The Flood

Our troop's PLC has planned a great campout for next weekend:

The Flood

You are camping at Wolf Gap when...a flash flood strikes!  Most of your gear is swept away...

Your adult leaders are downstream fishing...You can't make contact with them.

No one at home knows you might be in trouble, and won't begin to search for you until Sunday.

What will you do?  How will you survive?  

Do you have the skills to keep warm, prepare food, make shelter...stay alive?

The idea was prompted by an exercise in last month's Wilderness Survival them (see Troop Program Features).

What do you think?  Something your Scouts would enjoy doing?

Merit Badge of the Week: Backpacking

One of my great pleasures in Scouting is backpacking.

Our troop has segment-hiked 150+ miles of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal (C&O) over the last 3 years, one weekend at a time. I would like for us to do more of it, but we need to balance camporees, summer camp, and the other special opportunities that come along.

But still. Putting that pack on gets the adrenaline going. Feeling that weight settle in and a good rhythm get established is liberating. Watch that cell signal go dead for a couple of days is relaxing. Even most of the western end of the C&O (East Coast) is a giant dead spot.

All of your Scout skills come into play: poisonous plant identification, fire control, cooking, 10 essentials, hiking, selecting a campsite, leave no trace, conservation, water purification, first aid, hazardous weather training--everything.

"Outing in Scouting" at its best.

So why isn't it a more popular merit badge? Fewer than 5000 earned in 2007, right at a quarter of a percent.

Let this be the summer! Fire up the troops and their troops! Grab the sunblock and head out. If it is too hot in your neck of the world, plan a great series of trips for the fall.

For one leg of the C&O, we slept out under the stars--in January. We had to knock the hard frost off all the bags the following morning. Still a trip they like to talk about 2 years later.

The BSA website has the requirements posted for the Backpacking merit badge.

Resource List

1. Always start with "Introduction to Merit Badges" for the steps to a successful merit badge.
2. Worksheet on Backpacking merit badge from USScouts.org.
3. Backpacker magazine is loaded with goodies, and so is the website. They also tweet. I always recommend this magazine to my older Scouts and our Scouters.
4. Leave No Trace--now that this has been added to the new BSA rank requirements, more important than ever. Second Class requirement #2; First Class requirement #3; new leadership position for Star, Life and Eagle--LNT Trainer.
5. Five ways to treat water on the trail.
6. BSA's Wilderness Use policy--which also references BSA's Fieldbook website. The Fieldbook online leads you to a lot of links and organizations to help with your trekking plans.
7. Planning group adventures section from BSA's Passport to High Adventure.
8. Hazardous Weather training at Scouting.org or Weather Hazards at MyScouting. Same thing, same training online. Get a MyScouting login to complete.
9. About.com provides a good list of Wilderness First Aid topics.
10. Scouting magazine brings you the 10 Essentials for any Scouting activity.

Related BSA merit badges: Camping, Climbing, Hiking, Pioneering and Wilderness Survival

Do you have a resource for the Backpacking merit badge? Please share in the comments below or on Twitter.

Weekend Patrol Box #10

Cold and blustery are coming your way.

Make sure that your patrol box is stocked with plenty of coffee (sugar and cream, if you like that) and hot chocolate mix to get through the weekend. And extra cups. Why do some of the Scouts always forget to bring a cup?

Oh, and plenty of spoons or coffee stirrers.

1. The cool weather is making me think of indoor work, like woodworking. My Scout work would improve if I had the tools and space to make some projects happen. This is the winter...
2. We signed up a new Cub Scout, fresh from Mexico. He speaks very little English right now, but is very excited. Our Bear Den Leader and I are rapidly learning about Spanish resources for the BSA online. Tip: we ordered a Spanish version of the Bear manual through our Scout office (for the parents) and an English version for him. Spanish edition was $2 cheaper! Scoutstuff pricing was the same though.
3. Adult application in Spanish.
4. Youth application in Spanish.
5. Scouting...Vale la Pena! And in English!
6. BSA Innovation Engine--lots of new ideas for Scouting. After the first of the year, you can contribute, too. Vote! C'mon Robotics Merit Badge!
7. 0 (Zero) degree sleeping bags at scoutdirect.com for $30. Quick, while they last.

   "We recently received some Crescent Lake 0 Regular mummy sleeping bags which arrived to us with a minor cosmetic mistake. Our factory embroidered Crescent Lake 20 instead of Crescent Lake 0 on the outside of the bag."

8. Don't forget to log your "Scouting for Food" into Good Turn for America.
9. And read up on your BSA Good Turns. 100 train carloads of peach pits, really?
10. Backpacker.com brings us good advice on surviving disasters in the wild.
11. Advanced Buddy System: Stay or Go?
12. Hammock camping is a great way to be mobile in the woods--Backpacker.com video.
13. Signal miror--can you use one properly? Do you own one? Image.
14. Veterans Day is a good time to bring up the US Heritage Awards: Silver for Cub Scouts, Gold for Boy Scouts. Our Cub Scouts earn them while working on Citizen activity badge for Webelos rank.
15. Boyandgirlscouts.com shared info on an ArrowCorps5 documentary coming.
16. Webelos to BSA transition--great questions to know the answers to before you are asked.
17. And those new Scouts are ready for the National Honor Patrol award over at boyscouttrail.com.

Lots to work and and think about this weekend. If there is anything you'd like to see on here, please let me know.

What do you like to read about for Scouting?