AnEagle

"Do you have the first aid merit badge?"

*snorts* "no"

lol one of the quotes several people have been quoting that and: "we are boy scouts! Boy scouts of America. We are honest, true, chaste and benevolent...you know the rest!.." haha

Ok so i love the tv series lost and randomly found this on google video i thought i might post it as it has boy scouts in it. Though lol i might add that it does not encourage faith in the navigational skills of the BSA lol.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3921473509971405364&q=Missing&hl=en

post what you think when your done watching it

So i thought i might add how the hiking trip went today. Only two other people showed up we took a knife, matches, bandaids, moleskin and cell phones. I want to state that i lead the way and didn't get lost once though it is hard to follow a trail covered in leaves. The falls were awesome the trail down to them wasn't and all three of us slid down it (it was intentional on my part...easier then walking.)All in all i think it was a good hike but i have to aske how much water you should take hiking? Caue I took a 20 oz bottle started feeling weird on the way back and am dehydrated again (how did that happen?) I still don't feel well so i think i'm going to go to sleep now..anyways advice on the water thing would be great. :-)

yeah i know i have no life lol

I thought it might be "fun" tell funny camping stories here's mine:

I went to an amusement park with my uncle and his family and we camped out instead of staying in a hotel. My cousin, my sister and I shared a one and a half person tent (i am not kidding seriously that is how big it was) with all of our duffles. My cousins brother put up the tent for us, the place we were camping on was flat and marshy cause it was raining, the top of the tent (ah.. the little dome thing) was gone so he put the tarp over the tent. We spent the entire day on rollercoasters and crawled into the tent that night and it started to rain it rained all weekend while we were there. We wake up the next morning the wall of the tent out drenched and we can't brethe cause there is not air movement, the sleeping bags are wet cause the ground underneath us is wet, when we open the door to get out of the tent we have to push the tarp back and the water that collected there (of course) ran down and drenched us, we cannot dry our clothes cause the air is damp, we cannot make a fire cause the wood is wet (later my cousins brother poored like half a can of lighter fluid on it and it burned for like four hours) it's a half mile walk to the bathroom, there is mud everywhere, there are no lights at night to see where you're going, we brought flashlights but not batteries (glow sticks rock!!!) Basically we spent all weekend damp and tired and maybe that's not a very funny story but i would sooo do it again!

Wow I am impressed! As someone who has nothing to do with the BSA I like to say that i have been reading some forums and i have to say that if i have a son one day he will definatley be put into the BSA! I think it is a shame that more people aren't being taught what this organization teaches and i don't just mean the "skills" either (though i have to admit that it would be nice to learn HOW to canoe before finding yourself in the middle of a lake ...then again it would have been nice had they taught us how to get IN and OUT of the canoe too...). A lot of the things you do teach can be used on a day to day basis (for example the knot tying: it took me three hours to figure out the directions for a volley ball net and another entire day to set it up cause we had to figure out how to tie the ropes. Another example how to start a fire without matches in my terminology that means you use a lighter) Anyways here i am rambling again but i sincerly think that BSA is on the right tack maybe ya'll can rub some of your knowledge of on everyone else.

Yeah i've been a victim of the buddy system before and i know that any youth activities i've done (mostly around water) encourage it. The only problem with it is that if you're not a scout and have not been taught like one you end up with two people lost instead of one. Frankly i don't know how it's possible for people to go hiking when they don't know what they're doing but we've done it. So tomorrow it looks like there may be about ten people going on the hike (every single one has asked me at least twice if i know where i'm going i just love all the suport i'm getting) Think about us as we treck through the woods lol hopefully nothing will happen...

Thanks again for the advice. How often have boy scouts actually rescued other hikers lol cause i can hear my friends explanations now "We meant to go this way. We were takine a 'scenic' route" lol. I thought of taking the WFA course but i've been in emergency situations before and i do not do well at all, it would be ten times worse if people expected me to know and do something about the situation. HAHA maybe I'll just make sure our eagle scout friend comes along on out hikes. :-)

(This message has been edited by AnEagle)

So is suppose it's dangerous to hike alone but you can? When i first found the trail to contentment falls i went about half a mile or so by myslef and it wasn't the first time i've gone of hiking alone. When my friends found out the first time they all had cows, i figured it was just me because i tend to be slightly accidnet prone (i've slid down two very rocky hills on two different hikes) but then once i went out alone and turned me ankle so from now on i stick to hiking in groups lol.

Yeah hiking in the dark isn't a good idea. If anything though I have learned to stay hydrated, once again learned that the hard way too but at least I learned it! My other question is about the first aid kits do we always have to take one? I mean with the level of expertese my friends and i have (which is none) whether we have the kit or not wouldn't make a difference would it? Which brings me to another thought, snakes. Snakes in general don't bother me but i've seen them around our dorm and therefore i am sure they're in the woods, (one of the tourists kids nearly got bit by a rattlesnake a few weeks ago) so what if someone gets bit, besides the no panicking part? About the raingear if it's going to rain we're going to get wet either way so why carry something else? Now waterproof shoes i do understand aparently mine are not (learned that the hard way too). Also several people mentioned a compass...well i don't know how to use one and i can bet my friends don't know either, also don't you have to know what direction your coming from in order to use one? Haha i am not trying to be difficult i'm just naturally curious Thanks for being patient!

Incase your wondering I do not live on the internet I just am successfully putting of doing all my hw. Yes believe it or not I have read the boy scout hand book. In Middle school I did a research paper on the Boy Scouts of America and it was one of my resources. Also, I have some Eagle scout friends who like to quote things at me all the time (feel free to quiz me i think i have a pretty good grasp on some things hehe)However, I haven't read the book straight through due to a slight accident lol (I got to the part on tying knots and my sister and i decided to give it a try. The only thing available to tie knots wround was my arm and as neither one of us knew what we were doing we ended up cutting my blood circulation off and had to cut the string. Our mother then made me take the book back lol)ANyways i have to go to class (psychology fun!)

Hmm, as someone who is not envolved with scouting I just want to make a quick comment. One day I too was going in a store and saw some Boy Scouts selling popcorn. Now since I don't eat popcorn I wouldn't have payed much atteniton but the fact was I and several others were giving them second glances because frankly we didn't even know our town had a boy scout troop! Now this may be just where I'm from and I'm not suggesting anything but the fact is that we never see the scouts unless they want money. I know several Eagle Scouts and suport the BSA but isn't there a way that the troops can actually demonstrate to the public what they're learning to encourage donations? In todays society people want to see the benifits of the cost they're paying, to say that it will benefit the troop is all well and good but unless you have a son, nephew brother etc in the organization the only thing people see is a small bag of popcorn. The organization is private not secret show the public what they're son, nephews, couins etc can learn to do and they will make donations with or without popcorn. :-)

Hmm maybe i should explain something. Our school sits in a velley in North East Georgia it has 1100 acres of land most of it undeveloped. The school is called Toccoa Falls College and if you ever need somewhere to visit i strongly encourage you to come becuase the school is named after the water fall that is on campus. It's a tourist attraction and is barley of the road. However, there are two water falls you have to hike to get too and these are the only hiking trips my friends and I have done so far. Little Falls is only a mile hike but you have to practically crawl up the mountain to get there. I didn't know it even exhisted until I was a student and have a feeling that the students themselves formed the "trail" up there. I don't think the college encourages or discourages hikes up there because of the liability and because students would do it anyway. The second trail is used and kept up by the out door leadership majors and the out door club tourists can use it too. It goes back to Contentment FAlls and It's kind of hidden (i found it by accident). It's five miles round trip and the trail at least i thought was "moderate" not that i have much experience but where a person like me who has only ever hiked around a mall can hike five miles in two hours it can not be that hard. This trail is the one i'm specifically asking about because though it is on campus it goes very far back into the woods. Now the trail is marked by dimonds on the trees but people get lost back there all the time becuase there are many trails that branch of the one we use and all are marked by dimonds (let's be creative and use dimonds again) If you actually get to the falls you are allowed to camp there though i think i'll stick with getting there and back first. Anyways there are no park rangers if there is an emergency all we can do is call 911 which i suppose wouldn't do much good back in the woods (little falls would be a nightmare if something happened cause there is no way anyone could get up there fast, something did happen up there once and all they could do was bring the "victim" back down off the mountain) Hmm i'm rambling agin sry i tend to go off on random tangents. Anyways Saturday i am "leading" a group of friends that haven't been there before to Contentment Falls and tips on that would be great too. By the way if you ever come visit Toccoa FAlls i'll lead you to both Little Falls and Contentment Falls (hehe)

My friends and i have recently gotten into hiking as our new hobby. A few weeks ago some of us hiked five miles and had a great time but frankly none of us knew what we're doing. We took a cell phone, water and a map that, it turned out, we couldn't figure out anyway. We have been arguing about future hikes and what we should take, no one wants to carry more then they have too so what should we take? Does it depend on the length of the hike and how many people are going? How many people should you hike with? Basically any hiking facts would be grateful, we've already almost had a disaster leaving us with some facts like: when you have a group do not split up, do not go hiking in the dark without flashlights, and cell phone towers do not exist everywhere i guess you could say we're learning by doing but i would just as soon skip some things thanks for the help!

Hey I just wanted to introduce myself. I am a college student in North Georgia, I guess you could say I randomly found this site while looking for a forum to talk about hiking. Despite the name I have to mention that I am a girl and therefore not an eagle scout. My school's mascot is an eagle so therefore I am AnEagle in the name of school spirit (oh aren't i clever *rolls eyes*) I won't be haunting your site but don't be surprised if I drop in on a discussion now and then. I do have some elementry questions that I have no doubt some one will be able to answer. In the mean time feel free to introduce yourselves to me. I have a link here that you might find interesting. My school is located in a valley and owns lots of undeveloped land and on this land there are waterfalls. Here are the four waterfalls http://www.outdoorleadershipandeducation.org/falls.php I am proud to say that i have been to everyone even the one I had to hike five miles to get too. Anyways injoy!