain lions. Uh, the only animal dumb enough to just stand there and stare while 50 people sing loudly and shine headlamps is not a mountain lion. It's deer.
  4. The kids had a great time. The cost just keeps skyrocketing. Their web site says over $500 for next year for the merit badge camp.
  5. Nobody was free. And they wanted to charge us extra to get a site in the trees. We rejected that.
  6. Fortunately, I'm told our scouts had a great time. The adults were not expecting to employees for the week. Asking adults to take a week of leave, pay over $400 and then expecting them to do the work of the full time staff made their week less than enjoyable. Again, I do sympathize with the camps. Everyone is struggling from camps to restaurants. But they should take the money they set aside for wages and give it to the adults performing those jobs. It's not right for them to not do that. Show some respect to the volunteers who saved your camp.
  7. Philmont and Summit are both experiencing staffing shortages and adult leaders are having to make up for it. I genuinely sympathize with them. It's a problem everywhere and I know it's got to be driving people who have to deal with it crazy. Our troop did merit badge camp at Summit last week. Summit had 50 people sign contracts to work and not show up. One of our adults had to teach Brownsea Island for the week. Two others had to run fishing. Here's my problem. They charged our adults over $400 each for the week. Summit expected to be paying staff to do jobs that our adults ended up
  8. Too muddy. Every vehicle going into the backcountry had to be approved by upper management.
  9. We did still have a good time and got to summit Baldy. Hopefully things will improve for crews and staff this summer.
  10. They are short staffed (hire taller staff?) and the bathrooms/showers aren't cleaned frequently. Some were downright nasty. An adult in our crew got sick with Covid on trail. He had to hike with us to Ponil to be extracted because rain made roads to Elkhorn impassable. His son said he wasn't feeling well but tested negative. He was also taken to the infirmary. He returned a little later after testing negative again. They told us they were pulling the rest of us healthy members from trail because they're in 2020 mode. But they couldn't get vehicles to Ponil to extract us. We'd be stuc
  11. I don't recall us having a campfire at our campsite. I don't think there would be enough wood if every crew had one every night.
  12. We went in 2019, the year after the big fire that went through Philmont. We had a fire every night. This was encouraged specifically to reduce the amount of fuel on the ground for wildfires. I believe over 20,000 people go through Philmont every year. We saw crews having fires every night. I would venture that more dead wood is cleared now than in 1971 with that many crews.
  13. Cooks Peak Fire Update: April 26th, 2022, 11:00 AM MDT The Cooks Peak Fire is estimated at 54,021 acres and 18% contained. There has been no report of further loss of any Philmont structures. Philmont personnel were able to survey areas within the burn zone and Olympia trail camp has survived. There has been loss to a significant amount of fencing and gates. Philmont continues to protect structures and the Carson Meadows cabin was wrapped yesterday with fire retardant material. The precipitation yesterday was a significant aid in fighting the fire, however there are
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