Planning and Logistics For Your Philmont New Mexico Tour


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Albuquerque as a Philmont-Area Entry Point

If you are flying in from the eastern states or the west coast you have a choice of entry through Denver, Colorado Springs, or Albuquerque. For our 2001 Yankee Clipper Council trip, we opted for tickets to Albuquerque even with a stop in Denver just to change planes. Our idea was that an Albuquerque entry point would allow for more diverse and unique cultural experiences in a few extra days on the way to Philmont.

An Albuquerque entry provides an opportunity to tap into the roots of New Mexico history on your way to Philmont. Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Los Alamos, Taos, all can be stops on your way. However you choose to go, some well planned stops on the round trip from Albuquerque to Cimarron can put you in touch with much of the scenic beauty, history, and culture of northern New Mexico.

Adding Days

I thought it might be an imposition to ask our adult leaders to arrange extra vacation time beyond the minimum required for Philmont. But all of our adults were able to get the needed vacation days and, in fact, seemed even more interested than the Scouts in spending a little extra time in New Mexico. We chose to spend three nights in New Mexico outside of Philmont. With good planning and careful scheduling you can fit a lot into three days. We decided to add our extra New Mexico days at the beginning, rather than the end, of our trip. We expected the Scouts and adults would be anxious to get home after time on the trail and we preferred to have the extra days as pre-trek time for adjustment to New Mexico's higher altitudes.

Scheduling

Initial scheduling is an exercise in seeing what activities you can fit in and what you can't. We used a spreadsheet for the schedule, which made it easy to plan everything down to the minute and adjust the schedule as things shifted and plans firmed up. We allowed time for loading and unloading the bus at every stop. We had enough stops with flexible time that we were able to recover without difficulty when we got off schedule. MapQuest.com can provide estimated travel times between cities and is good for producing local maps to take along. Be sure to check opening and closing times/days for museums, etc. Our rough estimate of travel times are: Albuquerque to Santa Fe Plaza: 1 hr. 15 min.; Santa Fe to Los Alamos: 55 min.; Los Alamos to Bandelier Visitor Center: 30 min.; Bandelier to Taos: 2 hrs; Taos to Philmont 2 hrs.; Philmont to Las Vegas: 2 hrs.; Las Vegas to Albuquerque airport: 2 hrs. 10 min.

Contrary to what you might expect, the adults, not the Scouts, can be the biggest threat to staying on schedule. Adult-initiated, unscheduled stops for the drugstore, Federal Express, and the post office were the culprits on our trip. A single personal business detour that takes you ten minutes out of the way for a ten-minute stop with ten minutes to get back on track uses up 30 minutes and, with a busload of 34 persons, leads to 17 person-hours of time lost waiting on the bus. Try to plan some tour activities near locations where these things can be handled individually and be sure your adult leaders know to take care of their personal business at such times.

Ground Transportation

For touring, you will need transportation with the flexibility to accommodate your schedule and needs. Unless you plan to use private or rented vehicles, this means chartering a bus or van by the day. If you are lucky, you may get a driver who can add to the trip with stories or commentary on the locales you visit and pass. Plan on a nice tip for a driver who meets your schedule, gets you to all the sites, and deals well with the boys. Drivers are limited to a 12-hour day. So your schedule should have no more than 12 hours between the first pick up and last drop off of the day.

Our troop's most recent expedition arranged for a coach bus with Herrera Coaches in Albuquerque(505-877-4560) (See Herrera Coaches). On a previous trip we used a Herrera school bus for local transportation in Albuquerque.

Other possibilities include:Sanchez Stage Lines (505-877-0697). ScoutConnect has offered a once a day shuttle between Philmont and the Albuquerque Sunport (airport). While this would not allow for flexible scheduling or sightseeing stops, this is an option for a direct leg of your trip. (See ScoutConnect Shuttle.)

For other Albuquerque airport transport options see: Airport Ground Transport.

Equipment

If you are using Philmont equipment for your trek, camping on tour entails bringing or making arrangements for extra equipment. Camping only one night in early June, we considered sleeping under the stars or under plastic to avoid bringing tents, thinking we might miss the July-August afternoon and evening thunder showers. In the end, we cautiously decided to bring our largest tents in duffel bags as checked baggage, which proved pretty easy. We left the tents in the base camp storeroom while on the trail at Philmont.

To minimize our cooking equipment requirements, the one night we camped on tour we had a picnic supper and a no-cook breakfast. We procured just one Coleman stove to use for hot drinks. To comply with airline rules, we packed our backpacking stoves and empty fuel containers for Philmont use and shipped them to New Mexico by UPS.

If you want to purchase stoves and/or fuel on site, or if you have any last minute camping clothing or equipment needs, you will find the Albuquerque REI store near the Montano Road Exit on I-25. For the REI store location see: REI Albuquerque. This is a new location, having moved from the Old Town area in 2001.
































































"Herrera Coach was very good."
Joe
Scouter Troop 51