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A Helping Hand
 As scoutmaster, I get to witness the development of young men outside the daily routine. Most of the greatest growth I've seen is during times of trial. This past weekend, we had a 'Wilderness Survival' campout with scouts building shelters and sleeping out rather than in tents. Well, with zero rain and beautiful, cool breezes blowing, there's not much challenge in 'surviving' a night. It was fun building and lashing structures, and teamwork was evident, but no urgency to perform was required.
People are like teabags - you find out how strong they are when they're in hot water. Most of the time, those teabags are a lot stronger than they ever thought they would be and without the hot water, they would never learn how much they could accomplish.
These are two pictures from our backpacking treks. The top is a young scout three years ago(now an ASPL and Junior in high school) struggling across a rain-swollen river. This was 3/4ths of the way through a 15-mile hike in a miserable day of rain. The bottom is another scout doing his first water crossing this summer.
These two scouts thought they needed help crossing, so I made sure I was there with them, lending support as needed. I'm downstream and a step behind so I could grab them, but not be in their way. I'm not leading them or making the way any easier for them than it was for everyone else. And, when we were across, they understood I hadn't really helped them at all - they made it on their own.
Sometimes a helping hand is one that is just ready and willing, not doing anything. The security of knowing someone is with you can be all that is needed for a scout to push himself and reach goals he just wasn't confident enough to reach alone. "Confident" isn't in the Scout Law, but it certainly is a goal I have for each scout.
Scout On
PS: I'm wearing the same pair of BSA zip-off pants in both pictures - 4 years of hard scouting and they still work.
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Bomber Mountain
 Backpacking can give scouts a great sense of accomplishment at the end of a trek. But, having something more than just mountains and miles to explore can make a trek even more memorable.
One thing I've found to be of high interest to scouts is discovering wreckage, whether it's old cars, trains, logging camps, or especially airplanes.
Right next to Cloud Peak in Wyoming, you can find Bomber Mountain. In 1943, a plan enroute from Pendleton, OR to Grand Island, NE clipped the top of this mountain ridge and disintegrated across a long stretch of rockfield. Now, it's a day hike from the Misty Moon area to the bomber wreckage. There is a memorial plaque on the shore of Florence Lake below the ridge, as seen in this photo from this summer.
With a little internet research, you can find many plane wreck sites, some of which can make for an interesting hike destination or stop. Scouts might like to plan a trip to see one in your area.
If you do visit a site, please remember that most likely people died there and be mindful of that.
Here's a few samples:
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Pictures Work Fine
 It's not every day that you find a rock shaped exactly like your home state! That's something cool to take home and keep forever for a souvenir to rekindle memories of a great trek through the mountains. Besides, it's just one little rock.
Now, that's a difficult choice to make in regards to Leave No Trace. Will taking one little rock really impact the experience of any other person that visits the area? Probably not. What are the chances that any other person will ever even see that rock, let alone recognize it looks like Minnesota? Probably zero. Will the rock wilt, rot, or decay once it is taken from the environment and brought home, like a flower, stick, or bone? Nope, it lasts forever.
So, why should a scout follow the LNT principle of "Leave What You Find" and leave the rock where it was found? Well, here's a few thoughts to think:- A picture weighs nothing - taking the rock means you carry more.
- This picture can be shared around the world on the 'net instead of the rock stashed in a box at home.
- You know the rock is still out there and we might see it on another trek. Or, someone else just might see it someday.
- There are tiny critters living on the rock, even if we can't see them.
In our case, there actually was not much discussion. The rock was found and passed around. I asked what the plan was for the rock and the scouts said they needed to leave it there. They had their expectations set before we even started our trek that we'd be following the Leave No Trace principles to our best ability. So, there wasn't much disappointment at taking a picture and putting it back.
Once the principles are understood and the expectations set, minimizing your impact on treks, campouts, and other outings starts becoming just the new way your group does things. It's not an ongoing struggle of enforcement. But, there is always room for improvement or change in techniques and decisions.
Scout On
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Bob the Ranger
 When people are concerned primarily with their own advancement, enjoyment, wealth, and success, even at the expense of others, conflicts are bound to occur. It's common to hear about swindles, robberies, and other similar crimes. We have people in business continually trying to bend or bypass the rules and laws in order to take advantage of someone else.
To combat this greed, there are new regulations constantly being created. And, people trying to find new ways around them.
These regulations are enforced and there are penalties if you get caught. If there was no enforcement then many people would ignore them.
This is where many people get their view of policemen - people that enforce laws and imprison bad guys. But, that is a small part of the service they provide. They also perform first aid, help lost kids, provide information, make people feel safe, and many other good deeds.
In the wilderness, you might meet a wilderness ranger, employed by the US Forest Service or other land management agency. These rangers are similar to police. They have the duty to enforce regulations, such as group sizes, campfire use, and campsite locations. Many people think of them only in this role - the role of enforcer - and therefore are apprehensive when meeting one.
Unfortunately, some of the rangers also see themselves mainly in this role and they promote that confrontational view of the community. I've met a couple of these rangers over the years. They let you know that it's "their" wilderness and your group is visiting, and by gosh you'd better watch yourselves. These rangers must have the worst job in the world - being out in beautiful country but not able to enjoy it because they are too busy looking for "trespassers" causing problems.
On the other hand, there are some rangers like the one I talked to on both my treks this past month. His name is Ranger Bob and he embodied what I think a ranger should be. He checked our permit to make sure we were 'legal'. He asked us our plans and how our hike was going. He pointed out a couple good sites to camp that were well away from other groups - in a way that I understood he wanted us to use them, but not in a forceful authoritarian way. Then, he let me know that fires were prohibited in the wilderness and he appreciated me bringing young guys out to enjoy the countryside.
A few minutes after he left us to continue his hunt for illegal fire sites, he came back and asked if we were interested in viewing some wildlife. He then led us around a small stand of trees to see two moose in the creekbed - moose that two other groups had gone past, completely oblivious. We would have missed them to if he hadn't made the extra effort to point them out.
Now, that's the kind of guy I'd like to be. Someone willing to give advice, share experience, educate visitors in proper techniques, make sure they understand the rules, and provide enforcement only when necessary. Helping folks understand what they should do, why they should do it, and how they should do it best. And, you don't have to be Bob the Ranger to do just that - we should be doing it all the time in Scouting.
Scout On
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Any Wilderness Will Do
 This is the Cloud Peak Wilderness boundary marker, but it could be any wilderness area. We have special regulations and laws when you set foot past that sign. It's necessary because many people still do not appreciate the value of preserving wild spaces.
I'm a pretty strong advocate for the concept of Leave No Trace even though the it's an impossible goal - we always leave some trace as we go through life. I guess I prefer the term Minimize Impact better since I can be successful at that.
Whatever you call it, I think it's important that the Boy Scouts put more effort into integrating and embracing LNT principles. It now appears on many pages of the latest Scout Handbook and is required knowledge and practice for advancing to First Class. But, I wonder how much it is actually promoted and checked for when those requirements are signed off.
Some people feel that Leave No Trace is just for wilderness areas and it's ok to hack, slash, burn, and trample BSA camps. BSA camps that I've visited are great places, but they get a lot of traffic. And, a couple uneducated scouts with a saw, ax, or shovel can do a lot of damage - damage that visitors will see for years.
These BSA camps are perfect training grounds for teaching and practicing how to minimize impact so that treks to Philmont, Northern Tier, or other wilderness areas are demonstrations of skill rather than learning of skill. They aren't wilderness areas, but they'll do just fine for learning. It's not appropriate to take youth to the wilds and then start explaining what Leave No Trace is and how to do it. That should have been done since they first joined the troop so they're ready to make the right environmental decisions on treks.
Making Leave No Trace happen depends highly on the adult leaders and traditions of a troop. If a troop has always had campfires, bathed in streams, tossed out or buried food waste, set up tents on the softest grass, ... then there is a big culture shift needed before they participate in a high adventure trek.
On the other hand, scouts that are used to using backpacking stoves, compressing and carrying out garbage, looking for durable spots for tents and kitchen, digging catholes, and the like will more likely have little problem completing a trek with small sign of their passing.
Our troop is fortunate to have a Leave No Trace workshop offered at least twice a year. From this, we've got a majority of scouts and adults trained in the principles. Having the knowledge makes the practices easier to incorporate into weekend campouts. Scouts look for good tent locations, stay on trails, are careful with food and pick up what they drop, strain wash water, just as a matter of course. Of course, they aren't perfect about it but we practice it and by the time they are old enough to go on any wilderness outing, they have the skills.
Please consider how your troop impacts the wilds. Check with your Council Outdoor Ethics Advocate to arrange a Leave No Trace workshop or see if you can get a scout and an adult to attend a Leave No Trace Trainer class. If you have an LNT Trainer, then he can present workshops to your troop, Webelos dens, Girl Scout troops, and any other groups heading outdoors. A Leave No Trace workshop isn't sitting and learning - it should be very interactive, hands-on activities that support the seven principles and I think they are a lot of fun, whether participating or presenting.
Scout On
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