Well, it's been 29 years but I'm headed back to Philmont on Sat morning.  We have a good crew going.  I'm going as an adult leader with my 15 yo.  We have been training for the past year.  One frustrating thing for me is that I have spent a lot of time and money to get weight down, but I'm stuck at 27lbs without water.  Oh well, I'm taking crew stuff and solo packing my tent.  We will fly out Sat morning and return the end of June. I'll try to get some good pictures and post them when we get back.  If anyone's has gone recently, how was it?

Heck yeah!! Enjoy!!

I was last there in 93.. so 24 years ago LOL.. dang im getting old.

Went once in 2009 and again in 2013. Some of the best times of my life. They have the treks incredibly well organized. I was impressed by the itemized and sorted food that they provide. The Valle Vidal is also an amazing area if your trek takes you up there.

It's been 27 years since I went, so I don't think my recollections of it will be much different than yours.  Ha.

Good luck and don't forget to change your socks.

I was there in 1983, the gear has changed alot since then. It will be a great experience.

Planning on going with my son next year.

I have never been.

Philmont has a very special place in my heart.  Have a great time!

I was there in 97, 98, 2000, and 2001. Hiked 96 miles the first trip, Did the Ranch Hand Program the second trip, 3rd and 4th I was Horseman Staff.  

Great times and I've been all over that place.  Horseback was way better than hiking!!!

27 pounds with or without food?  Either way, if you've been training for a year, you should be okay.  I'm also thinking there will be a shakeout prior to the start.

I attended National Jamborees as a Scout and as national staff, but never got to Philmont.  I am slightly jealous, but mostly happy for you and your son.  It should be a fantastic time!

27. Lbs without food and water.  It's really not that big of a deal.  I had just set a personal goal of 25 lbs.  I could make the 25 lbs, but I refuse to leave my helinox, and I also am carrying a filter and multi tool.  When you look online , Philmont says to plan on between a 45 and 55 lb pack.  So I'll still be way under the avg..

Well, we survived.  First off....after adding water, crew gear and food, my pack started the trek at 45 lbs.  we had 6 members of the crew wearing fitbits and according to the average of all of us, we walked about 150 miles in 10 days.  What I suppose is best is to subtract 20% for around camp walking, which still is a lot of miles backpacking.  We got up every morning at 0430 and we're on the trail by 0600 every day.  Did Baldy and the tooth of time. It rained 3 days and hailed on us 2 times.  It was even better than I remembered from before.  I never used my filter, so in hindsight could have saved a little weight there.  Also never wore my "Philmont sleepwear system".  Just slept in boxers.  It did get cold enough 3 days to break out the down jacket.  We had a kid in our group who was allergic to lots of food so he brought his own.  Me, being the nice guy that I am, ate his and my share of the Philmont food...to keep him safe... so instead of 3000 calories a day I was eating closer to 5000.  Before the trek I weighed in at 186.4 lbs and after I weighed 184.  The other adults lost 8 lbs each.  We were able to get in on each cold shower on day 4 at Baldy town.

I'll be happy to answer any question s you have, if you have been, are looking to go, or just want to know.

How did your Fitbits stay charged to record your trek for 10 days?  Mine dies after only 3 days.

One guy brought a solar charger and I brought a small portable battery bank/ charger thing.  About the size of an iPhone.  My Fitbit will stay charged for 4 or 5 days if I turn the heart rate off.

This brings back memories...  I was there in '76.  Have a great time.

Baldy was awesome.  Copper Park was my favorite campground there too.  Did you get to French Henry?

We went up baldy from baldy town.  We were going to go by French Henry on the way down, but one Scout sort of twisted his ankle and a storm was rolling in.  So we skipped it and went through copper park and back to baldy town.  It was one scouts 16th birthday on the day we climbed baldy.  So we took up a cake and icing and another Scout had a birthday candle s a fire starter.  So we were able to have a birthday cake and candle on top of baldy.  Bet there aren't that many kids who had their 16th birthday on Baldy with cake.

Literally found this thread while waiting to walk out the door to carpool to Philemont.  Ruck is an ilbe, rolling 20 lbs and I feel like I have too much clothes and my 20deg cat's meow is Overkill. ( But the scouts have different rules so...)  I've been training with 50+ lbs and am moving 5 liters.

Love Philmont.  I was there twice as a scout.  The second time our USAF Ranger was killed by lightning during a storm during our trip.  Hardest part of the trip was hiking up Mt Baldy with all the shale.  Enjoy.

First off, congrats on a 2018 slot! Are you going as an advisor? Sounds like your crew is right on target with shakedown hikes, kudos! I would highly recommend attending a Field PASS Course. This is an 8 hour Philmont Advisors Skill School taught in your home council there are two offered in the twin cities area this October. This is a course led by members of the staff that will be very illuminating and a great investment of your time and 40.00.

ETA, if you're really ambitious and have the ability and resources to attend there is a PSR PASS course available as well. This is a weekend course they teach at Philmont, details here: http://www.philmontscoutranch.org/TrekPreparation/~/link.aspx?_id=2E4B9CDEA8764059B843D2C252471C1A&_z=z

Just returned from a 7-day Philmont trek with a 9 person crew including me (age 49), another dad (60) and 7 fit 17-year olds.  It was our first time at Philmont.  Here are some suggestions:

Stoves: To save time at meal prep we used two stoves (DPower, Kovea) and two 4 quart pots for boiling water.

Tents: the Scouts used Philmont tents.  We didn’t want to put wear and tear on our troop tents, and didn’t want to travel with wet tents on the way home.  There were no complaints about the Philmont tents.  I think the Big Agnes Scout 2 tents would be great and would save a lot of weight but be ready to deal with condensation.

Sleeping bags: most of our Scouts and the other adult adviser used Kelty Cosmic Down 20 bags, which can be found on sale fairly often at about $110.00.  I used a 30 degree down quilt (Underground Quilts Flight Jacket) which weighs about a pound and a half and it was great.

Packs: Most of our packs were 60+  liters capacity and there were a variety of brands. I used a Six Moon Designs Fusion 65 (discontinued model) and was carrying about 33 pounds max including crew gear, food, and water.

Clothes: Here is what I brought: 2 pairs of boxer briefs, 2 pairs of hiking socks, 1 set of long underwear, liner socks, 1 pair of linerless running shorts, 1 pair of long pants, 2long-sleeve button down shirts, fleece cap, fleece pullover, polyester liner gloves, baseball cap, rain jacket, rain kilt/skirt.

Rain Gear: Most of us wore Frogg Toggs Ultralite rain gear.  Superlight, packable, dirt cheap.

Footwear:  I wore trail runners (La Sportiva Wildcat) and Darn Tough 1/4 Hiker socks and didn't worry about getting them wet at water crossings (there were a lot on our trek).  Others had a second pair of shoes for water crossings.

Most of the Scouts on our crew play team sports and were very fit.  For Philmont-specific training, we did a handful of day hikes and a couple overnights (in the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountains in Southern California).  Some of these were at higher elevation with a good amount of elevation gain.  The Philmont trails were rougher, and there was a lot more up and down on some of the Philmont trails.

What I did personally was run, hike (day hikes with a lighter pack but for longer distances and more elevation gain than anticipated at Philmont), and climb stairs.  There is an urban state park near my work with a 280-stair staircase of unevenly spaced and sized stairs; I would climb stairs there on my lunch break 1-2 times a week and I think this was the most helpful preparation for me.  The other adult advisor had a similar program of running and hiking, but instead of stair climbing he spent more time hiking with a full pack up and down hills.  Neither one of us had any issues on the trek.

We had a third advisor who dropped out a couple weeks before the trek.  He was exercising but not effectively (mostly on an elliptical machine at the gym).  The last big overnight before the trek was too much for him.  The Scouts were setting the pace and it was not easy to keep up with them.

In hindsight I would have schedules more training hikes with full packs and and start training earlier.  We left it to the crew members to get in shape on their own time, and the training hikes were primarily to validate the crew members' fitness levels.  Our troop had a second crew of younger Scouts who did not have the self-discipline to do what was necessary to get in shape.

I was 17 in 82' when I went.  My ruck weighed 45 lbs or so.  Never carried such a light ruck again after joining the Army a year later.  Heaviest ruck was during GWI at 150 lbs.

CD

I went in the mid 90's with a group from our council.  Our leader was in his 60's and had been about 18 times.  He had newsletters that he would send out every month to us discussing gear and conditioning.  I wish I had kept them because they really were full of useful info.  The one thing I remember is that every scout carried an eating dish made out of the bottom of a bleach bottle.  Weigh almost nothing and even if crushed they were still usable.  The leader carried the stove and metal pot to boil the water.  It was very fun once I got used to it.  I did not do anywhere near the conditioning that our leader had recommended.