Re: 'Adverse'-Weather Camping

>>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 ... talk about most
>often with wry smiles, is the second night at summer camp in 1990. It
>poured cats & dogs ... 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... With sharing we got the wet Scouts bedded down again in
>dry quarters... In the morning it was sunny, and we dried everything out.
>But the older boys still talk about it with smiles of achievement.

I just clipped parts of Ted Burton's reply here but I think it points out
the difference between a good memory and a bad one. This campout turned
into a good memory, but had the leaders been unable to warm and dry the
Scouts so that they spent the rest of the night wet and cold, the memory
would not have been so good. This campout had adversity, yes, but the
Scouts 'fought back' and 'won', thus making it more successful and memorable
than if they had no adversity to overcome, however if nature had 'won' by
leaving them wet and cold all night, the memory would have been one of
failure and not a happy memory. If you look back at some of the postings on
this subject, I think you will find that is the main difference between
those that feel 'the best campouts are the worst ones' and those who have
bad memories of miserable campouts.

Just my $.02 worth.

YiS,
Judy Harcus, Troop Scouter, 1st Powell River Scouts
(British Columbia, Canada)

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