Philmont Training

I’ve not been to Philmont but I deal with this issue as the outdoor coordinator for our troop. My $.02 is that it’s your job to be sure that scounts (and adults, where applicable) are a prepared for the trip. We usually plan an extra practice hike or two to accommodate schedule conflicts but at some point you either want to go or not… Scouts and parents need to decide if soccer or scouting is the priority. It’s ok if scounting isn’t the priority but then you don’t go on the physically demanding trip where everyone needs a certain level of fitness, skill and coordination In order for the trip to ge well.

Mandatory hikes or backpacking trips?  If you are talking overnight backpacking trip, it might be a good goal to get that many in over the next 17-18 months, but I would consider it a stretch to expect everyone make them all.  But if you are talking practice day hikes with packs, then 5 would be light.

We are going in June.  We had one overnight, but local, trip in November.  We will have one more relatively easy overnighter and then a tough two nighter this spring.  Interspersed with this will be regular weekend day hikes.  I am encouraging additional conditioning during the week at this time.  I will insist upon it as we get closer to spring.

We are lucky and cursed that all but two of our scouts going this summer play organized sports (soccer or track).  Lucky in that we don’t have to worry too much about conditioning.  Cursed, because it makes trip planning harder.  The two who are not in organized sports are Philmont veterans and know whats expected/needed in terms of conditioning.

We will do 5 mandatory backpacking trips. The first will find out who in our three crews needs to be together. The second will bring in longer distance hiking of over 14 miles per day on some not so tough elevation gains. The third will be a tough hike over the Linville Gorge area. Our fourth is a navigation challenge in the Harpers Creek area of North Carolina. Our last is a Memorial Day hike over the Black Mountain Crest trail up the backside of Mount Mitchell. The first two are Saturday and Sunday hikes, The last three are Friday through Sunday.

“They felt they could not miss a ball game, band practice or science fair. Am I being wrong about this? We’ve done it this way for the previous 5 treks we’ve done over the past 15 years.”

In my experience, I always create exceptions to rules, and the rules to govern the exceptions. While I know it is essential to have weekends for the crews to gel, I’d hate to see boys being turned away because their parents judge the commitment to be to much for them.

Having gone twice as an adult, and once as a provisional scout in my youth, I have never gone on more than two or three “shakedown” hikes before any of the treks, all of which took place within the 12 months prior to the trek. And some boys couldn’t make a trip or two, but they were allowed to make it up in other ways.

Most recently, my son was one of the lighter/younger boys, so we did our own additional trips to better prepare him, since we knew he’d have to miss one of the shakedown hikes.

It was definitely worth it.

‘I have never gone on more than two or three “shakedown” hikes before any of the treks, all of which took place within the 12 months prior to the trek. And some boys couldn’t make a trip or two, but they were allowed to make it up in other ways.’

Sounds like you had some boys who hiked only one hike as a crew?  How far were your treks?

The simple solution is to hold more shakedown trips. That way you give the scout more of a chance to make your mandatory number. I always sort of cringe when I hear any leader , scout or not say that’s the way we have always do it.  Remember scouting is only part of a boys life and band and sports are just as important as scouting.

Its worked in the past. Never had a “3rd Day Curse”. No crew meltdowns or blistered feet. We took treks that were long enough to see much of  the Ranch as a result. Maybe I need to re-think the whole thing and let them decide the when and how much. Still need to train as a unit. Still need to take the surprise out of the first days.

“Sounds like you had some boys who hiked only one hike as a crew?  How far were your treks?”

The shakedown hikes averaged 10-15 miles (on or near the AT), and I believe one of the boys had only made one of the “official” shakedown hikes. But he was physically fit, the boys all knew him from years of camping together, and crew leader and the adults all believed he would be fine. And as I had mentioned before, my 98lb son (and two other boys), were the ones whom we were focusing on. They got special attention before the trip, in order to make sure they could be best prepared “physically”. Another boy, while an athlete, given special attention to his “emotional” needs.

And I believe we had a couple other boys who may have missed one of the shake down hikes. But the fact of the matter was: our boys had grown up camping with eachother. While they might have missed “the Philmont Way” in our first shakedown hike, they at least knew how to camp together as a troop. Teaching them how to set a bear bag or practice LNT was easy, not to mention it was re-taught by our Ranger when we got out there. The hard part (learning how to be a team), took time, which began years earlier when they joined the troop.

When I first went to Philmont as a youth, I joined a provisional crew through our Area Council. I didn’t know any of the rest of the crew. We had a couple meetings prior to, and went on two shakedown hikes. Two boys out of our crew (and the one adult adviser) were from the same troop. The crew adviser selected one of the boys from his troop as the crew leader. The rest of us were from different troops. In retrospect, we could have used more trips to help us learn to get along better. While many of us were “big fish” in our own troops, teaching a bunch of established boy leaders how to “follow” was a lesson that we weren’t prepared for, especially for the appointed crew leader and crew adviser.

My first trip as an adult adviser, I was in my mid 20’s, very experienced in both scouting and backpacking, and was taking a group of seasoned scouts from the troop from which I had grown up in. The only “new’ crew member was our second adult, who had joined our troop a year earlier, was in his early 20’s, but was a seasoned scouter (and active duty Corpsman).  Our troop was quite active in backpacking, and the boys knew eachother very well. I can only remember doing one actual shakedown trip a few months prior. The Philmont trek was fantastic, devoid of any crew-issues, and we all have stayed in touch ever since.

In hindsight, and based in particular on my personal experiences as a youth, I believe a rigorous attention toward setting a higher number of shakedown trips is essential when dealing with “provisional crew” situations where the boys don’t know eachother.  My two recent adult adviser experiences were with boys who knew eachother quite well, and with boys who were already well prepared, or were given the right amount of “special attention” at an individual level before we got to Philmont.

Forgive the long-winded nature of this, but I hope it helps you.

YIS

Matt

Thank you very much for the response. I come seeking knowledge. With 5 treks under my belt I still don’t know everything(or anything). I thank you for qualifying the crews. In 2003 my venture crew had at least one trek under their belt. My son had participated in Rayado the summer before and another trek.  I cut the amount of training back because many of them were in college.

I’ve got a few kids that will be 14 at the time. Sometimes though I worry more about the adults.

BK

IWGBTP

BK

@Bruce

Our crew chose one of the 67 mile itineraries and I think with detours and side trips we ended up hiking over 75 miles.  I was the adult leader and we planned three training backpacks and the crew voted that they had to participate in at least two of the training backpacks. Franky, the Scouts who were doing sports did not need the conditioning. Almost of the adults needed the conditioning and I used the training hikes to shed packweight.  For the Scouts I think that the training hikes are about more than physical conditioning. I think they are really about team building, trail and camp skills. I had a crew with three different age groups from 4 different schools. They needed the training hikes to learn to work together and to practice the most simple skills: safe stream crossing, get up and get out of camp within 55 minutes in the morning, lighting the stoves and stove safety, taking care of their feet, erecting the dining tarp, etc. The more the crew trains, the more ready they are to get to the events on time in the staffed camps and the more fun they will have. Most days we were usually on the trail by 730 or 745am and into camp by 300pm. We had long lunches along the trail and I usually had time for a nap before dinner. But we saw crews sleeping late and getting to camp in the dark.

Thanks Bruce. Sounds like you got the desired results. What kind of training did you do?