Are You Smarter Than a Boy Scout?

[Knot Head]

30 or even 40 nights camped sounds good to me, but I would have it start when you join rather than when you make 1st class. But's that's just me. If they went to 40 nights 2 summer camp weeks could count.

 

Many of our guys get 20 nights in year 1 (including 6 at summer camp) so 30 total wouldn't be too hard. Most eagles are north of 70 (including summer camps) by the time they make eagle in our troop. We camp monthly so it's not too hard to get the nights to add up over a few years.

 

You can backpack on the cheap if you take your time & shop for gear. You may be limited to shorter trips but you can still get out. Even a 5 mile in and 5 mile out trip can be fun and can be done with smaller packs. But you can also blow big bucks too if so inclined. It is alot of fun though.

(This message has been edited by knot head)

[boomerscout]

Eagle92:

I agree with what you say, and they will do all this once they're in Scouts. The problem seems to be to get them into Scouts in the first place. Let's give them a taste of Scouts, and of (some) council camp programs, with some advance credit to sweeten the deal.

camp is just for Webelos; no "big guy" Scout patrols around to tease or annoy them. Four days of one year should not interfere with their other Webelos activities.

Guests? they pay for camp. they are told what camp will involve

[boomerscout]

Hey KnotHead:

"Many of our guys get 20 nights in year 1 (including 6 at summer camp) so 30 total wouldn't be too hard"

a lot of troops spend half their monthly camps in cabins instead of in tents. For those kids it's much harder if they can't tote up until they reach First. Many camps push staying in their cabins instead of in their tents--so no 6 nite credit there!

[shortridge]

Backpacking certainly doesn't have to be expensive. I subscribe to Backpacker, but the trend over the years toward gear porn has put me off a bit - it can get quite ridiculous. You can sew your own pack (a great experience), rig up a bedroll, buy an oversize Army surplus softpack for $40, get an old external pack frame and hitch your stuff to it... there are plenty of options out there for introducing Scouts to the sport.

 

I did a LNT trainer course a short time ago, with people from varying backgrounds. There were brand-new spankin' packs from REI, older external frame packs and oversize day packs with stuff lashed to the outside. One fellow used one of those olive-drab military duffels with shoulder straps. He survived.

 

There was a Backpacker article I read close to 10 years ago now - the title was something like "Modern Man vs. Mad Dog," and really broke down the differences betwen the "techno-packers" and the thrift-shop folks. It showed just how simple backpacking can be if you resist the temptation of the gear companies. Still good reading today.

 

Personally, I'd like to combine Camping and Backpacking. Separating them makes car camping-style expeditions the default, and backpacking some ethereal, higher form of outdoor adventure.

[theysawyoucomin']

I'll have to look up the article but I wonder if it is written by the hateful little wench who spoke about her 3 yr old humping over glaciers in Alaska. Backpacker magazine has a book that talks about ditching around your tent in the 1960 version of the Scout Handbook. Backpacker does not say what the publishers of the same book were discharging into rivers in the 1960's. Must have been some other society that allowed the Cayahoga River to be polluted and catch fire. The Hudson was to be a condemned open sewer in those days. The authors diaper may have been emptied into a river but now they are so much holier than thou. The magazine is nice but they always put down the Scouts. I'm a little sick of the eco snobs that buy a bumper sticker for two bucks while I spend hundreds on licence fees and thousands on wetlands thru Ducks Unlimited.

 

 

 

Look in the 1948 edition of the Scout handbook it has a back pack made from an old pair of pants.

 

 

About the cost of camping gear, I am tired of being made to feel guilty because I can afford something and others can't. I can afford a backback. My kid has the $90 Kelty (Tioga?) that grows. He earned $60 thru the cub pack sorting thousands and thousands of returnable bottles earning $10 a whack. I supplied the other $30. Teach kids to get off their tails and find an honest way to earn a few bucks. Lots of lawns to mow in the NE with rain we have been getting.

 

that same issue of the handbook has plans for a pack frame. The internet has plans for a packbasket using two five gallon pails.

 

Comparing to sports have you priced a baseball glove or an aluminum bat lately? Well I guess the bat could be used to defend your home now that owning a gun carries more social stigma than most social diseases.

 

 

I've said it before nothing can teach you preparedness and planning like backpacking---especially winter backpacking. Nature is a teacher that does not lower her standards on the lessons she teaches.

 

I would be in favor of the BP merit badge. The 20 nights of car camping is good for year one and two even three but after that let's reqire a bp trip or 5 day canoe paddle.

 

[desertrat77]

I agree that backpacking should be a required MB--in addition to camping.

 

For those with physical limitations, they should be excused upon a doctor's order and allowed to persue some other MB.

 

Expense isn't really a limiting factor. Plenty of cheap options out there, especially for the new scouts who are just learning the ropes. Most of what you buy them will be outgrown, lost or broke anyway. You can pick up an external frame pack pretty cheap on ebay or a yard sale. Do you need a titanium back packing cup or will a plastic one from the thrift store suffice? Purchase a state of the art spork made from "space age polymers" or just borrow that odd spoon from the kitchen drawer? I say this as a guy who's first back pack was a green Kmart Yucca pack, and has bought some very pricey things when I was an adult: simple is best.

 

It's very easy to get caught in the trendy gear vortex.

 

The First Class rule for the camping log is administrivia.

[SunnyD]

I wouldn't advocate Webelos nights counting toward the merit badge (Boy Scout advancements should be earned while a Boy Scout and most Cub camping is different in nature than Boy Scout camping anyway, as has been pointed out). I was amused though by the assertion that Webelos don't camp much.

 

Our pack camps 15 nights every year. Add in resident camp and Webelos-specific activites, and a scout could easily surpass 40 nights in the 18 months as a Webelos. In fact, our active scouts who started as Tigers have a good 70-80 nights under their belts before ever crossing over - some could get even more.