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Troop 1 at Philmont in 2003 |
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The 2003 TripTroop 1 went to Philmont July 15 to July 29, 2003. Crew 717-G1 was led by Ed Sterling, taking Itinerary #26: a 65 mile hike, considered "strenuous", which goes in a clockwise loop around the southern part of Philmont. From Bolton: Max Roemer, Sam Moergen Crew 717-G2 was led by Mark Elliott, taking Itinerary #34: a 90+ mile superhike, considered "super strenuous", which goes in a counterclockwise loop starting in northeastern Philmont, going down through the middle and looping through the southern areas, coming back up the middle and then hiking back into base camp. From Bolton: Steve Sterling, Stephen Withkowski, Matt
Zayka, Alex Elliott, Nick Trombetta, Simon Juul, and Alex Birse Our Itinerary: July 14: Monday night, all the scouts who lived outside Bolton came to stay here in town, because we had such an early wakeup to get to Logan Airport. July 15: Tuesday morning, we left VERY early that morning for Logan airport. We flew out of Logan Airport on American Airlines in two large groups with the entire Council contingent of about 120 people. Our group went through St. Louis, and the other group went through Dallas. The Dallas group left earlier and arrived in Colorado Springs for lunch. The St. Louis group arrived a few hours later and we all proceeded to the Pikes Peak Cog Railway that afternoon. You always hear about the famous Pikes Peak road race, in fact it was run the previous day! But instead of taking the road, we went on a 2 hour train ride up the mountain in special Swiss-made railway cars that use a cog/gear system to keep the train on the tracks at steep angles.The weather looked pretty ominous, and sure enough, there was a hail/storm storm as we came up above the tree line. At the top, there was about 3 inches of hail/snow/slush, and the sky was black! That night we had dinner at Country Buffet in Colorado Springs, and then took a short bus ride south to Canyon City, to stay at the gymnasium at Holy Cross Abbey. July 16: After breakfast at Holy Cross Abbey cafeteria, we took a whitewater rafting trip through the Royal Gorge. After the whitewater trip, we boarded the buses for Pueblo, and once there we ate lunch at Country Buffet. We then had a short trip down to La Junta to visit Bent's Old Fort (trading post). Then we drove back into La Junta to the Community College for dinner, and that evening we visited the Koshari Indian museum on the campus. The local "Koshare" Scout Troop performed Indian dances in the Kiva (the "great hall") that evening, and then we slept in the Kiva when the dances were over. July 17: After an early breakfast at the College, we had an all morning bus ride south to New Mexico and Philmont, arriving before lunch. We checked in, unloaded our gear, and said good-bye to the buses for the next 11 days. We were assigned a group of 2-man "army tents" similar to the beds and tents at Camp Wanocksett. We turned in our medical forms, and took our final medical exam to ensure everyone met Philmont requirements. We drew equipment such as tents, ropes, dining fly, iodine for water purification, and cooking pots. We were assigned a Ranger, who came with us on the trail and guide us for a day or two. We will have meal tickets for the cafeteria, eating 4 meals until he hike (lunch, dinner, breakfast, lunch). July 18: We all hit the trail on the afternoon of the 18th. We hike through the 28th.
Click here to learn more about Crew 717-G1's Itinerary 26 July 28: When we returned, we "showered for an hour" to clean up; we turned in all our gear; we got our personal bags out of the lockers; we were assigned tents for that evening. There was a "final campfire" that evening for everyone. The crew leaders exchanged American flags with the adult advisor, and each crew leader received a plaque commemorating the hike. At the end, there was a very moving short film showing many familiar scenes and activities at Philmont, I found the music very moving and it was hard to hold back tears of joy and emotion as I watched it. It was followed by another short color film taked in the early 1940s of "Philturn" which was the original name of Philmont. As we walked back to our tent, I wanted so much to stay and do it all again.. July 29: We departed very early (4am) in the morning returning to Colorado Springs by bus for our return flight. There was a somewhat unplanned stop at McDonalds for breakfast, which was a bit of a fiasco. Then we had a long wait at the airport, 7 hours!!! One group flew out at 11:19am returning to Boston at 8:20pm. But our group flew out at 3:25pm and arrived in Boston at 11:35pm. We got home around 1:30AM!! |
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The Troop 1 Bolton Philmont web page is written by Ed Sterling