Prepare Yourself For A Philmont Adventure

Arrival and Departure at Philmont

 

On a 12-day trek, “Day 1” is arrival at Philmont, "Day 2" is being dropped off and starting your hike, “Day 12” is returning to base camp from the your hike, and "Day 13" is the day you depart in the morning.  I would suggest separating the gear/clothing you use while at base camp (days 1/12/13) from what you’re use during the hike.  Here's a list of gear I’d suggest having for your arrival/departure days separate from your hiking gear.

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Base Camp Gear

1 (this could be crew gear) bag scale for weighing your group’s packs prior to depature

For arrival (Day 1), one initial set of clothing you wear during travel & Day 1, including a separate pair of sandals or shoes not worn during the hike.

For departure (Days 12/13), a second set of clothes to wear after returning from the hike

Towel + shower / shaving / deoderant supplies

Electronics charging supplies you’ll use at base camp, but not out in the woods

Garbage bags to store smelly items after the hike

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During the arrival (Day 1), your ranger will be preparing your crew for the hike, obtaining up crew gear, doing a gear inspection, completing paperwork; and you'll attend an opening ceremony that night. Once you return from the hike (Day 12), there’s not that much to do, so you’ll have time to take a shower, charge electronics, visit the Scouting museum, etc, prior to dinner and the closing ceremony.  The items you’ll be bringing back from the hike smell, so store them in sealed garbage bags if you’re going leave in a car overnight.

 

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On To The Hike

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The daily routine you’ll get into on the hike is generally (1) take down camp and have breakfast, (2) hike to the next location, (3) set up camp where you're staying that night, (4) do a program activity or side hike / activity, then (5) make dinner and be in camp to sleep. (You may do an an activity along the way to your campsite.)  It's important to pack your gear it in such a way that items used during the day are stored on the outside/periphery of the pack.  Each day, while packing up camp, I would suggest unpacking your backpack completely, then re-packing gear to reset it to a known location. As you go through the day, this makes it much easier to quickly find and use gear, particular items water/sunscreen/TP/rain gear/etc.

 

The first item to discuss will be plastic bags used for packing other items.  Outside of sleeping gear I kept in a dry bag, I only used plastic bags (not dry bags), which can be easily seen into. The types and quantities of bags I’d recommend are as follows – you may not use all the bags, but during the hike, I would carry extra bags to replace those that break or you'll find uses for.

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Gear

5 x 2-gallon zip-lock bags – holding smellable / non-smellable smaller bags, plus a bag for storing your camp shoes

15 x 1-gallon zip-lock bags

5 x quart zip-lock bags

5 x pint zip-lock bags for small items

5 x travel compression storage bags – you zip them up then force air out of the bottom, great for storing clothes compressed in your pack

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My philosophy for hiking is to always pack everything in a waterproof bag, even if you have a pack cover and/or your pack is water resistant. To that end, I don’t like carrying anything outside my pack, like stringing clothes or shoes up on the pack, or suspending tent / mattress pad / sleeping bag outside the pack. People suggest this, but it's an easy way to lose un-secured items. Keeping everything inside requires having a slightly larger backpack, so I would recommend taking a 65+ liter pack (mine is 70 liters, and Philmont recommends 75 liter internal frame pack). Our ranger required everyone to have a pack cover, even if your pack were 'waterproof' or 'water resistant'. Rain causes a lot of mud splatter on the ground, and a pack cover also helps keep your pack dry and clean.

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During the day at Philmont, you'll often park your backpack in a location and travel around to activities, do a side hike, or eventually a summit hike like Baldy. For this, having a day pack to put water, sunscreen, TP, etc in is very helpful, so I highly recommend taking a day pack backpack on your trip. This doesn't need to be fancy - a low-cost school backpack will do, but it adds weight, so find something lighter.

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Gear

1 backpack (65+ liters)

1 backpack rain cover

1 day pack (~20 liters) - I used this Eddie Bauer travel 20l backpack that zips into a ball (https://www.eddiebauer.com/p/82300168/stowaway-packable-20l-daypack). Having a daypack is critical while leaving your backpack to go around to daily activities/hikes, and for the Baldy summit hike.

 

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For my sleep system, I used a lightweight synthetic sleeping bag, blow-up mattress (Thermarest NeoAir), and inflatable pillow. As a side sleeper, the inflatable mattress provides more depth than a folding mattress, and is lighter. At night, I increased pillow height using one inflatable pillow atop my dry bag stuffed with all my clothes. Alternately, you could carry two inflatable pillows. A benefit of putting using your clothes like this as a pillow is that they’ll be dry in your tent no matter if your pack or tent gets wet outside.

 

I also eliminated the sleeping bag’s stuff sack in favor of using one large dry bag to hold the sleeping bag, mattress pad, and inflatable pillow. To compress these, I used a Sea To Summit eVAC Sack that allows you to press air out of the dry bag, which had the effect of allowing the sleeping bag to be compressed without a stuff sack.

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Gear

1 dry bag large enough to hold sleeping bag, blow-up mattress, blow-up pillow

1 sleeping bag (no compression sack)

1 folding or blow-up mattress pad (recommend blow-up)

1 blow-up pillow - optional 2nd pillow if needed

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For my water system, I had 3 containers. While hiking, I used (1) a water-only 3-liter hydration pack fitted inside my backpack, (2) a water-only 1-liter folding Platypus bag, and (3) a Gatorade quart-sized bottle for mixing powdered drink mixes. While hiking, 2-3 liters is usually enough using the 3-liter hydration pack, and you should be able to also pick up additional water for longer hikes as you pass through one or more camps on the way.

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On the way, or upon reaching our camp for the night, I would re-fill my 3-liter pack, then both 1 liter Platypus and Gatorade bottle, using the later two as my water for the evening. Then, in the morning, you're ready to go again with a full 3-liter bladder for the next day's hike. The goal is always to minimize the amount of water weight carried while hiking, but have water accessible for post-hike recovery and meals in camp.

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It's important to look at your route on the map and determine from the Day 1 logistics meeting whether you can expect to have water on all your days from every camp you start a hike in, or along the way. If you're staying in any dry camps, plan ahead of time where you'll pick up water prior to reaching camp, and while hiking to your next day's location.

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Gear

3-liter hydration pack (water only)

1 liter folding platypus (water only)

1 quarter Gatorade bottle (drink mixes)

 

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I generally followed the Philmont's clothing recommendations, taking cold weather items (hat/fleece/gloves), a long sleeve shirt, and two shorts / t-shirt outfits, and 3 pairs of mid-weight synthetic hiking socks. I did not have a leg base layer, but used zip off pants/shorts in combination with my rain gear pants as a double leg layer. Similarly, I did not bring a cold weather jacket, instead using my rain jacket as that layer.

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During our trek, we had multiple opportunities to wash clothes, so I primarily kept a pair of hiking shorts (North Face zip-off pants/shorts) on the entire time, and wore my alternate shorts while washing/drying or sleeping if needed.  During the day, I typically wore one pair of socks while hiking, then after arriving at our destination camp, changed into my camp shoes and another pair of socks that I later slept in. Whatever shoes I wasn't using were stored in a 2-gallon plastic bag after drying out, and at night, I would store my hiking shoes and next day's hiking socks together in the plastic bag for easy access in the morning.

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Gear

1 long sleeve fleece pullover

1 cold weather stocking cap

1 pair lightweight running gloves

1 wide-brimmed hiking hat (would not recommend baseball cap)

1 long sleeve lightweight synthetic shirt

2 short sleeve synthetic t-shirts

2 pair synthetic underwear – recommend boxer briefs to avoid chafing

2 pair synthetic shorts – primary hiking shorts (North Face zip-pants/shorts) + backup (which could also be your sleep shorts)

3 pair synthetic or wool hiking socks – I had medium weight synthetic hiking socks that rose about 1" over my shoes.

1 bandana to wear while hiking

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I highly recommend using trekking poles on hiking trips. Philmont requires them to be fitted with the blunt rubber tips instead of using the metal ends of the pole. I’ve previously lost tips while hiking, so usually carry a couple extra pole tips.

 

Gear

1 pair trekking poles fitted with blunt end rubber tips

1-2 extra rubber tips

 

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In July and August, Philmont goes into a monsoon season that typically features dry mornings and evenings, but afternoon showers. On about half the days of our trek, it rained between noon and 6PM.  Rain gear and the use of dining fly are essential for the crew to stay dry and protect gear at the campsite. I would not use a poncho – a real rain jacket and coat are needed, particularly if you end up hiking in the rain.

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Gear

1 Rain coat

1 Rain pants

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Philmont recommends taking two pairs of shoes/boots on a trek, one for hiking, and the other as camp shoes, and this worked well.  Camp shoes are typically athletic shoes or lightweight sandals like Crocs.  I would recommend Crocs because they’re lightweight, can be dried quickly, and cleaned easily. (When my athletic shoes got wet, they'll took a while to dry.) I would keep a couple small caribiners to clamp on camp shoes that need to be dried outside your bag while hiking. As I said, I don't generally recommend this, but keeping your camp shoes dry is  important.

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There’s a vigorous debate about whether to wear full/mid hiking boots, hiking shoes, or now trail running shoes. On previous backpacking trips, I had switched from boots to hiking shoes, which I found much better, and this time switched to trail running shoes (Brooks Cascadia), which have the advantage of drying much quicker than hiking boots / shoes.  I found Philmont’s trails to be somewhat rocky, but manageable for these trail running shoes. I did not end up with any blister or ankle problems on the hike, however I would suggest doing ankle strengthening exercises as part of your prep regimen regardless of what kind of boots/shoes you’re wearing and wearing moleskin preventatively as needed.

 

Gear

Hiking boots / shoes (if taking full hiking boots, bring vented ones for hot weather - waterproof/leather are hard to dry out)

Camp shoes / CROCs

2-gallon bag for storing shoes not being worn

Several small caribiners for drying shoes or other critical equipment as needed

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During the hike, you’ll be carrying food, crew gear, and personal gear in your backpack. While in camp, you’ll be storing smellable items in bear bags, so it makes sense to divide up your gear into smellable and non-smellable packages, so they can quickly be separated and added to bear bags. There are also some items you’ll want to use frequently during the day as opposed to just storing – items like sunscreen, bug spray, lip balm, etc - so I recommend further sub-dividing these bags into smaller component bags that can be quickly placed in pouches on the outside of your pack during the day for use, then re-combined into a single larger bag for storage in your pack or the bear bag at night.

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Non-Smellable Gear

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All non-smellable items stored together in 2-gallon bag

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Bag 1 (gallon bag) – photos / communications / glasses – during the day, place this on the outside of your pack

1. Phone (optional)

2. Camera

3. Glasses case / sunglasses

 

Bag 2 (quart bag) – sleeping / tent items – during the day, stays inside of the pack, but goes in your tent at night

Earplugs

Flashlight

 

Bag 3 (gallon bag) – other non-smellable items – during the day and night, stays inside the pack

Comb

Camp towel

Knife

Money – suggest $25/person on the hike – you’ll be buying root beer, snacks, incidentals at trail camp stores

ID info – driver’s license, insurance card – these are optional, but I felt like taking them so I could be identified or have the info quickly if needed

Watch

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At the end of the day, I pulled all my non-smellable bags together and stored everything in the backpack except the tent items.

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Smellable Gear

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All smellable items stored together as needed in 2-gallon bag

 

Bag 1 (gallon bag) - daily use items – during the day, store on outside of pack

Sunscreen – 50+ SPS – I used two medium sized tubes

Hand sanitizer – 1 oz bottle Purel

Bug spray – get the Ben's small red botttle of 100% DEET

Lip balm – it’s very dry in the desert, this is highly recommended, with SPF protection

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Bag 2 (gallon bag) – toilet items – during the day, store on outside of pack

TP – Philmont supplies you with TP rolls during the hike

Hand sanitizer (1 oz, separate from the bottle above)

Desitin – even if you’re not plan to use this daily, I would carry it in case you have any kind of rear end or other rash. I did not carry any kind of anti-chafing bar, and didn’t have a problem with rashes.

Biodegradable wet wipes – if applying Desitin, use wet wipe, then hand sanitizer to clean hands

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Bag 3 (gallon bag) – medical kit – during the day, store in the backpack

Small Band-Aids / antibiotic ointment

Moleskin – I brought a roll of moleskin and preventatively applied it in foot areas prone to blisters prior to every day's hike.

Small scissors - to cut moleskin

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Bag 4 (gallon bag) – meal kit – during the day, store in the backpack

Bowl – I used a med size silicone dog bowl (which folds up easily), but any lightweight plastic bowl will do. I used my Gatorade bottle for drinking, so didn’t carry a separate cup.

Spork

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Bag 4 – Other smellable items

Toothbrush / toothpaste

Extra drink mix packets – you’ll want extra beyond what Philmont gives because most of the water tasted bad after filtering

Sharpie marker – use this to label everyone’s meal bags when they’re divided up to carry

Dr. Brauner camp soap – for laundry and showers

Personal medicine bottles, including Ibuprofen, Imodium

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At the end of the day, these separate smellable bags are easily combined into the 2-gallon bag, along with your Gatorade bottle and food bags, to be stored in the bear bag overnight.

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Notes on Crew Gear

 

Now for some notes on what I’d consider shared crew gear you’ll take as a group. The “10 essentials” type items can be mostly shared as a group.

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• Sunscreen and insect spray - they're listed on the Philmont list as crew gear, however our crew treated this as personal gear and everyone brought their own.

• Compass – our crew elected one scout to be the primary map/navigator guide, which worked well. They always had a map and compass, and another person carried a backup map and compass.

• Unmarked Philmont total map – an unmarked total Philmont map is required for your logistics review prior to the hike, do not mark up

• Philmont sectional map – I’d recommend bringing in a copy of your hike areas marked with your trek day-ending campsites marked. If you study the map contours ahead of time, you'll be able to make notes about the length and difficulty of each day's hike, what camps you pass through, and where you'll get water.

• Matches / lighter – waterproof matches and a lighter are helpful for quickly starting fires at the campsites, which all have fire rings

• Trowel – Nobody in our crew had to dig a hole as a toilet – there were enough latrines around campsites to always use, but one should be carried by the crew. However, as a group, I would have 2-3 small dry bags carrying TP + hand sanitizer for people to carry off to latrines, and make sure you get enough TP during supply pick-ups.

• Full first aid kit – would be carried by your medicine man adult leader as crew gear

• Multiple 2-liter Platypus water containers – it was very helpful to have extra 2- and 4-liter water containers to store water for everyone's use at camp for cooking and the night. On several days, we ended up picking all of our water outside the campsite we stayed at. I would suggest having enough pastic bottles to carry around 8 liters of shared group water for cooking, evening, breakfast.

• Water purifier – Philmont provides water purification tablets, so our suggestion is to use those as much as possible. As previously mentioned, our typical Troop filtration system is Platypus Gravityworks 4-liter bags, however we were told not use that over concerns it would not filter out known virus contaminants handled by Philmont's purifier tablets. If you have two or three extra 4L bags should be sufficient for treks that aren't primarily using dry campsites.

• Nylon cord for hanging clothes – a clothes line is helpful for the group to keep all the clothing dry

• Sewing kit – we did not use, but in the Tooth of Time trading post, they had small vinyl patches that you could use to cover clothing or tent holes. Several of our boys used those patches to fix clothing rips during the hike.

• MSR stove vs. Jetboil – Philmont’s recommended method is using two pots over MSR stoves. Our crew took 1 MSR stove, 1 canister of white gas, and 1 large Jetboil with a couple fuel cylinders. We would typically use one Philmont pot to boil water, but using Reflectix pot cozy’s we had made, we mostly put boiling water right in the Philmont (Mountain House style) dinner meal bags to re-hydrate the food instead of using a second pot combining all the food. We used the Jetboil to heat water for coffee in the morning. White gas is available on the trail, but you should carry at least enough for heating 3-4 days of meals at a time.

• Spices – I would recommend ordering small packets of hot sauce, creole seasoning, or the like that you would add to the somewhat bland dinner meals. We ordered Sriracha packets from Amazon and primarily used those.

• Tents – our group brought our Troop’s tents, which are slight lighter/lighter than Philmont's. Make sure you’re carrying enough stakes for tents (typically 8/tent) + the dining fly. Check the gear list, but if using Philmont's tents, you may need to bring your own stakes. One note here is that all our tents are 2-man, however because we had 9-people, Philmont made us leave two 2-man tents and take a Philmont 3-man instead. (We could have used our own 3-man tent if we'd brought one). They don't want you carrying tents with any extra spaces. Also, adults cannot sleep in tents with boys, even if it's your own son, so plan accordingly.

 

 

Exercise program

 

The conventional wisdom I’ve seen about preparing for Philmont is you need to (1) prepare your feet by doing long hikes, preferably on rocky ground, and (2) you need to build up cardio/stamina.  I would suggest focusing primarily on the (#2) cardio/stamina aspect. I was using comfortable trail running shoes with medium weight synthetic socks and didn’t have any foot problems, and I had not done that many long (8+ mi.) hikes prior to Philmont. I was walking around 3 miles daily for 6 months prior to the trek, and began jogging 3-4 months prior to the trek, working up to 3-4 miles several days a week.  As a rough guide, I would say that if you can run continuously for 3-4 miles at a moderate pace, you’ll do fine while hiking at Philmont.

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The biggest challenges at Philmont are uphill climbs of 1,000-2,000 feet, such as traversing over ridges between camps or doing the Baldy summit hike, so the key challenge is having the stamina to persist for 1-2 hours of slow uphill walking.  If you’re capable of running a 5k or better, you shouldn’t have a problem. 

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Additionally, in the months prior to the trek, I would buy some exercise bands and do ankle strengthening exercises regardless of what kind of shoes/boots you’re wearing – but particularly if you’re wearing hiking or trail running shoes without ankle support. This would be a preventative against any potential ankle problems on the trek.

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The exercise prep program I generally followed look like:

 

(4-6 months prior to hike - Jan-Mar)

Walking 3-4 miles, 5 days per week, starting with empty pack and working up to 40 lbs over about 2-3 months

(Optional) Go to the gym, or at home, 1-2 times per week do strength training exercises

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(1-3 months prior to hike - Apr-Jun)

Follow an intro to 5k running program, build up to 3-4 miles continuous by jogging 3 days per week

On days opposite running, walk 3-4 miles without a fully weighted pack

On 2-3 days per week, do exercise band ankle strengthening exercises for 15-20 mins

In the two months leading up to the trek, pick 2 or 3 weekend days and do longer 8-12 mile hikes with 40 lb. pack (including water).