CB in Texas

I understand your frustration, but you really don’t have much influence over Scouts that are not a part of your Troop. Preparing yourself and your son are really all you can do, and hope that the other scouts show up in reasonable shape and spirits. Most scouts should not have a significant problem with the physical effort at Philmont - it’s usually the adults that are the problem and it sounds like you and the other adult are doing all you can. You are correct in that your trek is the “shortest” that Philmont offers in terms of mileage, but that doesn’t mean that it’s the easiest. You guys are climbing up and over Mt Phillips with full packs into a dry camp. That alone will take some planning on the part of the scouts to have the necessary water carrying capacity. You might touch base with your other adult and see if they have planned for that issue. About your question concerning a scout coming off the trail - a lot would depend on why the scout is being evacuated of course. A scout with a twisted ankle might be fine at base camp without an adult, but a more serious injury would definitely pull one of the adults off the trail. If that were to happen, your crew would probably get folded in with your sister crew so that the 2-deep leadership could be maintained until the second adult returns. CB

I think in going to go with 2 of the 70 oz collapsible bottles per scout. It's only $7 more than a 96 oz nalgene and they weigh 2.6 oz together when empty. That will give us an extra 4L of capacity per person. We will probably only use 3L of that, but it's good to have the option to carry more. Thanks, CB

Thanks Stosh. I think our issue with finding more water is that once we leave Clear Creek for Phillips, the trail is going to be bone dry until we hit Whistle Punk the next day. I'll have our crew chug as much as they can hold before we depart Clear Creek for Phillips and also fill up at the water containers. My hope is that will leave 3L or so for the overnight and hike out the next day. I might throw an extra 70 oz collapsible bottle into our gear just to be on the safe side.

Thanks again for the help everyone. Feeling much better about the water situation now after reading your comments and squinting at the trail map a bit. I think we will go with the individual 70 oz bottles (1 per person) that Back Pack mentioned. That will give each of us a total of 6L of water (filled up over in Clarks Fork) when we depart Ponderosa Park for Shaefers Peak. Our other dry camp is Commanche Peak (coming from Wild Horse over Mt Phillips. We can fill up at Clear Creek and should be able to get over Phillips to Commanche Peak with at least that 2L per person left over to get us overnight and to Whistle Punk the next morning. Any thoughts or comments? Thanks again. CB

Thanks everyone. For toting water, do you recommend a few larger (say 10 liter) containers, or smaller (4l) individual containers? The former weigh 20 lbs and that seems like an awful lot of extra weight for a scout to carry to our 2 dry camps. The latter would be easier for the scouts to carry, but adds to gear and expense. Thanks again for your help. Cb

Hi everyone, Our crew is heading to Philmont this summer in late June. We are very excited and it is the first time for most of us (myself included). Can someone explain how these dry camps work? Our crew will be taking Trek 5, and we finish by hiking from Cimarroncito to Ponderosa Park (dry camp). After overnighting at Ponderosa Park, we hike on over the Tooth of Time. I'm concerned about having enough water on hand for the last day, given the we are starting a a dry camp the night before. We can (and are planning to) haul extra water from Cimarroncito to use on the last day. But here's the thing: Ponderosa Park (again - a dry camp) offers Western Lore, Horse Rides and a Chuckwagon at Clark's fork. How can all that happen without water there? Are the activities (like the Chuckwagon) just not in the camp? If so, there must be water wherever they are. So are Scouts just not allowed to fill up in these places? Or are they trucking in water for horses, etc..? I always imagined a "dry camp" to be a lonely isolated place. This one seems like Times Square. Thanks for the help.