le Voyageur

Often times BSA policies and procedures are confusing, and for the new unit leader it is very easy to stray outside of the bounds of these guidelines. Using resources at the District (Commissioner sevices) and Council (Trainers) level is often the best way to avoid this problem. But, in all fairness, and not to just point the finger at new unit leaders, I've seen Districts hosting camporees who's key leaders either didn't know the rules, or elected to ignore the rules when it came to their program (running high C.O.P.E. activities without a C.O.P.E. director being the worse). But for any unit leader who is not sure of a policy or a procedure, my best advice is to use your Unit Commissioner..

With the dry bag, I try to get as much air out as possible. Most of the time I'll have several mesh bags on hand which are loaded with rocks for anchors. These are then clipped to the dry bags using carabiners along with one end of the recovery rope. Lacking mesh bags, then stuff sacks can serve the same purpose. By the time breakfast is over they have dried out and are ready for their intended use. For the recovery rope, this can be any inexpensive 7mm to 9mm nylon rope found at one's local hardware store (avoid the cotton cloths line rope, it's too weak) . If you're sinking in moving water then multiple stakes would be called for to prevent any loss. Also, the rope can be secured or tied off to large rocks, or strainers along the bank, When securing to rocks, I myself like using chocks since they are slinged with bright webbing and are quick and easy to set. Other than that, it's a very simple technique, and with a little practise, quick to learn.

When I solo backpack in Yosemite, I never bear bag. As long as I stay away from the tourist sites I've never had any problem...but with scouts, and away from the water it's back to the traditional. It also seems that dry bags tend to work a lot better since they can be sealed tighter, then say a stuff sack, or a backpack. Sinking a dry bag of food and smellables occured to me while while canoeing in grizz country...seemed to be the better solution in dealing with these guys....

For a pretty good book of recipes for trail meals June FLeming's "The Well Fed Backpacker" is hard to beat....to find a copy use ISBN 0-394-73804-7 at http://isbn.nu/ Here's a couple from her book... Spiced Hot Milk Mix 2 cups instant dry milk 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon ground netmeg 1/4 cup brown sugar To use: Put 1/3 cup mix in your cup, slowly fill with HOT water as you stir Mexican Mocha 1 1/2 cups instant cocoa mix 1 1/2 cups instant dry milk 1/2 cup instant cofre powder 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 tablespoon powdered, dried orange peel To use: Use 1/3 cup mix in 1 cup HOT water For a cold drink Creamy Orange Cooler 2 cups instant dry milk 1/1/4 cups powdered orange breakfast drink Blend 1/3 cup mix with each cup cold water Just a note: I made the mistake of taking a small bag of the Hot Spice Milk mix on an outing with some new Girl Scouts. What should of lasted the whole weekend was gone before the first breakfast was over....

That sure didn't work, have to work on posting in morse code later... ..././.// ..- .-../.-/-/./.-.

..-./---/---/-.-/...//.-../../-.-/.//..//.-/--// .../-/../.-../.-..//.-../../...-/../-./--.//../-.//-/...././/..-./.-/.../-//

That's not good. There is one last solution you can try, but it could get ugly (speaking from experience). Time for the parents to go directly to the keepers of the Charter and make immediate demands for a new COR, and for them to rectify the problem. If the chartering organization fails to listen, and fails to provide you with the support you need then, it's time to move to another organization that has an keener interest in the scouting program....

KS This guide covers basic celestial navigation besides the map and compass. Chapter 11 covers "Direction from the Sky: North of the Tropics" and... Chapter 12, the tropics and south of the tropics One of the better chapters (Chap. 4) will take you step by step and show you how to convert countour lines into slope angles,average grade and foot, rise per mile, etc. using simple math. Info that makes the topo truly 3D in the field. I'll look around for a few additional books on the subjects and post them for you since my interest is in ancient and primative sailing techniques. On a side note when I'm teaching constellations, I find that introducing one or two at every campout is about the best way to keep from overwhelming folks. Of the Constellations, Hercules is one of my favorites. Besides being useful for the telling of some great Greek myths, it offers the chance to introduce to the scouts one of the more interesting features of this constellation, being the mega giant star labeled alpha Ras Algeti. The size of this distant sun is huge...if we were able to fire a photon across the long axis of our solar system, transit at the speed of light would only take about 6 or so hours. Firing a photon across the diameter of this star would take 5.5 days! Well, I digress again....

Being a Unit Commissioner this would be my suggestion, and does not burden the ASM's with decisions that they should not have to deal with. The simple solution is for the Troop Committe Chairman, and the Charter Organizational Rep to have a private chat with the SM and set an ultimatum, and a dead line to fix the problem. With the number of ASM's in this unit finding another SM shouldn't be that difficult....

Come late May, the Council that I'll be working for this summer will be sending me to NCS Trek Leader training in Jacksonville, Florida. The only council in the area seems to be the Florida Northern Council, and who's camp is Camp Shand. So, anybody out there who could give me a bit of a run down on this camp and where it is located? This information is needed for route planning - Since it is only 700 miles (rough guess) from my place to Jacksonville, I plan to bike down, and enjoy a week on the road....

I'm with you on this one... Those little radios on the river combined with hand and paddle signals between the lead boat and the sweep makes for a safer run...

KS This book may help Land Navigation Handbook, the Sierra Club Guide to Map and Compass W.S. Kals 1983 ISBN 0-87156-331-2 to locate a copy, do a ISBN search at http://isbn.nu/ Question: Where in Korea are you at?? Did a det at Osan, many, many moons ago.

E. I fully agree with your observations in your last post. However, if you would reference my post that started this thread you will see that the techinues are simple, and easy to learn. These are what I teach to adults and older scouts and require knowing very little science. These techniques may not may be in the Scout handbook, but are the better method of meeting First Class Req. 1 ("Demonstrate how to find directions during the day and at night without using a compass"). My last two posts, explaining the science were written for adults, not for scouts.

This system is the one that I like to use for the main repel line. The redundancy is that the scout is topped roped to another line on an independent anchor. Also, the belayer is not only anchored, but often placed outside of the system. Additional redundancies can be added in such as a prusik brake on the guide hand side.

JB A post note (trying to do too many things at once) That Canadian systems sounds interesting...would very much like to see it. Somehow, I get the impression that this is rigged around a Gurada knot....thanks for sharing

Take a look at http://www.rescue70.org/roperes.htm I use this on a seperate achcor independent of the haul line. My set up is anchor, biner, mariner knot, biner, pursik brake on the haul line....

For first aid gear - http://www.mooremedical.com As a post note, don't carry first aid items that you are not trained to use, not qualified to use, or not certified to use... For fastwater/whitewater the four big concerns are hypothermia, brokenbones/head injuries, drowning, and difficult extractions with long transport times to an ER. As stated in the above post, first aiders are not trained in setting bones, and WFR's and WEMT's won't even consider doing it. However, the one exception to that rule is when dealing with an angulated fracture with no distal pulse. The limb then must be move only enough to restore the pulse before splinting. But know that this has a lot of risk, if your transport time is fairly short then let the paramedics or docs do the procedure..

Wow! Do I disagree with celestial direction finding being useful only for a survival skill. Talk about bad advise. And the First Class requirements for this area is very weak and often glossed over,being taught by unit leaders working rote from a scout handbook filled with assumptions. I've also never seen an Eagle Scout, let alone a First Class scout who could find Polaris (when asked they will point to either Sirus or Jupiter, the reason is, is that they are taught that Polaris is the brightest object in the night sky). The shadow stick method for the moon is a varition used for direction finding using the sun. Lets discuss some of the problems with these two methods.... The solar time method can produce serious errors if the sun is too high. We care about the height of the noon sun because this height, in effect, determines how fast the direction of the sun changes during the day. The sun always moves along it's invisible arc across the sky at a rate of 15 degs. per hour, but only when the noon sun is less than 45 degs high does the sun's bearing move along the horizon at a near-constant rate of 15 degs. per hour. In this conditions, it does so to a good approximation throughout the day, sunrise to sunset. And since the sun is on our meridian at LAN, if we know the time of LAN and the time of day, we can easily figure out the direction of the sun. From northern latitudes, at LAN the bearing of the sun is due south at 180 degs.. One hour after LAN the sun lies 15 degs. to the west of due south, bearing 195 degs. As a further example, suppose the time by your watch is 1120, and you know that LAN will be at 1340 according to your watch. Since it is 2 hours and 20 minutes (or 2.33 hours)before LAN, you know that the sun has to travel 2.33 x 15 degs, or 35 degs before reaching due south. In other words, at 1120 the bearing of the sun is 180 degs - 35 degs, or 145 degs. Strictly speaking, the solar time method yields only an approximation of the sun's direction. But whenever the noon sun is less than 45 degs. high, this approximation is a good one. When the midnight moon height is below 45 degs, the solar time method can also be used two or three days before and after the full moon, without much loss in accuracy. When the moon is exactly full, the moon and sun are on opposite sides of the earth, which is why they pass us exactly 12 hours apart and why, to a good approximation, the full moon rises when the sun sets and the full moon sets when the sun rises. Each day following full moon, the moon moves 12 degs to the east of the sun. Since sun and moon move by us to the west, if the moon is now farther east of the sun, the time between the sun's passage and the moon's passage will be longer. The meridian passage of the moon is later than midnight on days following the full moon; at midnight, the moon has not yet reached the meridian. If you conclude from looking at the moon that it is one day after full moon, then at midnight the moon would be 12 degs to the east of your meridian. Two days after full moon, the moon would be 24 degs east at midnight. The same reasoning shows that on days before the full moon the time difference between sun and moon is less than 12 hours, so meridian passage of the moon occurs before midnight. If you conclude that it is two days before full moon, you can expect the bearing of the moon at midnight to be 24 degs to the west of your meridian - it passed you earlier than midnight. With the inherent uncertainties involved, we do not lose much accuracy by considering the 12 degs. daily motion of the moon to be about the same as the 15 degs. hourly rotation of the earth. And with this approximation, we can expand the last example to conclude that since the moon is 2x12 degs. farther along its orbit, it is about 2x15 degs, or 2 hours ahead of schedule on the meridian. So we expect the moon two days before full moon to be on the meridian 2 hours before midnight, at 2200 solar time. With this explanation behind us, we can restate the moon's behavior in a way that makes it easier to remember: The full moon is on the meridian at solar midnight. One day before full moon, the moon gets there one hour before midnight; one day after full moon, the moon is on the meridian one hour after midnight. Two days before, two hours before; two days after, two hours after.

This is what I carry in the canoe when treking with scouts 1 cell phone 1 GPS unit Maps of the area 4 Cyalumes 1 small flashlight 12 - 2x2 24 - 4x4 4 - 3 inch roller bandages 6 - 6 cravats Adhesive bandages (band aids) various sizes 6 rolls of adhesive tape Steri-strips, 12 each 35 cc irgation syringe 4 rolls of 1 1/2 inch athletic tape 4 elastic bandages (3") Molefoam, 2 sheets Second Skin, 1 pack Space Blanket 2 Sam Splints 1 CPR Face Shield Stephascope BP Cuff 1 set of airways EMT shears 4 hemostats 2 McGills 1 No Neck C collar (adult) 1 Regular C collar (adult) Latex Gloves Sawyer Extractor Sub Normal thermometer (2) Tweezers Tick Spoon Baby Powder povidone-iodine Betadine Cortizone cream KED Femur Traction Splint Cold packs Heat packs Aloe Vera Gel 4 or 5 pairs of sun glasses (some scouts end up loosing theirs, and on the water sun glasses are a must have)

To be honest, I've not heard of that one, and is, in my mind, ramped with misconceptions. Consider this, that the moon is the most evasive of all celestial bodies. It moves westward with the stars each day because of the earth's rotation, but it also slips eastward relative to stars because of its own orbital motion around the earth. Since the moon circles the earth once a month, it progresses through the stars at a rate of 360 degs. per (roughly) 30 days, or about 12 degs. per day. If the moon is next to the star Aldebaran on one night, on the next night it will be about 12 degs. to the east of Aldebaran (which is about half an outstretched hand's width at arm's length). If you have a watch and know solar time, the moon can be helpful on special occasions. When the moon is full, it behaves just like the sun, with solar noon (LAN) changed to "solar midnight," meaning LAN + 12 hours. For example, if I know the sun lies due south at 1330 hrs according to my watch, then a full moon that night will lie due south at 0130 hrs. But, the problem with this method is obvious, a full moon happens only once a month... Aboutlearning constellations, this I feel should start at Tenderfoot, and be a part of the advancement requirements for the lower ranks. Just knowing how to locate the Big Dipper and Cassiopeia can oreintate one faster than a compass. Knowing how to use the Big Dipper to guide one self over to the North Star is an outdoor skill that should be in every scouts little bag of outdoor tricks. And it is here where a great preopening could be built around locating one's "guide star" and staying the course....since my own fascination for the stars comes from my Viking heritage I would tap into the old Norse legends as a program source...

Keeping it light is about the best way to enjoy backpacking. So, thought that I would share my gear list. This is the gear that makes up my base load (everything but food, water, and stove fuel)...all weights are in ounces Backpack 12.5 Sleeping Bag 17.0 Hammock 34.0 Space Blanket 1.5 Cooking Set 10.0 Water Filter 8.0 Stove 1.0 Fuel Bottle 1.5 Water Bottles (2) 3.0 Anorak 8.0 Tuque 1.5 Shirt 6.0 T 3.0 Pants (Suplex) 6.0 Shorts (2) 16.0 Wool Socks (2) 8.0 Long Johns (wool) 12.0 Prima Loft Parka 12.0 Total weight 300.0 oz 18.75 lbs Since I'll be wearing socks, shorts, T, and the tuque most of the time this drops the weight near to 17 lbs. With food/water/fuel added in, it will push it up to 22 to 24 lbs

It is very rare to see any COR serving an active role not only with the units that they sponsor, but also within the overall scouting program. What COR's fail to realize is, is that by having one vote at both the district and council level, just how powerful they could be if they would only band together as a team to serve the common interest of scouting in their area. And in reguard to this thought, I wonder if a COR could cast proxy votes. If would be something to show up a council budget meeting with 20 or 30 votes in one's pocket!

Forgot, a quick way to release a line under tension, should that be required is with the Mariner knot. However, I agree with you. The first pull should be done by trying the "10 Boy Scouts" technique first before heading up the scale. On a side note, I don't know which is worse. Breaking a livery boat, or leaving it pinned in the river and letting the rental guys worry about it (if the boat is pinned hard underwater and in an undercut rock it's left, not worth it if it puts people's lives at risk). Either way, I don't think you'll be getting your deposit back....

The amount of force often depends on how the boat is pinned, how the canoe is built, what the canoe is made of, and volume and flow rate of the water. No easy answer to a lot of variables. But basically, I employ two lines, the first is the "dump" line which will flip the craft over and help get some of the water out. Here, I like to use a 3 to 1 pulley system. And the other line, using a z drag is used to pull the boat into the main current so that it will wash out. The other problem is direction of pull, often times (it seems) that the river will pin a boat in places that require an off axis pull (here a vector pull with either a z or a 3:1 may help). I guess the best advice is when cranking is to keep the direction of pull as straight as possible, and carefully keeping an eye on the boat, and backing off before something breaks. As a safety measure, a PFD can be attached to the line a short distance from the boat in the event of breakage. This'll keep the line from snapping back and smacking someone.

Canoeing in bear country can be made a lot safer by ignoring the traditional method of bear bagging..ie. hangin stuff in the trees. My method is simply to put food and smellables in the dry bags and sink them in deep water. A recovery rope staked near shore, and kept under water completes the set up...........