Word: trooped
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Once in the mountains, Troop 501 discovers that trekking has changed radically since Carson's day. "Low-impact camping" rules mean skipping the traditional campfire unless the fire pit is cleaned and the ashes buried. Opened food must be consumed on the spot. An informal "30-second rule" applies to spilled food: eat it fast. "Smellables" such as soap, toothpaste and tomorrow's rations, all of which can attract bears, are loaded into a burlap bag after dinner and strung over a 20-ft.-high cable. Nighttime hygiene is discouraged; a freshened-up camper in a sleeping...
Squabbling occurs during 501's damp, disorganized first nights. Ranger Brad Wolgast, 21, an eagle scout and psychology student from Kansas, observes privately that the troop's adults and boys communicate poorly. "Things get left unsaid," he explains. Staff members at base camp tell of a stressed-out troop that tied one of its hikers to a tree earlier this year. Philmont chaplain Rusty Cowden, 38, remembers his own trek in 1967: "We got lost. A bear ate our food, and it rained 11 out of 12 days." But Cowden recalls the trip joyously. Coping with blisters, bears and soggy...
...19th century mining camp, Troop 501 is eating dehydrated lasagna softened by boiling water and the evening's drizzle. It is oddly tasty. Bearded "miners" like Jedediah Ezekial Springfield (eagle scout Trey Berlin, 21, of Richmond, Ky.) offer to teach gold panning and to provide tours of the abandoned mine shaft; they speak in twangy "interpretive accents." After dinner, the miners put on a "stomp" with guitar music and surprisingly pungent jokes. Another day's hike leads to a cattle ranch set in a lush green valley. At that campfire, a talented cowboy-guitarist nicknamed Fluffy performs the Oreo Cookie...
Just after a hailstorm, Mike Downhower, 17, leads the troop down a mountain trail and suddenly notices a strange tree root. It rattles! Downhower skids to a panicked stop and gives the alarm. The rattlesnake simply slithers into the bushes. At a 19th century "Mexican" village whose cantina is stocked with root beer, Dennis Meade, 18, finds a rare gas-fired outdoor shower in a meadow. He also notices a barrel-shaped relocation trap on rubber wheels awaiting an especially pesky local bear. In the shower Meade hears a noise. The bear has walked into the dressing enclosure...
...them. The mood has changed since that wet first night; 501 has come together. Eric Johannesen, 14, once desperately homesick and moody, has been asked to lead, and he sets a rugged pace: "This feels like a family relationship now. I'll get home eventually." Estelle Light, 42, a troop leader who happens to be a nurse, has tended sore feet and wounded egos all week. Assistant scoutmaster Don Browning, 51, hobbled by a sprained knee, finds that the scouts around him walk as slowly as he does. Crew leader Jason Servatius, 16, once an aggressive prankster, moves among...