69RoadRunner

I only have 3 adults. For Philmont this year, we just added 2 scouts from another troop so we have a crew of 12. We're renting a 15 passenger and a minivan. Often they charge an absurd amount per day to add an extra driver, but I get your point. Also, have the drivers make separate reservations. They got really confused going to Sea Base when I reserved 2 vehicles. I hate rental car companies. That's my greatest stress on high adventure travel. Yeah, BSA says not to caravan and that's good advice. On the highway, it's not that hard to safely stay fairly close if traffic is light. In urban

Gossamer Gear Vagabond Trail REI Flash 22

This is another reason I use Smartwater bottles instead of Nalgenes. They're not just lighter and cheaper, I can fit 2 in my backpack side pocket as opposed to just 1 Nalgene.

We were able to get a van that fit our budget. I like the flexibility of having the van so we can do side trips as time allows.

Thanks, that confirms what I was thinking.

My son just got a postcard from the National Eagle Scout Association with an offer to be in their 2021 Yearbook. Is this, well maybe scam is not the right word, but a scam like those National Super Smart student yearbooks they tried to sell us when we graduated high school but was really just anyone who would pay for the book? Are you just paying for the book or is there any other benefit to this?

Yeah, we're doing Philmont this year and renting a van from Denver airport and wow is it expensive. I'm hoping things are better next year when we do a roll your own trip. I'm trying to find a few viable trips to present to the troop for 2023. Viable for a group of scouts is the greatest challenge. The scouts have done none of these trips I'm looking at, so they'd all be great experiences. My wise Committee Chair said pick trips I'd love to do since I'm doing all this work and the scouts will love it, too. We've been rotating between Philmont, Sea Base and Northern Tier. I thought i

I did see that they, and other areas, are doing the lottery thing rather than the Ticketmaster method. I was thinking if Plan A, backcountry permits, doesn't work, Plan B would be trying to get one of the many campsites in the area and do day hikes. Then drive south and do a few days in the Cirque of the Towers, which currently doesn't require permits. Plan C, well, that could be more backpacking in the Wind River Range or something else with no permits required. The thing that makes me most nervous is not having first hand experience there. Also, it's not like going to Philmont the

Yikes! While doing cost estimates, I'm including the cost of service for a Garmin InReach mini. I'm willing to buy it (and likely sell in eBay when done). I'm not sure I'd do much off trail stuff in an area I wasn't familiar with when on a scout trip.

I think this might be a good time for national to reevaluate the charter org model. Troops shouldn't have to rely on a church or other organization to be able to exist. We've seen where these other organizations have different philosophical views and that can lead to them taking it out on troops. I can also see them worried about liability, whether real or perceived.

Our Committee Chair is doing that. She handles rechartering. She handed the check directly to the rep along with some paperwork. He separated the 2 in his folders and I think that's why we were not credited for paying.

I got an email that we weren't rechartered because we didn't pay. I had our treasurer send proof that they deposited our check. Now I noticed that one of our scouts and his mom are no longer showing up in Scoutbook. He has the same first and last name as another scout in our troop who aged out but is now a registered adult with our troop. We had problems with his account in the past because of it. My son just aged out but registered as an adult. He now appears twice in Scoutbook both as a scout, not adult. Scouts who left our troop and did not re-register still appear in Scoutbo

Yes, they have a limit, but I believe it was 15, so more than we would take. We wouldn't even need to count some of the scouts as livestock.

Yeah, you can find experts on the internet, though. You can also find people posing as experts. You can learn a lot, including footwear reviews, from the king of backpacking, Andrew Skurka on his website, www.andrewskurka.com He also has a video on YouTube for selecting 5 star campsites and one of my favorite parts is him saying don't pick a spot a Boy Scout troop would take. He gives a good explanation why. r/Ultralight on Reddit is another good place for getting advice.

As others have said, what fits me won't fit you, necessarily. Topo Terraventure and Altra Lone Peaks are good options for hiking due to their wide toe boxes. This can greatly reduce blisters. If you're trying to lighten your pack, as everyone should, start by putting EVERYTHING in lighterpack.com and weigh everything. I got a cheap digital food scale when we were building pinewood derby cars and now it's my gear weight tool. Don't cheat as you're only cheating yourself. Ounces become pounds. Getting under 14 pounds base weight (before consumables) for 3 season backpacking should be pretty

Thanks. I went there when my wife and I went skiing in Big Sky 20 years ago. That was just a day trip. Apparently Old Faithful is less faithful these days, but still impressive. I'm working on presenting multiple viable options to the troop. Viable for a group is the greatest challenge. I always want high adventure to be a very different experience from what they can get here in Virginia. Philmont, NT and Sea Base do that. This might be my last HA trip with the troop, so I suggested we try something different and build our own trip rather than just rotate the national ones (NT would be up

My next area to research for a do it yourself high adventure trip in 2023 is Yellowstone. Has anyone been able to get a group backcountry permit? Another option is using campgrounds and day hike. I might combine this with a loop of Cirque of the Towers as the Wind River Range is a bucket list place for me. I know it gets crowded there, but at least there are no permit issues (yet).

Sorry I didn't respond sooner. He's in his mid 50s and has made it clear he will not do water. I likely can't get 4 adults for this trip to split up. I'm already struggling this year to get enough for summer camp and Philmont. And we're going to have to make it clear to parents if they don't help out, these things don't happen.

I have 1 adult who is a non-swimmer. He grew up on a farm in Wisconsin and never learned. I should have myself and another adult, so if he was OK with sitting that out, it would be an option. He also used to travel with a former Secretary of Defense who had a place in that area, so he suggested the whale watching.

I'm still gathering ideas to present to the troop for a roll your own 2023 high adventure trip. The Olympics in Washington looks like a fantastic place with a lot of variety. Hike the Hoh River Trail to the Blue Glacier. Enchanted Valley Chalet. Beach trails. Then maybe have a side activity for whale watching. I'm thinking of a 10-12 day trip and we would rent a van to take us from trailhead to trailhead. Backpack a few days in each area. It looks like you need to go on recreation.gov 6 months ahead and book day 1, then next day book day 2, etc. for each area. Just curious

I had a backpacking trip in Inyo last year. I forgot to ask my NP for altitude sickness pills during my annual physical, so I went to a CVS Minute Clinic. It was that NP's first day by herself. The tech who checked me in asked why I'd come and I said I wanted altitude sickness meds. She said they'd have to refer me for a psych exam. I said altitude, not attitude. She was still confused. I finally got to the NP. She said she had to call a colleague. She prescribed me motion sickness meds and said it did the same thing. Huh? Next day a more experienced NP called and said, uh, she

Yeah, I know what you mean about the bugs. Well, at least I've read it enough times to understand. I think if we do a trip like this, we'd need to go early August. Can you tell me about your Wyoming trip? That's also under consideration. I'm not sure if we could go late enough in the summer to be there at an ideal time.

We're still considering our "roll your own" high adventure options for 2023. One option I want to present to the troop is doing about 6 days in the Weminuche Wilderness in Colorado. We've rotated through the national high adventure camps and are looking to save a little money and do something on our own. This also might be my last as scoutmaster. We're in northern VA outside of DC and I like having the scouts experience something very different from what we have in our area. This is one of the top backpacking areas in the the country and no permits are required, which simplifies

You think making fun of beer brands means I condone using alcohol to molest scouts? That's quite a leap. I really didn't think it was necessary for me to criticize something so obviously horrible. On another forum I strongly criticized scouters who said they would get a beer when coming off trail at Philmont. You're on duty 24/7 until the last scout is picked up at any scouting event.

Well, to sum up my views on this, 18-21 year olds should not have the YPT restriction outside of scouting. I might make that for friends within 2 years of age of the now adult scout. This is similar to the relatively new tenting age restriction. It would be great to have more women involved. That is separate from the sexist YPT restriction that is different for female and male adult leaders. Having more restrictive rules for men than you have for women is sexist. I also find it insulting. And I do think those who make these rules don't consider that they are imposing them on voluntee