ahsu902-philmont2021

[ahsu902-philmont2021]

What worked (and what didn’t)

Having spent lots of time reading (and occasionally commenting on) the Facebook Philmont prep/news group, I figured on contributing a post about my lessons learned as a first-time Philmont lead advisor.  But given my ever-widening ambition to document my Philmont experience, I decided to draft my thoughts here and then reference this post in a FB post.

As a first-time attendee leading a crew of newbie Philmont attendees, I found it difficult to reconcile all the various bits of advice and tips being given to me in preparation for my canceled 2020 and then 2021 Philmont trek.   Now that I’ve been there, I can say with much confidence that everything everyone said was basically correct.  Really. I like to think of this experience like a bunch of blind people touching and describing a Philmont elephant.  That is, Philmont is multi-faceted, it’s not exactly a 12 day backpacking trip, but it’s not just a series of 3 day trips (based on food drops).  You’re definitely not completely out on your own (you’re always less than 2 days from a staff camp and medics can be deployed fairly quickly via an extensive network of service roads), yet you never feel like the place is over-run with people.  Accordingly, Philmont certainly has its own flavor of backpacking that you need to prepare for that may or may not work for general backpacking.  So without further ado, here’s a laundry list of my experience of what seemed to work (and what really didn’t)

Prepare, prepare, prepare!  12 days in the backcountry, even with staff camp visits, is still 12 days in the backcountry.  You already should be thinking of getting fit -- the hiking at altitude with lots of elevation gains (and losses) is no joke.  And that last climb up the Tooth of Time in our itinerary, with a rock scramble (here’s our crew heading down)...

Read the Guidebook to Adventure and glance at the Itinerary book.  I didn’t find the Itinerary book all that meaningful as a first-timer, as I really had no reference point.  Yes, we did study the itineraries in preparation for itinerary selection, but the reality is that aside from the approximate mileage, the particulars of the programs for each itinerary hardly seemed to matter once we got there.  Each day was a new adventure and whatever program we were in store for was just a bonus (aka, nobody in our crew ever complained during the trek about the programming).  In fact, I will boldly state that you should not over-think the programming aspect of the trek.  Focus on mileage and a couple of key programs, but don’t overthink the itinerary selection.  You will absolutely enjoy whatever trek you go on!  The real info, surprisingly, is in the Guidebook to Adventure.

Listen and learn from your Ranger.  Even if you don’t do any preparing for the trip (not recommended!), your Ranger on the first day at base camp can set you completely straight.  He/she will do a pack check and make sure that you toss out anything you don’t need and make you buy anything missing at the Tooth of Time Traders.  Additionally, he/she will spend day 2 (first day out of base camp) teaching you everything you need to do that is rather specific to Philmont (e.g. bear bags, setting up dining fly, cooking and cleaning).  Then your crew will have to demonstrate it all on day 3.  Yes, you are basically free to do things your way after the Ranger leaves, but I’d advise doing it the Philmont way because all the infrastructure is already there (e.g. bear lines and sump drains at the camps), plus the cooking method (stupid pot!) is a hill that all of Philmont is willing to die on, and it works surprisingly well within a crew/patrol context in terms of crew bonding and efficiency and sanitation.

Make sure your crew knows how to pitch that dining fly since it made all the difference during our 4 days of monsoon rain.  And learn those three indispensable knots: the larkshead, the clove hitch, and the tautline hitch! 

Equipment choices that seemed to work

Stoves. The flame wars between white gas and isobutane on the FB group are legendary, so I decided just to bring both.  Yup, two MSR dragonflys (with two 30 oz gas canisters) and a single MSR pocket rocket kit (with 1L pot and 8oz isobutane canister).  We brought two dragonflys as recommended so we would have a backup (didn’t need it thank goodness), and figured that if the pocket rocket failed, we still had the dragonflys.  We used the dragonfly to cook the evening meal and the pocket rocket to make hot water for drinks in the afternoon and morning.    This worked out great for us since the dragonfly is a bit sturdier for supporting the big pot (stupid pot), and the pocket rocket was much quicker and easier for boiling the smaller amounts of water for drinks.  As far as fuel, my crew used about one 30oz container of white gas and we used two 8oz isobutane canisters (we purchased the 2nd at a trading post on day 8).  Both white gas and isobutane are available for purchase in the backcountry, so we definitely overpacked on the white gas.  Oh well. In summary, I’d recommend bringing both if you can afford it.  I really came to appreciate the Philmont cooking method and the need for a stove that could safely support the big pot (stupid pot), but really liked the ease and speed of making hot water with the pocket rocket.  We even brought the pocket rocket on our daypack ascents of Mt. Phillips and the Tooth of Time (picture below) to make coffee/chocolate/tea at the summit!  On the flip side, if your crew doesn’t plan on making coffee (or other hot drinks), don’t bother bringing the pocket rocket (or jet boil).

Camp chair and sit pad.  Well, if you can afford the 1-2lb weight penalty, bring it.  It does come in handy to get you off the ground if it rains, and is really comfortable at campsites.  That said, there seemed to be enough rocks and logs at the campsites, so the thing you absolutely should bring is a foam sit pad.  They’re light, and you can get one for dirt cheap on Amazon.  In fact I ended up buying one for each person in my crew.  The sit pad comes in real handy everywhere you want to sit (even on the picnic benches at basecamp) and can even serve as a floor mat outside your tent.

Trekking poles.  If you are an adult, bring them.  They will save your legs on the downhill.  Additionally, they are necessary if you want to set up your dining fly when no trees are available.  Be sure and get rubber tips for them (though you’ll likely lose them like I did).

Rain Gear.  I didn’t believe I needed to bring rain pants, but I’m sure glad that I did.  They really helped during our monsoon rains in keeping my legs warm at camps.  Perhaps not super useful during rainy hikes, but I did wear them, as hiking in the rain got pretty cold.

Camp/water shoes.  You definitely want to bring them to give your feet a chance to air out during camp.  Besides, if your boots get wet (from rain or stream crossings), you’ll need to wear something while you are drying out your boots.  I’d suggest some sort of quick dry camp shoes (closed toe sandals or lightweight running shoes) as we wore them during out North Fork Uraca Creek day in which we faced 49 stream crossings!

Sleeping bag choice.   I know that Philmont recommended 20 degree bags.  A helpful FB commenter that did my trek (12-12) in early July mentioned the temp never went below 49, so I switched in my 40 degree down bag (my trek started late July).  This was perfectly fine, even for our 10k elevation camp night on Divide.

Stuff that wasn’t quite needed or didn’t work out...

Water filter.  I went into the trek convinced I’d only use my Platypus 4L gravity filter.  Well, fortunately, the platypus is small and light because I never used if after the first day.  As it turns out the Katadyn tabs worked great and did not have that foul taste associated with earlier gen tablets.  Additionally, the water we sourced at Philmont was mainly from fast moving creeks, so sediment was minimal.  And because our Ranger scared the heck out of us in terms of the need to purify the water with cows and other animals using the creek, the filtration was just a superfluous, time wasting step.  Besides, Philmont gives you all the tabs you need and you don’t even need to use the tabs if you plan on boiling the water (for cooking). So leave your water filter at home and just use their tabs.

My 7x10 ultralight dining fly.  Yes, the Philmont issue is big and heavy and I thought I could get away with my ultra-light 7x10.  How wrong I was. Thank goodness I heeded the Ranger’s advice to ditch this at basecamp and go with the Philmont issue (about 12x12).  I did need the stakes though.  Besides, I didn’t have to carry it anyway!  If you are bringing your own, bring a big one...it needs to be big enough so everyone your crew can comfortably fit underneath during a rainstorm.  This was clearly demonstrated to us on day 4 when we got hit with a massive rain/hail storm and we spent the entire afternoon/evening under our tarp.  I’m just thankful our scouts paid attention to our Ranger the days before and were able to successfully set up the dining fly.

Bug spray. Compared to other backpacking trips, there seemed to be way fewer biting bugs during our trip.  Yes, there a couple of moments when some in the crew broke out the bug spray, but it wasn’t nearly as vicious as I had expected. I ended up using just a small amount of bug spray over the 12 days.  On the other hand, I did spray all my clothing (including socks and hats) with Permethrin prior, so perhaps the recommendation is to pre-treat your clothing ahead of time.

Personal food.  I don’t think I’m a picky eater but I brought along my own stash of Clif Bloks just in case.  I certainly overestimated how much I needed to bring, given that the Philmont rations and the staff camp swap boxes kept me well-fed.  So the guidance here is bring some, especially if you’re particular about your food/snack, but otherwise, there will be plenty available.

[ahsu902-philmont2021]

Trek Details...

Our eight person crew consisted of three adults and five scouts.  Gender-wise, we had three females and five males.  Aside from one 6′ 3″ adult, none of looked particular remarkable physically, but within us, we had some super-experienced backpackers, a cross country runner, two competitive cyclists, a national caliber badminton player.  So yes, we had fitness to spare.

We chose trek 12-12, a 12 day trek through Philmont’s south county.  It was listed as a "rugged” 59 mile trek with a good mix of hiking and programs:

In retrospect, we got lucky in that our itinerary seemed to ease us into the more strenuous days of days 8 and 9.  Even the weather somewhat aligned, as the 5 day monsoon started on day 4 and lasted until Day 9.

That said, day 7′s “106 feet” elevation gain was a total lie and turned out to involve a steep 800′ climb (and equally steep descent) into Buck Creek.  Arguably, this prepped us for an even challenging climb over Big Red...but more details about each day in subsequent posts...

One of our adults decided to chart our progress on his Fitbit and upload the data to Strava.  Here’s a quote of our overall stats:

Few stats from Fitbit for the Philmont portion: *74.08mi logged with the GPS (treks; doesn't include trips to get water, wandering around camp, etc) *115mi estimated total, including all of the walking that wasn't part of the trek. I think this uses step count and stride length, which is calibrated based on my normal gait. not sure if it uses the GPS mileage when available and only reverts to steps when needed. Might overestimate based on smaller hiking steps or shuffling around camp so take with a grain of salt, though extra 3.5mi/day isn't that unreasonable *280k steps, or about 25k/day for days 3-12 (once we really got going) *50k calories, or ~4300/day when we got going. This is probably an underestimate, since it doesn't account for 50-60lbs pack

So was this trek physically strenuous?  You bet.  Impossible, Nah...but yes, be fit before and train hard before heading to Philmont.  We were super lucky that we didn’t have any medical issues nor fitness issues.  All the adults managed to stay with the scouts, thanks to some awesome pace setting to moderate the crew’s pacing.  Here’s some examples of the crew hiking single-track in formation:

[ahsu902-philmont2021]

The Beginning at the End...

Well, despite my best efforts to gather my thoughts immediately after my recent Philmont trek, here I am 4 days after our trip finally finishing all the laundry, washing out some of the equipment, and digging through 12 days of unread email.

So this is the introductory background post for my particular journey into Philmont 2021, my third attempt.  I’ll post more crew and trek related stuff in subsequent posts.  But here’s the history:

This all started in 2016 based on signing up with my son’s troop (321) as an adult advisor in one of their three crews.  Yes, we were warned that it took 2 years to prep for a Philmont trip and indeed, all 36 of us did quite a bit to prep leading into our 2018 trip.  Sadly, 2018′s Philmont season was canceled due to the Ute and Morris Creek fires.  Instead our crews were diverted into a 5 day substitute high adventure trip near the Flat Tops in Colorado (Steve Fossett Spirit of Adventure Ranch) as a substitute Philmont, complete with Philmont Rangers and food packs.  Hats off to T321 high adventure coordinator Lee Torno for his quick action to salvage the initial acclimatization side trip and pivot into the Colorado “Fauxmont” trip.

With the 2018 Fauxmont under my belt, and my daughter now part of T4301 in 2019, I was approached by the adults in 2019 to lead the T(4)301 crew to Philmont.  While I initially balked when told I was supposed to lead their 2018 71 mile itinerary, I soon learned that I could choose a new itinerary that might be less backpacking intensive (ha ha...you’ll later find out we hike way more than 71 miles on our “shorter itinerary”...).

From my 2016 experience, I soon started prepping for the 2020 trip, as I only had about a year to get ready.  I really gained an appreciation for Lee’s planning skills.  Even though I only planned for one crew (Lee organized three!), it was quite a handful to juggle all the logistics for both an acclimitization side trip and Philmont, as well as manage the crew preparation.

Alas, it was not to be for the 2020 Philmont trip, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Instead, a subset of us took a couple of short backpacking trips to Smith Lake in Tahoe’s Desolation Wilderness and to Black Mountain in Monte Bello Preserve.

Fortunately, Philmont offered a chance to reschedule for 2021 and we jumped at this chance.  Sadly, we lost a couple of crew members, but also gained a couple so our original crew of 12 dropped to 7, increased to 10, dropped back to 7, and then finally ended with 8.  None of us had ever been to Philmont, but fortunately, all of us had fairly good fitness (even the adults!) and had decent backpacking experience (so we thought). Here’s the commemorative crew T-shirt:

So July 25, we finally got our chance to leave for Philmont, via Denver and a 3 day acclimatization side trip.  Here we (well, most of us) are at SFO about to get on the plane...

And to prove that we actually got to the start...