My treck 7-28 L just returned. Thanks to all that answered my questions. Most of my boys were well below 20 pounds base weight on their personal gear. Only thing we took from philmont was ropes, frisbee and spatuala. We rehydrated in bowls untill ranger left and did it in bag ans split the meal.
The biggest bummer was the weight of the food. We did take out what we did not want and ate heaver meals first.

It was a great expereince and packing light helped emencly.

You rehydrated in the original food bag?

Curious as I have no kids of my own. How do you explain doing it one way with the Ranger around then shifting methods once they leave?

Yes, now when I go on trips it seems like the majority of the weight is food.

I hear what you're saying but how do you know the ranger didn't tell them they could do it any way they wanted after he left.

The question I have is how do you convince the ranger to allow the crew (which is boy led) to use the cooking method they decided on even if that method will have no negative effect on the program by either making more trash, i.e. cooking in the original bag or using turkey or ziplock bags and carrying out the used bags?

Seems to me that my scouts already know how to think for themselves and really don't appreciate being told to conform without what they would view as good reason. These boys already have to deal with a myriad of rules, inside and outside of scouts, that we never had to. It's important to teach these boys that its ok to think, and that they don't need to obey every rule placed in front of them.

The ever growing list of rules the BSA imposes makes it ever more difficult to truly have a boy led troop.

been biting my tongue here ... but it slipped loose:-)

there's a simple solution to dealing with Philmont rules ... go somewhere else. Relatively few regs in many national and state forests. There's added benefit doing that, they learn route planning, food prep and overall trip planning (instead of writing a check for a SPAM in a can trip and they come to understand the full result of all their choices (like hauling all their garbage because there's nobody to do it for them.)

I've been to Philmont just twice and I do like freezer bag and turkey bag cooking methods but have never understood obsessing over saving about a pound of weight spread out over a crew of 7-12.

Thinking for themselves is great, that is what we are after. But teaching them that "they don't need to obey every rule placed in front of them" is totally wrong. In addition to "A Scout is Obedient", the real world doesn't care that he didn't think there was a good reason, only that he broke the rule.

Edited by jjlash on 08/24/2012 14:58:40 MDT.