Tips
for planning for a Philmont Expedition:
- Personal
Information Worksheets - design
the form to fit your needs. Include: parents' names,
address, home/work/cell phone numbers, e-mail address, a second
emergency contact and phone number, age and birth date, Scout Rank
and offices held, payment schedule, etc. These worksheets
should be made available and turned in to trip organizer on the day
the initial deposit for Philmont is collected.
- Itinerary and
Crew Worksheets - design
a form to fit your needs. Include: type of trek options
(just Tooth, just Baldy, both Tooth & Baldy), all programs
offered at Philmont, and a place to enter crewmate preferences.
These
worksheets should be made available at the first
Parents/Scouts/Advisors meeting that you conduct the fall before
your expedition. These forms should be collected as soon as
possible thereafter, and trip organizers should immediately begin
compiling the data and building crews.
- Trek
Selection Worksheets - used
for each crew to select their top five itinerary choices.
These choices should be made BEFORE the advisor's kits arrive in
March of the year you are attending Philmont. Try to get your
hands on the previous year's itinerary planning book to base your
choices off of. Itinerary selection is handled at Philmont on
a first-come, first-served basis. Have these choices ready
when your advisor's kits arrive, then fill out the postcards in your
itinerary planning book, and OVERNIGHT MAIL the postcards to
Philmont.
- Other Necessities:
- Crew
Leader - THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THIS
LONG LIST!!! The crew will only be as
successful as the crew leader allows them to be.
Discuss the responsibilities of the crew leader with the
entire crew before the crew selects its leader. Once the crew has selected a crew
leader, all advisors need to work through the crew leader
only. Do not go around the crew leader to get a task
done. Train your crew leader in what you expect, then
let him lead the crew. Staff at Philmont will work
solely through the crew leader for all tasks.
- Crew Duty
Rosters - We built a front & back form consisting of the
duty roster, expected duties for each position on the roster, a
copy of the crew leader's form out of the itinerary planning
book, and the itinerary map out of the itinerary planning
book. We did not include any advisors in our duty roster,
as the advisors are on vacation at Philmont.
- National
Tour Permit - Plan on turning in your National Tour Permit
THREE MONTHS before your expedition. The permit takes a
little over a month, usually, to be processed. This lead
time will allow you room for any last-minute changes.
- Expedition
T-Shirt Order Forms - If your expedition is planning on
designing and purchasing customized trip t-shirts, you should
have your design finalized no later than February of your
expedition year, and all orders should be turned in by the end
of April of your expedition year.
- Advisors-only
Meetings - begin having advisors meetings as soon as
possible after you have received deposits from all participants.
At these meetings you will begin planning for:
- Contingency
Fee Fund - a contingency fund is needed to cover all
costs of travel, lodging, trip related crew gear expenses,
and emergency expenses. The amount to collect from
each participant will depend on your planning of the items
listed below. We announced the contingency fee amount
in January, and collected the fee in May of our expedition
year. There are many other alternatives to handling
the contingency fund.
- Travel
plans - does the contingent want to do or see anything
on the way to Philmont, or on the way home? Or are you
going to go straight to Philmont and back?
- Transportation
- driving, train, or flying? Reservations?
Rentals? Do not forget that anyone driving a 15 or
more passenger vehicle MUST carry 100K/500K/100K insurance
coverage to meet National Tour Permit requirements.
- Lodging
- are you going straight to Philmont and straight home,
or are there other activities planned on the trip.
Reservations? Remember, there are not many
accommodations in and around Cimarron, New Mexico, so make
your reservations EARLY.
- Shakedown
Campouts - how many and where? Remember the need
for reservations in advance for some camps, and the added
expenses involved in the shakedowns. Shakedowns should
be used as tools to train the Scouts the proper techniques
for long-term backpacking, and should be used to SCARE THE
ADULT ADVISORS into getting in shape. Plan on covering
a fair amount of miles each day of your shakedowns.
Have personal gear shakedowns on these campouts. Set a
time limit for each participant to acquire all needed
personal gear.
- Crew
Gear - what do you have, what do you need, and
what can you borrow from Philmont? The more of your
own gear you take and use at Philmont, the easier time you
will have in checking in and out at base camp. You are
also very familiar with your own gear. Any crew gear
purchases should be covered in the Contingency fund.
- Crew
Conduct - what are the group rules going to be?
Set the rules early on and enforce them all the way through
the trip. Remember that horseplay can result in injury
costing more than one participant his or her trip and money.
How will you handle in-crew fighting? If a Scout has
to be taken off the trail for medical reasons, which advisor
will accompany him or her down?
- First
Aid & CPR Certifications - each crew is required to
have at least ONE member certified in CPR and First Aid (Red
Cross certification or equivalent). Get this done and
out of the way EARLY.
- Physical
Examinations and Weight Limits - Each participant is
required to have a physical examination within 12 months of
attending Philmont. We required that the exam be conducted
in the calendar year of our trip. The physical MUST be
filled out on Philmont's form. Philmont has set strict
weight limits for participation. The limits are set
according to participant's height. If you think you may be
over your limit, START LOSING THE WEIGHT A YEAR BEFORE YOUR
TRIP. Do not wait until the last minute to try to lose the
weight.
- Physical
Preparation - The best way to get ready for a 11 day
backpacking trip is by carrying a pack. Each participant
needs to begin a SERIOUS training regimen by January of the
expedition year. Going to Philmont out of shape is no fun
and borders on personal torture, and is unfair to the rest of
the crew. Make sure EACH AND EVERY participant is in good
physical shape at least TWO MONTHS before the trip.
This allows you time to ride those who are not getting ready.
- Personal
Expenses in attending a Philmont Trek:
- The Philmont
Expedition Fee
- Contingency
Fund Fee
- Trading
Post/Snack Bar/Trail money
- Meals on the
road to and from Philmont (not covered in contingency fee)
- Expedition
T-Shirts/Hats/etc.
- Shakedown
Campout costs - campsite and food expenses
- Personal Gear
purchases/rentals
- As you can see
from this list, attending a Philmont expedition is not an
inexpensive vacation. Let parents know the Philmont
Expedition Fee and payment schedule; and then contingency
fee and payment schedule as soon as possible. Amounts
for the personal items on the list should be set by each
participant and his or her parents.
- I could tell you where
the best showers in base camp are, but then you would be in my way
when I need a shower, wouldn't you???
- When you check in
to base camp, make sure that each participant has a full canteen and
their Class A Uniforms (if wanted for the crew pictures), and make
sure that your crew leader has: the physicals for all crew
members, a complete set of maps for logistics, and bear bags (if you
use your own) to carry food in. These items will be needed to
process the crew through base camp on Day 1.
|
On June 1, 2002, a
lightning storm caused a 90,000 acre forest fire, part of which
burned in the Philmont north country. On June 6, 2002, we
received word from Philmont that the north country would be closed,
and all crews with north country itineraries would be re-routed.
Two of our crews no longer knew where we would be hiking now.
EXPEDITION