bluestationwagon

I agree that the High Adventure trips can be costly. One thing my son did to keep the costs down was that, for Northern Tier and Philmont, he went as part of an OA Trail Crew. It's a lot cheaper, plus he did some good hard work while he was there. I've been recommending trail crews as a less expensive alternative and a good experience to everyone in our troop.

Thank you for the information. The Triple Crown, besides being good-looking, did inspire my son to reach beyond his normal activities and exert himself, so I think it served a very good purpose. Here's hoping it does the same for other scouts for years to come.

Hello all - a couple of years back, my son earned the Triple Crown patch for attending all three of the BSA's High Adventures (Philmont, Northern Tier, and Sea Base). Today it hit me that there are now four High Adventures, with Summit being added. What happens to the Triple Crown now? It was such an awesome patch and he was so happy earning it.

Sorry for the long delay; I don't get to surf the net very often. My son is attending Jamboree as a youth staffer with one of the subcamps. I gather that he'll be a gofer, doing whatever is needed that day. (He started out as a third assistant but when the council folded some troops for lack of participants, he was able to switch over.) He's a guy who is more comfortable following the rules than not; he knows he cannot trade with anyone under 18 years old. Are there any other rules or customs he should be aware of? Thanks Skeptic. I'm surprised that there isn't a specific forum

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I'm a mom who is not well versed in patch etiquette. First, some background. My son went to the last Jamboree, had a terrific time, and enjoyed trading patches with other Scouts. In 2008, he was on track to go to the big Arrow Corps 5 service project at the national parks, so I purchased sets of their patches for him. Then came the tornado at Little Sioux in Iowa, and he ended up missing Arrow Corps in order to visit the president with the rest of the scouts from Little Sioux. My question is whether he could take the Arrow Corps 5 patches with hi

Now that I've been to SeaBase and back, I've got the answers to my questions. It turned out that we were scheduled for the Keys Adventure (not the week-long Munson one), and we had a terrific time. I understand better that there's no set schedule of activities, because the staff have to consider weather and ship availability each day. Our week (day by day)ran like this: arrive, swim check, history and nature lessons; snorkeling and kayak instruction and visit to Key West; sailing and snorkeling on Munson Rocks; fishing and camping on Munson; kayaking in mangroves, exploring, and ret

So, anything interesting to report from the folks who have gone to Seabase this summer so far?

My son and I got our prescription snorkeling masks at a local scuba shop and I'm so thrilled - it's the first time I've been able to see while swimming since about second grade. I'm glad we've got time to practice with them, since there is a bit of a claustrophobic feel to wearing them. My hope is when we get to Florida we'll be able to jump right in and enjoy the sights without much adjustment. The boys were excited to hear about the mangrove maze (thanks Eagle90!) and have a few more questions of their own now. What is the swim test like? We've heard 75m front crawl, 50m on back, a

Thanks for the answers, everyone; your enthusiasm is helping me. Eagle90, the boys tell me that they're most interested in the kayaking part of the adventure. Do you spend many days kayaking? Can you request more time? Are they one or two-man kayaks, open or closed? And do you go in the ocean, inland, or both? (I'm hoping for two-man kayaks at least some of the time, so my son can paddle me around.) Thanks again!

Hope everyone is having a good end of school time, and getting ready for summer. I will be going on my first high adventure with the scouts, doing the Seabase Keys Adventure. As far as I understand it, we sleep indoors all but one night, and sample a wide variety of Seabase activities. There's always a few questions though, and if you can help me with some or all of them, I would be very grateful. I'm very near-sighted (can hardly see without glasses) and don't wear contacts. To get the most out of snorkeling, is there some kind of prescription mask or goggles one can get? I'm ex

Our troop is putting together a high adventure trip to Seabase. We have sent groups twice before, on the Tall Ship program where you go way out, and live on the boat. This time, however, we have three scouts who are not keen on deep ocean waters. They are more interested in the Out Island program, where you take canoes to Big Munson Island and stay there for a week. One of our adults heard, from someone who did this program, that it was boring and that you ran out of stuff to do quickly. That's only one data point, and not enough to go on. Can anyone in Scouter Network confirm