Scouting anyone?

[Canadian]

My dad taught me some serious lessons. That same campout, four of us were walking down the road looking for water. One of the boys got very wet (he thought he saw a wolverine and jumped into the bush, which was actually a puddle). So, I looked around, saw a construction trailer, told the other boys to shelter there, and I walked out for help.

Luckily that trailer was manned, and the occupant had a washer/dryer. When the relief party came back, they had dried his jeans, and were sitting around in a warm trailer. I am very glad things worked out that way, because it was very, very cold and we could have had a much more serious outcome.

Lessons learned? Don't get wet, if you get wet, make haste for your bivouac. Also, if that's impossible, be creative. My dad told me I'd done exactly the right thing, because I went for help rather than standing around saying, "You dummy. Now you're wet and freezing". When I got back to the campsite, we got together some dry clothes and set out by vehicle to rescue him. We were lucky that time.

Dad always told me, if you're in the bush and something goes wrong, you've got to fix it. Nobody is going to magically come along and do things for you.

[RobFedoraField]

Eagle Scout Troop 285 Tipp City, Ohio
Den Leader Pack 4076 York, NY

best experiences of my life!

[rkwilker]

Eagle Scout here.

[Trombone]

Troop (and Pack) 49 North St. Paul, MN. Scouting from Tiger Cubs to Life Scout at the age of 18. A fantastic experience but I also agree with all the comments on the experience is only as good as leadership. What some people don't know is that the major difference between Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts is that Cubs is adult led and Boy Scouts is Boy led. In my later years (actually recently as I am in college now) as I gained different leadership positions including Patrol and Senior Patrol Leader, my troop tried to become a boy-led troop, my positions became more and more connected to the planning part. But unfortunately much of the time my fellow scouts did not want to take on the roles as planners and preparers. During my leadership years I feel that I have been part of the movement to do more things and when I stepped down when I turned 18 I turned the troop over to a very confident person who I believe will improve the troop. When we talk about some of the issues of Scouting, lets please remember that the main purpose of Scouting is to promote leadership skills and that sucess is proportional to the amount of leadership demonstrated by the scouts themselves.

I will always cherish my experiences in Scouting including a Kayaking trip in the Apostle Islands and 2 weeks Backpacking at Philmont Scout Reservation in New Mexico among many campouts