Some tips for staying warm during winter camping

NOTE: This list below is not for cold weather backpacking but instead for car camping type outings where weight and space for gear is not a strong concern. The content was originally created as a handout for our Scouts and Adults.

The winter months are a great time for camping. There is nothing better than sitting around a warm campfire with your friends on a cold and clear star filled night. The lower temperatures also bring new challenges that Scouts should be ready to face.  Need some tips?  We got you covered.

All Scouts should be responsible for packing their own gear on every campout and it is good idea for parents of younger Scouts to double check just to ensure he is properly prepared.

Remember:

·         It will always feel colder than you will expect

·         It will always rain/sleet/snow when you do not expect it

·         Layers are your friend

·         Cotton is bad—wool and synthetic are good

Thermal Underwear:  Something synthetic and never cotton. Academy Sports Polar Edge is a great product at a very reasonable price. Scouts should have two full sets with one to wear during the day and the second to change into right before bed. Everyone sweats and changing right before sleep is essential to a warm night’s rest

Socks:  Absolutely no cotton socks. Heavy wool socks as an outer layer and a pair of synthetic sock liners for an inner layer will keep feet dry and warm. Scouts should have two full sets with one to wear during the day and a second to change into right before bed. A third set is good if you may have extra sweaty feet as moisture is the primary enemy of warmth. Change socks out midday for comfort.

Gloves: Bring gloves that are heavy enough for the worst temperature expected. A synthetic liner glove will help add a layer and come in handy when the temperature is warmer.

Hat: A fleece or wool camp is essential since we lose most of our body heat through our heads. A standard style is good for daywear and a balaclava style is great at night since it covers the neck as well. Again it is good to have one each with the second hat reserved for sleeping.

Neck Gaiter: A good alternative to the balaclava as it will cover the neck.

Long Sleeve Shirt: Wool, fleece, flannel, or synthetic. Cotton is best avoided

Mid-Layer: A fleece jacket, wool sweater, heavy sweatshirt (the troop shirt is great) or fleece vest will add to core body warmth.

Jacket: Should be waterproof and heavy enough for the worst temperatures together. If not waterproof be sure and check to see of the Scout raingear will fit over this jacket. Staying dry is very important.

Pants: Heavyweight jeans or insulated pants. Bring a backup pair.

Boots: Most everyday shoes worn by youth provide no protection from cold and very little protection from twisted ankles or water. Look for waterproof boots and always bring and extra pair of shoes as a backup. The backup can be anything reasonable.

Sleeping Bag: Most of the time, a good 20 degree mummy bag is adequate. Remember that for most bags the temperature rating is for survival and not for comfort meaning a 20 degree rating most likely means 30 degrees actual is about right. You can economically increase comfort by adding a fleece liner, fleece blanket, or try a “bag in a bag”. Use a rectangle bag as an outer layer with the mummy bag as the inner layer. 

Almost every year we find Scouts with bags that are rated 40-50 degrees trying to make it in the cold. Not good!

A zero degree bag is great too if able to have the expense of multiple bags. Remember, it is critical to change into a fresh full set of clothing before tucking in for the night.

Also, it is not good to cover fully with the bag as breathing inside will add moisture. Mummy bags are designed to synch around the face area to allow some external exposure.

Sleeping Pad: A good idea year round for comfort and even better for insulating yourself from the cold ground.  Adults you will want to leave the air mattresses and cots at home and plan to sleep on the ground without a layer of freezing air under you.

Camp Mug:  Why essential? You do not want to be the person left out from a steamy cup of hot chocolate, cider or coffee do you?

Water Bottle: Winter is prime time for dehydration as Scouts forget to drink when they are not hot. Always arrive for departure to campout with at least one full Nalgene.

Warmers: A nice variety of hand warmers, body warmers and toe warmers can make a real difference. These can stay active for many hours and are inexpensive. It is a good idea to activate a couple of hand warmers right before bed to throw in your bag near your feet. These also come in handy to place in boots for a bit in the morning.

Expect to have a great cold weather camping experience if you follow these tips.


Do you have any additional tips? 

Scout Leadership Training Round Robin

My son is on his second round as SPL for his Troop and early this year was led the Troop leadership training. The entire training was Scout led and had the extra benefit of several NYLT Scouts to help with the process.

One new thing the SPL introduced was a roundtable exercise with the Scouts where he presented a series of scenarios for them to discuss. There were no adults in the room during the this time so that the discussion could be as open and meaningful as possible. The other day I ran across the stack of 3X5 cards he used for this and found the topics to be very interesting:

• Some Scouts are horse playing around at a Court of Honor where everyone can see. How would you deal with that?
• You see some Scouts throwing trash in the forest. How do you use this a teachable moment about the outdoor code
• You walk into your campsite and see a patrol member crying. How would you respond?
• You notice bullying in the Troop. What is the proper response
• Your leader gets too abusive with his authority. How to do change this? How would you resolve the issue?
• One of your patrols’ tents flood. How do you make a compromise
• A patrol member refuses to do KP even though he was assigned this on the duty roster. How do you deal with this?
• Leadership gets in an argument. What do you do? How do you prevent this?
• You’ve asked multiple times for a Scout to put his phone up but he is constantly is on it. What should be addressed and why?
• A Scout says that his knife was stolen and he can’t find it. What is the best solution?
• You suspect a Scout of taking illegal drugs. What do you do?
• No one in your patrol is listening to you. How would you handle and fix that?
• You lose a Scout and he goes missing. How would you find and make sure it does not happen again?
• You are walking down a trail and Scout notices a dead animal and wants to touch it. What do you do? Why?
• An adult is constantly coming into your patrol site for their son. How do you kindly take care of this?
• You notice a parent taking over the patrol and the patrol leader and his Scouts are not getting a chance to lead on their own. How do you restore order?
• You have a member in your patrol that the patrol doesn’t like. One day when he is away the Scouts start making fun of him. What do you do as a leader?
• You notice some of your patrol members not attending meetings and campouts anymore. How would you handle this?
• Your patrol lost a game this weekend and hasn't worked well together since. Their morale is low. How can you lift their spirits?
• One scout is homesick at summer camp. How do you lift is spirits and help him?
• Because of poor planning your patrol members did not buy enough food for a meal. How do you fix this?
• A Scout is constantly interrupting skill or is talking during skill with no respect towards others. What will you do?
• An adult is furious and mad. He starts yelling. What is the best response?
• An adult leader is rude to Scouts and pushing to have his way all the time. How do you handle this?

Based on this extensive list, I am sure it was quite a discussion!  Any of these sound familiar? Interesting to read these and know from his perspective after several years in the Troop most are something he has experienced. 

Powering up for Jamboree

The 2013 National Scout Jamboree promises to the most technologically connected event in the BSA’s history.  This is not your father’s Jamboree or even your older brother’s as the Summit is encouraging Scouts to stay connected through the use of smart devices. This includes the introduction of an app that participants can purchase for .99 that at first glance seems to be packed with features. These include interactive maps, event schedules, a social wall, and more.

Will 33,000 teens and adults with devices be a distraction? Of the thousands of teens attending, how many will lose hours of fun time due to texting, twittering, face timing or just plain goofing off thanks having a device along? Heck, will there even be good enough coverage for these devices to work? Especially for us non AT&T customers?

Well that is a different blog post to be pondered.

I plan to stay connected and share images of the fun back home for the parents and families to enjoy. The big problem aside from data access is going to be power. Cameras, phones and tablets all require recharging if they are going to work. The AT&T and BSA solution are solar charging stations placed in sub camps. There was hope that these stations would have lock option to do drop and go charging but unfortunately it does not look like that is going to be the case.

Now picture Scouts and Adults having to hang out near the station for two hours as they wait for the device to charge. Yuck.

So what is my plan?

I plan to Go Big and Get Wild with a huge battery. After some research, I purchased the PowerGen Juice Pack 12000 and after a couple of months have added the PowerGen Juice Pack 13000. These have a huge capacity at 13,000 mAh vs the 2600 mAh of my Samsung Galaxy S 4 and both came through Amazon as a reasonable price.

The Powergen 12000 has three out ports. Out A “best for iPad or any Apple Device. Non-Apple devices will charge at full speed if using the included connectors” This port charges out at a 2Amp maximum which is equal to most phone chargers. The second S port is stated to work best for non-Apple devices and is at 2Amp. The final out port is rated for 1Amp. 

The Powergen 13000 is very similar but with even more capacity and a lower price! I actually like the design of this battery a little better with the main difference being that this battery only has two out ports.

Both devices come with two charging cables and a variety of adaptors. Your device provided USB cord will work well also.

PowerGen 13000 charging device and camera

So what about the capacity? The included information states that at a full charge the approximate recharge rate is:  iPhone 5-6 full charges, iPad 2 1.2 full charges and iPAD 3 65% of one charge. 

My personal experience with heavy usage has been in line with these estimates. Generally I have been getting 4 full charges on my Galaxy S4. So in theory if I leave my device on all the time I should be able to go at least a couple of days before having to recharge the PowerGen. The time before requiring a recharge can be extended even further if I:

• Turn off all syncing features: Syncing to e-mail, Facebook and others are a huge drain to the battery
• Keep device off except for a few small set times
• Keep the device in airplane mode if using as a camera only
• Keep the device in airplane mode if WiFi is available. The radio signal to connect to cellular is a the primary drain to phone batteries when not in use
• If planning to upload pictures/video, reduce the quality. This will decrease the file size and will shorten the upload times

My plan is to charge the PowerGen during the day every two days and then use the battery to charge my devices overnight while in the tent.

Awesome plan huh? This plan unfortunately was centered on the hope that there were provisions to secure devices while they charge. These high capacity batteries at 2Amp take 5-6 hours to fully recharge. Foiled again! 

Now I am not so sure about my little plan but am going to give it a try nonetheless.

What is your Jamboree Power Plan? 

Reaching for Eagle

I will never forget that day way back when my son was in fourth grade and he came home from school with a flyer promoting Join Scouts night at his school. Little did I know at the time that it was the going to be the first step in a great adventure for him and for us as a family.

Now here we are six years later and Conner has reached a milestone as officially becoming an Eagle Scout. I am one of those “Life for Life” guys that was in Boy Scouts as a kid but joined late and then quit later as I entered high school after my best friend had “Eagled out”. Looking back, not following through to Eagle has been one of my great regrets in life.

For Conner, his journey has been one full of adventures through Monday meetings, service projects, weekend campouts, multiple summer camps, 2010 National Jamboree, 2011 Sea Base, 2012 Philmont, 2013 National Jamboree with even more to come.

While having all this fun I have seen him grow as a young man through his Scouting roles including time serving as Chaplin Aid, Troop Guide, Assistant Senior Patrol Leader, Senior Patrol leader and more. There has been adversity to overcome, relationship skills to learn, leadership skills to sharpen, conflicts to manage and more.

Conner’s project was a complicated one and only successful through the help of many other Scouts and adults that helped as well as mentored him along the way.

I am proud of my son for what he has accomplished and just as importantly I am proud to be part of this incredible and ongoing journey at all began with the little flyer so many years ago. Thank you son for talking me into giving it a try.

Wondering if Scouting is relevant to our society and will have a place in the future? From my perspective it is needed more than ever and this program will continue to make a difference for youth for many decades to come.

Conner—I am absolutely proud to be your dad and I love the man you are growing into now and the man you plan to be in the future. Congratulations on reaching this step in your ongoing journey: Dad

Membership Standards decision

It is unfortunate that my first blog post in a long time has to be about this topic but given the historic significance of today I just could not let it go by without posting something.

The video is from our Council Executive about the process that was taken here in my area. I did receive and respond to both of the surveys. Regardless of how I answered and how I feel about any past, present or future policy I can say without a doubt that I believe so much in this program that I know it will live on. It will continue to make a positive difference in the lives of young people and the adults that serve them.


Yes the sun will come up on Friday and on Saturday I along with many of our Scouts will get busy with an Eagle project. Later we will be involved in the cleanup of the devastating OKC tornado and even later Scouts will be off to summer camp and the 2013 National Jamboree. Change is hard but the good will continue.



YIS

David

Back from Philmont

Back from Philmont! Was it what I expected? Indeed it was and so much more. There are few times in life when we get an opportunity to relive something from our youth and make it better. That was the case for me when it comes to my adult Philmont experience vs. my experience as a youth.


Of course Philmont was not about me it was about the Scouts and as is typical with youth I am sure they had no idea what to expect. I also am fully aware that complete appreciation for what they experienced will not kick in until many years from now when they start to share memories with friends and family. I know they too will look back and think of it as a true experience of a lifetime.

We did Trek 11 and had six Scouts and two adults. Our crew was smaller than typical due to taking two groups this year from our Troop. I had the great fortune of joining the Trek with our SM. This was his fifth and professed “final” time to take Scouts to Philmont and it was the first time for all of our guys.

Our trip began first with a few days of touring so that we could acclimate to the altitude and have a little fun. This included renting Jeeps in Red River and then later touring the Philmont area museums.

Next it was time for the Trek. Things went smoothly at check in due to the great staff and our experienced Scoutmaster. We were also lucky to get an outstanding Ranger that quickly bonded with the guys. The Rangers are young college guys and gals that a chosen for their skill and also for their ability to relate well with youth. Bob made great effort to go beyond just teaching stuff skills to also be a mentor with life advice that had much greater credibility coming from someone of his age.

Over the many days of the Trek the Scouts had a great time and also learned a lot about themselves and about leadership. Indeed there is no better laboratory of human dynamics than days in the outdoors hiking with heavy packs. The Scouts dealt with the physically stress that comes with hiking in altitude as well as the mental stress of task management and relationships.

As an adult on the trip, I got pure joy seeing the boys go through this learning process. I also got to experience a trip that I know my son and I will remember for a lifetime. How lucky I am to part of the Scouting movement!

PS:  I wrote this post a long time ago. Sorry it took so long to post!

Our Final Philmont Shakedown

Yes just days away from our departure to Philmont and time for the final crew personal gear shakedown. The Scouts came with everything they were expected to bring on the trail during our Trek and were asked to dump it all out for inspection. Much better to find out before leaving if anything is missing of course! Most Scouts had every item that was expected with just a couple exceptions of a sock or some other minor item. Thankfully they have time to get these things together before we leave.


The best tool for this shakedown has been the PG list provided by our Scoutmaster. Items are listed in categories and include weight limits since we are working to travel as lightly as possible. I have personally packed and re-packed probably a half dozen times over the last few weeks and it seems I live learned a little more each time. I have also walked a few miles with the pack fully loaded just about every other day. This is in addition to my normal running and cycling.

I have a good feeling about the overall level of preparedness of the Scouts in our crew. I know they are going to do great and have a true trip of a lifetime. I can’t wait to see them learn and grew as we hit the Philmont trail starting July 21st.

Another step closer to Philmont

Just a little less than week before the first of our two crews leave for Philmont. Our crew was still in need of some conservation hours so we made our way over to the John Nichols Scout Ranch for a morning of hardy work. There is just something about the sound of a chainsaw, the feel dirt on your face and sweat to make you feel a sense of accomplishment.

The guys in our crew have been Scout together for many years and fortunately have been getting along very well during this year of preparation. I do not believe there have been any personality conflicts and they are work hard when needed and always find a way to find fun in what they do.

As an added bonus for me personally, the site for are little project was also the site of our very first Cub Scout campout five year ago when we had just recently joined Scouting. It is incredible to have gone from those days to these in just a short time.

We have one more meeting as a crew before we leave for a final gear shakedown.

Philmont is just a few weeks away....

Just a few weeks until we leave for our Philmont trek so I am now hitting the pavement to spend time hiking with the pack on. This is in addition to my normal running and biking. I would say that right now my greatest weakness is more core strength. This really needs improvement to help keep the back pain down to a minimum.

Anyway, while out today I thought I would record a little Vlog! I am hoping to do more of these in the future.  Thanks for watching.

Philmont Shakedown Hike #2

This weekend our Philmont crews hiked the Shores Lake loop in Arkansas for the second a four part series of backpacking hikes in preparation for our July trek. We had a bit of a light turnout from the Scouts due to several conflicts with school activities.


It was a five hour trip from OKC to the campsite and we got an early start to beat the traffic. Thanks the small turnout I was lucky enough to not have to drive.

Saturday morning was a 5:45 wake up and we were packed and geared up in a respectable 45 minutes.

The guys kept up a brutal pace and at times I felt like I was trail running vs hiking. Oh to be 15 and physically fearless like these guys. Really I was amazed at how well all of them did with the challenging steep and rocky trails. I remember all of these guys when they joined the Troop as first year Scouts. Now just a few short years later they are maturing young men that were able to blaze through the woods cheerfully with heavy packs. They did so well in fact that we skipped the first campsite to hike an additional 4 miles. This worked out great since it made our final day shorter for an early return to home.

The guys ended up deciding they liked the challenge of this trail so much that we will return again in just a few weeks. The scratching on my legs this evening will serve as a good reminder to be prepared next time for the chiggers and mosquitos that seemed to be everywhere.

On a sad not, I have learned that one of our Scouts has decided to drop out of the trek due to some physical challenges he has been experiencing. I hate to see anyone not to make it all the way to Philmont but respect the decision to make the right choice about preparedness.

Less than 90 days left to go. I am looking forward to our final two training hikes as we set to complete our training.

Wrapping up Woodbadge

My time as a Troop Guide for Woodbadge Course 1017 officially came to a close a couple of weeks ago. In some ways it seems like eons ago since the actual course and in some ways it seems just like yesterday. I am proud to have had the great privilege to be the Troop Guide for the Owl Patrol and to have seen them grow together as a team during the course. Next, I saw the Owls put their learning into practice through the implementation of their goals (Tickets).


In my non- Scouting life I am a Human Resource Development manager (training) for Sprint. I therefore speak from many years of training experience when I say that Woodbadge is a leadership development course on par or better than any course you will find in corporate America. I wish that during my tenure as a leadership trainer I would have had at my disposal courses that teach theory(weekend one), practice application(weekend two) and then had the participants show effective use of the training out in the real world(Tickets) with accountability for successful completion. Scouters get all of this and more with Woodbadge.

I wonder if any other non-profit organization has as great and effective training as does the Boy Scouts of America. We are fortunate indeed.

It is my hope that the Owls and others of SR 1017 will take the many lessons from Woodbadge and will continue to apply them in practice to benefit Scouting, their family, and their professional life. I know as a Troop guide, I personally took away experiences that have helped me grow. Truly life is a process of continual learning.

Good Luck Owls and all the participants of SR 1017. Thank you for taking such a commitment for to improve your effectiveness as Scout volunteers and as mentors to the next generation.

Final Philmont 10 mile training hike...

Yesterday was our final 10 mile hike and next up is the super challenge of a 20 miler on Sunday. The hike this week around was a little more scenic thanks to some time on a short trail through a local wildlife refuge. All of our hikes have been urban walks on paved paths prior to this and it was kind of nice to get some dirt on our boots for a change. Trails for these hikes would be ideal of course but her in our part of the state we would be looking at a long drive to find such a thing. We are fortunate at least to have a wide variety of walking trails available.


Overall this 10 mile hike experience has been a good one. The boys have taken the lead on each of them with the adults hanging a few steps back. Next week is going to be a big challenge with a 20 miler. I have run marathons and done other distance events but walking 20 miles is something new and finishing this is going to be an accomplishment for everyone.

After we complete the hike, the boys will move on to winter training which will be walking up and down stairs at a building downtown. Whew that is going to fun too! We have backpacking campout weekends set for the spring in various location and there is no doubt that these guys will be as prepared as possible for a great experience when they take that first step on the trail at Philmont in July 2012.