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Scouting

Jim Greenway made some really good points about helping the 
scouts both boy & girl.  I was discussing last night with my 
12 year old son about what I got out of the scouts.  The 
first was a love of the outdoors with the skills & 
selfconfidence to enjoy it.  The other was the idea of 
service, doing things for others with nothing expected in 
return.

If we can spend some time with the scouts teaching about our 
various trails you may find them to be an incredible source 
of man (boy/girl) power when it comes to maintaining these 
trails.  If the scouts are shown early the amount of work it 
takes to maintain the trails you can bet they will be the 
best preservers of those trails for 50 to 60 years to come. 

If you have a work party need ask the local Scout council to 
see if they will help.

Just like we all love to get out on the trails for long 
stretches of time, the kids find the adventure so exciting 
and are so willing to learn anything your willing to teach 
them.  Spend some time talking to these kids and telling 
them stories of the trails or even take them out for a few 
days or a few weeks,  you will change how people look at 
these trails for the next 50 years.

Thanks Jim Greenway for you warm thoughts.

Doug Prosser
Camarillo, CA
Douglas.Prosser@kp.org

Looking to help Troop 243 do section hikes on the Pacific 
Creast Trail.





All the talk about Scouting (Boy&Girl) and LNT ethics brings 
up a good
topic.  Why don't more backpackers (especially those with 
long-distance
experience) help with or organize Scout troops?  Right off 
the bat, I
recognize that a lot of folks that have time for the 
occasional trip will
not have the time to commit to a troop, but almost anyone 
can spare 1-2
weekends per year or a couple of Tuesday nights. You can do 
a simple program
on "how I go backpacking & what I take," up to more 
sophisticated
presentations on personal safety and survival, backcountry 
skills or (you
guessed it) Leave No Trace concepts and ideas.  Moreover, 
the level of
experience that most of the AT-L have would make you really 
good assistants
on a weekend trip. 

I'm biased.  My wife helps with my daughter's Brownie troop. 
 Believe it or
not,  it's actually more fun than it sounds.  I did two  
1-hour talks on
knot tying and map&compass.  The kids were really good and 
they actually
learned something.  All kids aren't demonspawn from the "Bad 
News Bears."
And I don't recall the exact expression, but the Jesuits 
have it right:
influence a child's thinking early in its life and you'll 
have affected the
way they think for life.  Think about it: for the cost of a 
couple of
Saturdays, you'll have changed how 10-20 kids see 
backcountry skills.  If 1%
of everyone on the AT did that, what would things be like?

Jim Greenway