The Philmont Forum

We hiked South Mountain State Park. Its just tough enough and low enough not to have to deal with snow. Next we will hike all 25 miles of the Uhwarrie Trail in one weekend of March, then hike along Harpers Creek near Wilson Creek. Our final hike is up Celo Knob take Black Mountain Crest Trail to Mount Mitchell.

What's on your schedule?

BK
618Kilo

We did Panthertown Valley summer 2012, Raven Rock SP fall 2012, Umstead this week-end, Stone Mountain SP May and then Mt. Rogers/AT in June.

We have hiked Wilson Creek and Mt. Mitchell previously, both very nice areas. I grew up in Hickory, so always like to get back to the Mountains.

Do you go as a contingent or troop?

I like Panthertown but very crowded. What section of AT do you do at Rogers?


BK
618Kilo

We are going as a Troop.

We generally hike the section from SR602 to Old Orchard Shelter to Elk Garden. We hike in and camp at Old Orchard (about 1-1/2 miles) the first night, then hike to near the Thomas Knob Shelter the second night (about 11 miles), then to Elk Garden Sunday morning (about 4 miles). Some of the best views on the AT!

EdDzierzak wrote:
From the Mountain House thread:

"...Mountain House has refused to provide bags that meet our needs. We will not be using their product this summer. The bags that they want us to use do not support patrol/crew cooking. Again we think this is a very important part of crew life.

Mark S. Anderson
Director of Program"
I Hope everyone understands what this means (it may be the opposite of what you'd first think)...

Philmont wants food packaged specifically in NON-Rehydration packaging - just plain sealed bags. While it seems Mountain House wanted to provide their standard rehydrate in the bag meal packaging - likely to avoid custom packing.

Philmont wants crews to prepare and eat food together combined in the patrol method - e.g. a little bit more than communal water boiling. I wholeheartedly support this!

In fact our troop has a related rule: no meal-in-packet dehydrated food for the first night of any backpacking trip - you have to cook a real meal as a patrol (dehydrated food items are allowed - but you have to put it together). In the end most groups end up bringing spectacular meals.

I'm sure in the end Philmont will succeed in getting a deal for what they want with Richmore, Backpacker's Pantry etc instead. I think we should applaud them for sticking to their guns here to keep the Philmont experience a real crew focussed experience.

Alan

I think that Mountain House has done very well for itself by catering to the " doomsday prepper" industry. Their food prices have soared in the last few months and they seem to have no problems finding more business. You can find them on all kinds of prepping websites. As an alternative to canned food folks are storing them as an easy food to "bug out" with. At this point they probably don't need Philmont's business. Maybe later they will? Or maybe Philmont can't afford it?

They are the premier trail food manufacturer. The quality and taste are good. In 2010 my kids enjoyed every MH meal. They still talk about the ham and egg breakfast we cooked on Window Rock. Nobody ever left hungry. the only richmoor dinner we had was a complete disaster. Too much oregano and salt. Check the ingrediant lablels between MH and RM. there's allot more stuff you can't pronounce in it.

On Our training hike last weekend we cooked Pasta Sides with canned chicken to duplicate a one pot meal. It worked out great but took a lot of time. I don't see how that after climbing 3,500', dodging hail storms, pushing a burro, scaling a cliff, and then dragging your tired butt into camp during a day at Philmont, cleaning a pot makes the experience any better. But as I said in previous posts, we will dance to the tune played. kThanks for all the responses.

BK
Advisor 2000, 2003, 2007, 2010, 2013 618Kilo

You don't need to clean a pot or even have a pot to do combined rehydration in the Philmont manner - turkey bags etc keep it all clean.

Maybe MH is be best tasting dehydrated food (?) but at Philmont food is fuel and its not a major highlight for me anyway - I'm usually distracted by my companions, the view, the weather... so not a huge deal.

I imagine Philmont's order is big enough to get someones interest and likely MH will be back - maybe business is great and capacity is tight for now - I doubt that will last in the long run...

Alan

Except that this year turkey bags are banned by Mark Anderson

How did that happen? - is there a letter or new rule posted? I'll go see what I can see on the Philmont official site

Bummer!

Alan

Jan. 10, 2013

We do not permit the use of turkey bags.

If each of the 2225 crews used turkey bags we would add to our garbage pickup and to the land fill 44,500 bags, an unnecessary waste. Typically in the past crews have double bagged the process thus each crew uses 20 bags.

This adds more garbage waste and odor that must be hauled in from the backcountry.

A crew might save 5 or 10 minutes from washing the pot. Washing the pot is an important process in rotated crew duty assignments and backcountry camping.

To support the Ranches efforts to improve our sustainability we are not permitting the use of turkey bags.

Mark

Mark S. Anderson
Director of Program

Philmont Scout Ranch and Training Center
17 Deer Run Road
Cimarron, NM 87714