Aluminum gutter spikes are not perfect, but are quite functional and they work just fine. We used them on our trip and came away happy that we brought them.
A couple things to consider:
1. Gutter spikes are very seldom used anymore in the hanging of gutters. (There are other methods used now.) Chances are that if you call a gutter company or home improvement company that hangs gutters, they may have several boxes of gutter spikes in their warehouse doing nothing but collecting dust. Tell the owner/manager of your situation and explain to him that a donation of 120 gutter spikes would be greatly appreciated by your crew. The liklihood of getting the gutter spikes donated, as opposed to having to buy them, is extremely high. Just remember to send a nice Philmont thank you card after your trip.
2. Paint the heads of the gutter spikes bright orange. You'll find them easier when they're laying in the dirt or grass.
Good luck.
Pete Swiggum
Green Bay, WI
Philmont 2005 (& 2010?)
ICWTGBTP!!!
kirk maes <kirkmaes@gmail.com> wrote:
you may be able to get tent stakes from crews in the home bound tent area but half the alum ones will be bent and they wont part with the titanium ones. TOT trading post sells cheep steel pegs for 25 cents each but they will be worthless after 12 days on the trail. I got alum tent pegs off ebay (they were new and in ozark trail boxes - wall mart overflow.) they were $40 for 100 as I recall. this was close to the cost at wall mart where you can get a box of 6 pegs for $3.00
Final result was 10% of our pets were lost on trail during first 3- 4 days, 30% lost on trail final morning (amazing how those things just never made it into the tent bag at 3:30 am in the dark on the last day, before we hiked 10 miles down tooth ridge to base camp) , at base camp about 30 of the remaining 60 or 70 pegs were bent so bad that they were worthless, about 20 pegs the boys kept for use with their tents at home and I took about 20 or 30 home to add to troop gear.
Phil tents need 20 pegs. 10 for the tent and 10 more for the rain fly. I recommend using all 20 peg for the tent. The better you pitch and secure that tent, the better it will hold up to midnight rain and wind storms. sloppy loose tent walls and rain flys will result in your least experienced boy getting his sleeping bag wet (bad bad bad problem if it gets cold or doesn't stop raining.) you will also need 10 to 15 extra pegs for the dinning fly. therefore 12 peg for each crew member is probably the correct number.
fuel is easier to get in the homebound area. first check out the base camp advisers lounge. white gas is cheep to buy but also easy to get from incoming crews, if you don't find any in the lounge, just walk through the homebound tent area and ask. Powermax may be plentiful also. when we arrived on 626 there were about 5 full large powermax canisters in the advisers lounge at base camp, when we got back on july 7 to base camp there were about 20 large full powermax bottles, free for the taking as no one can figure out a good way to get them home. also there was a 3/4 full gallon of white gas there.
kirk maes
On Thu, Jul 24, 2008 at 11:09 PM, Matt & Jean Rogers <mjjmrogers@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
I would suggest you bring your own stakes, I sued the MSR titanium ones and never had a problem. Some of the alum stakes did bend.
In the booklet it says to bring 10 extra tents stakes per person, well I would only bring 10 total extra (most will be used for the dining fly)
Jean
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Received on Fri Jul 25 09:58:08 2008
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