Finally a perfect weather day for a Troop 4 outing. The sun shone, the temperature was just right, and the wind was calm - all making for perfect conditions for a Klondike. There was more than enough snow for the sleds and for building a Quinzee Hut for shelter.
The event went off without a hitch and our three senior scouts from the Batmen Patrol did a fantastic job putting together the stations and running them by themselves.
Chris ran the firebuilding contest.
William worked the shelter building.
And Henry held down the knot tieing.
I hope all the scouts walked away feeling confident that as a group each patrol has the skills to do basic survival camping. Both groups were able to: quickly boil water proving that when you venture outside properly prepared with matches, tinder and kindling you will always have heat; build simple winter shelters to protect themselves from the elements; and knew the basic knots that would allow them to set up a tarp or shelter, anchor a rescue rope, or build from scratch some useful wood gadget.
They also were able to come up with the correct answers to common first aid problems encountered with firebuilding, being out in the cold, and in hiking/climbing.
Most impressively they worked as a team with all members of each Patrol contributing to the competition and their Patrol's success.
Our next step is to make sure that all members of the Patrols know all the skills and knowledge used this weekend and then begin the process of expanding on that basic information with ever more complicated and challenging sets of wilderness skills.
Finally, I was extremely happy to see 17 young men having fun together and still being respectful of their surroundings and the other people using the preserve. They were courteous, kind, and cheerful all day.
I can't wait to go camping with this crew.
For a full photographic record of the day please check out our online photo album at:
If anyone got any good shots please email them to me and I'll add to the photo album.
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