Any Scout Leaders here?

[Binford]

Surely if there's a Scouter on this forum, there could be some good posts about backpacking and walk-in camping, eh?

It's our off-season now up here in the States, so most of the camping our Scout Troop is doing lately is "dump-camping" (as in dump the gear out of the back of the car and set up camp!) We do our backpacking trips in the late spring through autumn.

So if there are some Scouters on this forum, I'd love to hear about some of your outings--things the boys do, how they set up a hike-in camp, pictures of the setups, etc. I think our Scouts here in the Pacific Northwest would get a real kick out of seeing how distant Scouts operate. Probably a lot the same as well!


I've got a few pictures to post of some of our trips, but Photobucket isn't working right now. I'll get 'em up a little later.

Cheers....

-- Tim Taylor

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2009/12/1320.jpg

[Blknight.aus]

I'll see if mum and dad have any pics from when I was a scout....

[Quarks]

Yes, well this one has been flat out doing stuff! Not much time to do write ups when you're organising the next outing. (can you tell it's a Jamboree year!)

I'm not sure what photos are up on the group website 1st East Ryde Scouts (http://www.eastrydescouts.org) but I suspect that there are more Cub pics than Scout ones.

Anyway I'll see if there are more about.

:)
Geoff

[DiscoScout]

Yer jamboree coming up in 4 weeks, i'm not actually a scout leader, but a Rover, the other week our crew set about designing a gateway for the troop site. it was....interesting....creating something to stand on 2.5m off the ground and teaching some of the crew as we went. i'll try and find some photos of it, we didn't get it finished, but it stood up.;)

Thanks
Adam

[rovers4]

Four types:
Overnight Hikes, maybe one or several nights, moving each day. Usually Venturers.
Hike in carrying all, stay a few nights.
Hike in via an overland route carrying all personal gear, meet up with vehicle delivered tentage etc, stay a few nights. Called a standing camp.
Take all personel and gear in by vehicle. Also a standing camp.

Standing camps can have wooden trestle (hinged leg sets) tables, or table tops on improvised legs, or pioneer tables (build all on site).

Cold weather prevents a lot from camping from May till September - high cost of winter kit. Parents cover all costs.
Most camps are of weekend duration during school term. Can be longer during summer vacations, but leaders not allways able to get the time off. Even then they prefer to spend the time with own families.

Cubs not able to go "under canvas" till 10 years old.

More and more use of gas for cooking.

Girls and boys in Scouts. Can be mixed Patrols- separate tents. Some single Patrol camps. Usually whole Troop - Can be up to six Patrols.
A minimum of twelve Scouts in a Troop. Between four and eight in a Patrol.
A troop with girls must have a female in Leadership team.

Fund raising always a problem, no business sponsorship.
Uniform getting more like regular streetwear.

Troops meet weekly. If a Sea Scout Troop, then weekend meetings more normal. Some meet midweek at their Hall and then also on Saturday morn at their boatshed.

School/regular sport gets in the way of Scouting at weekends.

Very few Troops meet after school. Usually at night 7 - 9p.m. (Schools start 8:30 or 9:00, finish 3:00 or so. Transport to home can take another hour or more).

Scout Halls not necessarily near Schools, or even near home.

That is a starter, to talk about.

Rovers4.

[Binford]

Photobucket is working now. Here's a bunch of the boys in our Troop on an 8-mile day hike we did early last summer. Most had their fully-loaded packs on as this was a prerequisite hike for any wishing to go on the 50-mile hike that summer.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2009/12/1307.jpg


This is the group on their way to a one-night hike-in camp site along a river on the east ("dry") side of the Olympic Rainforest. Many ill-fitting packs as this was our short-hike "shake-down" trip to see how well the boys packed and how well their packs were adjusted, etc. Good thing we only went about a mile in! :D

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2009/12/1308.jpg


The untidy riverside camp itself! (My hammock under the tarp in the background left.)

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2009/12/1309.jpg


A dump camp from last spring at a state park about an hour away. It's an old military camp that was originally set up in the late 1800s as one of a series of forts with huge cannons to protect the inlet to Puget Sound, where Seattle lies. These forts were closed following World War II and soon after made into state parks. Great fun for boys to explore!

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2009/12/1310.jpg


And, quite appropriate for this forum, here is what I found parked there near the park's museum!

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2009/12/1311.jpg


If the hike-in is a mile or less from where the vehicles are parked, we'll bring our Dutch ovens. This is our dessert preparation at Resident Camp last summer.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2009/12/1312.jpg



Four types:
Overnight Hikes, maybe one or several nights, moving each day. Usually Venturers.
Hike in carrying all, stay a few nights.
Hike in via an overland route carrying all personal gear, meet up with vehicle delivered tentage etc, stay a few nights. Called a standing camp.
Take all personel and gear in by vehicle. Also a standing camp.

Interesting. We'll do the overnight hikes for our 20- or 50-mile hikes. Same when we do a float trip with canoes. If it's just a weekend trip, we'll usually hike in Friday afternoon and stay two nights. But I really like the idea of meeting up with a vehicle bringing the gear in. Hmmmm..... I'm going to have to see if we can't figure on doing this coming summer....

Added to the 4 types, we also have "Resident Camp," which are camps owned by Boy Scouts of America with either cabins, adirondacks, or platform tents set up, along with tables, etc., where the boys go for a week of Scout activities. These camps usually have a dining hall, swimming lake, climbing towers, etc.


Standing camps can have wooden trestle (hinged leg sets) tables, or table tops on improvised legs, or pioneer tables (build all on site).

Do you find a lot of pressure in Australia against the use of pioneering skills? Due to the "Leave No Trace" principles, our boys are often discouraged from building such things as a lashed-together table made of sticks, etc. If they do make it, they have to take it apart before they leave and scatter the materials again. For me, if they build it with already-fallen materials, why not leave it for future use, or for others to enjoy? For 10 or 20 that get a kick out of having a Scout-built wilderness table to enjoy, there'll be the one hard-core LNT extremist who would complain. I dunno.....

I'd like to visit the rest of your post, Rover4, but for now I've got to take off to some business appointments. I'll be back.....

[Binford]

Cold weather prevents a lot from camping from May till September - high cost of winter kit. Parents cover all costs.
Most camps are of weekend duration during school term. Can be longer during summer vacations, but leaders not allways able to get the time off. Even then they prefer to spend the time with own families.

Our Troop does a snow camp every two or three years where they drive up to the mountains, park and hike in a few hundred yards then dig snow caves and spend a night or two. Since my son just crossed over (from Cubs to Boy Scouts) about a year ago, I haven't had the pleasure of this. (Yet!)

The boys and their parents cover the costs for our outings as well. We have a good group of parents who enjoy participating on the outings, most of which take place on weekends anyway. As a regional sales rep, I'm able to coordinate my schedule to allow me to go on quite a few of the outings as one of the adult leaders. And my son is on the outings as well, so the ones I go on I'm spending father-son time in a way too. And when my younger son crosses over in a couple years, Mom will get to enjoy lots of quiet time with her friends whose sons are also in the Troop! ;)


Cubs not able to go "under canvas" till 10 years old.

The last two years of Cub Scouts here are called "Webelos" (WE'll BE LOyal Scouts) where they start doing more Boy Scout-like things, including some campouts. ("Under canvas" is good! I hadn't heard that one before.) Our Cub Scout Pack has some family Pack campouts, but for all but Webelos (and with them only in certain conditions), at least one parent has to accompany them. A lot of families don't go camping and really wouldn't do it on their own, so it's a good opportunity for them to go with help and support from other families who are familiar with it.


More and more use of gas for cooking.

Yeah, lots of propane/butane and some white gas (unleaded petrol) stoves too. I've made a few alcohol stoves that I've used as well as a little "hobo" stove I burn finger-sized sticks in. Pretty effective and doesn't require carrying fuel, but it's a drag to have to sit there and tend the thing the whole time, adding sticks as needed. If feeling particularly lazy, I can set my alcohol stove inside the hobo and use it as a windscreen to boil my water for coffee, as I'm doing here:

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2009/12/1296.jpg


Girls and boys in Scouts. Can be mixed Patrols- separate tents. Some single Patrol camps. Usually whole Troop - Can be up to six Patrols.
A minimum of twelve Scouts in a Troop. Between four and eight in a Patrol.
A troop with girls must have a female in Leadership team.

Here "Venture" Scouts are aged 14 to 21 and is a co-ed high-adventure program. Same leadership rules apply as you laid out.


Fund raising always a problem, no business sponsorship.

The BSA asks the Scouts to sell popcorn every October for a few weeks. 70% of the sales price goes to support local Scouting with up to 40% going directly to the Pack or Troop itself. Some of that goes to the boys' account to pay for Resident Camp or such.

Our Troop is going to sell coupons for a local fast food restaurant for a dollar each that the Scout gets to keep. Never been involved with that one myself, but the older leaders tell me it's worked quite well in the past. Scout gets to keep the buck; customer gets coupons for food, including one for a free 99-cent taco so his investment is immediately returned; and the restaurant gets more customer visits. It's really not a bad program!

Each Pack or Troop is "chartered" by some organization--usually a church or school, sometimes a community or such. Often they will match funds raised by the Scouts. Between the popcorn sales and any matching funds, it's usually enough to cover the general costs with the boys paying for whatever the food and transport costs. (Adult drivers fill up their tanks before they leave then again when they return and submit the receipt to the Troop's treasurer for reimbursement.)


Uniform getting more like regular streetwear.

I take it you're referring to the recent changes in the design I've read about in another thread? BSA is celebrating their 100th anniversary (right behind you guys!) and in preparation for that they've made a few minor changes. Mostly good, in my opinion. They went with a poly or nylon material, which is considerably better than the cotton before, and dropped the red in favor of green for the patches and such. Looks a lot better, I think.


Troops meet weekly. If a Sea Scout Troop, then weekend meetings more normal. Some meet midweek at their Hall and then also on Saturday morn at their boatshed.

I'm not sure when the Sea Scouts meet, but there is a local Crew. Our Cubs and Boy Scouts meet weekly from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. and 7 to 8:30 p.m., respectively.


School/regular sport gets in the way of Scouting at weekends.

Tell me about it! We don't see half our Scouts during (American) football season and my own son is in a select soccer club, so we have to balance his Scout meetings and outings with his soccer practices and games. It's not always easy, but we manage. Sports is a positive thing for the boys too, so Scouting is okay with it. The boys just don't advance as quickly, but there's really nothing wrong with that.


Very few Troops meet after school. Usually at night 7 - 9p.m. (Schools start 8:30 or 9:00, finish 3:00 or so. Transport to home can take another hour or more).

Same here, though I have no idea how long transport takes to or from school as we homeschool our boys. When I was a kid in Cub Scouts, we met in the afternoon, maybe an hour after we got home from school. But evenings after dinner are much more common these days, same as with yours.


That is a starter, to talk about.

Rovers4.

Excellent! Thanks! I find it quite interesting to learn how Scouting works in other places. Post up some pictures though, guys!

Are you involved in Scouting currently, Rovers4? You may or may not be aware of it, but I'm the wacky Yank who has decided to take a vacation to Australia in February/March of 2012 and buy a One Ten to drive around there, then ship it home. Making Tasmania my destination, given the three weeks I'll have to spend, was the overwhelming recommendation by the AULRO members I queried about it.

While we're there, one of the things I'd like to do is join a local Tassie Scout Troop for an outing of some sort along with my sons, who will both be Boy Scouts by then. I think it would be a hoot! And a great experience for them to tell about to their fellow Scouts when they get back home.