A naturally formed non-BSA patrol in the making

[blw2]

just thought I'd share a story

to set the stage, my house is in a developed neighborhood, but my lot joins up to a wooded area on two sides.  One continuous & very thick tangled mess of palmetto and briers for the first  10-20 feet or so in.  Basically impenetrable.

For a few months now, my kids have been asking me to cut a path through, like a did several winters back with a rented walk behind bush hog (in an effort to thin out the fire hazard primarily).  When I did it before the kids were all too little to care.  For some reason, the woods are calling them now.

I kept promising "one of these days", hoping I might make time some weekend but realizing we probably never will have the time...

 

So anyway, I came home a few days ago to some excited kids.  They had started a trail!  Even my 2nd grade daughter and her friend, as well as my Pre-K daughter, were in on the act.  It wasn't just my Scout son and his non scout friends.  It was clear they had been working long and hard.  I figured it would be a dying interest... but it has continued every chance they get.  They are excited every day to show me their progress.  They now have a plan to make a fort of some sort back there, by lashing together some pine poles!  There was even talk of camping back there in tents over the weekend!

 

So anyway, it comes to mind that this is EXACTLY the dynamic that old BP himself tapped into.  I'm tickled that they are away from the computer screens, and doing something they can't experience anywhere else.  My son surely isn't getting this level of woodsmanship in scouts, nor is my daughter in Girl Scouts.  Son's friends aren't in scouts and aren't from a camping family so its good for them too.

[qwazse]

These days, all naturally formed patrols are non-BSA.

[Stosh]

If it works for non-BSA groups well, why doesn't BSA at least give it a try?

[jpstodwftexas]

They will have fun until someone points out that Boys and Girls can't play well together and starts handing out Guides to Safe Outdoorsmanship

[WAKWIB]

Thanks for sharing that, blw2. Brought back some good memories of trailblazing and fort building that I and my non-scout buddies did in the woods near our neighborhoods. 

[Stosh]

My buddies and I were a "patrol" long before we got to scouts......  We were a patrol even after we all quit scouts.  The patrol fell apart after we all went our ways after high school graduation.  .... I thought this was supposed to be how it works for kids.

[SpEdScouter]

I think the OP's points are WHY we still need Scouting. Years ago we kids did some similar things but you know what? We lived in an area which had rural or undeveloped areas around us so we could do such things. Nowadays my kids and most others live in suburbs where every yard is mowed and landscaped and fenced off and building a treehouse practically requires a city permit.

 

So we need Scouting to get the kids outside and doing things.

[King Ding Dong]

And all those beautiful lawns are for looking at. Get off my lawn!

[Krampus]

My PLC was struggling with getting some of the newer, younger Scouts out for events. They hit on the idea to make a Minecraft themed event. There's a recycle park nearby and they collected hundreds of boxes. We have a field near the CO, so they set up the field as a Minecraft field. Guys worked in Minecraft Patrols to build their fort, collect food and then had to "craft" (e.g. cook the food patrol style), etc. It was all the stuff they'd normally do on a camp out but with the word "Minecraft" put in front of everything.

 

A passing Cub Scout group saw the event and joined in.

 

Epilogue: At the end of the event one group said, "It would be great to do that without all the boxes!", The Instructor retorted, "We do, it's called a camp out." Registration for the June camp out soared by 20 kids...and ten adults.

[qwazse]

...

Epilogue: At the end of the event one group said, "It would be great to do that without all the boxes!", The Instructor retorted, "We do, it's called a camp out." Registration for the June camp out soared by 20 kids...and ten adults.

I once tried to pitch backpacking in Dolly Sods as "just like Skyrim, only you move your character with your feet instead of your thumbs." At the end of a day of rocks and bogs, the most-avid video-gamer in the crew (for her, this was her first back-country hike) gave me a most evil stare.

[Krampus]

I once tried to pitch backpacking in Dolly Sods as "just like Skyrim, only you move your character with your feet instead of your thumbs." At the end of a day of rocks and bogs, the most-avid video-gamer in the crew (for her, this was her first back-country hike) gave me a most evil stare.

 

Fond, FOND memories of Dolly Sods, Seneca Rocks and the Monongehela National Forest.

[MrBob]

 "just like Skyrim, only you move your character with your feet instead of your thumbs." 

 

Hopefully, nobody took an arrow to the knee...