by Bob Geier
Current demographics in our troop are such that we have a big group
of 8th/9th graders and we just graduated a large group of seniors.
One of the PLC's goals for camp was to really cement patrol method
and patrol "bonding" especially among the older boys in each
patrol.
By working together as older boys, the guys who will be supporting
each other and the younger scouts on regular trips get some
challenge, skill building, and team building.So after week one with
everyone, the older (13 and up) boys in each patrol got to stay for a
second week of adventure.
Week two had a decidedly different feel. We had about half the
number of people as week one, and had really designed it to work with
very little adult support (only 2 adults, really, but our committee
insisted we have 4 for safety/backup in the event of a problem,
etc.). The point was to step the patrols further toward autonomy.
Each patrol again got to choose its own calendar, though one event
was preset by the PLC - a 3-day no-adults backpack trek of about 30
miles or so.
Sunday saw the departure of our younger guys after mass, and the
older guys got time in town for laundry. Each patrol also go to hit
the grocery to buy patrol food for the week. By Sunday evening, the
boys were set up for the week.
Each patrol again got to decide their own patrol activities and
schedule for the week. All patrols did a 3-day, 30-mile independent
backpack trek without adults. The start location for that trek was
adjacent to a great Sporting Clays facility, so they all got some
outstanding shotgun instruction and experience for half the day,
followed by a quick lunch where we reviewed their route plan (TCP)
and then they were off.
On average, we had only half the patrols in
camp on any given day, with the rest on the trail at various points.
For the in-camp segments, patrols chose different activities, most of
which were coordinated with outfitters. For whitewater rafting,
rather than do a guided-tour style trip, we worked out a long, hard
day of "raft guide clinic" where they got a good portion of an
outfitter's training course for new guides. Fun with whitewater, and
extra fun captaining rafts, flipping and unflipping rafts (over and
over...), learning how to set safety systems, etc. Boys finished the
day happy and exhausted.
We tried to duplicate that kind of experience for all of the
activities that patrols selected. Some patrols opted for some more
hardboat (kayaking) clinics, some climbing, some caving, some
mountain biking. Wherever we could, we followed the same Rx... fun,
challenge, and leadership/learning.
Each day after they were done with outfitters (or emerged from their
backpack trek), they were on their own in town and for the evening.
We had a small cabin in town as an adult contact point (and shower
facility for those coming off trail), and were of course available.
A little bit of formal advancement went on some evenings, but it was
more likely for a patrol to ask an adult to go down to the river to
do some after-dinner kayak instruction, or to take some bikes out on
their own. Things were active enough that despite the proximity of
a paintball facility, I don't think we got a single request <g>.
------
Reflections
This week ran so pleasantly and easily that it was very much an adult
vacation. I used it for some adult training, sending individual
adults for kayak instruction or river guide training; had I been
more on the ball, I would have set up more of that. Adults ran
their own self-guided raft trip one day, a couple went into town to
catch Dark Knight another day.
The boys naturally had all their own tales of adventure, from
rattlesnake encounters on the trail to kayak and climb and biking
stories. Almost every boy easily exceed the (non bookwork) Shotgun
MB requirements, and the non-bookwork stuff for other awards as
well. Honestly, everything ran so smoothly and so completely youth-
run that it's really hard to comment.
It was simply a marvelous week of scouting.
BG
