Local Boy Scouts tackle Philmont Ranch
By Ken Powers Contributing Writer

(back, l to r) Greg Dube, Dan Polanowicz, Tyler Clausen, Harry Nicol, Matt Savarese, (front, l to r) Mark Clausen and John Polanowicz enjoy the scenery at Philmont Scout Ranch.

Northborough - It's unusual when anything that's billed as an end-all actually ends up being the end-all intended, but for a group of 15 Boy Scouts and leaders from Troop 101 of Northborough, last month's trip to Philmont Scout Ranch in Cimarron, N.M., was exactly that.

"You talk to former scouts and scout leaders and people who have been affiliated with the Boy Scouts for any length of time and they'll all tell you that Philmont is the Mecca of scouting," Northborough resident John Polanowicz said. "There are guys in scouting that have earned the rank of Eagle Scout and been inducted into the Order of the Arrow and what they remember most about scouting is that they never got to go to Philmont."

Polanowicz, the president and CEO of Marlborough Hospital, is an assistant scoutmaster of Troop 101 and spent 12 days at Philmont with his son, Dan, and nine other scouts from Troop 101 - Tyler Clausen, Harry Nicol, Matt Savarese, Sean McAuliffe, Ethan Winter, Steve Coughlin, Harry Gore, Colin Wall and Dan Incorvaia. Other Troop 101 leaders on the trip were Mark Clausen, Rick McAuliff e, Mark Coughlin and Scott Gore.

The group flew into Colorado Springs, Colo., Aug. 6 and spent a few days making their way to Philmont, a trek that included stops at the Air Force Academy, Pike's Peak (where they mountain biked), the Arkansas River (where they rode Class 3 and Ranch

4 rapids), and the M Lazy C Due Ranch (where the reality television show Cowboy U. was taped).

Once at Philmont, the group, a total of 24 scouts and leaders from Northborough Troop 101 and Holliston Troop 14, were divided up into three crews. John Polanowicz's crew included his son Dan, Tyler and Mark Clausen, Nicol, Savarese and Greg Dube of Troop 14.

At Philmont, a 137,000- acre, 215 square-mile ranch, various 10-day trips are separated into 35 different degrees of difficulty. The lower the number the less strenuous the trek. The scouts embarking on the trip get to choose their own degree of difficulty. Polanowicz's group chose a trip that had a degree of difficulty of 33.

Included on the 101.8-mile trail the crew chose were six mountain peaks that were over 10,000 feet above sea level, including Big Red, Black Mountain, Mount Phillips, Comanche Peak and Comanche Pass. The final peak, Mount Baldy, sits 12,441 feet above sea level.

John Polanowicz said a typical day had the crew up around 7 a.m. and on the trail by 8 a.m., after breakfast and breaking camp. They would hike all morning before stopping for lunch and then resume their hike until mid-afternoon, when they would reach their previously determined destination for the day.

Of all the memories he has from his scouting trip of a lifetime, John Polanowicz will remember most of all the reaction of the members of his crew when they reached their final destination, the Tooth of Time, Philmont's most recognizable landmark.

"Watching the guys realize that they had just accomplished something really big was very rewarding," John Polanowicz said. "The confi- dence it gave them when they sat back and thought about what they had just done for the past 10 days, and the fact that - even though they were wet and cold and hungry and tired - that they persevered, could carry them quite far in life."