Adult Coordinator:  Barrie Dickinson

Scout Coordinator: I’m looking for one Scout to act as coordinator for the trip (working with Mr. Dickinson to organize location, route, food etc); it’s a great opportunity to develop your organizational and leadership skills (with lots of support from me if needed).

Dates/times: Meet at FC Library parking lot on the morning of Saturday Sept. 13, return afternoon of Sunday Sept. 14 – exact times TBD depending on hike location.

Location: This hasn’t been determined yet but we’ll try to select somewhere new and interesting. The hiking portion is likely to be around 3 miles each way (so a 6 mile weekend) with one night spent in camp.

Difficulty: We’ll endeavor to keep this one pretty easy without to much elevation gain.

Activities: We’ll do some backpacking cooking, campcraft, navigation and trekking skills (eg. learn how to caterpillar your way up a gradient!). Hopefully we’ll be able to camp where we can have a fire and practice match-free fire-lighting! If there’s anything you’d specifically like to cover for advancement purposes, let me know.

Equipment needs: Our main focus is on keeping the boys safe and warm but keeping pack weight to a minimum (backpacking’s way more fun with a light pack!). I’ll send a full kit list soon but basically you’ll need your 10 essentials, a backpack, mess kit (mug, bowl, spoon/spork), sleeping bag & pad, wash-kit, water bottles and trail shoes/boots. Don’t worry if you don’t have some of these or aren’t sure what to get. Very soon I’ll organize a meeting to run through of the kit list with recommendations for gear which will do the job, keep your pack light and not cost too much. I also have some gear you can borrow if you want to ‘try before you buy’.

Tents, stoves, water filters will be provided by the Troop: we recently invested in some excellent new lightweight backpacking equipment.

Cost: TBD but typically in the $30-$40 per person range for a single night trip.

Interested? Please sign up on TeamSnap or email me if you’d like to come along (Scouts and adults). Sign-ups will close on August 29th to give us 2 weeks to buy prep food and arrange troop gear.