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The leadership skills our young people learn while hiking, camping, and being stewards to the outdoors are lessons that last for a lifetime. That’s why it’s so important for us to keep the outdoor adventures that have been the foundation of our movement vibrant and exciting.

We witnessed great momentum in our outdoor programs during 2011. All three of our high-adventure bases—Philmont, Northern Tier, and the Florida Sea Base—saw record attendance last year. Our high-adventure numbers were well ahead of the 40,000 we recorded for 2010.

And we’re doing all we can to build on that excitement. This summer, we’ll celebrate our one-millionth trail hiker at the Philmont Scout Ranch. In July, 2,000 Scouts will test-drive our new high-adventure camp and national Scout reserve, the Summit Bechtel Reserve. The Summit’s opening will follow a year later.

Whether it’s a summer journey to a high-adventure camp, a weekend overnight trip to a local camp, or a hike through the woods at a state park, the mission is all the same. These terrific outdoor experiences bring wonder, joy, confidence, camaraderie, and a strong sense of independence to each and every Scout who has the opportunity to take part. It’s our job to bring that quality Scouting experience to as many young people in as many communities where we can rally support.

We have seen millions of young people grow into strong adults thanks to the skills Scouting provides through its outdoor classroom. As we anticipate our next 100 years, we need to continue to bring outdoor adventures to our Scouts in new and exciting ways. America’s future relies on these young people, and our work in the outdoors helps inspire the great leaders our country needs.

During a stint in the U.S. Army, Abdullah served as Scoutmaster for about a year, but his serious adult involvement began in 2006, when he moved to northern Virginia with his family. He enrolled his three sons in Pack 1576, chartered to the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) and went on to serve as den leader, Cubmaster, and now pack trainer. A Wood Badge participant and staff member, he works with other units at ADAMS and in his council.

At the 2010 National Scout Jamboree, he served as the imam of the mosque set up by the National Islamic Committee on Scouting, the first mosque constructed at a national jamboree.

People who don’t know much about Islam might wonder: how well do Islam and Scouting align? The Scout Law, the Scout Oath—those are very Islamic values. In Islamic school, you learn the academic aspects of Islam. In Scouting, you get a chance to apply the religion. We, as Muslim Scout leaders, can observe Scouts’ behavior and then guide them according to both Muslim principles and Scouting principles. We can say “a Scout is trustworthy,” and then in the next moment we can mention the verse in the Koran that says: “O ye that believe! Betray not the trust of God and the Messenger, nor misappropriate knowingly things entrusted to you” (8:27).

Give us another example. Let’s say you’re out camping, and you’re short on water. You have to wash up to pray. Are you going to use the only water in your canteen for that? You need to know what alternatives you have. In boys’ normal lives, that’s something buried in a book that they may have read some time.

How do you honor Muslim practices such as Friday prayers at places like summer camp where you don’t control the schedule? We’re basically traveling while we’re at camp, so we combine our noon and afternoon prayers and our sunset and evening prayers, which is an allowance given to travelers. Friday is usually the day when Scouts have free periods or a campwide activity. We spend that time doing our prayers. Last summer at Goshen Scout Reservation, we invited anyone who wanted to come to our service. We had our neighboring troop come by, as well as the Protestant and Catholic chaplains for the camp. They really enjoyed the service, and I think it went a long way toward helping them understand where Muslims are coming from.

So you like having interfaith worship services at camp? To a point. The challenge with interfaith services is that everybody has their own way of worshiping, and many interfaith services are unintentionally written from a Christian perspective. To me, what I would find really cool is to have everybody do a little something that’s a sampling of their own faith and then explain what they’re doing. I would like that.

It sounds as if you see Scouting as a way to encourage interfaith dialogue. Absolutely. It’s just like Baden-Powell’s vision. Through Scouting, people of diverse cultures and diverse faiths can come together and learn from one another, learn to respect one another, and live together.

Is that why the pack at ADAMS held a joint pinewood derby with a pack from a Jewish synagogue? Yes. When you really get down to it, Jewish Scouts and Muslim Scouts have so much more in common than people can even imagine. It was fun. You should have seen the kids playing with one another. They had no clue that they were supposed to not like each other. I thought it was fantastic.

How do you recruit parents? With recent immigrants, some of them had Scouting in their own home countries. I’ve come across that more than once. Also, because of the nature of this community, a good recruiting tool for me is to tell parents that the Eagle Scout award looks really good on résumés and college applications. When I talk about the benefits it provides, they really get interested.

Click here to learn more about the National Islamic Committee on Scouting.

Those critical losses were made worse by the staggering Michigan economy. “I call it a depression, not a recession, that hit Michigan,” King says. As the economy tanked, the Big Three automakers closed down plants and laid off thousands of workers, leading to what King calls “a very significant outmigration of working-age men and women age 25 to 40”—in other words, the people most likely to have Scout-age children.

Given all those woes, King and Alan Lambert, Central Region director, were not surprised to hear Michigan Scout leaders ask, “Is Scouting sustainable here? Are we going to do something about this, or wait for the national organization to come in and tell us what to do?”

King and Lambert were heartened when local officials took on the challenge. “They wanted to form a task force to find answers to these problems,” King says. “We said, ‘Go for it.’”

Over the next 18 months, volunteers from Area 2 spent more than 11,000 man-hours rethinking the program. “It was transparent and innovative,” Lambert says. “They looked at everything.”

Volunteers filled more than 50 “chalkboards” with ideas about how Scouting should be reorganized in Area 2. Along the way, two councils—Toledo and the Upper Michigan Peninsula—opted out, largely for geographic reasons. Still, the end product of all that dreaming and rethinking, known as the Crossroads Recommendation, was revolutionary.

Area 2’s individual councils will be dissolved and virtually all administrative functions and governance will be consolidated into one areawide “Coordinating Council.” The recommendation also created four Field Service Councils that will serve as the primary face of Scouting in Area 2 communities.

That’s a lot of change. Area 2 was ready for it, and when it was time to vote, 92 percent of members voted yes.

“I spent a third of my career in Washington, D.C., and I don’t use the word ‘mandate’ lightly,” Lambert says. “But 92 percent is a strong mandate.”

King and Lambert stress that cost savings was not the primary driver behind these changes. The key, King says, is putting more people where it counts. “We’re going to more than double the number of unit-serving executives,” King says. “They’ll be out interfacing with the community, talking to those prospective chartered organizations.”

King and Lambert say they’ll know the success of this transformation in a year or two. “We believe we can have as many as 10,000 more kids in the program by the end of next year,” Lambert says. “It’s not a matter of spending years reorganizing. It’s giving them the resources, putting the boots on the ground, and getting the kids into the program.”

Well, almost no one.

In recent years, child development experts have begun sounding the alarm about the decline in free outdoor play. David Elkind, Ph.D., author of The Power of Play, says that children have lost eight hours a week of unstructured play and outdoor activities in the past two decades, even as the time they spend in organized sports has doubled. In a 2011 issue of the American Journal of Play, dedicated to free play, Peter Gray, Ph.D., a research professor in psychology at Boston College, reported that 85 percent of American moms say their preteen children play outdoors less than they themselves did a generation ago.

“Stranger danger” is the leading reason that kids are enjoying less free play, but it’s only one factor. Many schools are cutting back on recess to make more time for academics and test preparation. Many parents are enrolling their kids in sports and other activities that help them build winning résumés at earlier ages. And many camps are offering “prep” programs that replace swimming and horseback riding with classes in computers and public speaking.

Perhaps the biggest problem, though, is that too few achievement-focused adults realize just how much kids are achieving when they’re playing. “Play is a way of learning,” Elkind says. “Through their play, children create new learning experiences that they couldn’t have in other ways.”

What Free Play Teaches
One of the key things kids learn in free play is how to deal with one another. In a simple game like hide and seek, for example, they have to decide what the boundaries are, where home base is, and who’s going to be “it” first. If the child who’s “it” opens his eyes before he has counted down to zero, the group has to negotiate an appropriate resolution. Along the way, Elkind says, “Children learn mutual respect, the ability to take the perspective of the other, to follow the rules that your peer makes so he’ll follow the rules that you make.”

But kids learn more quantifiable skills as well, Gray says. Much of his research involves studying play in hunter-gatherer societies, where children—even well into their teens—spend most of their time playing. “They’re playing at the skills that are important to the culture, not because anybody is telling them to but just because it’s very natural to play at the things that they see adults doing,” he says. “They’re playing at hunting and they’re playing at digging up roots and they’re playing at the various dances of the culture.”

In a literate culture like ours, free play often involves words (such as hopscotch rhymes) and numbers (such as scorekeeping). “When children are learning these things in play, they’re learning them in a context that’s meaningful to them, that makes sense to them,” Gray says.

Finally, kids at play learn skills that neither they nor adults can necessarily identify. Elkind describes a story told by Maria Montessori, the famous Italian educator. Montessori once encountered a young girl who was so intent on sorting and stacking a set of graded cylinders that she ignored other children who were singing and marching around her. Finally, the girl stopped and gave a beatific smile.

“Montessori says, ‘We don’t know what she learned, but she learned a great deal,’” Elkind recalls. “That’s the point. We, as adults, may not know what children are learning when they’re engaging in these repetitive activities, but for the child, it’s a learning experience.”

Free Play in Scouting
Of course, Scouting at all levels offers plenty of opportunity for free play: Cub Scouts exploring a creek during a family campout, Boy Scouts performing silly skits at a campfire, Venturers playing a pickup game of Hacky Sack after a long day on the Philmont trails. What’s more, the program brings together kids of various ages and offers a safe environment (no “stranger danger”) for young people to experience free play.

The trick is for Scout leaders to take a step back and refrain from turning every game into a teachable moment or filling every idle hour with belt loop or merit badge instruction. Otherwise, Scouting becomes yet another stress-inducing, achievement-oriented activity.

In his research, Gray found a causal relationship between the decline in free play and an alarming rise in anxiety among kids. “Kids are spending so much time in our culture on achievement-oriented things that we’re quite literally driving some kids crazy,” he says.

Scouting offers an ideal opportunity to restore some sanity to childhood. All we have to do is remember the words of Scouting founder Robert Baden-Powell. In The Wolf Cub’s Handbook, he wrote, “Play is the first great educator.”

YOU CAN READ the entire American Journal of Play issue dedicated to free play by visiting journalofplay.org/issues/213.

Below is an excerpt from The Ultimate Hiker’s Gear Guide:

Tried & True: How to find a good campsite

Out of desperation I have camped in some awful places, including a vault toilet in Montana’s Purcell Mountains, a six-foot-by-two-foot bench that I chiseled from a 25-degree slope in Colorado’s San Juan Mountains, and a rodent-infested lookout tower in New Brunswick. But usually I am very deliberate and selective about where I camp. A good night’s sleep is critical to enjoying tomorrow.

Select a general area

As the end of the day draws near, I identify several potential campsites on my map. I look for general locations that are:

• Flat, where my odds of finding a level campsite are best, though as a soloist I can often find suitable ground on suboptimal gradients, where there would not be enough spots for a group;
• Near natural resources like firewood and water;
• Off-trail, to avoid infringing on another backpacker’s wilderness experience;
• Not in the bottom of a valley or canyon, where on a calm night the air will be colder and where dew/frost will be heaviest;
• Not near animal trails or prime habitat, which might lead to an unwanted midnight visitor;
• Not in danger of natural hazards like avalanches, flash floods, and incoming weather; and
• If the bugs are intense, breezy and far from breeding grounds like swampy meadows and stagnant lakes.

Identify a specific location

Once I select a general area, I try finding a specific campsite that is:

• Covered in natural materials like pine needles, leaves, moss or sand, which will be more comfortable and which will be less thermally conductive than hard-packed dirt;
• Under and next to something — like trees, bushes, or large rocks — that will keep me warmer by serving as a natural windbreak and as a radiant heat reflector;
• Dry, because wet ground is more thermally conductive;
• Not at risk of being flooded by groundwater during rain, as moisture can easily seep through a lightweight floor or an older, heavy-duty floor; and
• Naturally contoured for my preferred sleeping position. I’m a back-sleeper, so I like a raised area for my head, a slight depression for my butt, and a short knoll for the backs of my knees.

Once I have identified a potential spot, I lie down to make sure that it is comfortable. If it is, I mark the location of my feet and head with small rocks so that I can pitch my shelter over this exact location. If it’s not, I will try different positions or a different spot. Given the importance of my campsite to my sleep, it’s worth being fussy.

Tip: So that all people in a shelter can sleep well, I have them all lie down on the proposed spot and ask, “Are you comfortable?” If yes, we pitch the shelter.

Tried & True: How to pack a backpack

On solo trips I aim to be walking down the trail within 15 minutes of waking up. To do so quickly I can’t just stuff everything into my backpack randomly, however. It must be packed so as to minimize the load’s effect on my center of gravity and maximize organizational efficiency.

Maintain your center of gravity

The location of one’s center of gravity depends on gender and body type. For a normal adult male, it’s around the sternum; for a normal adult female, it’s above the belly button. A backpack of any weight will affect my center of gravity (and a heavy pack much more so), and I will need to compensate for that with an unnatural walking form, hence the forward lean. My goal is simply to minimize the effect, specifically by:

• Placing the heaviest items (e.g., food, water, and stove fuel) against my back, so I don’t have to lean forward as far.
• Cinching the pack’s compression straps, which help to pull the weight closer to my back. (Removing compression straps is a classic “stupid light” move.)
• Keeping all or most of the weight below or level with my sternum to prevent swaying, which would make me less nimble and could possibly be dangerous on technical terrain.
• Centering the weight along my spine so that the pack does not tilt to the left or right. This can be achieved by packing the heaviest items against the spine or by counterbalancing the weight.

Keep your pack organized

An unorganized backpack is frustrating and inefficient: I can’t find what I need, and I waste time looking for it. To organize my pack I keep:

• Oft-needed items within easy reach. In my hip belt pockets I keep my water purification, DEET, head net, camera, lip balm, and/or sunscreen. In my side pockets I keep my water bottle(s), maps and perhaps a beanie, bear spray, and/or gloves. I attach my insulated overmitts to my shoulder strap with a small carabiner, which is more secure than my side pockets. And I keep my sunglasses atop my visor when I’m not wearing them.
• Occasionally needed items inside my pack, at the very top. These include my accessory pouch (which contains my LED light, fire starter, toiletries, chewing gum, etc.), a quart freezer bag with my day’s rations, layers of clothing (e.g., wind shirt, rain gear, and puffy jacket), and additional bottles of water if I’m in a dry stretch.
• Items I won’t need until camp or during future days I like my sleeping bag and my food for the rest of the trip – at the bottom.

Reprinted by arrangement with the National Geographic Society from the book Ultimate Hiker’s Gear Guide. By Andrew Skurka Copyright ©2012 Andrew Skurka.

To read more great tips on clothing, footwear, shelter, sleep systems, hiking efficiency, and much more, pick up a copy of The Ultimate Hiker’s Gear Guide by clicking here.

Here’s what the world’s best-known long‑distance hiker, Andrew Skurka, can teach you about leading your Scouts on a day hike—or a 100-miler.

Does Andrew Skurka ever stay still? Sure, but not to rest. When he isn’t traveling, Skurka hosts backpacking clinics, speaking in packed auditoriums and cramped church basements. He especially likes addressing Scouts and Scouters, which he did recently in Escondido, Calif. (above). Photo by Nadia Borowski Scott.

THE AUDACITY OF Andrew Skurka struck the outdoors world with full force late in the summer of 2005. It was then, with Skurka fresh off what had amounted to a nearly 8,000-mile hike, that reports began circulating about a “kid” who had backpacked solo across the entire continent.

Starting in Quebec, Skurka—just 23 years old, a former Scout, and a recent graduate of Duke University—filled a small flask with water from the Atlantic Ocean. He then shouldered a backpack and walked west. A transcontinental wilderness route sketched on a series of maps served as his sole guide into the unknown journey ahead.

Eleven months later, at a misty beach in Washington State, Skurka emerged from the trees skinny and wet. He marched into the ocean shallows. He uncapped his flask and dumped its contents over his head, the briny waters of the Atlantic from months back mingling with the Pacific Ocean below. It was a symbolic closure to a feat Skurka would later refer to as his “coming-of-age hike.”

Andrew Skurka was born in 1981, and he grew up in Seekonk, Mass., an area with “very limited outdoor recreation opportunities.” As a boy, he rode his mountain bike and explored swamps near his home. He joined Scouting. During college, Skurka spent summers as a camp counselor in North Carolina.

Skurka, who turns 31 this March, has a dozen significant expeditions under his backpacking belt. In a rare trajectory, during just a few years, Skurka ascended from workaday backpacker to bona fide explorer status, including the coronation as “Adventurer of the Year” by no less than the National Geographic Society in 2007.

The Quebec-to-Washington walk—dubbed the “Sea-to-Sea Route”—followed trail systems and pathless stretches in a serpentine line across the country. It required ultralight backpacking technique and months with 30-plus mile days strung one after the next. “I need the challenge of a long trip, the physical and athletic component,” Skurka says. “I push the limits to see what my limits are.”

His latest feat—the 4,680-mile “Alaska-Yukon Expedition,” which entailed traveling by foot, ski, and packraft alone for 176 days straight—pushed Skurka to the edge. Scouting caught up with the backpacking superstar on a rare hiatus from hiking to talk about Alaska, wilderness techniques, gear, and how knowledge from his extreme feats can apply to the average Scout troop or crew heading into the woods on a weekend trip.

Scouting: Congrats on your Alaska trek. Quite an accomplishment.

Andrew Skurka: Thanks. The trip was exceptional. There was so much daylight that I didn’t need to be as regimented. I also mixed it up, with skiing and packrafting as a big part of the journey.

Scouting: What was your pack weight in Alaska? 

AS: During the summer, my pack weighed 18.6 pounds without food and water, and I had 22.9 pounds of gear in total. This was including my clothing, footwear, and trekking poles plus my 5-pound packraft and 1-pound satellite phone.

Scouting: How fast are you moving each day to complete a big trip like the “Alaska-Yukon Expedition”? 

Skurka, on a "warm-up" for his Sea-to-Sea exploration, covers 462 miles on the Colorado Trail in June 2004.

AS: The key is not moving fast, but making constant forward progress. My days are long. I might be moving for 15-plus hours per day. But at a steady 2 miles per hour, that’s still 30 miles.

Scouting: What is the appeal of backpacking, and how do you motivate kids or adults to get “into the wild?”

AS: I point initially to a couple things: The true natural beauty of a place I find most of the time is often seen far from the trailhead. Backpacking is the only way to get there. It’s also more rewarding to get somewhere by your own power rather than driving there. That adds something to the experience.

Scouting: Tell us about your background and involvement with Scouting.

AS: I actually have more involvement with the Scouts today. As a kid, I started young as a Cub Scout. I was involved for a couple of years, but unfortunately we didn’t have a super-active pack. Now, I work with Scouts and give clinics and presentations throughout the year, from 15-member troops up to fundraisers where there are 300-plus people in the audience. Scouts and their parents tell me the most important part of what they learn is the technical info—the “how-to” information that helps them when they go backpacking and hiking.

Scouting: We want to dig in to that “how-to” information. Let’s start with eating and nutrition on the trail. Any general advice?

AS: I see a lot of people over-packing on the food and bringing the wrong stuff. Cheap, processed stuff does not have sticking power. Pop-Tarts are bad! For snacks, I like chocolate, beef jerky, energy bars, and trail mix. For dinner, I combine just-add-water meals, such as instant potatoes, instant rice, instant beans, couscous, and ramen with butter, olive oil, cheese, and spices.

Scouting: Go into calories and nutritional breakdowns a bit, both from your trips and for the general hiker.

AS: I eat small meals. I skip lunch and instead have a 400- to 500-calorie snack every two hours while hiking. Breakfast is about 600 calories, and dinner is about 1,000 calories. This gets me to about 4,500 to 5,000 calories a day, which is much more food than most backpackers need. Most people will want about 3,000 calories a day. If you choose right, that’s often about 1.5 pounds of food per person per day.

Scouting: Secrets to trail eating? What do you do differently? 

AS: At dinnertime, I eat my dessert first. I eat it right when I get to camp. I find it’s easier to brush my teeth after potatoes rather than chocolate, and also a little sugar rush is good to motivate yourself while making dinner and setting up camp.

Scouting: Any suggestions on tents and shelters?

AS: The standard backpacking gear is a tent. But for many conditions, a tent is not needed. Tarps actually provide better coverage and are less expensive. They weigh less, and they’re cooler in the summer. Plus, there are fewer condensation problems with a tarp. One caveat: Bugs can be a problem, especially if you’re in an area with West Nile. In those cases, use a tent or add a “bug nest” net product to your tarp setup.

Scouting: Let’s talk about packs. How much should a kid’s or adult’s pack weigh? 

AS: For three-season conditions anywhere in the Lower 48 states, 15 pounds of equipment is a good goal. This is not counting food and water weight you’ll have. With groups you can often go less in each pack, as you can divide up the shelter and cook gear.

Scouting: Is ultralight gear affordable for the average Scout? 

Skurka traveled 4,680 miles by ski, foot, and pack raft around Alaska and the Yukon in his "Alaska-Yukon Expedition" from March to September 2010.

AS: Lightweight gear can be extremely affordable. Tarps, foam pads, frameless packs—all those items are more affordable than the heavy-gear alternative. You don’t need gear made of carbon fiber and titanium. That stuff is pricey. But simple gear is often inexpensive and lightweight as well. One thing I often recommend to kids: Buy used ski poles for $10 or $15. They can stand in fine for trekking poles that would cost 10 times as much.

Scouting: If you could instill one thing to make backpacking easier or better for people, what would it be? 

AS: Backpackers often simply take too much and there’s a lot of redundancy. I audited one kid on a trip, and he had five T-shirts packed along. The key thing is to think about your entire gear kit. Break it down to kitchen, sleep, clothing, and shelter components, and then eliminate any redundancies between these categories. You can also use some items in two ways, like sleeping in your clothes or a jacket for added warmth, or using your trekking poles as a part of your shelter system instead of tent poles.

Scouting: Any final random camp or gear advice?

AS: Hand sanitizer is a great idea for groups. Make kids wash with it every time after they go to the bathroom and before meals. I am a believer that poor hygiene, not bad water or food, is how lots of kids get sick outdoors.

Scouting: Switching gears, can you talk about motivating young people to get outside? 

AS: Kids need to see your passion for a place. If you expose kids, they will get addicted to it. I was a little kid fascinated by a swamp in my neighborhood—it doesn’t take much. Kids don’t need to go to the Grand Canyon or Alaska to be wowed.

Scouting: What are the stepping stones to jumping from car camping to wilderness camping or backpacking?

AS: Not many stepping stones; just jump in. Really, backpacking has two components: camping and hiking. If you can turn a kid onto one of these, you’re halfway there. Take them car camping and they will like that part of it. Then take them hiking one day. Then later combine the two. Just make sure not to try walking with all of your camping gear—forcing a kid to carry a refrigerator-size load will not turn him on to backpacking.

Scouting: Advice for guaranteeing a successful trip? 

AS: Ideally, parents and troop leaders should do their homework before they take the kids out and know the route is good and feasible for the Scouts. They should know the conditions and the expected weather. Will there be bugs? Prepare for it. Get the right maps. Very important: Do not overload the kids on their first trip. As I said, too much weight is a common turnoff to backpacking. I have heard Scouting horror stories of little kids with 50-pound packs. It’s hard to enjoy a trip when you have blisters on your feet and your shoulders are sore.

Scouting: Final question. How can you encourage kids to push themselves and go that extra mile on the trail?

AS: Stay enthusiastic yourself. It carries over to the kids. If you are stoked on being outside and hiking, then they will be stoked as well.

Stephen Regenold writes about the outdoors and gear at GearJunkie.com.

Their behavior in some settings—at the mall or at a party, for example—seems at odds with their behavior in other settings, say at church or at a Scout meeting. What they often fail to realize is that their different worlds can easily collide, exposing them as inconsistent at best or hypocritical at worst.

That’s why each Boy Scout rank requires a Scout to demonstrate that he lives the values of the Scout Oath and Law in his everyday life, not just at troop events.

One way to highlight character inconsistencies, though, is to lead ethical discussions that explore what happens when one area of a Scout’s life negatively affects another. Here’s an example.

The Dilemma
It’s noon on a Saturday, and Crew 641’s president, Austin McFarland, is late—very late—for the crew’s annual tobogganing trip. As members of the crew and adults pace the church parking lot, Vice President Bailey Jenkins tries again to reach Austin on his cell phone. Finally, she gets through to him.

“You sound awful,” Bailey says after he grunts a hello.

“Yeah, I feel awful. And don’t yell; my head hurts.”

“Do you have the flu or something? It’s been going around.”

“More or less. I went to Will’s party last night. We played beer pong, and I won—or so I thought.” He groaned.

Bailey is more than disappointed in her friend. “But you promised …”

“I know. Not again. I really mean it,” Austin says. “So about the trip, there’s no way I can come.”

“And what am I supposed to tell Mr. Simpson?”

“Just tell him I have the flu. That’s more or less true.”

Before Bailey can respond, Mr. Simpson, the crew Advisor, walks over. “What’s up with Austin?”

Bailey pauses, then says, “He’s, uh … he can’t come. He’s not feeling well.”

For Discussion
Like many ethical dilemmas, this one puts two positive values in opposition: honesty and loyalty. It also encourages young people to wrestle with what it means to help other people, a value found in both the Scout Oath and the Venturing Oath.

To help Scouts or Venturers explore this dilemma, discuss these questions together:

• Both the Venturing Oath and the Venturing Code talk about fairness. Is Austin being fair to Bailey? Is Bailey being fair to Austin? To Mr. Simpson? To the crew? Why or why not?

• Instead of telling Mr. Simpson that Austin has the flu, she tells him Austin isn’t feeling well. Is that answer true? Is it honest? Is there a difference?

•The story implies that Austin has misbehaved before and that he promised Bailey he wouldn’t mess up again. Should that affect what Bailey does? Why or why not?

• What Austin did at the party was illegal and self-destructive. Should that affect how Bailey reacts? Why or why not?

• Should Bailey react differently because Austin is crew president? Why or why not?

• Assume Bailey wants to help her friend, as the Venturing Oath calls her to do. Are her actions helping him? Why or why not?

Next Steps
Now, take the situation farther, assuming you’ve reached agreement that Bailey didn’t do the right thing or needs to do more. Challenge your Scouts or Venturers to come up with three or four different next steps Bailey could take, either alone or in combination. (For example, she could admit the truth to Mr. Simpson or she could do that and also insist that Austin meet with a substance-abuse counselor.) For each proposed solution, discuss these questions:

• How is the solution fair to Austin?

• How is the solution fair to Bailey? To Mr. Simpson and the crew?

• How does the solution help Austin?

Finally, discuss these questions:

• Which solution or solutions should Bailey try?

• What has this discussion taught you about fairness? About helpfulness?

Hot soup, coffee, and even warmed desserts are doable anywhere outdoors with a stove and a pot. Over the years, I’ve ignited a dozen types of stoves on picnic tables in state parks or the frozen flanks of Mount Rainier. Each fire-maker is distinguished by its size, weight, fuel type, and flame output for its intended task.

This spread of stoves represents categories and types intended for varying weight, transport, and climates; fuel sold separately unless noted. Strike a match and give life to a flame. Your inner caveman will thank you.

MSR Pocket Rocket
$40, msrcorp.com
I’ve used this basic backpacking stove for years. Screw the inverted tripod onto the top of a butane canister and twist a control arm to flood the burner with vaporized gas. A match ignites the stove. Caveats: The little arms only balance small pots, and the stove’s unshielded design keeps its flame exposed to wind. Don’t forget: Freezing temps reduce the performance of pressurized canister fuels.

Esbit Pocket Stove
$10 (includes six fuel cubes), industrialrev.com
Hexamethylenetetramine: It doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. But the chemical compound is the basis for the tiny fuel cubes that power this stove. The decades-old design includes a foldable shell of galvanized steel that hinges open to create a platform for a pot. Put a cube inside and light it up for an approximate burn time of 13 minutes. A pot goes on top, and now you’re cooking over an open flame. One cube will bring a pint of water to boil in about eight minutes.

Backcountry Boiler
$100, backcountryboiler.com
Sticks, grass, and kindling you find in the woods are the fuel for the Backcountry Boiler, a stove designed for the single purpose of heating water with no fuss. Made in Pittsburgh by a former Scout, the unit combines the function of a stove and a boiling pot into one. To heat water, put the aforementioned sticks and grass inside, fill the top reservoir with water, and ignite. The Backcountry Boiler forces flames to roar out through the top, fire licking the inside metal surface area with water on the other side of a thin wall. Hot water comes quick. The boiler weighs about 8 ounces and is a bit bigger than a 1-liter Nalgene bottle.

Primus OmniLite Ti
$218, primuscamping.com
Titanium parts keep its weight down to 8.5 ounces. A liquid-gas burner jets flames stout enough to melt snow into water on mountain climbs. Made for “the most demanding conditions,” as Primus puts it, this new expedition-ready stove will be seen at extreme altitudes and high latitudes this year. Primus says it can boil a liter of water in a speedy 2 minutes, 40 seconds.

QUESTION: On the regular hikes taken by Scouter S.G.’s troop, a couple of boys have trouble keeping up. He asked for tips on helping these boys without discouraging them or hurting their feelings. 

TAKE IN THE VIEW
As one of the adults who bring up the rear, I spot things and point them out to those boys who are closest to me—usually it’s sights such as animal tracks, flowers, or bugs. Often we find that the “speed demons” at the front of the group regret missing the chance to see something really cool. With time, the slower kids will get fitter and be part of the main group.

Venturing Leader M.McG.
St. Augustine, Fla.

TOO SLOW OR TOO FAST?
You may have the problem backward. Your main group isn’t staying with its troopmates. The first rule of hiking with a group is that the group is only as fast as its slowest member. Have the senior patrol leader assign one of the stronger hikers as sweeper and another as front man. If the sweeper can’t see the front of the group, it’s his job to communicate to the front to slow down or stop. No one is allowed to go in front of the assigned front man.

Our introduction-to-backpacking hike each year is purposely chosen to seem hard but be fairly short. Most years, one or two younger Scouts are very slow on the first few switchbacks. The older boys encourage them and often offer to take some of their gear. It is a teaching moment, both for the younger and older Scouts.

Assistant Scoutmaster C.D.
Poway, Calif.

DIVIDE AND CONQUER
If these boys can’t keep up because they are smaller or less fit, they should have their own appropriate hike. Trying to hold back the older Scouts makes everyone unhappy. Our troop sometimes plans two hikes (each with adequate adult leadership)—one more challenging and the other easier—often intersecting for a night’s camping together.

Scoutmaster S.G.
Gilbertsville, N.Y.

DIG DEEPER
See if there is a root issue. Is the slow Scout’s pack too heavy? Hot spots on his feet? Is he being distracted by nature and too busy trying to look at everything? Is he hungry or thirsty?

J.J.
Enumclaw, Wash.

IF THE SHOE DOESN’T FIT
If they are new to hiking and are having trouble keeping up with the troop, it’s probably a product of conditioning or possibly just bad footwear. I have found that most Scouts will not admit to having trouble with their footwear. Keep an eye on their gait. If they are walking oddly, they may be having this trouble. Discuss the importance of proper shoes and where to find them before your next hike.

Assistant Scoutmaster B.R.K.
Shoemakersville, Pa.

TAKE TURNS
We have had the same situation in our troop. We decided to start rotating the boys from back to front about every 15 minutes. We found that when we put the slow person in front, his attitude changed, and he became excited. The whole troop started to move faster. Ever since we started that, we have never had a problem with boys staying up with the group.

W.E.
Sandy, Utah

START SMALL
We start out with short hikes just for the newcomers, usually two or three hikes of five miles or less. During the hikes, we take frequent educational breaks for map reading, nature study, etc. We use much praise and encouragement and never tell the Scouts to speed up. When we put them with the main group, we let them rotate leading with an adult who hikes at the speed they do.

Assistant Scoutmaster F.D.
Limestone, Tenn.

USE MISDIRECTION
I would start talking about something they like to get their mind off the hike and then slowly pick up the pace until we catch up with the group.

Assistant Scoutmaster B.R.
Plainfield, Ill.

A FATHER’S WISDOM
I go by the wisdom my father (an Eagle Scout) taught me when I was a Scout: “We hike as fast as the slowest man.” The patrol should all hike together at the same pace, which keeps those who move a bit slower from getting discouraged and emphasizes the patrol method.

Scoutmaster S.W.
Middletown, Ohio

TORTOISES AND HARES
Split your hiking group in half and have the quicker boys and adults up front and the rest in the second group. Then everybody’s happy.

R.McC.
El Paso, Tex.

HIGH-FIVES ALL AROUND
Whenever our troop goes hiking, backpacking, canoeing, or cycling, I always make it a point to be the “sweeper” and make sure that no Scout ends up too far back. It is a rewarding place to be, because the challenge is on me, as a leader, to make a difference in the Scout’s experience. I’ve had some great conversations with Scouts who have fallen off the pace.

Sometimes, getting their mind off the task is just enough to get them back in stride. Other times, I’ll thank them for encouraging me. By now, everyone knows that I will be the last to arrive, and there is no shame in it.

On a recent backpacking trip, we formed three smaller treks by age to conform to Leave No Trace standards and for ability grouping. As expected, the older treks arrived at camp first.

The veteran Scouts, being aware of the accomplishment of the younger ones, did a very special thing. As we arrived at the site, they met us on the last stretch of trail and cheered and offered high-fives to every Scout. With motivation like that, there’s no doubt that even the slowest Scouts are already looking forward to the next hike with the troop.

Chartered Organization Representative R.D.
Oakland, N.J.

TRUTH IN ADVERTISING
Advertise all hikes’ lengths and ratings well in advance. Hopefully, the slower Scouts will train for the hike and come prepared to meet the challenges.

B.A.
Decatur, Ala.