Outing is an integral part of the Scouting, but it’s not enough so simply go, you need to have a plan for when you get there.
Show Notes:
- The Backpacker’s Handbook (Amazon)
- Disc Golf Set (Amazon)
- Garmin Handheld GPS Navigator (Amazon)
Cover Photo by Lachlan Dempsey on Unsplash
Transcript:
A well-run troop camps 12 months during the year. In my area of the country that means that some of the camping is indoors and some in tents outdoors.
Planning on the contents of the campout is the responsibility of the senior patrol leader with a little help and guidance of the adult leaders.
Essentially, what you don’t want to have happen is that there is no program planned.
The program doesn’t need to be complicated, and it doesn’t need to fill the entirely of the event. In fact I feel it’s better if there is time built into the schedule for the boys to do whatever they want in unscheduled time.
Our general rule of thumb is the plan for blocks of time to cook, clean up and find firewood, with the next big block of time devoted to the program for the event.
If our camping time begins on a Friday night and ends early on Sunday the majority of the time is on Saturday, with about 15 hours of total time. Four to five of the hours is devoted to cooking and cleaning up leaving about 10 hours of time for program. Of this, we plan for about 40% for unstructured time, leaving 6 hours to fill.
One of the most common program ideas is hiking. Usually wherever we stay there are hiking trails. Sometimes we work on pioneering skills, or working in the axe yard.
The main point however is not what you do, but that you have a plan. Without a plan the boys will sit around all day and accomplish nothing. When they do this, they end up going home thinking the trip was boring, and as a result are less likely to go on the next outing.
This unfortunately becomes a problem with some troops, where the boys have spent too many trips not being inspired, and the program starts to fall apart.
Before this happens, the adult leaders must step in, and guide the SPL to develop a program. While hiking is good, we have team building kits, disc golf sets, we’ve done first aid events, and depending on where we are camping there are local attractions in the area like museums, archery and shooting sports at camps, COPE courses, orienteering, boating and one our go-to events geocaching.
For those who have not experienced it, geocaching lets you use special geo location units, or even your phone if the signal is good to find treasures hidden by other enthusiasts. You can find out more at geocaching.com. With geocaching, you can look up nearby caches in the area in advance and let the adventure begin. But this is what works for us.
Take what you like and leave the rest, and as we say in Woodbadge, feedback is a gift, leave yours below in the comments, with the hope we can all learn together.
I’m Scoutmaster Dave, and this was camp out activities.
