Philmont Scout Ranch may be the premier High Adventure destination for the Boy Scouts and is considered the pinnacle camping experience for many scouts. Philmont is located in northeastern New Mexico in the Sangre de Cristo range of the Rocky Mountains and covers 140,177 acres. Over a million scouts have experienced Philmont since its opening in 1939 and in 2021, Troop 70 will send Crew 622-U-02 for its own Philmont experience.  

Philmont offers 7, 9 and 12 day trek itineraries ranging from “Challenging” to “Super Strenuous.”  Crew 622-U-02 has chosen trek Itinerary 12-21 which is a “Rugged” itinerary and will cover 65 miles hiking over 10 days on the trail.  

Crew 622-U-02 started training for its Philmont trek in February with a 6 mile hike at White Rock Lake.  It was a windy, sunny day and great temperature for our initial training exercise.  Everyone completed the hike with ease and took notice of how their boots and packs fit and any adjustments that needed to be made.  

In early March, we had our first shakedown campout.  We drove about an hour and a half to Cooper Lake State Park.  After parking the cars, we set out to take a 4.8 mile hike with full packs.  We soon determined our navigation skills needed a little honing as we ended up hiking 8 miles but had a great time doing it!  Returning to our campsite, each scout emptied his pack onto a tarp and we went through our personal gear checklist to determine what, if anything was missing.  We then prepared for dinner as Carter D. demonstrated how to use a whisper lite backpacking stove. Everyone was pleasantly surprised with the taste of our freeze-dried dinners, the type we will be eating on the trail at Philmont. After a breakfast of freeze-dried coffee and oatmeal, we set out for another hike, this one only 4 miles and then headed home.  

Following in the footsteps of our Troop 70 predecessor crews, Crew 622-U-02 hit the stairs at CityPlace center for multiple training sessions.  This was a great way for us to get a feel for how our packs felt on our hips and how our knees and ankles handled some elevation gains with some weight on our backs.  It was also a fun way to strengthen the leg muscles we will be using during our Philmont hikes.  

We chose a close destination for our final shakedown campout and made the short drive to Cedar Hill State Park. We completed a quick 4 mile hike, ate some more freeze dried food and conducted our final shakedown before heading to Philmont. 

Grayson H. completing his final shakedown with a near perfect packing job.

Finally, Mr. L. and Mr. D. both received Wilderness First Aid / CPR training in preparation for their roles as advisors to Crew 622-U-02.  Mr. L. shows off Mr. D.’s expert splinting and bandaging. 

Crew 622-U-02 is ready to go!