Scouts who have earned Eagle during my tenure as Scoutmaster receive a custom engraved Buck knife. I take the knife to an engraver in our mall called “Things Remembered”. I buy the Buck 110 lock-back because the bolsters are flat brass (not curved like others) and this makes them suitable for engraving.. When I first started doing this the Buck knife 110 was about $20 but they are up to $35 or more now....
Andrew Skurka’s new Ultimate Hiker’s Gear Guide includes a packing list for Philmont Scout Ranch! It has far less gear than the official Philmont list. In Clarke’s interview in podcast 111, Andrew pointed out that over 20,000 Scouts backpack at Philmont every summer and probably 19,000 of them are carrying too much weight. Improving packing at Philmont is a huge opportunity for youth to get started on the light path, have more fun, and become lifetime backpackers....
I learned how to care for cast iron cookware like dutch ovens from some old timers. Their methods are compatible with standard Boy Scout principles and more modern methods. Some of this may be considered “heretical” by the “authentic” dutch oven cooking folks. You’ll have to decide for yourself. Here’s some hints that have served me well: Use plenty of oil. Use oil even when browning meat, even ground chuck. Maybe not so much with ground beef....
Swedish canoe enthusiast Svante Freden builds and sells a folding reflector oven based on his own design. This reflector oven design has integrated hinges to reduce weight and gives a nice clean look without sharp edges. With a reflector oven you can bake bread, biscuits, muffins and even pizza in camp! This oven folds flat to slip in easily in your portage pack, accepts 9″ round pans. You can place more than one oven around the same fire....
Splitting wood with a retaining chain and bungee cord: This splitting firewood video features a wicked-good looking splitting axe by Fiskars. It looks to me like their X series splitting axes that come in 17″, 23 1/2″, 28″ and 36″ lengths. The geometry of the axe head creates a wedge whose top curves outward sharply – looks very effective. Fiskars splitting axes on Amazon Fiskars 7856 X11 17-Inch Splitting Axe...
First published in 1884 Camping and Woodcraft was the first widely read “how-to” book on on the subject . It’s author Nessmukwrote *’**‘ The temptation is to buy this or that bit of indispensable camp kit has been too strong and we have gone to the blessed woods handicapped with a load fit for a pack mule. That is not how to do it.*Go light, and the lighter the better so that you have the simplest material for health comfort and enjoyment....
The Outdoor Products Dragonfly pack is Available at Amazon Selecting a backpack for Scouts can be confusing; here’s one that I think fits the bill. Backpacks fall in to two basic types; ones with an external frame to which the pack bag is attached and ones with the frame built into the bag (internal frame). In my experience Scouts are better off with external frame backpack because they are easier to pack and adjust....
Sleeping well can make or break a camping trip. As I get older it becomes even more important, and sometimes more difficult, to sleep comfortably, so I choose my sleeping gear for camping carefully. In 1974 the first Therm-a-Rest self-inflating foam sleeping pad was manufactured by Cascade Designs in Seattle; a company started by laid-off Boeing engineers. Therm-a-Rest pads completely changed camping for me; I slept much better floating on a cushion of air than I did on a foam pad....
The Scoutmaster’s camp coffee is an important consideration on any trip. Most of us look forward to a cup of coffee in the morning. According to the National Coffee Association: Over 50% of Americans over 18 years of age drink coffee every day (150 million). Among coffee drinkers, the average consumption in the United States is 3.2 cups of coffee per day. The average coffee cup size is 9 ounces. 65% of all coffee is consumed during breakfast hours, 30% between meals, and the remaining 5% with other meals....
If you aren’t cooking in a dutch oven you are missing a lot of fun and some great food! Now nobody is going to carry a dutch oven backpacking; this is a ‘car camping’ option for sure. If you need to get outfitted here’s what you’ll need and a few things that you may want (note the difference!) Lodge 8 quart pre-seasoned dutch oven Lodge dutch ovens are the industry standard....
Good advice about how to wash down sleeping bags at Tom Managan’s Hike Hacker: … don’t wash the bag a lot, but do launder it at the end of the season before long-term storage, or after your annual two-week backpacking trip. Where to wash it? Not at home: washing machines with agitators can tear up your bag. You need a front-loading, non-agitating machine found in a laundromat. Lots of folks these days have home-sized front-loaders, which can work in a pinch (though my wife, an unsurpassed authority on household cleaning, insists the tubs in home front-loaders aren’t big enough to thoroughly rinse the soap out of a sleeping bag)....
Here’s an innovative take on patrol kitchen box design; Our troop wanted a patrol cook kit that could be carried by one scout (or two small scouts), and the old traditional patrol box just could not be scaled down to work. So we set out to design a kit on our own. We decided what we wanted in the kit and built the box to contain only that gear. The box contains no food, and limited consumables....
Should Scout troops use standard two burner propane stoves for camping? Half of the world’s households and 80 percent of rural households in developing countries cook with solid fuels like wood, coal, crop residues and dung. Many of these households use traditional open fires or simple stoves that release smoke into the dwelling and do not make efficient use of the fuel. According to the World Health Organization 1.6 million people a year die of health effects resulting from toxic indoor air....
My hiking stick evolution goes something like this: – A number of ones found in the wild; some with natural twists, ones I carved, sanded and varnished. – A number of bamboo sticks like my backpacking hero Colin Fletcher. – A few I machined from hardwood (oak, mahogany, etc.) and adorned with various decorations. – A pair of anti-shock trekking poles My reaction when I first saw someone using trekking poles n a T....
UPDATE October 2015 I no longer recommend the Katadyn Base Camp, see my review of the Sawyer 3-Way Water Filter When we’re in the back country on backpacking and canoeing trips we have to purify our water. I see providing safe drinking water as a group rather than an individual responsibility. It is also something that needs to be simple, as foolproof as possible and reasonably affordable. I have tried several different filters and chemical treatments; all have had some significant drawbacks....
UPDATE 11/17 Our Limelights are still going strong after six years of continuous use on Scout camping trips. We’ve had one or two tears, but everything else is holding up admirably. No problems with poles and zippers, waterproofing still strong. The Limelight model was updated since we bought ours, they now have straighter walls and are more box-like, I’d imagine this makes the interior larger. I have had positive reports from those who own the new model....
Jason Pettis is Scoutmaster of Troop 130 in Golden, Colorado who takes ‘be prepared’ seriously. He wrote in to say: I’ve got a tote I bring with a bunch of extra gear that I loan out to adults (and occasionally scouts) that I call my “Be Prepared” box. It’s come in handy a time or two, when a sad scout (or dad) needs a cup for cocoa (or coffee). Here it is:...
[portfolio_slideshow nav=false thumbs=true size=large] Here’s two camping boxes that house some essentials I like to have on hand when we are out with the troop. The smaller is a 8 gallon and the larger a 24 gallon Action Packer by Rubbermaid. The contents of each are laid out and labeled in the first picture above. Around the center of the main picture there are a few items that are difficult to see:...
I was once persuaded that real Scouts only used real Scout mess kits. The standard issue military type clamshell mess kit may have a long tradition in Scouting, but compared to the alternatives it is woefully inadequate. Some folks like gadgety, expensive, modern specialty cooking gear but I’ll be fine with my highly evolved, cheap, light, and completely superior kit assembled from commonly available alternatives. Evolve! Consign your mess kit to the recycling bin where it belongs!...
I have developed this ten step camping gear buyer’s guide over many years. I hope it will help you and your Scouts select the right gear for your individual use. 1. Buy the best you need Waking up (or worse yet no being able to sleep) chilled to the bone in a cheap sleeping bag really drives home the importance of having adequate gear. If you and your Scouts aren’t warm and dry or don’t sleep comfortably you’ll have miserable camping trips....