Fingerprinting MB vs. Mile Swim

[CalicoPenn]

Hmm - curious - the mention of flip turns leads me to another question. For those camps that have practice/warm-up/qualifying sessions, are the swims done in a pool like environment? Or does that apply to camps where swimming is in a lake, river, etc.? I'm wondering if infrastructure means there needs to be more structure to earning the mile swim at some camps because of limited availability of the resource? In a lake traverse, there would be little conflict between user groups while a pool situation wouold mean more scheduling is needed.

 

One year, the camp decided that mile swims would be done around a string of rowboats at the waterfront - we were told because it would open up more Scouts to earning the Mile Swim since the waterfront staff could watch the Scouts instead of having folks accompany Scouts in a rowboat. The howls of protest over that decision apparently were pretty loud because the next year, it went right back to traversing the lake.

 

Seems some Scouts were using the rowboating portion as practice for rowing merit badge, that many leaders liked the peace and quiet of being out on the lake, and the swimmers much preferred the lake. There were also questions about whether 15 laps around some rowboats really equalled a mile - while no one ever questioned the length of the lake traverse (which was advertised as at least 1 mile, but may be closer to 1 1/4 miles).

[desertrat77]

CalicoPenn, I agree with your observation of swimmers enjoying the lake. Did two mile swims as a scout, one in a swimming pool in AZ, the other in a lake in AK.

 

I can still remember how boring and closed in that pool seemed. Tedium. Even thirty years later, it tires me thinking about it.

 

The lake? Big, cold. Cloudy day with drizzle. When I finished, I was very cold. But every minute out there was like an adventure and I am still proud of it.

[evry]

At Woodruff Camp in north Georgia where my son did the mile swim, there are 4 practice sessions on 4 different days, and the Scout must complete 3 out of the 4. These are done as laps in a roped off area in the lake. 1st day: 3 laps, 2nd day: 6 laps, 3rd day: 10 laps, 4th day: 14 laps. I think the 14 laps are about 2/3 mile. My son did the Day 1, 2 and 4 to qualify.

On Friday, the actual mile swim is held for all Scouts (and Scouters) that have qualified during the previous 4 days. The staff told me that it is actually a little bit more than 1 mile (I think they said 1.1 mile). The swim starts from the boat dock and you must swim out to Buoy 1 and then circle an island three times around two other buoys before returning to Buoy 1 and then heading back to the Boat Dock.

Much less tedious swimming in a lake than in a swimming pool with laps IMHO.

[Herms]

evry, Congrats to your son! Good decision making. My oldest swam it again this year in the lake at Camp Hale, OK, and is now crowing that he is one swim up on his old man. Time for me to hit the pool!!

[VigilNavyCPO]

Funny story about my youth. When I was a 17 year old waterfront instrutor at Camp, me & another instructor wanted to do the mile swim. We asked the Waterfront Director if we could and how do we do it, and he told us that a bouy out in the lake was the mile swim bouy, and if we had a row boat with two lifeguards follw us, we could do it sat after the Troops had left camp for the week on our own. (It was the 1st year for this waterfront director) We decided to team up and do it together for moral support. That sat we got in the water and swam & swam, we both wanted to quit half way, but decided not to be chicken and we both finally finished it. The Camp director was laughing the next day when we told him the story about how we had finished the Miler, turns out the bouy was not 1/2 mile out in the lake, but a full mile out, we had really done two miles.

 

Thankfully they gave us both two mile swim patches.