Scouts & Hammock Camping

[GrizzlyAdams]

Eagle scout. OA (but not presently active in it.) Father of an Eagle, next son in queue does his Eagle project next week. Philmont in 2006. Wood Badge 2007. Merit badge councilor for more merit badges than I have fingers and toes.

Been an ASM for most of my adult life, main limitation to being SM of late is a travel schedule that slays me. Perhaps when the 7-year-old gets to join.

The trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courtious, kind, obedience, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent Grizz

[campcrafter]

Star Scout
Brotherhood Arrowman
Explorer

Many leadership positions as youth member.

Den Leader
Cubmaster
Committe Member
ASM

All in the past.

No longer involved and my son & I though now go to the woods and do Scouty things and I try to teach him to be TLHFCKOCTBCR

cc

[sk8rs_dad]

Cub scout leader
Beaver leader
Group registrar (2 groups)
Area service team
Council service team

We have leaders in all sections of the group who hammock camp regularly, and youth in cubs (including my son), scouts, and venturers who use hammocks when the opportunity permits.

[tight-wad]

Eagle, OA, ASM/Den leader from the time my son was 7 until he turned 18, 4 years ago.

How sad your experience was so bad Rev. On some nights it seemed there were more adults in the meeting than boys in our troop. We had a "Q"uality troop.

These trips, including Philmont, were what got me back into hiking. I did not "discover" hammocks until after scouts.

And... I don't ever remember sleeping a whole night through on the ground in the 9 years, except Philmont, when the days finally took their toll.

[dallas]

Currently Committee Chairman and Webelos II den leader for youngest son and ASM for older son's troop. Former Cubmaster and Charter Org Rep. Woodbadge 2007 at PTC.
Just returned from Philmont 612 P8 trek 23 (oh how I wish they allowed hammocks there).

I hang at all troop campouts, my son hangs at about half of them.
We're getting a lot of interest in the hammocks, we'll see if anyone else starts hanging.

[Lone Wolf]

Its great to see the experience level of those who posted. Its unfortunate to hear of those who left scouts due to poor leadership and programming. Our pack was in a similiar state when my son joined. We only did two activities as a pack(bowling & parade), no one willing to "make the pack grow" and as a result the pack was shrinking from previous years. As a Tiger Den Leader, I was fortunate to have a group of parents who wanted the best possible experience for thier Tigers. Our group coordinated all types of fun activites and other dens would ask if they could attend. That lead to me becoming the cubmaster and our core group of parents set down and discussed what makes scouting fun. I also partnered up with an experienced and well respected Cubmaster to see what they did to become successful. Those two things led us to revamp the entire program. We added camp outs, camp ins, olympics, outdoor skills building days, marshmallow catapults & shooters.

Once we started doing things, other parents came on board and the pack again started to grow. As those boys advance, the Boy Scout troop benefitted from having engaged parents and active Boy Scouts.

Our Scout master tells me that our boys are well prepared for Boy Scouts.


I will put this out to new folks thinking about being a leader or thier group doesnt seem to do anything other than the requirements in the book for advancement.

Tap the resources of the folks on this thread. With all the negative influences our kids are exposed to, scouting is not just out door activites but a character builder.

I would like to know from others "scouters" a fun indoor and a fun outdoor activity that your scout loved.

At one of our pack meetings we made marshmallow catapults that the kids put together and then we had a marshmallow war. This is a annual favorite for our cubs

For the Boy Scouts, the activities are almost endless.

Our boy are in the process of making the wood burning back packing stoves like the J Faulk Stoves.

Please share..Thanks

[ankh]

Just returned from Sea Base, Summerland Key and spent 4 nights hanging on Big Munson Island. Our entire crew, 8 people hung, 6 of them for the first time.

The second crew had 4 hangers.

In a nutshell we did fund raising for a year and a half and most of the boys raised their own funds and had enough to buy their own hammocks and pay for the trip. During the fund raising there was some typical griping but once on Munson they saw the purpose and were quite pleased with their efforts and we are talking about a return trip.

The camp sites were treed and almost had enough trees for 8 hangers, almost. I was the last to get a spot and it became humorous to the other leaders watching me choose and dismiss spots, but I got a spot, and it must have been good cause my son hammock hopped and I ended up in his the next night.

A few issues arose, weak trees leading to sagging hammocks, wind blowing the tarps, but thats it.

Everyone slept well, stayed dry, I think I converted a bunch of scouts!

Oh yea the nap I took in the HH with the little fold trick was sweet. ankh

[CajunHiker]

Sounds like a great trip ankh. I hope you'll post some pics.

[Lone Wolf]

My son is 12 and already talks about how cool it would be to go to SeaBase. I hope you have some pics.

I like the fund raising idea but with a small twist. I would like to find a good DIYer (like the preachers wife) and contract them to make our hammocks and tarps. I wonder what the savings would be for 15-20 hammocks with tarps vs. buying them from HH or Claytor, etc. I realize it would take a while for one person to make that much gear, but thats OK.

[CajunHiker]

LW, not sure if you're aware but HH gives scout discount.

I'd like to hear from folks with multiple scout hangers on how they arrange their patrols. How do you handle tree-less setups (like maybe a camporee when you're assigned to a field)? I know HH has some multi-hammock support patents and I've been told it may be another year or so before they're available. I've seen one troop that does a pioneering rig for multi-hammocks.