69RoadRunner

That will still compress the part of the bag where your body presses against it. The vast majority of your insulation underneath you comes from the pad's R value.

I've switched to quilts from Feathered Friends and Enlightened Equipment. When it's cold, I use the attachment strap on my sleeping pad. If it's warm, I can open it up. The underside of a sleeping bag provides no insulation because your body compresses it, eliminating all loft. All insulation comes from the pad.

Down or synthetic? First step is to find the manufacturer's web site and see if there are instructions there. For down, Nikwax Down Wash on a front loader with a "hand wash" or gentle cycle is what I do. Low spin speed. I use a very low heat setting on the dryer and put in a clean tennis ball or flip flop to break up clumps of down. If your down bag has clumps due to moisture on a trip or if you've stored it compressed, you can put it in the dryer on no heat with the tennis ball or flip flop to restore the loft. With proper care, a quality down bag will last longer than a com

Yeah, when a staffer is having conversations with the fish, you need to be worried.

At summer camp last year, there was a troop of all boys with just 2 female adult leaders. I have no problem with that, but saying 2 adult male leaders for a group with 1 or more girls is gender bias. Having different rules for men and women seems like something that will result in legal challenges.

The cheesecake was tough because it needs to be cold enough out to firm up. But, when it's that cold, it's tough to mix, so I had to warm everything up. It was pretty good. It's a time balance thing. We want them to cook and they do. They also have other activities that are important. The cooking is only part of it. The cleanup is time consuming, too. There are only so many hours in a day.

Our patrols cook Saturday breakfast and dinner. Lunch is usually something no-cook like sandwiches. If they cooked lunch, too, that would be about all we did all day. But they plan it and their grubmaster gets it. Sunday morning is usually a no-cook breakfast. But again, the patrols decide what that is and their grubmaster gets it. This past trip, there were 2 makeshift patrols and a shared grubmaster. He got unfrosted Pop Tarts and will probably never hear the end of that as long as he's in scouts. 🤣 We have our Iron Chef competition coming up in November and cooking is 9

This is fine as an exercise and training for life in college. 😄 Many, but not all of our scouts, if left unchallenged, would lean toward cheap and easy meals. We tell our patrol leaders to go beyond hot dogs and spaghetti. It doesn't have to be gourmet every time, but last campout, they made sauteed pierogies, kielbasa and onions and green beans. They did a nice job.

Well, to be fair, there are high quality synthetic sleeping bags today. There are also cheap sporting goods store garbage. I personally prefer synthetic and merino wool underwear for everyday use. I think referring to modern polyester fabrics as plastic is inaccurate, but to each his own.

I have a bit of a different take. I would say pack the 10 essentials for all trips, unless, as others have said, you're going to a place where a knife or fire starter is prohibited. The reasoning I use is it gets you in the habit of having these things handy. Most, if not all, can stay in your day pack. I'm a counselor for the Hiking merit badge. I do expect the scouts to explain, beyond the 10 essentials, what is needed for a specific hike. If it's hot and water sources aren't plentiful, do you have enough water capacity? What clothing layers and footwear is appropriate? How mu

That's what I need to find out from those interested in going. We have some who like fishing and others don't hate it, but it's not a priority for them. Moose viewing sounds great! Being able to choose your adventure has a great deal of appeal, too. We did Sea Base 2 years ago on one of the big sailboats with 20 people. This year we did Philmont. We're late organizing, but they want to do the Triple Crown with NT next year. I just looked at the packing list. How strict are they on synthetic sleeping bags instead of down? I get that there's extra concern about the bag getting w

The NT web site doesn't give a great deal of information on the 3 options, although they do make it clear that Bissett is extremely challenging. From the description there, I suspect Bissett would not be appropriate for the crew we'd likely take. I'd like to know more than what NT provides to help our crew make a decision on whether Ely, Atikokan or Bissett is the best choice. We'll have a range of physical abilities. We just did Philmont with a very young crew and although we did a lower mileage trek, they did it. Also, when is the best time to go? I know the black fly is the st

Depends on the tent. My son's Duomid weighs 35 ounces, which is less than half a Philtent and sleeps 2. He left the inner attached, so he carried the whole thing and his tentmate carried more of their food to make it even. There are many 1 person tents that weigh even less. https://www.tarptent.com/product/protrail/#tab-id-2 https://www.sixmoondesigns.com/collections/tents/products/lunar-solo

We did a trek this summer. We saw some families at Ponil and later noticed the tents across the street from base camp. It's a separate program from the treks, not replacing the treks. It appears to be an attempt to get younger kids interested in the BSA program. I have disagreements with some of the things BSA has done, but this isn't a hill to die on.

While I do understand Philmont's reasons for not allowing hammocks, it would be a way to not have to sleep right next to a stinky tentmate. 😴 If you had a crew of 12 all in hammocks, there are some Philmont campsites where you'd struggle to find 12 hammock spots.

We've had 0 my entire time with the troop. It might be a peer pressure kind of thing. Hey, all the cool kids are doing it. I can rest in a hammock but can't sleep in one. SYOS (Sleep Your Own Sleep)

The odorproof bags are, unfortunately, not odorproof to bears. The Opsacks have a poor reputation for durability, too.

They are better. The good ones are expensive, though. And they're heavy. An in-between option, still not cheap is an Ursack. They aren't approved in all national parks, though. They're a lot lighter. For weekend backpacking trips, they're probably a better option unless the area requires a hard sided canister. https://www.ursack.com/ Andrew Skurka has some excellent criticism of bear bags. When you don't have an established cable, most bear hangs are terrible, sometimes due to not having a decent branch to use. https://andrewskurka.com/argument-against-hanging-bear-ba

We were doing a Philmont prep hike earlier this year. To mix things up, we rented a cabin from PATC. It was our toughest hike with some serious elevation change. We worked on as many Philskills as possible, with the obvious exception of tent setup. Right where a side trail met up with the AT, we encountered a brown bear maybe 10 feet off the trail. That was concerning. Then the cutest, tiniest baby bear came down the tree next to mamma bear. Oh <Not Boy Scout Approved Language>! Luckily we were not between mamma and baby and we assume at least one other baby had already c

They won't exactly prevent you from doing it, but Philmont doesn't want parents tenting with their kids anymore. I don't think it's a YPT thing, but more of a keep the kids in the crew together thing. We had 3 adults, 2 of us with kids in the crew. The other 2 adults used Philtents and I took a 1 person tent.

There are campsites where you'd struggle to find enough spots if everyone is using a hammock. As others said, it's likely that a large number of hammock users would do harm to the trees, even if you required the use of sticks like the bear ropes.

If you have an odd number of scouts in the crew, he could use it.

I used trail runners. I think the support from boots is dubious. Waterproof boots are waterproof in both directions. Once they're wet, they take forever to dry. Boots are also heavier. Every step lifting more weight is not joyful. Only take your own tents if you have something significantly better than the Philtents. They're easy to set up, so it's not like knowing your own tent is any kind of issue. If you have a much lighter, high quality backpacking tent, consider bringing it. Otherwise, use the Philtents. If you have any problem, they can replace it.

Yes, you really do need to be prepared for chilly nights. Maybe it won't be as cold when you go, but it could be.