Re: 'Adverse'-Weather Camping
Ted Burton (tedbrtn@CYBERHIGHWAY.NET)
Mon, 1 Jan 1996 11:37:56 -0700
>I have a pet theory that the best campouts are the worst ones -- at least
>these are the ones you tend to remember.
The overnight in the woods the older boys in my Troop (less my than used to
be, since no longer SM, just MC) talk about most often with wry smiles, is
the second night at summer camp in 1990. It poured cats & dogs and
lightning struck within earshot about once every five minutes, including
one strike that sounded as though it were just one campsite over, although
it in fact was about 2/10 miles away. A tent collapsed part way and
channeled all the water throught the back window flooding everybody and
everything inside, the wind howled, all the Scouts were awakened. Before
long we had a handful of very wet Scouts from the one collapsed tent
outside in rain gear that was probably as wet inside as out, around a
roaring fire I had started with three of my egg carton-lint-wax
firestarters, trying to warm up, proving to their surprise that what I had
said was true, that I could start a fire anywhere under any conditions with
those things.
With sharing we got the wet Scouts bedded down again in dry quarters, my
tent, and I 'hooched' the rest of the night under some overhanging brush,
dry and warm, with poncho, bivvy sack, & such.
In the morning it was sunny, and we dried everything out. But the older
boys still talk about it with smiles of achievement.
It is well for us also to remember that our ancestors of all races, if we
go back far enough, survived quite nicely without modern equipment. There
is an exchange of dialogue somewhere public and recent, that I read or saw
in a movie, in which a Caucasian asks a Native if he is not cold, dressed
(or undressed) as he was; and the Native replied by asking the Caucasian if
his face was cold; the Caucasian said 'no.' The Native said 'I am all
face'.
Attitude (which we as Leaders are very important in setting an example on)
is critical. If we set an example of being cheerful under adverse
conditions, of constantly focussing on helping the boys devise solutions,
they will love every miserable moment of it and come away full of what they
did to overcome the obstacles, rather than full of the obstacles
themselves. They will horrify their parents as they regale them with
stories of the storm, and pooh pooh parental after-the-fact worrying with
their cheerful, "Oh, no, Mom, it was great!" Further, there is absolutely
nothing better than conquering adversity to unify a patrol and a troop.
Ted
who is netAddressed for, personal use, as: tedbrtn@cyberhighway.net
and for business use as: ciatty@cyberhighway.net
Terry Howerton Sakima Group, Inc. SCOUTER Magazine Kansas City |
