I have two more nights of Scout camping coming up here soon. Weather is currently looking like there will be scattered storms most of the time we are on-site. Temps are in the lower/mid 70s in the day, dropping down to 50F at night. Potable water is plentiful.

The theme of the trip is cooking! I’m looking forward to seeing what the girls come up with!

Gear List

• hammock tent (one side to a tree and the other to the pavilion)
• 20F sleeping bag
• backpack
• plastic sheet/trash bags
• headlamp
• camp stove & white fuel (small)
• pot/bowl kit
• spork
• lighter
• water bottle
• battery pack & earbuds
• book
• First Aid kit (simple)
• clothes - all in stuff sack
  • base layers
  • 2 days of clothes
  • extra set of clothes
• food - in bag in troop cooler
  • seasonings/Tobasco
  • coffee beans and maker/cup
• toiletries - in drybag
  • contact case/sln
  • glasses
  • deoderant
  • toothbrush/paste
  • medicine

Food Plan

All meals will be handled by patrol. Just bring my spices/seasonings.

Recap

Given that the focus of the trip was cooking it was not a surprise that we spent most of the time at camp cooking, eating, cleaning, and making fire. The Scouts did a great job and all of the meals were good. Breakfast was oatmeal (propane stove) and cinnamon rolls (charcoal dutch oven), lunch was chicken and dumpling soup (dutch oven) and grilled cheese (pie irons), dinner was walking tacos (stove) and vegetable soup. Dessert was pie (pie irons).

We also did a navigation challenge using GPS to get a 1st Class requirement checked off. Since it was so cloudy all weekend we weren’t able to do sun/moon/stars navigation - I’ll save that for next time!

I had never used the Dutch oven with charcoal before. The Scouts did a great job following the recommended directions for # of lumps to get a specific temperature, but I’m not convinced the charts are really accurate. Either that or the coals weren’t hot enough. We had to relight a chimney worth of charcoal an extra time for each of the meals just to get them cooked and even so it took way longer than anticipated. I’m pretty sure the cinnamon rolls were cooking for about an hour and they were still a bit doughy.

Lots of Mafia was played much to everyone’s enjoyment. The weather was fantastic given the dire-looking forecast.

Notes for next time

I initially hung my hammock a bit too high, then overcorrected. Still gotta find the sweet spot. I’m getting better at getting the tarp setup though. Once again, stayed dry!

We had too much downtime for my taste, but it seemed like it was the right amount for the Scouts. They managed to both get a lot done but also have a lot of time to do unstructured activities as a group. I think there was roughly two hours of play on Saturday spread over a couple different periods. Might be good to watch this closer next time.

Statistics

Stat	Day #	Score
Pack Weight	0	26.8 lb
Sleep	1	6:43 hr, 79 score
	2	7:09 hr, 79 score
Weather	1	69/62 degF
	2	71/61 degF occassional rain showers
	3	65/61 degF
Distance	1	3.8 mi
	2	6.0 mi
	3	1.8 mi
	Total	11.6 mi
Active Min	1	4 min
	2	3 min
	3	4 min
	Total	11 min