Outdoor Program

The folks at Packit Gourmet offer some evidence of the indestructible nature of the humble tortilla. My favorite tortilla ‘recipe’ is peanut butter and jelly on a whole wheat tortilla for a quick, filling trail lunch. Tortillas are an incredibly versatile and easy-to-pack bread. They hold up well in your pack and can be used for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We’ve dined on tortillas with everything from breakfast tacos to ‘sandwich’ wraps to quesadillas – not to mention the more...

Camping in the rain sounds awful – and it is if you aren’t prepared! Here’s ten tips for surviving rainy camping trips: 1. AVOID IT I have canceled or rescheduled weekend camping trips if heavy rain or horrendously bad weather is forecast. We aren’t Marines and the safety of the free world does not depend on our withstanding really awful weather. That being said camping in the rain can be great fun if you are prepared for it....

Well, we’re back from our sixth annual canoe trip to Ontario’s Algonquin Provincial Park and it was a great success. This year a record 23 people in three crews participated. Each crew took a different route through the 3000 square mile park of about 40 to 50 miles of paddling and portaging. Mounting such a trip involves a sea of details. Perhaps the most complex bit of planning was purchasing and packing 414 servings of food required for six days of travel....

The success of any high adventure program is more about the people you go with than the place you go. A prime trek in Philmont, the crown jewel of Scout Camps, under crystal blue skies in moderate temperatures with no bugs and five star meals becomes a slow death march with a dysfunctional, poorly prepared, poorly led crew. Likewise a few days hiking in less inspiring environs as it rains day in and day out with a constant diet of instant ramen with a sharp crew who knows their stuff leads to lifelong golden memories....

Training and skill development is important to the success of a Troop based high adventure program. Adult Advisor and Youth Crew Chief Training – All trip leaders should take advantage of online courses offered by the BSA. Youth protection and Weather Hazards is a good idea for any trip as well as activity-specific courses: Trek Safely, Safe Swim Defense, Safety Afloat and Climb on Safely. The online training is only available to registered adult leaders the information can be shared with youth leadership and crew members....

Detailed preparation is the key to any successful high adventure program. Place State, provincial or national parks are the most likely destinations. Each will have it’s own particular rules and procedures. Information gleaned from the web is a good start. Online trip reports and reviews can be quite informative. I’d suggest that once you have the information you think you need pick up the phone and call someone at your destination and confirm that the information you have is correct....

On one of our first Canoe Trips to Canada we sat around our campfire the first night after getting to our hard-won campsite. A long day of paddling and portaging and a frustrating search for a camp site (during which we became separated) had me pretty wrung out. I was lamenting over a couple of mistakes I made that day to one of my fellow adult leaders who looked up from the fire where our dinner was cooking and said; “Well, here we are camped out on a lake in Canada and I am just about to enjoy a steak dinner!...

Where to go and what to do for your high adventure program? The simple answer is just about anywhere and just about anything. It may be a week of backpacking, canoeing, touring, cycling, boating or the adventure of your choice. You don’t need to travel very far, look at nearby state and national parks, talk to your Scouting colleagues, check out council-based programs at local summer camps. Once you have an idea of a destination making the trip a reality requires four things:...

Philmont, Seabase and Northern Tier are the three most familiar national High Adventure Bases, there are dozens of other Council Based Programs. Thousands of Scouts participate in and enjoy the big three high adventure bases each year. I have colleagues in Scouting who recommend them highly. At the other end of the high- adventure spectrum are the Troop and Crew-based high adventure programs that explore less known territory. Our rationale for building our own high adventure program is based of a few logistic and philosophic criteria;...

Learn how to tie the First Class Scout Badge Knot over at the Boy Scout Trail website. Not a particularly useful knot nor extraordinarily decorative but one really ought to know how it is tied. Tie a simple overhand knot in the bight of rope. Leave the knot loose. Put the bight through the ring on which it will hang. Pull the bight through the loose overhand knot. Cinch the knot tight....

Veho hosts a great collection of 24 full length Ray Mears Videos . As I have noted before Mears shares many useful skills in these videos without sensationalism. Well worth watching. Via Rikkis Scouting Resources

After long preparation and excited anticipation our annual backpacking trip looked like a real washout – rain from Friday night to Sunday morning. Enduring a couple of days of rain is not anyone’s idea of a great time so we are postponing until next weekend. But will next weekend’s weather be any better? Before deciding to postpone I checked with the NOAA Climate Prediction Center. The center publishes daily 6-10 and 8-14 day maps that aid long-term forecasting above or below normal temperatures and chances of precipitation (an example of a temperature map is shown above)....

While I have managed to avoid blisters myself one or two usually show up on someone during the course of a Troop backpacking trip. Dr. Paul Auerbach has posted a very comprehensive treatise on preventing and treating foot blisters: To prevent blisters one must minimize friction generated by the normal biomechanical forces of walking and the contributors to friction. The force between the foot and the insole is determined by the weight of hiker as well as any weight being carried....

Illustration by Hap Wilson. Originally appeared in The Keewaydin Way by Brian Back Lake Temagami and environs is one of the great good places to go canoeing. According to the Ottertooth website: The three-walled heritage fireplace has been a Temagami tradition for over a hundred years and many blackened campsite fireplaces have been in use for decades. Daily baking, particularly for bannock, remains an essential part of heritage Temagami. Many of the camps have two bakes at dinner, one for dessert that night, and a second for lunch the next day....

The clearly illustrated directions author Gerald Finley ‘s book ‘Rope Works Plus’ explains tying and using knots, splices and lashings, making rope (with plans for a geared rope making machine) This sample page gives you a pretty good idea of the style and layout of the book. A very practical guide. Rope Works Plus on Amazon

Summer camp is a big part of most Troop annual programs. A week of opportunity awaits and what follows is some advice on how to make the best of it. Preparing Scouts for camp is relatively simple, preparing adults is somewhat more difficult and important. Without wishing to sound like a broken record most difficulties in Scouting arise from adults who misunderstand their role. Simply put the role of adults at camp is not any different than their year-round responsibilities; to enable the Scouts to plan, prepare and lead their own program....

Poison ivy (toxicodendron radicans) is the most common of the urushiol producing plants in the eastern U.S. Contact with urushiol oil is the substance that causes an allergic rash in 90% of the population. Even a tiny amount (1 nanogram, a billionth of a gram) of sticky, resin-like urushiol oil will case a skin reaction. 1/4 ounce of the potent oil would be enough to cause a rash on the entire population of the earth!...

Tom Chiarella at Esquire Magazine has posted an article The 75 Skills Every Man Should Master. Skill # 51 uses many of the the methods and measurements from my video Never Fail Campfire Building. 51. Build a campfire. There are three components: 1. The tinder — bone-dry, snappable twigs, about as long as your hand. You need two complete handfuls. Try birch bark; it burns long and hot. 2. The kindling — thick as your thumb, long as your forearm, breakable with two hands....

This may sound pessimistic – but it is an unfortunate reality. Sometime, somewhere this month (and every month thereafter) a Troop of Scouts will start off on a hike that will end in some sort of tragedy. The major tragedies we see on the news – a lost scout or group of scouts, a serious injury, a death – all probably preventable. The smaller, yet often more poignant, tragedies don’t get publicized....

The most common cliché about scouting is a toss-up between helping old ladies across the street and rubbing two sticks together to make a fire. Making fire with a bow drill is an obtainable skill for those who are willing to devote themselves to a little study, finding the proper materials and patient practice. Here’s great advice and direction on making a bow drill fire featured on the Wildwood Survival website....