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Celticclimber
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PostSat Jan 23, 2021 4:20 pm 
I just really need to get this off my chest mad.gif In my more than 40+yrs of being 'out there' I've seen ,maybe,2 Boy Scout leaders that I thought knew what they were doing. Today was not one of them. Went to Skyline Ridge & Peak. No biggie. So I'm coming down from the peak and this out of control group of about 5 teens + leader (an adult) & 'a mom' start coming up the slope before the peak approach and they are all over the place. Totally wiped out the boot track that was there. Then 2 of the teens start heading up the steep line to the peak in SNOWSHOES.!! I got them to stop and take their shoes off. Then on last part of way down, instead of plunge stepping, they sit on their butts and with straight legs slide down on very firm/frozen snow. I told the leader (who started the whole thing) that if they were going to come down like that; he could at least teach them how to self arrest on their elbows....Not an iceaxe to be found here. It wouldn't have taken much for one of them to flip head over ass. Or hit a frozen death cookie and break something. So am I just being too critical? suuure.gif

Live every day like you will die to-marrow. For some day that will be true.
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Schroder
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PostSat Jan 23, 2021 10:14 pm 
Celticclimber wrote:
So am I just being too critical?
Yes

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MyFootHurts
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MyFootHurts
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PostSun Jan 24, 2021 2:12 am 
Most people who venture outdoors don't know what they're doing because they are just there to make a twerk video in front of Colchuck Lake.

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treeswarper
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treeswarper
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PostSun Jan 24, 2021 6:24 am 
I vote yes.

What's especially fun about sock puppets is that you can make each one unique and individual, so that they each have special characters. And they don't have to be human––animals and aliens are great possibilities
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DadFly
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PostSun Jan 24, 2021 3:05 pm 
Boy Scouts come in all flavors and sizes. In the troop I was in (back in the stone age) we had two great leaders and two clueless leaders. Everybody survived. I chopped my shin with a hatchet once. Buddy stepped barefoot on a red hot rock 40 miles into the Bob. Tim jumped off a 15' cliff into deep powder and found a log that broke his collarbone. These are the worst issues I remember. This doesn't mean there were no stupid actions that could have ended differently. We all learned from our mistakes. I think that is the point. winksmile.gif

"May you live in interesting times"
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Celticclimber
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PostSun Jan 24, 2021 3:12 pm 
To the credit of the leader. As I was heading passed him on my out. He stopped me and thanked me for suggesting the that they learn how to self arrest using their elbows. So, you are right: One can learn from their mistakes. Or lack of awareness. BTW. I wasn't the only that day, that didn't like what was going on.

Live every day like you will die to-marrow. For some day that will be true.
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Randito
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PostSun Jan 24, 2021 4:49 pm 
My favorite boy scout mishap story was when another patrol at a camp out had a "tenderfoot" soap the pots before cooking stew over a campfire. But nobody showed him how and he applied soap to the outside and inside of the pot. Some of the scouts were hungry enough that they ate the stew anyway even with the dish soap flavoring. Explosive diarrhea for them starting late in the night and continuing into the next day.

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HikerJohn
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PostSun Jan 24, 2021 4:57 pm 
My wildest scout memory was going for a training campout with the other youth leaders and our Scoutmasters to Snoqualmie Lake. When we arrived, they announced it was a "Survival hike" and we would need to live off of the land. It was early summer, so no berries to eat, so we caught frogs and started on frog legs. The Scoutmasters found a plant they swore was edible and put them in with the frog legs. The resultant "stew" was vile (turns out the plant they had was false hellabore-- an alkaloid toxin). A couple of us snuck off and begged from some newlyweds who gave us candy bars to tide us over, but the Scoutmasters ate a lot. By 10 pm they were in great pain and headed down the trail to the trailhead (which was up Taylor River road at the time) then off to the hospital in Snoqualmie to get their stomachs pumped. Meanwhile we had a restful night and woke up the next morning to a couple of our dads hiking in with a forest ranger to "rescue" us... Fun times!

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gwc2u
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PostSun Jan 24, 2021 5:37 pm 
So ya, I've also been outdoors for 40 + years, starting before that with the Scouts. In fairness to the Scouts and all hikers, there is a lot to experience and a lot to learn. I feel pretty inadequate in several areas of activity. Never got good at 1st aid or compass use..... even though multiple opportunities including Scouts, Army & employer workshops. Sure learned a lot of scout woodcraft though.....camp furniture, latrines, backpack racks.......no, don't put that knowledge to use these days. Also learned the valuable skill of "constructing " devils club cigs with good moss filters. Great remembrance of scoutmaster's face through billows of smoke when he pulled back the door of our tent one late night.

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Malachai Constant
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PostSun Jan 24, 2021 5:48 pm 
And probably how to put cascara bark in “friends” food.

"You do not laugh when you look at the mountains, or when you look at the sea." Lafcadio Hearn
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D. Inscho
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D. Inscho
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PostSun Jan 24, 2021 6:51 pm 
Scouting is likely responsible for my lifelong love affair with backpacking, and I was fortunate to have a capable, tireless, and patient scoutmaster as a mentor at a critical time in my life. But I must admit to feeling irritation when encountering the adolescent and destructive impulses of a scout troop on an outing at this phase in my life. Not every leader is up to the task, much like parenting. The constructive "village" approach can make a difference when we have a chance to mentor others.

http://david-inscho.smugmug.com/ The key to a successful trip is to do the planning during work hours. -- John Muir “My most memorable hikes can be classified as 'Shortcuts that Backfired'.” --Ed Abbey
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Randito
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PostSun Jan 24, 2021 7:28 pm 
The wisest scoutmaster decision I know of was related to me by a colleage -- when he went on a 50 miler when "wrist rockets" were all the rage and every scout had one. The scoutmaster made one rule: "Anything you kill, you must eat" -- One chipmunk paid the ultimate price -- but after that the wildlife was safe from attack.

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Stefan
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PostMon Jan 25, 2021 11:12 am 
Yes. Too critical. You do not own the snow.

Art is an adventure.
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Luc
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PostMon Jan 25, 2021 2:19 pm 
Yes. I also had scouting help pave a foundation for a love and respect of the outdoors. We were a mix of sharp youths with a good weaselly sense. One that comes to mind is at a leadership camp (haha!) a group of us went around and planted a can of food deep inside the other groups' firepits. Super duper dangerous. I don't think anyone lost an eye or gained a permanent scar though. To the OP though, I often remind myself that, last I checked, the boy scout motto doesn't have anything to do with the nature or the outdoors. Lots of troops gravitate towards a set of experiences, be it nature, sports, engineering, etc. So it's probably not accurate to assume that all troops know good etiquette and safety habits. There's also the goal in showing youth that being out in nature can be fun, which can act as a motivator that might someday result in proactive stewardship. It can be a fine line between fun and bummer if you layer in too many rules. That said, if one of those kids came home with a bloody ear or worse, that's on the adult leader imo.

GNGSTR
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Waterman
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PostMon Jan 25, 2021 5:43 pm 
Fond memories of scouting back in the 60's formed the basis of my love of backpacking. We had great leaders who did a great job keeping the mayhem to a minimum. One of the favorite jokes was putting a large rock inside a pack then pulling the retaining rods off the Trapper Nelson's and having said pack roll down the hillside. We were just hoods n the woods.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,I took the one less traveled by. And that has made all the difference. Robert Frost
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