All aboard for our next high adventure trip to Glacier National Park in beautiful Montana....

Crews:

Treks:

We have 4 treks assigned to our troop. We will have a vote by crew for the trek that your crew will go on. All the treks are advance hikes. See the links below for the different treks.

Overview of all treks
Trek #1
Trek #2
Trek #3
Trek #4

Tentative Itinerary (July 17 – 27): 

• July 17 Fly from Nashville to Chicago Midway - 7:35am - 9am
• July 17 Ride the Subway to Sears Tower. Go to the top of Sears Tower (time permitting)
• July 17 Ride the Subway to the Grand Central Station
• July 17 Board the Amtrak train at 2:15pm arriving in East Glacier National Park in Montana at 6:45pm on July 18
• July 18 Camp overnight in East Glacier, MT
• July 19 – July 25 Backpack through Glacier National Park
• July 25 Camp overnight in East Glacier, MT
• July 26 Board the Amtrak train at 9:54am arriving in East Glacier National Park in Montana at 3:55pm on July 27
• July 27 Ride the Subway to Chicago Midway Airport
• July 27 Fly from Chicago to Nashville - 7:20pm - 8:40pm

Trip Overview:

Parents will drive you to the airport by 6am in your class-A uniform. You will gather with the other scouts near the Southwest counter and act very cool. If you have been on these trips before...you will be wearing fashionable sunglasses to disguise your tired eyes. You will also be wearing a cap publicizing your favorite sports team. However, the real reason you are wearing a cap is that you are having a bad hair day. Shortly before we leave for the terminal, we will gather for a group picture. Your mother or loving sister will quickly rush to your side to remove your cap and make sure you look adorable for the camera. You will struggle, but eventually give in because you realize that they are starting to make a scene and that is affecting your cool image. After we take an embarrassing picture, we will immediately upload it to the Troops Facebook website and we will send an email to each school asking all your peers to add their comments. Next, we will walk to the terminal to board the airplane.

The flight will be about an hour. Once the plane lands we will go to baggage claim to pickup our bags. We are also looking at shipping all of our baggage to Glacier National Park ahead of time. More to come on that. Time permitting, we will jump on the subway to visit the Sears Tower and go to the top of one of tallest buildings in the world. After a short visit, we will walk a couple of blocks to Grand Central Station. One of busiest train stations in the world. We will have a few hours layover in Chicago , so bring a book, magazine or game. We will eat lunch in the train station, then board the Empire Train that will take us to Montana . We will be on this train for about 28 ½ hours, and it will take us through some of the most beautiful countryside’s that the US has to offer. On our journey to Montana , we will travel north (almost at the boarder of US and Canada ) through 4 more states ( Wisconsin , Minnesota , North Dakota and Montana ). The best part is that you can move about the train and visit with some of the other scouts. We will arrive in East Glacier at 6:45pm and will gather our bags for a short shuttle to our campsite.

Once we get to Glacier, we will gather our camping supplies and take a short shuttle to our first campsite. We will setup a quick camp and will get to bed early since we need to get up early for our hikes. In the morning, you will be shuttled to the starting point of your hike. We may rent vans for transportation depending upon if your crew is going on 2 hikes (in 2 different locations). We will request for 7-day hikes, but the likelihood of getting that is remote. Most likely, each crew will have 2 hikes - one 4-day hike and one 3-day hike. We will know more around May 15th, once the rangers assign and approve treks. If for some reason a crew only gets a 4-day hike, then we will look at adding another event like whitewater rafting, horseback riding, fly fishing, etc... More to come on that...

On the July 25th, we will return to the campsite were we camped the first night to set up camp for one last night. The next morning, we will take a shuttle to the train station for our return trip to Chicago . The scouts will be full of energy and will be sharing all sorts of stories. The adults will want to share hundreds of stories also, but will be lucky to share 1 or 2 before they drift off to sleep in their chair. Some will snore and some will look pretty unkempt. The scouts at this point will recall that the adults took pictures of them before the trip started and will return the favor...snapping a few pictures of the adults. The scouts will look to take a picture of Mr. Lanahan and realize all the hard work he put into this trip and will focus on the other adults.

Training:

We will set up practice hikes, demonstrations for packing your backpack, identify what you need to bring, and offer the First Aid MB in a few weeks. Look for an email from our Hike Meister soon.

Requirements for this trip:

• The scout must have earned their 1st Class rank
• Must be 14 years old by July 17th or 13 years old and graduated 8th grade
• Must have earned the First Aid merit badge by July 17th (this MB will be offered before the trip)

Note: The above requirements are the same as Philmont 2008 requirements and are for the boys safety.

http://www.alicebot.org/rr/

At this point, 29 scouts and adults are signed up to go and 5 more are still evaluating their schedules. We have room for 38, so signup now.

For more information about Glacier National Park in Montana, visit their website at www.nps.gov/glac/photosmultimedia/index.htm

More to come...See you on the trails.

Rick Lanahan
The "Hike Meister" Wannabe
RickLanahan@comcast.net
336-6025