Philmont 2017, T-31, T-76, T-30

Troop-31 sent two crews to Philmont in 2017, so we had room for members of T-76 (4 scouts, two adults) and T-30 (two scouts) in order to fill out two complete crews of 12 members each: 623-P-01 and 623-P-02. "Papa-1" (or, Pteredactyl-1) had 4 T-31 scouts: Michael Welch, Michael Jones, Phillip Orner, and Conner Klaassen; 4 T-76 Scouts: Nathan Gorton, Malik Deslauriers, Adam Weingram, Eric Pedley, and 4 adults: Brent Welch, Erno Klaassen, David Herzl, and Greg Herzl (of T-76). "Papa-2" had 6 T-31 scouts: Christian Foley, Noah Ghosh, Colin Chow, Andrew Lau, Tyler Marlett, Sam Thome; 2 T-30 scouts: Josh Lillie, Alex Villablanca, and 4 adults: Julian Marshall, Evan Marshall, Jim Healy, Jeff Marlett.

We had Itinerary 12, which was a South Country trek: Reyado River, Crags, Lost Cabin, Crooked Creek, Clear Creek, Red Hills, Beaubien (lay over), Castle Rock, Shaffer's Pass. We were sister crews so we had the same itinerary, although we generally did not hike together, we would visit each other at camps. My GPS read 66.5 miles for the entire trek, but Julian's read almost 10 miles more. No matter the distance, we all had a great time.

My gear was similar to the 2015 trek. I weighed absolutely everything on a new kitchen scale, and got my dry weight down to about 30 lbs, a bit lighter than last time. Additions included a new ultralight thermarest pad, to augment my crazy creek chair for a sleeping pad. Subtractions included lots of little things, plus I carried less extra food. They provide plenty of calories. Oh, and I got a new down sleeping bag (Western Mountaineering), which reduced my weight and gave me extra room.

We carried two Whisperlite stoves, and a big (32 oz) bottle of fuel, and a medium (22 oz) bottle, and an empty 11 oz bottle. The two bigger bottles lasted for 7 days, and then we refilled the smallest (11 oz) bottle at Beaubien, our second food pickup. The P-02 crew also carried two whisperlite, but also a Jet Boil. We occasionally used two stoves to accomadate a gluten free scout that needed to cook seperately. I made coffee every morning.