a warning about the burros

[DugNevius 10]

"Take advantage of this unique opportunity"

 

Actually dont.

 

If your troop is heading out to "scouting paradise", otherwise known as Philmont, there is no greater advice to be heard then AVOID THE BURRO'S at all cost.

 

This used to be an easy thing. Up until this year, a crew had the option of just saying no when offered the Burro Packing. Now it is mandatory, although it is only stated in one piece of literature Philmont sends you, page 12 of the Itinerary list, a small blurb. Not in the 2005 handbook. The reason? Its bothersome for the Philmont staff to have to bring them from one camp to the next, so they have paying campers do it.

 

Crews pick up burros in either Miranda or Ponil. There are a few problems in this. First of all, its not a one day thing, its a two day thing, so the crews have to drop them off at Pueblano campsite. Another reason this is a problem is because quite often crews that are forced to take these burros are not staying in Miranda, Ponil or Peublano Camps but rather up to a mile and a half uphill away. This means that the crew must walk a mile and a half out of the way to either pick them up or drop them off. Now a mile or more isnt that much when you are doing a typical or rugged trek, but when you are hiking a trek 20 or above, strenuous or super strenuous these 1.5 miles out of the way add up. Third major reason why this is a big problem, they do not even try to accommodate time constraints. Crews are informed to meet at the Burro pen at 9 am. Instructions begin around 9:30 when all scheduled crews are present. The crews do not depart until around 10:30 am.

 

On burroless days we were out on the trail by 6am and done with 12 mile hikes by 12pm. after lunch the mercury shoots up and the burros roads offer little to no shade. Without a burro this would be quite unpleasant, but with a Burro...

 

The fourth and biggest reason why the Burros are to be avoided: They often dont want to move at all. Sometimes that burro decides he is done walking and when he has got that in his mind there is nothing you can do to get him walking until he wants to. this will turn a hike that would have taken 2 hours into an all day event.

 

The first day our crew walked from Ponil to Pueblano, about 4 miles flat and didnt get there until 3pm. The second morning we saddled him and for 2 hours he moved only 40 yards.

 

This is a major drain of energy and moral. The burro days were brutal on the scouts spirits. Add to this the fact that because A)They were not released from burro instruction until 10:30 and B) they got to the camp at 3, the crew missed program. "Oh thats ok," the camp staff said, "we can write ya'll up for a 10 am climb." but we had burros the next day as well and 6 miles to go. That made that suggestion totally illogical.

 

Our crews picked treks 30 and 32. Part of the selling point was the chance to hike Wilson Mesa, outside the scout ranch, one of the hardest climbs to do and one of the best places in terms of visual splendor. Philmont Logistics just shrugged. "You have to take the burros. Sorry. Maybe you can side hike it." Had we attempted a side hike we would have not begun that side hike until 3:30pm that day which means our boys would not be setting up camp till at least 6:00pm, and after hiking in the open sun for almost 4 hours and a brutal pace they were in no shape to climb the mesa.

 

Miranda is a wonderful campsite, an amazing view pf baldy and a neat program, but its also a great place for advisors to get together and chat at "Advisor Coffee". There are two subjects: A) Baldy: Have you done it yet?" or "How was is?" and B) Burros. No crew that we or our sister crew ever encountered had a positive encounter with the burro packing program. One crew, at 7:30 pm showed up at Miranda to drop off the burro. They were camping more then a mile up the path and about 900 feet higher in elevation and they were instructed that the burro pen was "just down the path" by the staff. Those Adults that knew where it was looked at each other and then regarded these guys with pity, for we knew that "Down the path" was still 3/4ths of a mile, down hill all the way and that these guys had still to make that climb back up plus the mile uphill FROM this campsite to make dinner, not to mention they had to climb the 12,441 foot Baldy the next day. When we saw them coming back up it reminded us of what the Tarawa death march guys must have looked like. They were spent and asking themselves why they had shelled out cash to come there.

 

Dont try to find an easier way. Logistics and the wranglers dont want to hear it.

 

"Can we pick up the burros earlier in the day?"

"No."

"Can we just take the burro without the saddle if we dont even plan on putting any gear on the burro?"

"No."

"Can we split up so that 2 adults take the kids who want to do Wilson Mesa and 2 adults stay back with the burro and any who care to do it?"

"Not a chance."

"Can we just not do the burros?"

"You can, but then you will see what happens." (Im not kidding. This was the reply. The Ponil Camp Director, a cowboy named Gordon that smiled a plastic grin the whole time would not directly say the result of skipping the burros, but we found out that when we came back into base camp we would have been refused the Philmont Arrowhead patch and warned that to do so again would result in us not being accepted back. In fact Gordon would not let the boys pick up their food from the commissary until the crew leader promised to take the burros.)

 

In 1998 a troop, fed up with their burro led it off a cliff to its death. This very summer a burro broke its leg walking through a creak and had to be put down.

 

You only have two options, pick a trek that does not offer burros, or prepare to write 2 days of your 12 day trek and work hard to build back the spirit of the boys.

 

Anyone here have any Burro Horror stories to share?

 

[Eamonn 61]

A Lad from our Council was in charge of the Boy's Life Burro at the 2001 Jamboree.

At first the Lad thought this was a cake job, just walking around with the burro.

All went well till the ill tempered animal bit him on the behind.

After that they never seemed to have the bonding relationship that they displayed on the first day or two.

Eamonn

[jr56 92]

I did a Philmont trek in 99 and had to put up with the burros for 2 days. I was never happier to see the last of those 4 footed hay burners.

They did know their way around though. We came to a fork in the trail one afternoon, and while the boys were debating which way to go while consulting the map, the burros came down the trail and turned left without even pausing to rest. They knew which way to go better than we did.

[theysawyoucomin' 10]

Dug,

I feel bad that your boys had to struggle with these beasts.

For the historical record there was no death march at Tarawa. The 'Corps lost more devil dogs in 76 hours than at any other time in history. The Japanese commander stated, "it will take a million Marines a thousand years to take this island." 76 hours after the first heroes waded ashore said commander was dead, and so were a bunch of Marines.

 

Bataan, earlier in the war had a death march.

[dan 10]

Just returned from Philmont. We had 2 burros on trek 28. The scouts learned alot about these animals the 2 days that they used them. Never had a problem with them not wanting to move. They are very strong willed animals. That need strong willed handlers. I have heard all of the horror stories about these animals so I was a bit worried, the biggest issue was having to walk another 1/2 to 1 mile to put them in their pens and about one hour to get them loaded up in the morning. We picked the burros at 8 in the morning. Our sister crew picked their burror up at 6:30 in the morning, they did there conservtion project that day and asked if they could pick it up early, they woke the wrangler up and he came right out and got them going, it does take about an hour and a half to get the instructions on how to load and handle these animals.

Do not turn down a trek because of the burros, just read up on how to handle them before going to Philmont.

I watched crews trying to get the burro moving by giving them treats, they where rewarding the animals for stopping, we only gave them rewards when they where moving. We only allowed them to stop and eat or drink when we wanted not when they wanted to.

I watched one scout being scared of these animals, he did not want to even go into the pen and pick out one, after the first day, he was proably one of the better handlers.

 

 

[Terry Bliss 10]

We also heard about the burro issues but took a trek that required them. We took Trek 9 this summerand had a very god experience withthe burros. We were early in the season (got the burros on about 18 June) so perhaps they wre not thoroughly ruined for the season. We aslso had all older Venturers (ages 15-20) so perhaps they were more disciplined in handling them. We made friends with them early on, fed them dried apples and dry oatmeal and trail mix to encourage them, and generally had no trouble. We were even able to turn them around on a narrow trail, when it was washed out and impassable.

 

Our first night, we had them in a burro pen with 4 other burros at a trail camp. When anyone from our group walked past, our burros would immediately walk over to us, while the others ignored us. I think making friends with them and treating them firmly but well early on is of value.

 

The only thing we could not get them to do was cross a large wood bridge at Pueblano. This was not to amazing, since the cross planks had gaps about an inch or two apart. It resembled a cattle guard gate. We had to lead them through the creek, and they were less than eager to do that, but we were hungry and so we dragged them through.

 

Overall we considered it a good experience, something none of us will likely ever do again, so do it and enjoy the unique experience.

 

I suspect that in units that report trouble, younger scouts may be undisciplined in their handling- feeding them at random, which encourages them to stop and demand treats.