- Joined
- Mar 29, 2007
- Messages
- 5,846
Just go back from a camping trip- the first Cub Scout trip. We had a blast:
We had a good time and have plenty of funny and fun stories-
I'm fairly minimalist, so people on the pack thought it a bit odd that we had so little. Leif doesn't know that hot dogs and peanut butter crackers and apples aren't enough for 2 days of camping. (oh, and marshmallow, of course). He ate as much as he wanted and had fun. I didn't lug around and extra 60 pounds of excess cooking gear. Win.
The first night only one other family was up- the older cub scout in their family (webelos) was very excited about his pocket knife and showed me for quite a while, mis naming most of the tools. Two things about that: 1: don't buy chinese. For Frig's sake, just get a freaking Vic. That thing was *awful* and wouldn't take a decent edge. 2: I had to stop myself part way through re explaining the tools because it was his father who was mixing up the can and bottle opener, telling him a fish scaler was a "soft saw" and awl (the hook disgorger, I mean) while calling the nail file a scaler and... well, the list goes on.
I didn't bring extra mantles, but had enough county-comm led lights to share 3 with the other family and still have my backup plus my main flashlight. Leif had his windup FRS-150 and was happy as a clam.
He also got to go fishing, kayaking (first time), and build a 20-odd foot dirt slide on a hillside.
I got shocked looks for starting a fire the first night with the purchased firewood. Has a 3x5 paper label. So I took my GB forest axe and split a few pieces off one of the logs, then feathered with the axe (sweet) and lit the whole fire with that one little piece of paper. Excellent.
Repeated it second night and the experienced scoutmaster was up and said that he'd never seen feathering with an axe and that I was really efficient with fuel usage. Excellent.
Next time I'll use a striker and flint rod and some loaded jute.
More photos: leif is having a blast:
We had a good time and have plenty of funny and fun stories-
I'm fairly minimalist, so people on the pack thought it a bit odd that we had so little. Leif doesn't know that hot dogs and peanut butter crackers and apples aren't enough for 2 days of camping. (oh, and marshmallow, of course). He ate as much as he wanted and had fun. I didn't lug around and extra 60 pounds of excess cooking gear. Win.
The first night only one other family was up- the older cub scout in their family (webelos) was very excited about his pocket knife and showed me for quite a while, mis naming most of the tools. Two things about that: 1: don't buy chinese. For Frig's sake, just get a freaking Vic. That thing was *awful* and wouldn't take a decent edge. 2: I had to stop myself part way through re explaining the tools because it was his father who was mixing up the can and bottle opener, telling him a fish scaler was a "soft saw" and awl (the hook disgorger, I mean) while calling the nail file a scaler and... well, the list goes on.
I didn't bring extra mantles, but had enough county-comm led lights to share 3 with the other family and still have my backup plus my main flashlight. Leif had his windup FRS-150 and was happy as a clam.
He also got to go fishing, kayaking (first time), and build a 20-odd foot dirt slide on a hillside.
I got shocked looks for starting a fire the first night with the purchased firewood. Has a 3x5 paper label. So I took my GB forest axe and split a few pieces off one of the logs, then feathered with the axe (sweet) and lit the whole fire with that one little piece of paper. Excellent.
Repeated it second night and the experienced scoutmaster was up and said that he'd never seen feathering with an axe and that I was really efficient with fuel usage. Excellent.
Next time I'll use a striker and flint rod and some loaded jute.
More photos: leif is having a blast:
