Here's mine.
Every year our Cub Scout pack has a weekend-long camping trip to our Scout Reservation in New Hampshire. The older Scouts arrive Friday night and help set up camp; the younger boys show up bright and early Saturday morning and stay through lunch on Sunday. This past year was no different, except for one thing: It was my son’s last time as a Cub Scout. He’ll be crossing over to Boy Scouts before this season’s camping trip, so this was the last trip that we took where my presence was required – although I’ll camp with him as long as he’ll have me along.
We arrived somewhat late Friday afternoon; I took the day off work so that I could make a supply run and be home before he got home from school. We made it to the Reservation a couple hours before dinner time, and upon arrival it was my son and I, my Committee Chair, and another dad and his Scout at the Reservation. After offloading our gear, we quickly got to work making camp:
Tent Sweet Tent
Set up the tent, two cots inside (I don’t do sleeping on the ground, not after a couple bad car wrecks), a small table with a lamp, and sleeping bags and blankets. A couple camp chairs out front to rest our legs, ax and saw safely placed in the ax yard, wood gathered, and our campsite was ready to roll. We set up the carport for our eating area (along with dragging several 500 pound picnic tables [they felt that heavy!] over…) and got the grill set up for our dinner. Next we sent the boys out to gather wood, set up for dinner, and the evening’s festivities were well underway.
After dinner, with our bellies full, our camp set up, and night rapidly falling, we built a good-sized campfire with the wood the boys had gathered and settled in for the night. Folks were arriving family by family, and we took turns holding flashlights, bringing lanterns, and helping everyone get squared away. Having the right gear is crucial to a good camping trip – in this case, a Coleman lantern made before I was born, a relic from a simpler time was a main source of light. It was interesting to see the contrast between the lantern I inherited from my dad casting light bright as day right next to a fancy LED flashlight no larger than a box of matches with a similarly powerful light.
As the night wore on, and the temperature dropped, it because more evident how necessary having the proper gear would be. After getting the boys ready for bed, wrapping them up in blankets and tucking them in their polyfiber sleeping bags, the dads (it’s always dads) gathered around the fire for an impromptu planning session for the next day and to keep warm. Again, the contrast was amusing – the high-tech flashlights next to the white gas lantern, dads checking their smartphones around the campfire, the oldest gathering place known to man.
Later that night, the fire all burnt down and safely put out, we retired to our tents to find that the temperature had dropped well below freezing. I checked on my son, he was cold but still adamant about staying in the tent (there are cabins on site for family members that don’t do the tent thing). Bundling up a little more, we decided to tough it out in the tent – we had our sleeping bags, blankets, and several layers of clothing – we’d be all set, right? Well, about three o’clock in the morning we both woke up shivering. The temperature had dropped into the low 20s, and a light wind was blowing through the campground. We made the decision to finish the evening in the windproof cabin – which also had a stove – and found the rest of the Pack inside the cabin getting a fire lit in the stove!
The rest of the weekend was uneventful – and warmer. Saturday we welcomed the younger Scouts and their families who arrived after breakfast and sent the boys off to different stations for the day. They shot BB guns, ran obstacle courses, learned how to shoot a bow and arrow, and had fire building competitions. We took a hike together as a Pack, then finished the evening with a roaring campfire down at the Reservation Council ring. Saturday night was much calmer, and the rest of the camping trip was uneventful.
What did I learn from this trip? Well, the right gear makes all the difference - thermals and an extra blanket are good, but a roaring fire in a warm stove is better. The old standards still work - but the new tech is pretty cool, too. My 40 year old lantern throws light a good ways, and runs for quite a long time on a tank of fuel, but my LED flashlight doesn't glow red hot at the end of the day and can be used inside the tent. Things don't need to be replaced just because they're old, but sometimes the new stuff replaces the old because it works better.
Oh, and any time spent camping with your kid is a right good time!
That is all.
7 comments:
Despite some...less-than-happy memories of camping as a kid, I've learned to enjoy it again as a father of a cub scout. Like yours, my boy is about to cross over to Boy Scouts in March. He's already told me he expects me to get the training needed so I can be one of the "camping dads" (the ASM's - Assistant Scoutmasters) who gets to go with them, and I'm very much looking forward to it.
While we haven't camped in 20-degree weather, I've been when it dipped below freezing overnight. Fortunately, I had the right gear, and a smallish tent that held in at least a little body heat.
My first camping trip as a Boy Scout was probably not the kind of story 5.11 Gear is looking for. (It involved a cold early April night, a bunch of ill prepared greenhorns, a reluctant campfire, and a can of paint thinner.)
Nothing beats an old Coleman lantern!
I am a Boy Scout.
Yeah, I'm older now, and I guess technically I'm 'retired'. But I refuse to say it past tense.
I did Philmont, several local Jamborees (not the national kind, just local), hiked through the Sipsey wilderness and wandered underground. Wouldn't trade the memories for anything.
Cold weather camping can be a real pain. If you're going to be in a subfreezing patch, you almost have to have some kind of specialty sleeping bag to retain body heat. Oh, and put the clothes you're going to wear the next morning inside the bag with you. :)
There is nothing like camping, especially when there are few people around. Both of our kids grew up camping and loved it.
Winter Camp was always one of my favorites, as a Scout. I never went as a Cub, but every year as a Boy Scout, and later I tagged along with my old Troop when my kid brother was in (I was given the honor of presenting my kid bro with his Eagle. That was a great day). The BSA has had its ups and downs, and Troop quality varies widely, but I consider it a very valuable organization.
A couple cold camping observations: 1) zero degree sleeping bags are waaaay better than 40 degree bags. 2)Dome or other nylon tents are decent for shedding rain; it is no fun when they collapse under a snow load, also canvas tents hold heat better, but not by much... cold is cold. 3) Bekins style quilted packing blankets underneath your sleeping bag, especially with cots. Hunting camps I always sleep on the ground, with a heavy blanket underneath. Cots are more comfortable but are not insulated. Coldest nights camping have been in cots, and I've camped down to well below zero. 4) I want to go camping now...
My most memorable camping trip with the Boy Scout's was on Boca Raton beach. We had a bit of rain. We were up most of the night bailing water out of the tent. After it stopped raining the next morning someone dug out a portable bilge pump and we finally got the rest of the water out.
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