Can Scouts use campers?

[qwazse]

43 minutes ago, SpEdScouter said:

... And really when it comes down to it, most of scout "camping" is really car camping anyways.

This really depends on your troop. I grew having no idea that scouts didn't walk at least 100 yards from the SM's car before they pitched their tents! Summer or winter, we'd have the farthest camp from the parking lot (if at our regular summer camp, that was about a quarter mile uphill). We'd pitch our canvas tents then some of us trudged back down to haul up the 10 gallon army-surplus water bottle. (Camel-back? We had the whole hump!)

I'd be sitting there sipping my bedtime cocoa wondering what the guys in the cabin down the hill were up to, and I'd pity them for missing the stars on the new-fallen snow. But, I'm pretty sure those guy's cars were also parked back down by the camp office. That hill was not fit for cars -- especially ones pulling trailers -- on a good day.

Edited February 8, 2018 by qwazse

[cyphertext]

3 hours ago, SpEdScouter said:

Well it was something I have been thinking about, since the scout troops already have tents (and I've seen some pretty great ones) why cant we step it up a bit and stay in a pop up? Plus the scouts already can travel on buses and stay in hotels. Especially when the weather is really bad and having an enclosed area to cook and bringing your bathroom along when the campgrounds toilets are far away and nasty. I'm not talking those big class C motorhomes. Just maybe a popup or a basic trailer.

 

And really when it comes down to it, most of scout "camping" is really car camping anyways.

How big is your troop?  If you have more than a handful of boys, this wouldn't be very practical at all...  Let's say you have 25 boys in your troop... that would be 4 to 5 trailers for just the boys!  Where would you store these?  Who would pull them to camp outs?  Where would the funds to purchase them come from?  

And as far as car camping, that really does depend upon your troop.  The troop my son was in did quite a bit of backpacking.  

[CalicoPenn]

As long as the Scouts and the adults are in separate pop-ups, there's nothing that says you can't.

[Pselb]

This should hold the boys and all their gear.

 

[blw2]

20 hours ago, Col. Flagg said:

@blw2 every once in a while this might be fun...but I'd rather be in my Big Agnes.

Yeah, no I get what you mean....

At first we started looking at the popup as an upgraded tent.... then as time passed it became a really low-end RV.

Now we have a basic class C motor home.  Interesting thing related to this thread, it was on one of those cub scout trips I mentioned, when we first started toying with the idea of getting an RV.  It rained all weekend.  I was out doing the seemingly hour long set-up process getting soaked, while I watched all the folks in TT's and motor homes, back into their spots, set the parking brake, and crack open a cold drink....to watch me.  I was also out there helping other folks set up their tents too, although there weren't many of those...

Anyway, RVing really is fun family time but it aint camping....although what is camping anyway?  I think it boils down to roughing it....compared to your normal.  RVing is not so unlike cabin stays.  Sometimes it can be approaching roughing it....well at least simplifying it.... but it gets the family together, breaks the routine, encourages travel to visit nature in places like state parks, sometimes like this past weekend where I hiked 6 miles on some really great trails.

....and on the other side of things, i just splurged and bought myself a new tent recently.... a Duplex from Zpacks.  Wow that thing is light!  Cant wait to carry it a few miles to use it!

[Pselb]

We have a class-B camper that's a bit crowded for 5 people, but we make it work.  We use it because our home-schooling involves a lot of field-trips and the cost of restaurants and hotels would limit us considerably.  When we do a family camping trip we use 3 small tents, one for the wife and I, one for the girls and the boy likes his own tent as well.  we used to have a small popup until a hail storm in Nebraska did a number on it.

[Pale Horse]

On 2/9/2018 at 12:16 PM, blw2 said:

....and on the other side of things, i just splurged and bought myself a new tent recently.... a Duplex from Zpacks.  Wow that thing is light!  Cant wait to carry it a few miles to use it!

Very nice tent.  A couple of my hiking partners have it and love it.  It's going to be my next purchase, for those rare occasions where I can't hang my hammock and have to sleep on the ground like a heathen.