CalicoPenn

I love my MSR Whisperlite - have used it for many years with great success - but, it might not be as stable for younger scouts - its a pretty lightweight stove with a separate fuel canister. I've heard good things about the Coleman Apex II stove - Its a dual fuel stove which is a plus (can operate on Coleman Fuel/Unleaded Gas or can operate on Kerosene with the addition of an optional generator), has a bit more stability than the Whisperlite, and also has a separate fuel canister. Both of these stoves run around $60. For about $150 dollars, MSR has a multi-fuel stove named the XGK E

Eagle74 - Great info on air matresses and air as an insulator - I gave it short shrift in my post but the intention was that the large pockets of air in a conventional air mattress was not a good insulator but that the smaller pockets of air in clothing and thermarests worked well as insulation and as heat retainers (and we're talking small here - pencil point or smaller). Thanks for the clarification. Dan - I realize its probably a bit too late to help for this weekends campout but it would not hurt to allow your bag to air out for a little while in the morning - I've always made a habi

You stated you have a possible charter org on deck, you have lots of trained leaders that all appear willing to support the CM/ACM, and I'll just bet that the parents of the scouts like their DL's/ADL's etc. Sounds to me like you have the highest poker hand - its time to call the bluff and force the issue. Call the COR and find out if s/he has, in fact, told this guy what he's claiming he's been told. If not, then its simple - tell him its time to leave. If so, tell the COR that if the CM and ACM leave, and this guy stays, the rest of you are leaving too and will form a new pack, comp

I do have a few thoughts though I don't have access to any specific council's policies - your scout executive should be able to network and get some to look at. I've always felt that most scout camps insistence that scouts and scouters return to the campsites was inefficient. Instead, when the emergency siren sounds, the scouts and scouters should converge on a common area, like a field or dining hall. Camp can help this process by having flags with campsite names (my summer camp named their sites) in a nearby quickly accessible area that the units can identify and gather round to take

As has been stated a few times and keeps getting lost in the discussion - Tread Carefully here. Everything you know about this case - Everything - even the newspaper article - is Hearsay. The "general knowledge" that this lad is one of the alleged (repeat - ALLEGED) culprits is assumption, speculation and rumor based solely on his friendship with the 18 year old whose name made the paper. Until it is adjucated in court, there is no proof whatsoever that this lad (or any of the other folks involved) actually did what they are being accused of (if, in fact, this lad is one of the alleged culp

Much ado about ketchup (or do you say catsup?). Our solution for leftover food was to put the name of each individual food item on a slip of paper and put them in a hat - each scout in the patrol chooses a slip from the hat and they take home whatever food item(s) they choose from the hat - to make sure everyone brought home the same number of items, we would split easily splittable items (like soup packets or hot chocolate packets) into two or three separate piles and put that food name in the hat three times. We never saved food items from one trip to another - our gear storage was

I know its not the patrol method but I like the idea of a buddy system for winter campouts - I wouldn't neccessarily call them patrols though. The unit should make sure they plan some kind of events that all the boys can do together - snow shoe races, etc. - if there are only 6 or so lads on the trip and you have enough snow on the ground, they could all work together building a quinzhee shelter (a packed mound of snow that is partially hollowed out to form an igloo like shelter) that all of them could spend the night in (if they do this, make sure they put in sufficient ventilation holes or

A couple responses - felt my pad correction was getting a bit too long. ++ In my experience, less really is more - for the reasons I stated. I know that it is counterintuitive, but the more clothes one wears to bed, the colder one will get. Initially, when you first get to bed, it will be a bit chilly, maybe even downright cold, but you will warm up as your body heat warms up the bag. The problem with wearing multiple layers in bed at night is that you aren't awake when its time to strip off a layer. When wearing multiple layers during the day, as you become more active and start gene

GWD-Scouter - by all means, feel free to use anything I typed if you find it useful. I was an Okpik Instructor at Maine National High Adventure Base back in the mid-80's (and majored in Outdoor Recreation/Environmental Education in college) - everything I know about cold weather camping comes from either the scouts or from college courses (which were all practical, hands on, experiential education courses - taught and learned in the field). I need to make a bit of a correction about the information I shared about the pads. The Thermarest Z-rest is a closed cell pad - there is nowhere to

The question becomes warmer than what? Most likely the interior of your tent is going to be warmer than outside - even in your 9x9 Sundome (I used my 9x9 Sundome instead of my smaller tent this weekend - I camped in it alone - I wanted the bigger tent so I could set up a camp chair for reading/relaxing away from the wind). I agree with ScoutNut completely - no heaters in tents - its too dangerous - risk of fire, and of carbon monoxide buildup. Your tent will never be as warm as a hotel room (or your house) and really, as long as your comfortable sleeping (once you get comfortable slee

Your 3-season sleeping bag should have been fine for your camping trip this weekend - its rated to 15 degrees and Marmot is one of the best companies out there for sleeping bags. I was out camping this weekend in the Manistee National Forest (Michigan) with my "3" season North Face and never got cold at all while sleeping - and I never use my sleeping bag in the classic sense (as a bag to crawl or zip in to) - I use my sleeping bag as a blanket (fully zipped open, though the foot box remains closed - its a tapered bag, not a mummy). I slept on my Thermarest classic with a fleece blanket on t

Sorry - this was just too good to pass up so responses: 1) Society supresses behavior the citizens find repulsive: Response: Most citizens find cigarette smoking repulsive but you can still smoke (you may not be able to smoke in a restaurant - and frankly, any restaurant that doesn't voluntarily ban smoking never gets my business - the heck with the health issues - smoking effects the taste of food - but no one is stopping you from smoking on sidewalks, in your house, or even on a trail through a national park) 2. Monogamous heterosexual couples are the bedrock of a stable society:

This is a second reply because I wanted to separate out the issues of Eagle Scout projects with the issues of gay scouts and sexual behavior on campouts. Simply put - there is no place whatsoever for sexual behavior on Boy Scout camping trips - that being said, anyone who believes that there hasn't been or isn't sexual behavior going on at Boy Scout camping trips (both single sex trips and coed trips) is very naive. Any experienced Scoutmaster or Scouter with many campouts and years under their belts is likely to have at least one and probably more tales they can relate. I've worked sec

Congrats to Bethanne for earning her Gold Award and congrats to the Girl Scouts for recognizing that community is as diverse as the human race. Could an Eagle project be done for a GLBT organization? I see nothing in the rules that would prevent it, membership policies notwithstanding. Girls can't be members of the BSA but I doubt anyone would prevent a service project that benefited 10-year old girls. As long as the guidelines are followed (no fundraising, no politics, etc.) there should be no hold up on approving a service project for a non-profit GLBT organization. Makes me curious

Along the east side of the Hudson River lived the Wappinger. The subnation of the Wappinger most likely in the Bronx was the Wecquaesgeek which lived mainly between the Hudson, Bronx and Pocantico rivers, and on Manhattan Island. The Siwanoy subnation of the Wappinger used the area for travel. Most scholars now seem to consider the Manhattan tribe (named after Manhattan Island) to be just another name for the Wecquaesgeek and/or a subdivision of the Wecquaesgeek though some consider the Manhattan to be an additional subnation of the Wappinger. The main village of the Wecquaesgeek was locat

Impractical field wear? The red beret? Not in my experience - the beret is one of the two best hats for field wear (the other being the overseas cap) because of its versatility. The beret could be used as a hot pot holder (can't do that with a baseball cap), emergency pressure bandage (can't do that with a baseball cap), short-term water carrier-bucket (can't do that with a mesh baseball cap), impromptu frisbee (the only other use for the smoky bear hat, by the way, cause you wouldn't want to use it to carry water), baseball/softball base (baseball caps are to tall to use as a base), carrie

With the new year approaching, its time to recap the headlines of War on Christmas 2005: The Elf Liberation Front (ELF) and the Radical Reindeer Brigade accused each other of being responsible for the chimney side bomb that left Santa Claus in a coma. Santa, who lost both legs and one arm in the bombing has a fifty percent chance to recover though a spokeswoman for the Claus family said that he would never be able to drive a sleigh again. None of Mr. Claus' children have any interest in taking over the family business and are expected to close down the North Pole compound, throwing thou

This could be a great opportunity for you to open up a discussion of alternative energy sources with your scouts. A couple of years back, I purchased a portable solar power charger that I use at campsites to recharge my digital camera batteries and power my laptop computer (I keep my laptop with me to download the pictures I take - I tend to take an enormous amount of photos in one day while on vacation and use the time while my campfire is working its way to a good cooking fire to download and organize the photos). I looked up solar power battery chargers on the web and the technology

None of the hunters I know take pleasure in the kill - and I think most would agree that this is a narrow way of looking at the sport - we take pleasure in the hunt, in the process, in the whole - thats the key - the whole - even if there are some unpleasant parts of the experience. The kill is just one of the parts of the whole experience, a part of the process. I think in most activities, there are things that need to be done that are done matter of factly - without emotion attached (and I don't mean in a Mr. Spock kind of way - just a neutrality about it). The best hunters I know g

Sorry SWScouter, I didn't mean to imply that taking Bison or other thick-skinned animals like Bear was impossible with a Bow - only difficult. Most states have very specific rules about the type of arrow and arrow head one can use to hunt different species, as well as the draw strength of the bow. Somtimes these rules are counterintuitive to what is needed for a successful hunt which adds to the difficulty. CalicoPenn

Based on the description of the events of the campout, it sounds like your son handled it quite well. Sounds like he would be welcomed as a leader in any troop. The newest piece of information though is that your son was SPL for a year and a half. Its time for him to step down from this role anyway and let another lad have an opportunity. The way the Scoutmaster went about it is unfortunate though. Meet with the Scoutmaster and give him the opportunity to "save face". It sounds like he does have good intentions in forming the venture patrol - just went about it rather awkwardly. Soun

The story of the Bison "hunters" trying to use their bows and arrows on full grown adult bison reminds me of one of my previous boss' decision to hunt black bear with a long bow (he owned a fishing/hunting camp in Maine - where people came from all over the country to pay for the privelege of hunting/fishing in the Maine woods). He practiced all summer - on his first day out, a black bear passed his stand - he shot the bear but the arrow just bounced off. Problem - the bear was between him and his truck - and she was not a happy bear at this point. She kept him tree'd for 5 hours before she

Based on the new info, it sounds like the CO - through the previous IH - was very much aware of this particular long-term unit. Its not a short term, can you help us out with this, unit - its a unit that the CO has had for a long time - possibly even the original unit (true?). Its often the case that when people leave an organization, they forget to impart their knowledge of things to their replacements - we don't know why the original IH left and if he had much contact with the new IH before he did though it sounds like the new IH got very little info from the previous IH but had enough inf

I can understand the policy that those scouts wanting to go winter camping must have training first. I don't understand why it has to be this particular training. I was a National High Adventure Base Okpik staff member back in 1986/87. Units came from all over New England to go winter camping in the Maine woods. Our "classroom" training took place Friday night - we could teach you everything you needed to know to camp in the winter in just three hours (of course, the rest of the weekend was also all about training opportunities - classroom to practical - the best kind of training in mo

Ours were a call out/tap out combination at our spring district camporees. Guides dressed in costume would walk through camp gathering all of the units and leading them by torchlight and in silence to the ceremony location. Upon reaching the ceremony ring, the units would stand in a semi circle around three campfires - two campfires that were lit and a larger central fire that was not lit. Once all the units were in place, the ceremony would start with the lighting of the central fire. There wasn't a set ceremony for lighting the fire - one year the ceremony location was along a rive