[Philmont] Advisor Questions

I notice a lot of folks choose not to bring a filter. There are situations where you might wish you had. In 2004, on the last full day of what was then Trek 30, we had a long day's hike from Red Hills Camp to Shaefers Pass Camp via Bear Mountain and Black Mountain. We knew it was a long, dry hike so we carried all the water we could but we were just about completely dry when we got to Shaefers Pass. We had not brought a filter so we were going to have a long, thirsty wait until the water was treated (they issued Polar-Pur back then) and drinkable. On top of that, the spring was barely flowing that summer as it often is, so it was going to take some time just to fill our bottles. What a beautiful sight it was to approach the spring and find our sister crew from Michigan holding out their bottles filled to the brims with filtered water for us! Beating us into camp yet again (it helps breaking camp first every day) they knew the predicament we would be in without filters and "prepared" for us. That was a great show of scout spirit. The situation might not arise on your trip but if you need potable water fast or you have a slow flowing spring where it is hard to fill bottles, you might want a filter. I took one on our Cavalcade last summer and never had to use it but at least I was prepared.

Charlie Evans
ASM Troop 72
Fayetteville, Ga
----- Original Message -----
  From: scott vivian
  To: Philmont List Member
  Sent: Sunday, June 08, 2008 8:18 PM
  Subject: [Philmont] Advisor Questions

  We are having one of our last advisor meetings and some questions are popping up - imagine that!

  So here are a couple of ours:

  1) 150' of rope - use Philmonts' or bring your own? If your own - any recommendations? What is this for?

  2) Bear bags - use Philmonts' or bring your own? We have one bear canister and I have a light-weight BB from BPL. Is it worth getting something else?

  3) Bugs - our trek is July 21. Ticks/Flys/Chiggers/Mosquitos? What's there?

  4) Water purifiers/filters - are they needed? We are going on trek #28 which goes into Valle Vidal. How much filtering is done?

  5) Cat holes - is there a need to dig these or are there facilities along the trail to avoid digging? For digging is the "standard" orange potty trowel suffucient or is the soil there harder?

  Thank you in advance for your assistance.

  Scott Vivian - 0721-H7

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Received on Mon Jun 9 21:38:17 2008