TT Scouter support network

“Honestly I can't think of any gear I need.
But it's good to have options.”

“Do any scouters have something like an itinerary for a scout camp they have attented. Like a day by day, hour by hour schedule, so we can make our own one week camp and do some of those things? We would pick and choose the items to do from established camps. If you don;t have a schedule, what were some of the best things your kids did in a summer camp? Do they typically have classes to teach the younger ones the skills for advancement up to first class?”

“we facilitated the boys choosing of badges beforehand, (to move them through rank). this is where having a dozen ASM's at a meeting comes in handy. the badge class schedule is set up by the camp. in fact, most of the schedule is set up by the camp.

if they had hikes set up, we attended, we've also done our own. more stuff for rank. we've done stargazing stuff and night hikes. we always ask for a service project.

we set up in camp our own lashing class, our own knife and ax yard, and our own knots and lashings where they built the entrance gate to our troop site.

but most of the boys we took on a New Scout Camp out in February where we taught these things already along with fire building, stoves, cooking, compass use, simple first aid, flag ceremony, etc. but you use the boys who learned it then to teach the boys who didn't make it to that camp out.”

“One thing we did that I think worked out was to only have merit badge classes in the morning. While there were a few smaller merit badges that held class in the afternoon (basketry, etc), each afternoon had a special activity (knife/ax throwing, knife making, shotgun shooting, geocaching, etc). Additionally, many of the program sites were open for people to work on requirements individually (archery, leatherwork, horsemanship, etc).

There were also a couple of "exchange campfires" during the week, where two patrols were paired up to do a combined campfire in one of the patrols' campsites. Each patrol brought with them a token to exchange (hence the name). One patrol brought little leather trinkets they had made for everyone, while others just exchanged candy bars.

As far as Trail to First Class, my personal opinion is to remember to let the younger guys have fun. Some of the requirements to First Class can be kinda boring, so try not to let the entire camp be all about getting First Class. I think that goes for everyone, but especially for the younger boys. You want their first summer camp to be memorable.”

“Depending how many boys you have going, divide them up into patrols and have each patrol assign themselves duties and plan a menu for the week.

Besides the Tenderfoot - First class things, look at the camping, hiking, orienteering, and cooking merit badge books. There is a lot of things they will be doing from those books anyway so you might as well get them started on the Merit Badges.

'fool”

“I'll send you one or two that I have
last edited: 4/10/08 10:42:41 AM”

“wanderingfool brings up a good point. I'm sure it goes without saying that the boys should do as much of the meal planning, etc in their patrols. Also, frequent campsite inspections are very important. Last thing you need are sick kids 3 days into your camp.”

“Boy Scouts File Federal Lawsuit Over Dispute with City of Philadelphia

http://www.kyw1060.com/pages/2257393.php?contentType=4&contentId=2112907

**************

About time. Go Scouts!!!!”

“For those who have backpacked with scouts, how do you delegate and organize the food selection and packing? We are going on a backpack, and actually we have so many scouts that we are taking 3 different routes, with 9-11 scouts on each route, plus adults.

I was thinking of presenting about 10 possible dinner menus, letting each patrol select 2, then have them buy the ingredients and pack them at a meeting. One baggie for one meal, per patrol.

For lunches, I was thinking one lunch baggie per scout, for the 3 day hike, with no choices, just:

beef jerky
bagel chips
philly cream cheese
candy bar
2 quarts per day of koolaid
dried fruit
mixed nuts

For breakfast, having oatmeal with brown sugar and raisins, and tang.
What have been successful cooking plans for your scout backpacking trips?”

“Your system sounds good to me.

Once we had some kids with backpacking experience we became a little more hands off in that we never set menus for the kids. Instead we had some of the experienced backpackers give a little presentation on what they liked to eat and how they liked to divide stuff up while backpacking. We showed them a few different ways/styles to do things and let them settle on their own preferred method. Then we worked with the guys to help them develop menus that made sense for the activity and took them shopping for the food.

Taking kids shopping always took the majority of a meeting. Packing the ingredients in the same night might be tight on time but hey, you may have more focused kids than I did. LOL!
~edit~ Actually shopping probably won't be a big time killer for you if the menus are set. A fair amount of shopping time for me was spent acting as an adviser to the kids. ~edit~

We used to break things down to a buddy system on backpacking trips. Each patrol was further divided into buddies. The patrols were responsible for their own food. Sometimes the patrol would set a menu and do the shopping and divide all the necessaries among the buddies in the patrol and sometimes food was left to the buddy pair to do as they will.

However they split things up it usually ended up that each kid carried a meal for the size group (full patrol or buddy pair) that they decided to work with for the trip.
last edited: 6/20/08 10:46:42 AM”

“At Philmont they use the buddy meal method (kinda) where each meal is in a plastic bag that serves two.

When I take the older boys on a trek I ask that they bag a full days meals seperately - and they are typically responsible for their own individual food. We make sure thay all have food when we shake them down - but we give them a lot a latitude with menu selections.

The "day of meal per bag" thing helps if you need to cache food on long trips that are in-out.

Your plan sounds like a winner - but I would put a little variation in the breakfast & lunch plan so they can mix/match/trade. And some kids hate oatmeal.”

“some kids hate everything. We had some refuse to eat scrambled eggs, and hamburgers for dinner.”

“We had a few kids like that before. They live on soda and junk food. Take that away, and they rebel, but hunger wins them over eventually. That, or passing out. ;P

This is where letting kids (if they're old/ competent enough) set their own menus for trips helps.”

“The patrol figures out what they will eat and if a kid doesn't want it he'd better learn how to negotiate quick.

I've know a few troops that routinely pack PB&J for the kids who hate everything. Personally if the kids are setting menus I look on that as enabling anti-social behavior. Now if the kid has an allergy or a medical issue then that's different. But it never really was much of an issue for us though.
last edited: 6/24/08 3:36:43 PM”

“I'm thinking to see if a scout from each patrol wants to select 2 dinners and 2 breakfasts from a list of meals selected from Prosecutor's wonderful cookbook, then buy them, then pack them. That plus cooking the food will take him a long way toward getting the cooking merit badge.

For those patrols where no scout wants to plan the food, I'll just get them freeze dried one serving meals, plus oatmeal for breakfast, and a trail lunch. Its only a 3 day hike, so it should be easy to pack the food for.”

“We have 26 scouts going, and 15 adults, for 41 backpackers. We will split into 3 groups, and hike 3 different routes. All lunches will be the same, a trail lunch.

Three scouts want to plan food for their patrol, the other patrols are getting freeze dried for dinner, oatmeal for breakfast. The adults will get pasta dishes from Prosecutor's cookbook.

We will be in a car camping situation the 4 days before the backpack, so things have to be very shelf stable. I'll make a run to the store for bagels the night before the backpack, and maybe eggs.

Each group will have some experienced adults, but three backpacks going on simultaneously will be a challenge. Many of the scouts going are our 11 year olds, some 12, a lot of 13-15 year olds. We have 4 Mom's going, and for some it will be their first backpack. We should do fine if the weather holds.”

“Impressive - this is gonna be quite the outing!”

“In planning the food for 11 patrols (cook groups), I made a spreadsheet where you enter which recipe each patrol has selected and it calculates the shopping list, in terms of ounces needed, packages needed, envelopes needed, or items needed. It is based on 4 persons per cook group, but could be modified for a different number of people. The recipes it calculates for are

eggs and bacon breakfast
bagels/Canadian bacon/cheese breakfast
bagels/cream cheese breakfast
milk and cereal breaffast
mac and cheese dinner
salmon pasta dinner
spaghetti
pesto pasta
apple cobbler
smores


Other menu items could be added pretty
easily.

If this would benefit some scouter or trip planner, I can send it to you.”

“I'd like to see it if you don't mind”

“Pesto pasta for scouts? Hmmm.”

“I'd like to have a copy of that - that's cool.

41 backpackers is awesome. I'd say your master plan is working.”

“garfum, tell me your email address and I'll send it.”

“DIY summer camp over, no fatalities.

We car camped in a site by a mountain stream, and a few miles from a big lake (Payette)in Idaho. We did merit badge classes, canoeing, a bike ride around the lake, and ate pretty good.

Then we went on a 3 day backpack. We had about 25 scouts and 13 adults, so we divided into 3 groups, and did 3 different backpack routes. Two of the groups did the full 15 mile routes I mapped out, and one decided to shorten their route.

Our route was tough, and the trail on the map was hard to follow, and we did some cross country hiking through rough terrain. We got to camp at 8PM on the first two nights, dog tired. We caught fish, make snow cones on a mountain pass, saw incredible flowers. The group I was with came together as a unit, and sang on the trail, and just had a wonderful experience. Ours was the hardest route, with a 2200 elevation gain the first day.

All the groups got back to camp on Friday, and seemed to be pretty upbeat and energized. The older scouts thought the hike was too hard, and they had griped a lot on their hike. These are boys who were not exposed to backpacking as young scouts, and now they prefer car camping.

Anyway we are done, and it went pretty well I think. 38 people on 3 simultaneous backpacks! That is a first for me.”

“Here is a link to our troop website,

http://boisetroop100.wordpress.com/

where there are pics of our recent backpack in the McCall mountains of Idaho, plus other recent trips.”

“Thanks, idaho bob. That's a nice site. Those flower pictures are beautiful. And the snow table looks great!
last edited: 7/24/08 6:02:58 AM”

“I going to toot my own horn...just was awarded the Silver Beaver by Sam Houston Area Council”

“Right on. Is that anything like receiving a shaved beaver?”

“Congrats ChuckD!!!!!!!!!!!!”