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Wilderness Adventure Campout
October 14-15, 2006
Camp Reeves
By Mr. De Contreras
We
were supposed to go last weekend, but
between the evacuation in Apex
which affected several of our families
and the very poor weather, we
decided to put it off for a week. It
tuned out to be a good decision
because we ended up having a great
weekend with sunny skies. We
still had to deal with night time
temperatures of 35 degrees.
We
planned to do one day and one night of
survival training. The plan was
that the Scouts were on a mock day hike
with only their “day
pack.” This means the Scouts didn’t have
tents, sleeping
bags, sleeping pads or food. We were
simulating a Scout being separated
from the Troop and having to “survive”
until found. Boy
Scouts of America statistics show that
lost Scouts are found within 24
hours.
In
preparation for this outing we had a
couple of Troop meetings with
training and each Scout (and adult
leader) built a personal survival
kit. Some of the items in the survival
kit included a space blanket, 25
feet of nylon cord, spark fire starter,
water purification tablets, 50
gallon trash bag and first aid
supplies. The cost of the supplies
in the survival kit was paid by the
troop – a total cost of about
$600.
With that as background…
We
assembled at Apex Crossing at 7 AM on
Saturday morning and departed for
Boy Scout Camp Reeves in Carthage, NC
about 7:30 AM. We stopped
for breakfast at McDonald’s on the
way. This was to be a
last real meal until tomorrow morning on
our return. The Scouts
had Power bars and trail mix in their
day packs and that would be their
sustenance for the next 24 hours.
We
had invited some Webelos (Cub Scouts) to
join us on this trip.
They were camping in their own campsite
and using tents and eating full
meals, but joining us for our daytime
survival training and joining our
evening campfire program.
We
checked-in with the camp ranger and were
given a nice
“wilderness” area to use that was at the
shore of the lake
and near an established camp site for
the Webelos to use. We
unloaded our gear which didn’t take long
because we only had our
day packs. The first order of business
was to do an inspection. All the
Scouts and adult leaders put out their
50 gallon trash bag on the
ground and then emptied their day packs
onto it. We were inspecting to
be sure every Scout had all their
equipment and that no one had
“extra” equipment – you know, like extra
food. Mr. D.
was caught with extra power bars, but he
quickly explained that he had
extras just in case one of the Scouts
needed extra food. The Webelos
Scouts also got to view, inspect and ask
questions about what the
Scouts had assembled for their day in
the woods.
With
the inspection done and all the gear
re-packed, we started our
practical training which was led by
several of the older Scouts. There
were three training areas that the
Scouts rotated through – fire
starting, water purification and shelter
building. At the fire starting
station the Scouts had to start a fire
with just the sparking device
and dryer lint they had in their
survival kits. It took some of the
Scouts longer than others, but all the
Scouts and Webelos were able to
start their fire. I have to say
that I was a bit amazed that
every boy was able to do it.
The
next station was water purification. The
Scouts went out on the dock in
the lake and used two methods to purify
water. They used a pump/filter
and then purification
tablets. The pump/filter produced
drinking water immediately and each
Scout learned how to properly use
the equipment. Each Scout had a 32
oz. water bottle that they
used to collect lake water and each
inserted a water purification
tablet in their bottle. It takes about 4
hours for the purification
process to complete. A major component
of the purification tablets is
chlorination so most of the Scouts
didn’t like the taste –
but it was good water.
The
last station was shelter building where
each Scout learned basic
building techniques and had a chance to
start the process of building a
shelter out of logs, leaves, pine straw
and other natural resources.
The
training done we were at about noon
time, so everyone took a break and
had a snack of trail mix or a power bar
and some water. The
Webelos had a “hobo lunch.” I don’t know
what that
is, but it sure smelled good as the
vapors found their way down to the
area where we were.
The
plan for the next couple of hours was
learning through games and
competitions. One segment was learning
emergency signals and then
demonstrating how to use them. This
included using a signal mirror,
signal fires, hand signals and using
human bodies to form a signal
message big enough to be seen by an
aircraft. The Scouts learned
the basic emergency call for help –
three of anything. Three
fires, three flashes of the signal
mirror, etc.
We
have all heard about having a signal
whistle just in case you get lost
– but how do you use one? We sent
three or for Scouts into
the woods and asked them to hide.
We then sent the rest of the
Scouts into the woods looking for
them. Those that were hidden
were asked to not blow their whistle
until they heard someone near by.
One-by-one the “lost” Scouts were found.
The game was
played over and over to give everyone a
chance to be lost. Then,
on one of the games we all had a
learning experience. We had counted
out the Scouts so that there were two
searching Scouts to every lost
Scout. This way we could be sure
that everyone got back.
But… One of the Webelos
decided to go back to camp
and didn’t tell anyone. At base we
had all the Scouts back
except for the last group of
three. But, not knowing about the
defector Webelos we had a problem and
didn’t know it. The
one searcher Scout had found his lost
Scout but he couldn’t bring
him back to safety because the rules say
you have to have two searchers
to bring back one lost Scout. So, the
two Scouts were continuously
blowing their whistle in three blast
sequences. We heard the whistle
back at base, but didn’t send out help
because we
“knew” there were two Scouts out
searching and we
“knew” that they could hear the whistle
and would soon
return. The adult leader in charge of
watching the Scouts in the woods
finally came back to base to ask us if
we were missing anyone and if we
could hear the whistles for help? We
explained and then he explained
and we figured out what happened because
just then the absent Webelos
returned to the base area. Sorry
for the long story, but it just
shows how valuable it is for us to do
these “real”
exercises.
That
fun brought us up to about our 2 PM
deadline and time to start the real
work of building our shelters for the
evening. We had a plan to have
the Scouts build shelters in groups of
four with the shelters
surrounding a common fire (for warmth
during the night). We ended up
with 6 fires – 5 for the scouts and one
for the adults. The
Scouts basically had 4 hours to build
their home for the night because
the campfire started at 6:30 PM.
Fortunately, there was plenty of wood,
brush, downed leaves and pine straw on
the ground in the large area we
had for our camp. I could go on for
hours telling stories about the
shelter building, but I don’t want to
bore you. The bottom
line is that we had about three great
shelters built by three older
Scouts (good job Brian D., Matt B., and
Chris B.), three shelters that
were not so great were built by middle
aged Scouts and the rest were
pretty darned good. Shelters made
by one Webelos Scout who
decided to join us and one of our first
year Scouts were both very good
considering their ages (nice job Brendan
H.).
One
of our Scouts, Sean L., is working on
his communications merit badge
and he planned and ran the campfire
program. We did the campfire
program over in the Webelos camp because
they had a nice fire ring and
more open room than in the Scout
camp. Sean had some great songs,
skits and stories on the program. Mr. D.
told a true wilderness survive
story that demonstrated how all the
skills we learned and all the
“stuff” we had in our survival kits were
used in a real
life situation.
After
the campfire it was back to our hand
made shelters and time to light
our individual fires for the night. Yes,
we let the Scouts use the
matches they had in their survival kits
to start the fires. The Scouts
didn’t attempt to go down for the night
until about 11 PM. As the
night rolled on the temperatures
continued to drop, the Scouts were
getting a little cold. So, many of
them moved out of their
shelters and rolled up in their space
blankets in positions around
their fire. That seemed to do the
trick for warmth. We had older
scouts assigned in pairs to do a “fire
watch” on one hour
shifts. These Scouts were to keep the
fires going and make sure the
Scouts were keeping warm. The
adult leaders didn’t have a
schedule, but I can tell you that five
of the seven of us were
typically up all night. The adult
leaders got about three hours sleep
each during the night.
We
didn’t have any problems through the
night except that we ran out
of wood to keep the 6 fires going.
We had planned ahead and
brought a pick-up truck load of fire
wood with us (thanks for the wood
Mr. Becker). So, it was probably a good
thing that the Scouts had moved
out of their shelters to get closer to
the fires. We used the wood from
the shelters to fuel the fires and made
it through the night just
fine. We had asked the Scouts to
bring their sleeping bags and
pads just in case it was too cold and we
needed them. We did not
use the sleeping bags – we all slept on
the ground or pads that
we had made out of leaves and pine
straw.
We
had planned to get up at 7 AM, but most
of the Scouts were awake at 6
AM so we started cleaning up and packing
up in the dark and were just
waiting for dawn to do the final
“police” of the
area. It was a “hoot” to see the
Scouts all lined up
with their headlamps on walking through
the forest looking for trash.
The
final act was to put out the
fires. That turned out to be a
bigger challenge than we had
anticipated. With all the wood we had
burned and the fact that it had been
burning for more than 10 hours, we
had some HOT ground to deal with.
Even after dousing the fires
with 25 gallons of water on each fire
pit, we still had hot spots. We
had to go back and forth shoveling and
turning over the ground to get
the water to the hot spots. This process
is what made us late in our
return home.
The
fires out, we headed the short distance
to Hardee’s for
breakfast. The fact that several of the
Scouts went back for seconds
and thirds, tells me that they were
hungry. No one was complaining at
camp, so I think this was more mental
than real hunger. I have to
admit that we didn’t rush because we
were all enjoying the warmth
and good food after 24 hours “lost” in
the woods.
I’ve
said it before and I have to say it
again. I’m proud of our
Scouts. They are all prepared
mentally and physically to deal
with being on their own and survive in
the woods.
Sorry
for the long story, but it’s a tribute
to the work of ASM, Brad
Beauchamp and the Scouts who planned
this trip to tell the story.
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