NEW PALESTINE — It wasn’t a typical two-week summer trip shortly before the start of the school year. The adventure was more of a real quest — get to the top of Mt. Baldy and earn a major Boy Scouts of America award.
Many members of New Palestine Boy Scout Troop 244 hiked and climbed harder and higher than they ever had before when they went to the top of Mt. Baldy in New Mexico earlier this summer to help the scouts earn what’s called a 50-miler award.
Some of the troop members went on a two-week backpacking trip out west, where they did some prep work in New Mexico as they learned about forest and trail conservation. They then took what they learned and applied their skills locally doing some conservation work on the Pennsy Trail at 350W during a recent service day.
The service day was the last requirement for the Scouting BSA 50-miler award. The award is an embroidered patch or leather patch and is earned when a scout hikes, paddles, bikes or rides horseback for at least 50 miles over five consecutive days, performs 10 hours of service and completes the 50-miler award.
The troop members ended up backpacking about 70 miles on their trip this summer, plus a hundred miles over a dozen prep hikes in Indiana, and they did service in New Mexico and in Hancock County as a requirement to earn the award.
“Philmont (Mt. Baldy) was a great 12-day backpacking trip in the mountains full of amazing sights, memorable staff members, funny jokes, lots of laughs, and a lot of walking,” Troop 244 member Jackson Stone said. “If I were to be asked if I wanted to go again I would say, without a doubt, ‘Sign me up.’”
Troop 244 Scoutmaster Rob Bindewald was one of the adults who took local troop members out west for the once in a lifetime experience. It was actually his third time making the trip. He went once as a young Scout himself, then took his older son before going with his younger son, Sam Bindewald this summer.
“The place is so big, over 200,000 acres, plus we were also in Carson National Forest for three days of the trip,” Rob Bindewald said. “There was just too much to see in one trip and, yes, it was an amazing and exciting adventure we don’t think the guys will soon forget.”
The Carson National Forest (1.5 million acres) is the northernmost of five National Forests in New Mexico.
“What was cool about that part of the trip was we spent those three days on our own there, and that’s about as long as they’ll let scouts be out of touch without partnerships,” Rob Bindewald said.
The area near Mt. Baldy where they climbed has a massive staff of over 1,000 members who look out for hikers, including the scouts, who they have a partnership with. Plus, all the adults who went on the trip and took the boys had to do intensive first aid training and prepare for months.
“You have to be a high school student and a scout to go on this one,” Rob Bindewald said. “They want kids out there to have developmental skills and a level of competency because people can and have gotten hurt out there.”
The troop members took a train to New Mexico and, once there, their feet took them the rest of the way.
“It was two weeks of the worst morning walks and the best afternoon naps,” Rob’s son and Troop 244 member Sam Bindewald said.
All in all, the trip was one the scout master said he knows the scouts, including his son, won’t soon forget.
While the days were pretty simple, hike toward the goal, that was only part of the work. After a day of hiking, the Scouts had to set up camp each day and then work on outdoor survival skills.
They also got to help lay rail trails, learned lumberjack skills, took part in some mountain biking and learned how to work ropes through teamwork building, which Rob said eventually helped them reach their goal — the top of Mt. Baldy.
“We even had a burrow for a couple of days on the trip, who the kids name Megatron,” Rob Bindewald said with a laugh. “It was really a great adventure and we’re proud of the kids who did it.”
