Good scouts, bad scouters

[David Brown]

We took 4 scouts backpacking this weekend on the Tuscarora trail near Front Royal VA. 1 scout struggled (a bit out of shape, pretty heavy pack, sore feet by mid-Saturday) but everybody had a good time.

We hiked a mile or two Friday night, then doubled back by the truck Saturday morning. I like this trick: give scouts an opportunity to take gear out of their pack after they carry it for 3 or 4 miles. They are more apt to ask "what else don't I need" than to insist they need a complete stainless steel mess kit.

We put in about 9 miles Saturday with around 2500' elevation change, and arrived at Little Crease shelter about 5:00pm. If you've been to this shelter you know how amazing it is. A beautiful stone patio and fire pit, crystal clear reliable water, huge shelter. We see that the shelter is already occupied by another troop. 4 scouters, maybe a dozen scouts, a local Front Royal troop. No problem: plenty of great camping spots nearby and our scouts wanted to sleep under the stars anyway. I introduce myself to the other scouters, two were nice, but the other two just said, "you know there's another camping site 2 miles up the hill" and pretty much nothing else. So the weekend turned into a great hike in beautiful weather, with practice lightening loads, and an object lesson in the difference between courteous and discourteous.

[John L Collins]

Bummer! That's my Council and I'm sorry you had that experience.

I like your doubling back trick and will have to incorporate that into my trips.

John

[Fred eric]

Being a scout doesnt preserve from being an aXXhole.
In Greenland this year, we had 3 maps for Kangerlussuaq – Sisimiut Hike, toward the end we met a scout, helped him to find his way
As he asked us for the last 2 maps of his trip (*) ,and we didnt needed them anymore we said to him, ok heres our 2 maps but they are holiday " souvenirs" now please send them back to us once you are back to Switzerland.
I wrote our adress on one of the maps and 2 months later nada.

This is no scout bashing, i was one 30 years ago maybe that s why i am disappointed.
(*) they were doing some orientation game called "explorer belt" from what we learned from others we met earlier, that is why they didnt had maps for all the zone, they needed to collect the infos, maybe asking passer-by was not an authorized way to collect them :)

[Tad Englund]

Fred, sorry about your experience with that scout- maybe in a couple of years that boy will remember what he should have done and decide to make changes in his life. Sometimes boys grow to men by learning from the bad things they do as much as always doing the right thing. As a boy and a scout I did my fair share of "wrong" things, hopefully I learned from them. I use some of those "wrong" decisions in teaching my scouts what not to do and the consequences for making the wrong choice and how to correct it when you do.
Maybe things will be better next time.

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