Need ideas for a camping skills night at a weekly meeting

[Lexington76]

Hey all- I am the crew advisor for a high adventure based crew with many new members. Ne w & present membership includes hiking & camping experiance of all levels- never had a back pack to eagle scouts.

 

To help the teens who have little experiance, the officers and I are planning a Camping 101 night at our next meeting (a local equipment outfitter opened their doors for us after hours last week and did a great job updating us on packs, bags and clothing)

 

Besides going over other basics (BTW -our first overnighter will be a drive in event helping with a council Cub Scout weekend- we will back pack the next event) I would like to have some fun with some competitions, like a fire building event, tent pitching, etc....

 

Any ideas or suggestions? Resourses?

 

Thanks!

 

Steve in SC

[campdirector]

Steve,

One idea is to combine your Camping 101 with a Leave No Trace workshop. Use each of the 7 principles and combine it with a skill for that principle.

For example:

Principle 1: Plan Ahead and Prepare

Creating a what to bring list - tie it in with a kims game variation.

 

For fire building use a mound or pan fires. Use stoves. Demo proper catholes or pack out methods.

 

If you want to go this route use the LNT website: http://www.lnt.org/programs/lnt7/index.html#lnt1 (choose: detail for the best info,

or

"Teaching Leave No Trace" is on the national scouting website for webview or download. It also has several activities: http://www.scouting.org/nav/enter.jsp?s=ba

 

hope this helps.

Reggie

[Dizzy ona cliff]

It can be time consuming, but a staged first aid recognition and response situations for hypothermia, dehydration, choking, sprained ankle & etc. can be fun.

Since you are planning for high adventure some kind of low impact & efficient skills competition would be neat such as cleaning a cooking pot with minimal water and food debris, finding an item in your pack while blindfolded, finding treasure by map reading & clues.

[local1400]

The Boy Scout Fieldbook has much to offer for all kinds of different levels of experience plus so much more!

[Ohio_Scouter]

Every fall, our troop has a father (or mother)/son mountain man competition which includes scored cooking contests, rifle and shotgun shooting contests, knife and tomahawk throwing contests, corn-hole contests, spear throwing contests, blowgun competitions, and frisbee golf contests, to name a few. Our guys love these competitions each year, and the judges have a great time judging the cooking contests, plus they eat free. Good luck and have fun.

[SSScout]

Navigation Game:::

 

Needs advance planning.

 

As the Scouts arrive at the meeting place, they are given a card with some directions on it. This can be as exact as compass degrees and pace distances, or as fun as "face the NW door of the church. Turn right. Walk 100 paces straight . at Oak tree with biggest trunk..." etc.

The goal is to get them 1) to think about how to get places and 2) get them to the next station where they learn about LNT fire building, etc.

That station gives them a new card and on they go.

 

Yeah, it is sort of like a scavenger hunt.

 

I''ve seen this done inside the building, if it''s large enough .

 

MiF KiS YiS

[purcelce]

Take a look at the Outdoors Bronze and Ranger requirements.

This might give you a few ideas plus the Venturers might be able to knock out a requirement or two.

 

Cary P

Crew 805 Advisor

[Gunny2862]

Don''t forget basics such as an individual fitting of Backpacks, why more than one sock per foot, why Wool clothing rather than cotton in the cold.

 

Start at the bottom and train up, your more experienced members should be able to volunteer to teach sections(will also keep them from getting bored while you train the inexperienced one) and it gives them a refresher on the material.

 

I like the LNT angle in this case!

 

Don''t forget an actual compass course with bypass obstacles, and you can always set a compass to a false declination and then give the information to the crew as a map addendum to see who is really able to navigate. If you do this ensure you set the course with the same false declination on your compass.

[epalmer84]

There are some interesting knots in the current issue of Scouting. I told the SM last night that I would like to teach an advanced knot classhe and the TCC were both interested in learning.

 

Now I gotta go learn some knots. Wonder where my blue and red practice ropes went to?

 

Ed