Jump to content

Recommended Posts

We do a wilderness survival campout every year the boys get a big charge out of building the shelters and sleeping out. As a matter of fact it is in a week. Last year we had them bring their own food to make and took them on a hike with it. We also do Toten Chit and Fireman Chit re up's so they get to build their own fires. We do this at the: "Big Foot Wilderness Camp - One of our council's hidden treasures is Big Foot Wilderness Camp at Green Swamp (east of Dade City). It is located in a 30,000 acre wilderness preserve owned by the State of Florida Southwest Florida Water Management District. The facility has a 1,200 square foot cabin, with lights and indoor plumbing, two wood stoves for heating, an outdoor shower for Scout use, a troop campfire area, and patrol campsites. Theres a 5-mile loop trail starting and ending at the cabin, which is perfect for completion of a second class 5-mile hike requirement. This loop intersects with a portion of the Florida National Scenic Trail extending approximately 25 miles in a northerly direction and 10 miles in a southerly direction. Camp Big Foot offers a great camping and hiking experience in a true wilderness setting. The cost for use of the camp is a flat fee of $20.00 for the weekend."

This year we have MRE's real military ones(tanks to a reservist ASM) from when our backpacking trip was evacuated due to tornado warnings at the park it was held at and the boys ended up feasting on pizza. This trip is popular with the adults too as they get to hang in the hunting lodge style cabin 100' from the river with electric lights, indoor plumbing and woodstoves. Remember anything less than 60 is chilly here in Florida.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Our former SM and I talked about this type of a campout this coming spring, but with a little twist. We were going to have 2 patrols seperate with the first patrol becoming "intentionally lost", and the second to use mantrailing techniques to teach what Search and Rescue personnel have to go through to look for lost parties. The "lost" and the "rescuers" all have to use "wilderness survival" skills. I thought it might be a good lesson to drive home some good common sense thinking and a heightened awareness of signs and how to read and leave them should they ever be lost or work SAR in at some point in their lives.

 

New SM now, time to see if he and the troop want to do something along those lines.

Link to post
Share on other sites

One of our favorite campouts in recent years has been the "shoebox campout", which was originally described to me by our friend on these boards, Semper Paratus. The idea is that each scout takes only what he can fit in a shoebox - food, shelter, everything. We typically do this in the late spring when the weather is mild.

 

Funny story: The first time we did this, we had a lot of shelters made of plastic sheeting and nylon twine and the fellows wore rain gear made of trash bags. We ended up camping near another troop who were more conventionally equipped. A couple of those fellows kindly offered to share their gear with us because we were clearly underprivileged! :)

Link to post
Share on other sites

I am by no means a great expert but I would suggest things like building shelters, cooking on open fire, hug a tree if you get lost concept, finding way without compass or map, signling help with no radio or phone, etc ... but mostly make it FUN

 

also for some good resources look at http://insanescouter.org/t276/files/outdoor.html'>http://insanescouter.org/t276/files/outdoor.html (ok I admit its a selfish plug...)

 

 

Hope my wacky 2 cents was helpful

 

Scott Robertson

http://insanescouter.org

Helping leaders one resource at a time....

Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...