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A Winter Campout
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By Tom Petrik

Realize I was all of 11, and the fancy clothing we have to stay warm were nothing known to any of us, so we were wearing cotton, one and all.... 

I just became a Scout, the Troop held its February Dinner/COH/Tapout (You be a Scout for a week and then see menacing Indians walking around and around and wondering what is going on and whether you would be the next Scout grabbed by the shoulders and literally lifted into place in line to be tapped... a year later it was me they took) and the SM announced the February campout: Chicago area, woods, NO TENTS, everyone would be working in groups of two instead of patrols and had to be prepared to carry everything they needed on their backs. 

I'd gotten it all, backpack, sleeping bag, etc., etc. I was ready to go. Mom wasn't so sure, but was reassured and the next thing I know I'm teamed with someone I never met before, told to plan menu and work, and be ready to go. I climbed on the bus with so much excitement I don't remember the drive. 

About 50 of us arrive after dark on Friday and are hiked through the forest area to a place where we will camp. The older Scouts - the Green Bar, not the adults, not the leaders -- had been out there for three weekends getting ready. There were pre-cut poles all about 6-7' long, a case with binders twine in it, a pile of split firewood that me and my partner could have stood on top of each other and not taken a piece off the top, and a huge roll of something in a box. 

We were told to build lean-tos in a horseshoe shape, the opening would be where the cooking would occur. There would be a fire for staying warm in the center. The backs of the lean-tos were to be made out of a nice roll of thick plastic that had been acquired to be turned into groundcloths after the outing. It literally was string completely around the outside of the horseshoe (and the wisdom of a new kid being assigned an older kid finally dawned on me as we had to lash everything together and tie on the plastic. 

A small fire in the horseshoe was soon creating enough heat I was taking my coat off when near my gear. The adults had their space in the center of the bottom of the shoe, where they were already bedding in. 

What a weekend! I started fires, I cooked for me and my buddy, I learned tracking and trailing, I worked both with my patrol on advancement and with my buddy on advancement. I left the campout with most things you would account for "has to be done on a campout" signed off, including lashings and more. 

I was warmer in my open lean-to than I ever have been in a tent in the winter since, the ash pile from the heating fire growing larger and larger as we went through the weekend until almost all the wood was burned, and we had no problems finding enough wood to build our 25 buddy cooking fires in the open end of the horseshoe. One weekend and a zillion things signed in my book and experiences cooking and building fires and everything else. 

LNT would tell us we broke a thousand rules. We were doing what was needed to pull off a weekend to give us a good experience. That property is now a forest preserve in Des Plaines Valley Council. We used to hold a winter Cubbing event there about 10 or 12 years ago, and I was able to wander back to find the clearing and the remains of the ash pile (yes, there is still, 33 years later, traces of the huge fire that burned for two full days and two full nights continually, never cleared, just added to). 

What can I say, with the current mindset I have avoided telling this story because you just KNOW someone, someplace would try to recreate it. And someone else needs to burn that much wood and ruin a piece of land for so long? Unless you work trimming trees and cutting them down you may not even be able to go and FIND that much wood in some of these areas any more. 

Tom Petrik

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