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Ubet's Kid Not Eaten By Bear

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Gatorubet

Gatorubet

Loathing All Things Georgia
....fortunately.

Lil' Ubet got back last night about midnight from his trip to Philmont Scout Reservation in New Mexico. It is one of the "high adventure" camps, and on the 137,000 acre facility in the Sangre de Christo mountains, the scouts hike into the backcountry and enjoy the trails and sights, including hiking over "the tooth of time" mountain top.

My son hiked about 75 miles. He had to get used to the 8-10K elevation, being a sea level kid. The trekkers hump their own water and food and camp gear, so the packs average 40-45 pounds fully loaded. His 14 year old butt was plenty tired when he got back home after ten days.

Anyway, they ran across a black bear sow and cub - but they backed away from them on the trail and had no problems. One other night (10 day trip) they had a bear come into camp while they slept and it actually bit one of the hiking boots left out next to the tent. The hikers are required to put all food and things like toothpaste ("smellies") in bear bags and hang them at least 15 feet above ground every night so as not to temp the critters. The scouts saw lots of mule and whitetail deer, and even a cougar one night (the green eyes gave it away).

Long story short, support your local Boy Scouts of America District and councils, and the Scouts who participate. Teaching responsibility and leadership is something that many organizations do not deaux in this "everyone gets a trophy" world. Everyone does not get a rank badge or a merit badge. You have to earn it, dammit!

Anyway, fatherly bragging concluded. :biggrin:
 
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Do they still have a "webelo" level? I remember when I heard that I was done with scouts. :wink2:

Congrats, Pops.
 
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At first glance I thought the thread title said "Ugly kid not eaten by bear"....then after rereading I realized I was right from the start. :p

In other news I spend the weekend backpacking in SE Ohio with my nephew & a gaggle of teens.
 
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When I lived in Anchorage the bears used to wreak havoc upon the neighborhood on trash days. I've never seen so many bears in the middle of a city. When I was still in the Air Force on Elmendorf AFB in Anchorage we used to have to go to the flight kitchen off of the flight line for our lunches. There was almost always a bear or two licking the grease barrel. I never had any bad incidents with them.
 
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Da Bears?

da_bears011.gif
 
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Gatorubet;1948687; said:
.
Long story short, support your local Boy Scouts of America District and councils, and the Scouts who participate. Teaching responsibility and leadership is something that many organizations do not due in this "everyone gets a trophy" world. Everyone does not get a rank badge or a merit badge. You have to earn it, dammit!
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Teaching spelling is probably not as important. I think it's spelled "deux".
 
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BUCKYLE;1948732; said:
Teaching spelling is probably not as important. I think it's spelled "deux".
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I'll be checking your spelling when little Ainslee gets back from stripper camp in 2025, and you're going on and on about how she finished first in both Brass Pole and ATM transfers! :pissed:
 
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I was in Boy Scouts for years. Got my Eagle too. I went to Philmont, but it was for a leadership camp instead of the normal two week hike. Lots of fun, and sometimes I regret not going for the hiking.

Make sure he gets Eagle, Ubet! It's even sweeter being able to say that I have it 5 years later.
 
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Buckeye Maniac;1948976; said:
I was in Boy Scouts for years. Got my Eagle too. I went to Philmont, but it was for a leadership camp instead of the normal two week hike. Lots of fun, and sometimes I regret not going for the hiking.

Make sure he gets Eagle, Ubet! It's even sweeter being able to say that I have it 5 years later.
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Drunkenly off topic, but I am an Eagle Scout as well.

I truly believe that boy scout summer camp prepared me for college better than anything I ever did in high school. Responsibility, keeping a schedule, independence from your parents and all that.
 
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Philmont alumni here too, Gator speaks the truth. It can be a pretty rough trip for a young teen. I did the trip at 12. I remember the cutoff being 13, but our Scout master had a few of us fib our age. Maybe these days they want a photocopied birth certificate.

Theres various different routes you can take in the Rockies. They usually encourage all scouts to buy the maps of the area and plan the trek they'll be doing ahead of time. We ended up doing 110 miles in 12 days if I recall. Some days you'd do 20 miles of hiking, other days you'd do a much smaller number and it would be all switchbacks up and down mountains, there were blisters on blisters. They used to suggest wearing 2 pairs of socks at all times, even in the dessert to help prevent the damage to your feet. We didn't end up seeing near as much wildlife though, and our only encounter with a bear was getting one of our bear lines ripped down on the last night. Trash was everywhere the next morning. Just glad it wasn't the food bag and on the first night :wink2:.

The trip had it's share of ups and downs. We had a couple bad eggs with us on our trip that made things a little rough on the younger guys, but we survived. Its definitely a lot of fun though. Most of the time when you camp out you're in the middle of no where. No outhouses, no other contact, and your only source of water is a stream that you have to pull water from and purify. Occasionally you'll be in a stop that may have a log cabin and some Rangers, and those locations were always cool because they'd offer some activities like gold panning, black powder rifle firing, and rock climbing.

The biggest shocking moment for us came on the 2nd day of our trip. Normally they send you out into the wild with a Philmont guide for a few days. The guide makes sure you get a good start, then leaves you on your own for the rest of the trek. Well, we passed another troop on a seperate trail and found they had a smoking hot female guide...we were not aware it was possible to have female Boy Scouts. There was some mature young teen discussions on how such an individual would handle the call of Mother Nature in the wild. Needlesses to say, we were rather disappointed when we found out there was a sexy guide option when we wound up with Wesley Crusher from Star Trek instead.

Overall it was the coolest trip I've ever been on and may ever be on. I would suggest every troop should get the opportunity to do it at least one. If you're a Boy Scout or the father of one, I'd look into it and talk about it with your leader. They usually suggest having something like 1 adult per 4-5 scouts, they used to encourage fathers to come and assist, so it's something you can experience later too.
 
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