Philmont Expedition 727-E1-1994 – 6 August 1994: Growing Pains / Day 10: Burros and Spar Poles and Bears

Growing Pains

While my brother’s old troop saw its membership steeply decline by 1992, my troop had the exact opposite problem at the same time. With troops in the area failing, our troop saw a surge in interest, pushing our youth roster past 50 Scouts. For a troop that barely had 20 just four years earlier, this was a problem.

At the unit level, Scouting is a youth-led organization. That means that junior leaders, not adult leaders, are most critical for day-to-day operations. And junior leaders take time to develop. Ideally, you want about two years experience to bring someone up to the Patrol Leader level and another two years for the Senior Patrol Leader level. And there’s really no substitute for experience.

On paper, it didn’t look so bad. Despite the small troop size at the start of the 88-89 year, we had 10 Scouts from that group still on our 52-Scout roster at the start of the 92-93 year. But three (including Ronnie and Neil) had moved past the SPL level and were now focused on making it to Eagle. Six more with experience at or above the Patrol Leader level had effectively left the troop by this point and would not factor in. And Josh was still around, I guess?

We had nobody with four years experience in the troop or more than a year of experience at the Patrol Leader level to run the troop. A troop that was bursting at the seams with young Scouts, more arriving seemingly every month. It’s not what you want.

John, Keith, and I were tapped to take on this challenge for the next two years until the next crop of junior leaders would be ready. Right off the bat, we had serious problems. At camp that summer, there had been reports of stolen and damaged property. Ron had never seen anything like this in his tenure as Scoutmaster. In meetings, Scouts were disruptive and disrespectful. No wonder the experienced Scouts went elsewhere.

Discussions of disciplinary actions dominated Green Bar meetings, taking time away from activity planning and skills development preparation. And we just didn’t know what to do – punishment wasn’t something we wanted to become a part of our troop. Do we need to institute time outs? Revoke privileges? Force extra work? None of the options were appealing and none of them helped to advance our core mission. But something had to be done.

In the end, the pen proved mightier than the stick. We sent letters home with the most disruptive Scouts telling their parents that we were not a babysitting service and that they shouldn’t send us kids who didn’t want to be there. Within a year, our roster shrank to fewer than 40 Scouts, even with the steady influx of newcomers. As much as we hated to turn kids away, it wasn’t fair to the others who actually wanted to be there.

14 Scouts on that 1992 roster were future Eagle Scouts. One year later, the roster was smaller but the number of future Eagle Scouts increased to 17. We had succeeded at addition through subtraction and the troop was set to prosper for years to come.

Day 10: Burros and Spar Poles and Bears

Having conquered Philmont’s highest peak, we moved on to the next challenge – burros. For the remainder of our trip, we would have two pack animals with us sharing some of the load. Up to 100 pounds of our gear could be packed on the burros for the next two days. The trail just got a lot easier.

Not just yet though. First, we had to get used to hiking with burros in tow. Next, that downhill stretch on the way in was waiting for us to return. This would be our final climb, not exactly Baldy, but still more than we really wanted to deal with. From the top, we turned left, went downhill through the woods, and came out on a wide, flat trail to Pueblano.

Our grueling trek was now a leisurely stroll. Just like that, one of the major challenges was over.

Pueblano had a full roster of activities waiting for us. And a bear. A sad bear locked up in a small trailer waiting for a ride to a place far away. Someone had celebrated a birthday the night before, complete with cake. Which they left out at night. Do you want bears? Because this is how you get bears. And this is how bears get evicted from Philmont.

None of this was the bear’s fault, but the bear was the one who had to pay the price. Once a bear gets used to finding food in camps, it is likely to return in search of more. Forced removal to a distant forest is the only solution. But it could get worse. If the same bear is found back in this area, removal may no longer be an option. The bear could eventually be faced with death. All because someone left a cake out in the camp.

Pueblano has a lumberjack theme and is best known for spar pole climbing. We each took a turn climbing a pole with a belt and spurs, attached to a belay line for safety and to lower us back down. Then there were more lumberjack games and demonstrations, but everything was a blur at that point.

And this is when I realized that I probably should have gotten some photos of common sights around camp. Oops. That’s the problem with film, you obsess over saving shots until you’ve missed your chance to document ordinary things that factor in significantly. So here’s a photo of the most boring latrine at Philmont Scout Ranch.

After a Philmont story campfire that night (which I called “very good” in my notes and don’t remember at all), we settled in (without cake) for our final night on the trail. The adventure already seemed to be over and we hadn’t even made it to the end.

Next: 7 August 1994: Everything Falls Apart / Day 11: Finish Line