Adults keep an eye on things from a respectful distance and Scouts lead themselves. When we talk about boys planning, preparing and leading Scout outings some folks reply “Good grief, how can you leave the Scouts in charge when the troop is going on a strenuous hike to Jones Mountain and they have no experience? As Scoutmaster, isn’t it my responsibility to be closely involved in each Scout’s preparation for every activity?...
On our high adventure canoe trip each crew packs and cooks food for a group of five to nine Scouts. Our menu is a combination of freeze dried and grocery store food that keeps the cost reasonable while providing good nutrition and good eating. After making adjustments to our menus and the kit we assembled to prepare it over two or three years we developed a pretty well tuned approach. Our cooking gear packs down into two basic packages – a cook box that we fondly call ‘Tidy Cats’ and a bag of cook pots....
Steven Karoly’s blog Round the Chuckbox features this recipe with a story about camping with his family: After a quick inventory, I realized that flour was in short supply in camp so I prepared the hotcake batter with ingredients on hand. Quick cooking rolled oats filled in for most of the flour. OAT HOTCAKES IN CAMPThese are approximate measurements as I eyeballed each ingredient. For a richer flavor, substitute molasses or dark brown sugar for the white sugar....
For the last nine years every summer our Scouts pile into a van and drive north to Ontario’s Algonquin Provincial Park for a week-long high adventure canoe trip. Our crews typically cover 40-50 miles of paddling and portaging during our stay. Two years ago we started alternating these canoe trips with a trip to Kandersteg International Scout Center every third year. Here’s the background information on how we make this happen....
Supplement your B.S.A. Hazardous Weather Training with the free National Weather Service’s SKYWARN training. (Rick Jameson suggested this after reading Ten Causes of Scouting Disasters in the Wild – thanks Rick!) To obtain critical weather information, NOAA’s National Weather Service established SKYWARN®, a volunteer program with nearly 290,000 trained severe weather spotters. These volunteers help keep their local communities safe by providing timely and accurate reports of severe weather to the National Weather Service....
A wall cloud like this is never good news. (The storm that followed caused tornadoes, thankfully a good distance from where we hunkered down!) Scouting disasters in the wild loom when things start to get sketchy, the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, you get that feeling that something is not quite right. It’s time to stop, sit down and think. Bravely pushing ahead against all obstacles, having the grit and determination to keep on going, not giving in are all qualities we’d like to see in our Scouts....
Going camping? Go light! Here’s an infographic of the collective wisdom of a number of my favorite authors, Nessmuk, Aldo Leopold, Horace Kephardt, Ellsworth Jaeger and more. Click the go light infographic to see full-size You can get this infographic along with OVER 50 other infographics and helpful PDF documents here If you’d like to print this infographic download the PDF file below BEFORE YOU CLICK THE DOWNLOAD BUTTON Consider joining all the other great folks who have become Backers!...
If you want to serve a memorable campfire meal I can’t imagine a much more flavorful or impressive dish than this paella. Dave Herzog (the chef who developed this recipe) is a real dutch oven impresario – you can get his recipe collections through the Cook’n recipe organizer, this requires purchasing the Cook’n software – something you may consider if you are a dedicated cook. Make sure you like Dave’s Facebook page to keep up with his excellent advice and recipes....
This Pioneering Camp Seat infographic was generously provided by reader and listener Roger Thor Roop – Thank’s Roger! The Infographic is available as a PDF document formatted to print on 8 1/2 x 11 paper. (see the download link below) Get dozens of Scouting resources like this one (infographics and other helpful documents in PDF format) Get the PDF package and support the creation of these resources for $5.00 by clicking the purchase button, $5....
These incredible pioneering structures built by Israeli Scouts are a real inspiration (here’s the website). Obviously a lot of planning and modeling went into creating projects on this scale. It looks like a tremendous amount of fun doesn’t it? I’ll have to show my Scouts these pictures – who wouldn’t want to build a giant Spongebob or Dragon? I can see how this could turn into a great camping weekend or even a themed camporee....
Freeze-dried food is convenient, lightweight and packs well for extended trips. A hybrid menu of bulk freeze-dried food and grocery store ingredients is a more versatile and less expensive alternative for a patrol or high adventure crew. For our week-long canoe trips we’ve developed a hybrid menu of freeze-dried and grocery store food that our Scouts enjoy. Cost A traditional freeze-dried meal costs about $3-5.00 per serving (slightly less per serving if you can find group sizes)....
A “bend’ in knotting terminology is a knot used to join two ropes. The carrick bend is consider superior in strength and utility to the square or reef knot (which is not classed as a bend). In 1783 the carrick bend was mentioned in nautical dictionary. There are several possible explanations for the name “Carrick”; Ormonde Castle in Carrick-on-Suir shows numerous Carrick bends in its plaster reliefs, Carrick Roads anchorage by Falmouth in Cornwall,England, or the medieval ship called a “Carrack”....
Larry Green (no relation) has an excellent website and blog on the subject of Scout Pioneering: My name is Larry Green and for over twenty years, I’ve been a student of the late, greatly-loved and widely admired Adolph Peschke, author of the (previous) Pioneering Merit Badge pamphlet, and the acknowledged designer of thirty original “boy-sized” pioneering projects. Adolph’s way of presenting pioneering principles and projects is not only informative, but also serves to motivate and inspire....
Richard Francis “John” Thurman (4 April 1911 – April 1985) was Camp Chief of Gilwell Park from 1943 to 1969. In 1943, he introduced the Gilwell woggle awarded on the completion of basic training, and the Gilwell scarf and the Wood Badge beads were awarded on the completion of Advanced Training. Thurman wrote a number of instructional booklets, many on Scout pioneering. The folks at The Dump have scanned many of Thurman’s works and created free PDF versions of them....
I’ve watched Scouts who struggle with the traditional square lashing (especially getting it tight enough) learn the Japanese square lashing quickly and go on to actually building stuff rather than fiddling with lashings. The Japanese Square Lashing is a vast improvement over the traditional square lashing Scouts normally use that involves tying clove hitches. It’s simpler and faster to tie and can be drawn up much tighter. There are three versions of the Japanese square lashing, my favorite is the ‘Mark II’ pictured below:...
A minor miracle in the world of knots the icicle hitch won’t slip on a smooth and/or tapered surface (like an icicle). When tied and arranged carefully the icicle hitch is surprisingly slip-free when pulled parallel to the stave or pole or icicle it is tied on. I first learned the icicle hitch years ago in Geoffrey Budworth’s The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Knots and Ropework available on Amazon. Budworth’s encyclopedia illustrates 200 different knots with excellent photographs and clear directions....
The National Outdoor Challenge Award is established to recognize and encourage outdoor activities: National Outdoor Challenge Award The National Outdoor Challenge recognizes troops that maintain or increase the amount of outdoor activity when compared to the previous year. With the release of this award, the National Camping Award has been discontinued. The award is recognized with a streamer for the unit flag. The application is available here National Outdoor Achievement AwardThe National Outdoor Achievement Award recognizes Boy Scouts/Varsity Scouts who excel in outdoor participation....
The trucker’s hitch is a compound knot that functions as a kind of pulley affording a 3-1 mechanical advantage effectively tripling the amount of pull on the working end. I use the trucker’s hitch when tightening up tarp lines, securing loads or making bundles. See my tarp knots infographic for more tarp knots The hitch begins by forming a loop using a marlin-spike hitch (alternatively you can use an alpine butterfly or just about any loop knot)....
For some reason the amazingly useful zeppelin knot has been forgotten. Like many knots, it is stronger than a square knot, but it is unique in that it can always be untied easily, even after it has been loaded heavily. In other words, it will not “jam”. It is also easy to tie and easy to verify. Supposedly it is called the Rosendahl or “Zeppelin” knot because American airship commander Charles Rosendahl insisted on its use in mooring lines....
Take this sky tour infographic with you and the next time you are out camping take a few minutes to conduct a tour of the circumpolar constellations. You’ll learn two methods of finding the north star and how to identify the constellations along with some astronomy facts and folklore. Whenever we have good seeing conditions I try to take the time go through the visible constellations with Scouts, they get pretty good at identifying them once we’ve done it a few times....