Pathfinder Weekend
Our largest camp for sometime… 15 Scouts headed up to Lees Wood for a walking weekend. When I arrived, the site was already buzzing with Scouts from all over the District pitching tents on the difficult soil of Lees Wood, but all in very good spirits. Shortly the tents were up and the Scouts were being scouts. Hot dogs were cooked and with hot chocolate the evening passed quickly (for the leaders, the 17th Harrow had cooked a really nice stew!)
It was a slightly cold night, but Saturday morning came quick enough and the Scouts cooked their breakfasts. Each camp patrol had decided their own menus for the weekend and had gone shopping for it, making this quite interesting to watch as they endeavoured to cook for themselves, with the leaders just offering guidance rather than taking over.
After breakfast – and washing up – the Scouts made their lunches and prepared to leave. Ash’s group of older Scouts were walking from the campsite to Chalfont & Latimer, Ivor’s group were walking from Heronsgate to Lees Wood and David’s group were walking the reverse of Ash’s route – Chalfont & Latimer to Lees Wood. Alan (the driver for the day) walked with David until we met up with Ash then walked back to the bus.
The walk was quite pleasant and interesting. In David’s group, James “Dragons breath” Zoel manage to trip over his shoelaces (twice!) quite early on in the walk; this gave him quite a sore, grazed knee to deal with. As David’s group was walking along the Chess Valley Walk they heard a loud splashing sound – a small herd of longhorn cows were running alongside them along the River! David and Ash’s group met up and decided it was a suitable occasion for lunch. After lunch, we carried on with a short pause at Sarratt for a Coke and a comfort break.
Ivor’s group took a little longer to return to site – their navigation had led them to walk a large circle early on rather than following the route!
Once all were back on site, the evening meal was cooked. Later James “Dragon Breath” Zoel demonstrated his ability to keep a fire going; Oskar entertained us with imitations of many of Doctor Who’s cyber enemies; and Jamie demonstrated what happens if you put too much pine leaves on an open fire (slow burn, then whoomf!)
Sunday morning was at a much slower pace. The Scouts cooked their breakfasts, washed up and the leaders took the vehicles up to Phasels Wood. Today we would walk as a single group with 3 map readers to confirm directions, turns etc. Unfortunately the previous day’s efforts had depleted any energy and map reading skills – and as Leaders we found ourselves walking quite slowly (average speed of 2km/h!) and waiting near footpath junctions as the Scouts wandered off in the wrong direction. Luckily the weather was really nice for the time of year, so it wasn’t too bad. At Phasels we got in the bus and car and headed back.
On return to Lees Wood we found that Bruce had already dropped the Scouts tents for them, so there wasn’t much else to do (the other Troops had also long gone, so it was just the leaders tents to sort out. We loaded the Scout trailer (I loaded my bicycle trailer!) and we all headed for home.
It had been a weekend of two long, challenging hikes but the scouts had completed it. It had been a walk with a purpose – all those attended had planned the menu and the walks; they had then successfully shopped and cooked and completed the routes without any major hitches. It was an achievement that they should be proud of.
The secret to happy camping
Camping is the bread-and-butter bit to Scouting – if you’re not going to camp, you’re missing out on one of the most important bits.
But hey, there’s only so many minutes in your life, and your parents will govern nearly 9,460,800 of them (that’s working on 1,440 minutes in a day, for 365 days for eighteen years. Yes, it doesn’t include leap years, but you get the point I hope)
But following from comments I heard about the up and coming themed camp (theme is Pirates and Smugglers) I heard someone say “I won’t dress up, I won’t look out of place”. It got me thinking to what is the “key” ingredient to camping… and this morning I realised it.
It’s living in the moment.
It’s about going to camp, dressing up, throwing yourself 100% into whatever fun, weird wacky memorable activity there is. It’s about having fun, not holding back (unless that’s the sort of person you are). You shouldn’t think “what will people think of me” and then guess their perceptions. How about this for a thought – what will people think if I don’t take part? At best, you are seen as a party pooper – at worst everyone else starts to think like you.
Camping can be a memorable experience. I can remember eating birthday cake at the top of Snowdon, I can remember a Cub pack walking up the ridge of my bivouac as they hadn’t seen it, I can remember getting so much army kit for camp that I looked like a recruitment campaign… and I can remember going to camps in walking and climbing trousers that made a clown look like a goth. I can still remember the fun I had going to camp, and the things that we did on the way (we used to travel in the back of a removal lorry).
Effectively, I remember that I had fun because I lived in the moment – and didn’t sit back wondering what people thought of me.
Remember, a weekend is only 2,880 minutes long…. and you won’t get them back.
Preparing for Camp
a “challenging” evening for the leaders.
We didn’t manage to get everything planned – and I’d found some lovely pictures of water-born bacteria too! – but the Scouts did get to check their patrol tents for camp next week. At least, I hope they did – in case the weather turns “interesting”.
We managed to get a good turnout – I think we’ve now hit our “core group” which (pleasingly) is the majority of the Troop. Still, next week should be fun as we attend the District’s Centenary camp – Scouting in Harrow has been around now for 100 years; and whilst I hope it will be a camp that the Scouts will remember, for me it will be something special - having been involved with the District for 32 years (starting as a Cub) – but for 3 of those years as one of the many District Commissioners that have held the wheel. I’m glad to see some of the changes that had started when I began, reinforcing the thoughts that I had even if they were too early at the time.
But then I digress, Scouting should be about the “now” and the “future”… but you can’t help but look back and learn, can you?
