Best Weekend Campout Experience

We often talk about the great experiences we have at summer camp or on high adventure trips. I'd like to hear from my fellow Scouters about their best experiences on the bread and butter of the Scouting program, the weekend campouts.

Probably the best weekend campout I've been on was last April. We hosted two other troops and conducted a version of the Siege of Mafeking campout we'd seen on the internet. A few nights ago, I was at a district event, and the leaders of both of the other troops that were with us came up to me and commented on how much their Scouts still talk about that campout.

We did a lot of stuff at night sneaking through the woods. The Scouts got a big adrenaline rush trying to retake Mafeking and all the challenges it presented. However, something we added just as an add-on got the best review.

On Saturday morning, we planned a training session for the new Scouts on Totin Chit and fire building. Not sure what to do with the older Scouts, we decided to send them on a hike. Two things made it interesting. First of all, we called it a reconnisance mission. I planted map (saying it was the key to success in our mission that night) a couple of miles from camp. Then, to make it really interesting, we told the Scouts that they had to avoid the Boer patrols along the woods and follow certain directions. Of course, our directions took them through a mile long marsh and up and down over numerous hills. They had a riot.

Another great part of the camp was something one of my patrols came up with. The Scouts all had staves with them. Five members of a patrol ad libbed a game they called stick switch. They all stood about a staves length apart. One the count of three, they all left their staves standing and ran clockwise to the next stave before the stave fell to the ground. If none of the staves fell, then everyone took one step backward (making a bigger circle) and did it again. We turned it into a contest and one patrol of six actually ended up taking six steps backward successfully before failing on the seventh. The Scouts loved it.

Our adventure was complete about half past midnight on Saturday. The Scouts were exhausted the next day when they went home. I had numerous parents tell me at the next troop meeting that their sons loved the event and slept all day Sunday (they were very thankful for the peace and quiet).