Can a scout tent alone?

[pbmartin70]

The summer camp we are going to has the standard 2 person canvas platform tents. We are bringing an odd number of scouts with us to camp. Can one scout tent alone? My plan was to allow the Senior Patrol Leader to have his own tent, but I've had another adult say scouts have to be 2 to a tent. I looked through the Guide to Safe Scouting and I couldn't find anything in writing that says the minimum number of scouts in a tent is two.

[King Ding Dong]

I guess one boy just has to stay home. Not one of 19 scouts slept in the tents the other week, they all slept outside, by choice. I have not seen any National rule on two to tent either. I think the camp may have a rule that if you have 13 scouts they are not going to provide your troop with 13 tents. Sometimes adults just can't think rationally, happens to scouts also. So what is this adults plan ? Place the odd man out in a tent with an adult ? Violate the 30 square foot requirement and shove three in a tent ? Moron. Get him out of your troop and don't waste any more of your time with him.

[Kristian]

allowing the spl to tent alone is something some of my troops have done. gives him some extra space to plan out and rest from doing his job.

 

there is certainly nothing wrong at all with letting scouts camp by themselves. if everyone wants to solo tent, and you have enough extras just let them do it.

[IM_Kathy]

we had an odd number for all but 2 nights of camp as we had a new scout who was not ready for a full week come up for last 2 nights. He said he would prefer to tent with our SPL so he got to tent alone. Before we got him to attend it was going to be a scout that does have trouble with getting cranky from not enough sleep and needs to have someone that does not talk a lot at night to make sure he gets rest. So he ended up pairing off with who the SPL was going to originally tent with who is also a 17 year old scout and knew about him needing sleep from many campouts.

 

At OA call-out we realized all the OA boys were paired up with someone who was not so for that 1 night the boys just pulled their sleeping bag onto the others cot and paired up and we had one boy that bunked with his dad that night.

[Stosh]

I know of no rule that says a boy can't have his own quarters/tent. I have always used the formula there are X number of tents and X number of boys going on the trip. I let them do the math, it's really not my problem. Every trip I've ever taken over the many years of scouting, I have never had a problem with it. Usually what I find is the boys double up on backpacking so they both don't need to carry a tent, and other activities they buddy up so that they have only one tent to dry out if it rains, etc. If left alone, they seem to figure it out on their own terms. At summer camp where they used wall tents they had to set up on their own, one patrol put up 3 wall tents end-to-end and all 8 boys slept in it. It was kinda cool.

[perdidochas]

While it's not a G2SS rule, our Troop rule is that Scouts have to be at least Star in order to tent alone. My oldest son loves it, and unless it's cold out (or summer camp) he tents alone. My youngest hates the idea, and although he's a Star, he would never tent alone given a choice.

[Stosh]

While it's not a G2SS rule, our Troop rule is that Scouts have to be at least Star in order to tent alone. My oldest son loves it, and unless it's cold out (or summer camp) he tents alone. My youngest hates the idea, and although he's a Star, he would never tent alone given a choice.

There's a lot to be said about letting the boys decide what they want to do. As long as there are resources to handle it, go for it.

[NealOnWheels]

I guess one boy just has to stay home. Not one of 19 scouts slept in the tents the other week, they all slept outside, by choice. I have not seen any National rule on two to tent either. I think the camp may have a rule that if you have 13 scouts they are not going to provide your troop with 13 tents. Sometimes adults just can't think rationally, happens to scouts also. So what is this adults plan ? Place the odd man out in a tent with an adult ? Violate the 30 square foot requirement and shove three in a tent ? Moron. Get him out of your troop and don't waste any more of your time with him.

What is this 30 square foot requirement?

[King Ding Dong]

While it's not a G2SS rule, our Troop rule is that Scouts have to be at least Star in order to tent alone. My oldest son loves it, and unless it's cold out (or summer camp) he tents alone. My youngest hates the idea, and although he's a Star, he would never tent alone given a choice.

I have seen no rule against, but have heard that it is good to have the scouts at least 2 to a tent. Our troop allows solo, but ps with personal tents not troop. I have seen one or two go solo and they are also special needs so it probably best. Our troop also lets 3rd years use hammocks, though they tend to stay very close if possible.

 

I read on another thread some camps like Philmont do not allow solo tenting. Something about bears more attracted to a solo tent. Not sure how he knows how many are inside, but maybe he can smell them. So I suppose in bear country it is a safety issue. I would always check local regulations and ranger advise.

 

OA makes them sleep alone, correct ?

[Khaliela]

I guess one boy just has to stay home. Not one of 19 scouts slept in the tents the other week, they all slept outside, by choice. I have not seen any National rule on two to tent either. I think the camp may have a rule that if you have 13 scouts they are not going to provide your troop with 13 tents. Sometimes adults just can't think rationally, happens to scouts also. So what is this adults plan ? Place the odd man out in a tent with an adult ? Violate the 30 square foot requirement and shove three in a tent ? Moron. Get him out of your troop and don't waste any more of your time with him.

The 30 sq foot requirement is just covered space, not tent space. If your tents are small (we use backpacking tents that are tiny) you just put up a rain fly, and presto, you're meeting your sq ft. requirement.

[Khaliela]

Why not throw 3 boys in one tent? If your camp uses the big green canvas tents there is plent of room and I'm sure you've got a set of boys who would be happy to be the Three Musketeers!

[King Ding Dong]

I guess one boy just has to stay home. Not one of 19 scouts slept in the tents the other week, they all slept outside, by choice. I have not seen any National rule on two to tent either. I think the camp may have a rule that if you have 13 scouts they are not going to provide your troop with 13 tents. Sometimes adults just can't think rationally, happens to scouts also. So what is this adults plan ? Place the odd man out in a tent with an adult ? Violate the 30 square foot requirement and shove three in a tent ? Moron. Get him out of your troop and don't waste any more of your time with him.

I think BSA has a summer camp requirement that that each scout has 30 square feet of space, though I cannot remember if it is in GTTS or somewhere else. A 9x7 wall tent has 63. I don't think you could shove three cots in a wall tent. Probably there to make sure the camps have adequate supply of tents.

 

 

Just found a thread that where infoscouter references it

 

http://www.scouter.com/forum/camping-high-adventure/equipment-reviews-discussions/15025-how-many-square-feet

[infoscouter]

I guess one boy just has to stay home. Not one of 19 scouts slept in the tents the other week, they all slept outside, by choice. I have not seen any National rule on two to tent either. I think the camp may have a rule that if you have 13 scouts they are not going to provide your troop with 13 tents. Sometimes adults just can't think rationally, happens to scouts also. So what is this adults plan ? Place the odd man out in a tent with an adult ? Violate the 30 square foot requirement and shove three in a tent ? Moron. Get him out of your troop and don't waste any more of your time with him.

The camping standard which referenced a minimum number of square feet is apparently no longer in force. I just had this discussion on another list, and took the opportunity to look at the newest standards: http://www.scouting.org/filestore/outdoor%20program/pdf/430-056.pdf. There is no reference to size of tents.

[Khaliela]

I guess one boy just has to stay home. Not one of 19 scouts slept in the tents the other week, they all slept outside, by choice. I have not seen any National rule on two to tent either. I think the camp may have a rule that if you have 13 scouts they are not going to provide your troop with 13 tents. Sometimes adults just can't think rationally, happens to scouts also. So what is this adults plan ? Place the odd man out in a tent with an adult ? Violate the 30 square foot requirement and shove three in a tent ? Moron. Get him out of your troop and don't waste any more of your time with him.

KDD:

Last year at Melita we used our backpacking tents because their camp does not supply tents. Our tents are 3.5X6 and sleeps 2 if they put their gear under the rain fly. Camp Staff told us if we put up a dining fly all would be well, so that's what we did.

 

Cots??? Scouts do not use cots. LOL! (At least not in our troop.)

[King Ding Dong]

I guess one boy just has to stay home. Not one of 19 scouts slept in the tents the other week, they all slept outside, by choice. I have not seen any National rule on two to tent either. I think the camp may have a rule that if you have 13 scouts they are not going to provide your troop with 13 tents. Sometimes adults just can't think rationally, happens to scouts also. So what is this adults plan ? Place the odd man out in a tent with an adult ? Violate the 30 square foot requirement and shove three in a tent ? Moron. Get him out of your troop and don't waste any more of your time with him.

Our troop does not use cots except at summer camp. They are provided at most camps. It may have to do with the relatively poor condition of the wall tents and inches per hour rate in which it can rain in our area and the topography of the camp sites. When it rains 2 inches per hour with already saturated soil it is going to pool.

 

It would not be uncommon for the water to overlap the floorboards soaking all the gear. Even without cots the size of wall tents the camps I have seen it would be extremely difficult to fit three boys in one. We have some fit twin 16 year olds that are built like trucks. Might me able to get away with it some of the younger boys but then no place for the gear. No rain flys for the wall tents.

 

This is a big country with diverse climates. Scouts in Arizona are going to camp differently than those in Washington, Alaska, Florida or Ohio or Southern California. It serves no purpose to ridicule Scouts for taking appropriate actions in the environment they will be in.