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6 Bay Area Scouts Hit A Snowy Peak In New Mexico

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TBO.com

Published: July 17, 2008

TAMPA - It's a long way from the flat sidewalks in a sizzling Florida summer to a mountainous camp where a water bottle can freeze overnight.

Six high school students from the Westchase and Citrus Park areas in northwestern Hillsborough County found that out in June when they embarked on a 12-day, 75-mile hike through the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in New Mexico.

The teens took on the hike as the biggest mental and physical challenge they could meet as Boy Scouts. Philmont Scout Ranch covers more than 200 square miles in the mountain range, part of the Rockies, and includes 34 staffed camps and 55 trail camps.

Jason McDade, who will be a junior at Sickles in the fall, was his crew's leader and, with the Philmont staff, mapped an itinerary.

The group hiked four to 10 miles daily, stopping at camps that offered activities ranging from rock climbing to candle making to burro racing. It peaked with a 14-hour climb past 3-foot snow drifts up Mount Phillips, which has an elevation of nearly 12,000 feet.

"It was a long, hard adventure that required not only physical toughness but also mental toughness," wrote troop adviser Joe McDade, Jason's father. "It was like walking to Orlando uphill, over steep trails, with a mountain in the middle."

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