Yes, it is true. Fr. Hewko used to take many hiking trips with the Christeros in Philadelphia. It could be any season through out the year and didn't take maps. He would hike for miles and hours and if you were cold, you just needed to move faster. We would wade across thigh high streams in the winter. I'm paraphrasing, but any physical discomfort that was experience made you stronger to fight liberalism, heresy, and modernism. It was better than burning in hell. Remember the Christeros. Liberalism has made men weak. You are not a liberal are you, then be a man and be stronger than your weaknesses.
Looking back on it. My parents were desperate to trust the Church and this new order of priest that they found. Fr. Hewko had a summer camp that he got in trouble for as well. I didn't get to go when I was younger, but Fr. Hewko and Fr. Aszaga let boys 12-17 smoke and drink, as the laws in the US are puritanical, and as Catholics we didn't need to follow laws of an anti-Catholic religion. It turned men into liberals.
The problem is that when you develop a cult like following, people trust the virile charismatic traditional priest, rather than common sense and and listening to people's stories. There wasn't the internet back then. You met a no nonsense Bishop Williamson, no nonsense Fr. Hewko, you traveled cross country to ordinations, and you went to retreats in Ridgefield. Fr. Hewko, brainwashed himself. I applauded him leaving the SSPX, but priests he associated himself with were terrible. (except Fr. Novak. I have not heard anything negative about him)
I remember listening and reading criticisms from the SSPX about how the mainstream Church hid and recycled pedophiles. Its now that some "resistance' priests are defending them. I almost believe that they think they are above the rest of society because they are priests. It doesn't matter what you have done or been accused of because they will find another priest to look out for them. That's what I see the OLMC as.