My son....

[5thGenTexan]

It was 70 degrees yesterday.  When the front blew in around midnight with 50 mph winds the temp dropped quickly.  I am not sure its going to get about 35 all day with at least 20 - 30 mph winds all day long.    

 

I am not sorry it was cancelled.

[5thGenTexan]

38 minutes ago, T2Eagle said:

Our training for parents is to make sure your son gathers everything and checks it off the checklist, and then make sure HE puts it in the pack.  Unless we're backpacking, I always keep some spare gear in my car.  Especially for newer scouts, one miserable experience can end their scouting career. 

Sixteen year olds who show up with nothing but a hoodie for a November campout get a lot less sympathy.  A scout is Helpful so I share what I have, but I don't have to wash my own dishes that weekend.

If we're backpacking we do at minimum a check for raingear and sufficient clothing layers before we get in the cars.

 

My crossover campout....  it was cold to start with.  Then during the night the army tent I was sharing with 2 other Scouts let the thunderstorm in and we got wet.  Then frost the next morning.  I think adults went to sleep in cars that night and we got a different tent.

[SSScout]

Then we have the Scout who told me that the umbrella was insisted upon by his mom....   We were in a drought....

[SSScout]

OH ! My favorite story...  when Scoutson earned his AOL and crossed into his Troop, we said we would celebrate by buying him a present. Any one thing he wanted...

He chose a 5 D cell Maglight.   It went on ONE campout.  Then, he realized why dad only took little AA pocket lights....

I think he still has it,  but it rides in his truck. 

[Jameson76]

On 1/15/2022 at 2:59 PM, SSScout said:

He chose a 5 D cell Maglight.   It went on ONE campout.  Then, he realized why dad only took little AA pocket lights....

 

Had a newer scout that was lugging the 5D Maglight around.  I asked him why he didn't get a headlamp or pocket flashlight.  His answer was one could not hit a bear over the head with pocket flashlight.  

I could not argue with such sound logic

[Eagle1993]

1 hour ago, Jameson76 said:

Had a newer scout that was lugging the 5D Maglight around.  I asked him why he didn't get a headlamp or pocket flashlight.  His answer was one could not hit a bear over the head with pocket flashlight.  

I could not argue with such sound logic

Many moons ago I was in Ely Minnesota and one of our scouts kept going on about how he planned to "punch a bear in its face".  Apart from questioning why he was so angry at an animal he never met (and if punching a bear aligns to the Oath and Law), we all had doubts.  Sure enough, we saw a bear across a parking lot on one of the days we were in the bunk house area.  Our SM looked for the scout who claimed he was going to punch the bear and saw him running full speed back to his bed.  I don't know if the bear realized how close he came to be punched in the face.

[MattR]

19 minutes ago, Eagle1993 said:

Our SM looked for the scout who claimed he was going to punch the bear and saw him running full speed back to his bed. 

Good for the scout. I've seen people taking selfies with full grown bull elks in rutting season. "Well punk, do you feel lucky?"

[Oldscout448]

On 1/15/2022 at 9:55 AM, T2Eagle said:

My nephew recently moved to the mountains of Utah, he and his sons' first troop campout was in October --- snowy at 7000 feet.  His not so subtle message to me with the pictures he sent was "hey Uncle T2, you're not the toughest camper in the family any more. "

ETA, although I don't think where he is he'll ever again encounter the 35 degrees and raining that we often see here in the Midwest/Northeast, which I think is really the most miserable of conditions.  

For a decade or so my sons had a friendly competition for the highest mountain climbed.  Mostly though I think they wanted to beat their Dads best of 11,711.  A few years ago I got an photo of a smiling scoutson #1 standing in the snow, next to a sign proclaiming  18,500 ft.   He was somewhere in Nepal.