Survival Weekend with Troop 29

A few weekends ago, Troop 29 held their annual Survival Weekend. It's an opportunity for the scouts to earn the Wilderness Survival merit badge, as well as brush up on some skills they might not use much throughout the rest of the year on "regular" campouts.

Scouts worked on a variety of skills including several fire-starting techniques: flint and steel, magnifying glass, and the ever-popular battery and steel wool, amongst them. Scouts built shelters to camp in (no tents!), and adults gave them a brief inspection to ensure nobody was going to be in a riverbed in case of a flash flood. We cooked lunches, hung bear bags, and learned to purify water.

The day started with no intention of using the cabin in our site. We had some new Scouts along, though, so decided that an adult would stay in the cabin and if those new Scouts wanted to also, that was ok. After all, we wanted to ensure they had a good experience and would come back. But then it started to rain... lightly at first, but progressively harder. By about 7:00 most of the Troop was in the cabin ready to spend the night dry.