Scoutmaster

Trail Cooking Videos

Trailcooking.com (an expansion to Freezerbagcooking.com) has a number of  step-by-step  videos that demonstrate recipes featured on their site and in their book Freezer Bag Cooking.

Freezer bag cooking is great for Scouts. It is inexpensive, simple and much better tasting than most of the freeze dried foods I have tried. I also appreciate cooking that requires some thinking, preparation and a modicum of skill  beyond simply running to the Walmart and grabbing pouches of Mountain House.

Scouts and Backpacking

Our Scouts enthusiastically take on the challenge of preparing, launching and completing a backpacking trip. As a Scoutmaster I appreciate the Patrol and skill building opportunities but the real reason we go backpacking is the sheer joy (often achieved through great effort and discomfort) of the experience.

Backpacking requires an expanded set of skills and attention to detail. Here are some resources that help us prepare for successful trips:

Naismith's Rule
Scotsman W.W. Naismith designed to predict the duration of a hike based on distance, terrain and other variables.

Ten Essentials (yes, yet again) With a Quiz
With all the "excitement" that the wilderness can throw at you (weather, critters, rough terrain, accidents), it seems to be only common sense that the hiker should be ready to meet it with at least the bare minimum of equipment. This minimum is usually referred to in hiking guides as the Ten Essentials.

Choosing a Backpacking Route

Leading a good backpacking trip begins with tailoring the route to the ability of the group. Mileage for mileage's sake usually turns a good trip into an ordeal of endurance that Scouts may not want to repeat. Better to have the Scouts eager to challenge a longer hike or a tougher trail than feel reluctant to try again.

Some Sources of Backpacking Hints, Tips and Wisdom
 Backpacking requires choosing, packing and using gear  selected for its lightest weight and greatest utility; a subject for lengthy conjecture, experimentation and development. I imagine that the ratio of actual trail time is several times less than the endless study of gear and technique - something a real backpacker may enjoy as much as actual backpacking.

Trail Information
Great web resources for trail information

Freezer Bag Cooking - Worth a Look
Freezer bag cooking is easy, inexpensive and an especially great way for Scouts (or anyone for that matter) to prepare food on backpacking trips.

Blisters

While I have managed to avoid blisters myself one or two usually show up on someone during the course of a Troop backpacking trip. Dr. Paul Auerbach has posted a very comprehensive treatise on preventing and treating foot blisters:

To prevent blisters one must minimize friction generated by the normal biomechanical forces of walking and the contributors to friction. The force between the foot and the insole is determined by the weight of hiker as well as any weight being carried. Reducing the magnitude of the forces on the feet can be as simple as reducing the carried load, whether than means losing personal weight or shedding pounds from the backpack. Another way to minimize the force on the feet is to use a padded insole or arch support. This does not technically reduce the force, but it helps to evenly distribute pressure over the bottom surface of the foot, which thereby decreases the tendency for blister formation.

The pain from a blister is due to pressure on the incompressible fluid trapped between skin layers. As the abrasion and pressure builds, there is further weakening and separation of skin layers and increased potential for rupturing the blister. When a blister opens, raw skin is exposed. If a blister is punctured with a needle and drained, it will often refill within a few hours. If a large hole is made that allows continuous fluid drainage, there is risk for tearing off the roof and leaving a large damaged area.

So, there is no one correct way to manage a blister. For every technique and product mentioned, there are at least several different options. The following blister treatments assume that you must continue on your feet, because resting and “staying off your feet” is not an option.

Product Guide
You may have difficulty finding some of these specialized products at your local drugstore. They are available at Amazon
NEW SKIN LIQUID BANDAGE BOTTLE

 

Elastikon Roll - 2 in. x 5 yards

2nd Skin Blister Pads - Box of 5
Blist-O-Ban Adhesive Bandages

Read more about treatments and products in the extended entry

Learning to be light

Tom Mangan at Two Heel Drive reports on his participation in a lightweight backpacking class

Eleven of us sit at tables in a small meeting room in a nondescript office park on the outskirts of Palo Alto. Steve faces us from behind a table containing a blue backpack that looks big enough for moon missions. Steve notes that he routinely toted 60-70 pounds in this leviathan before he saw the light and started trimming his load. While describing his idea of a "lightweight" pack, he opens a zipper and plucks a smaller pack — one that might hold 15 to 20 pounds of gear fully loaded — from the beast’s upper thorax.. Then he starts talking about his "ultralight" pack and snatches a shiny little number from the beast’s lower abdominal cavity...

...For years, one of the primary appeals of backpacking has been the melding of dreadful suffering with wondrous outdoor vistas. Most folks are content to gawk at mountains and forests from their cars or camper vans, but those who insist on seeing them up close have been forced, until recently, to carry equipment built tough enough for Everest expeditions. A few people who were not Sherpas became indignant that lugging a 50-pound pack up a hillside turned an afternoon amid nature’s wonder into hours of praying for the day’s end or death, whichever came first. They made up their minds to enjoy the show and save their shoulders (and knees, hips, ankles and feet), and the lightweight-backpacking movement was born.

Read the whole story - part one, part two

Freezer Bag Cozy

Have you tried freezer bag cooking yet? I am sold on the method - simple, lightweight, inexpensive and reasonably goof proof. Stove Stomper has a great pictorial guide to making your own freezer bag cozy from Reflectix insulation.
via Freezer Bag Cooking Blog

See also
Freezer Bag Cooking - worth a look

Sgt. Rock's Hiking H.Q.

Intrepid and experienced hiker and backpacker Sgt. Rock (Ernest B. Engman) has developed a web site for backpackers that is worth a visit.

Here is his introduction to his section on teaching compass skills -

This is a subject near and dear to my heart. You see, as a NCO in the Army, I have literally taught over a thousand people how to navigate using a map, protractor, compass, and the brain God gave them.  I personally have built or re-built two courses for the Army, and have taught these techniques for woods, desert, and steep mountain like terrain. I have worked with US Army soldiers, kids, and even FBI Agents to impart these skills. So I speak as what I would consider an expert on teaching these skills.

Visit Sgt. Rock's Hiking H.Q.

Ten Essentials (yes, yet again) With a Quiz

There is a five question quiz at Two Heel Drive that refreshes the Ten Essentials. Take the quiz.

What ten essentials? Roger A. Jenkins writes about the ten essentials at twohikers.org;

With all the "excitement" that the wilderness can throw at you (weather, critters, rough terrain, accidents), it seems to be only common sense that the hiker should be ready to meet it with at least the bare minimum of equipment. This minimum is usually referred to in hiking guides as the Ten Essentials. (The exact number and composition of such a list can often consume hours of debate around the campfire, or anyplace else where hikers congregate.) Briefly, the Ten Essentials are those items that you should never leave the trailhead without. And that means NEVER! EVER! It is absolutely amazing how many hikers have heard this, and yet fail to head the advice. Why not? Laziness. Stupidity. The old "it can't happen to me" syndrome. Well, maybe not. But are you willing to bet your life on it? I personally know some folks who did, and came dangerously close to losing. The couple of pounds that the essentials represent are not "extra." They are absolutely critical. There is no way to emphasize this point too much.

Read the Jenkins' full article here.
Here's an article from Scouting Magazine

Interview: Through-hiking the Pacific Northwest Trail

From Tom Mangan at Two Heel Drive:

Not to be confused with the Pacific Crest Trail, the Pacific Northwest Trail runs for nearly 1,200 miles from the Continental Divide to the Pacific Ocean. Two-Heel Drive reader and blogger Greg Seitz interviewed Sam Haraldson who hiked all those miles over two months this past summer.

Full post here

Freezer Bag Cooking - Worth a Look

Last December I came upon the Freezer Bag Cooking Blog after reading a post in Tom Managan's Two Heel Drive.

I finally got down to business and tried it out. Freezer bag cooking is easy, inexpensive and an especially great way for Scouts (or anyone for that matter) to prepare food on backpacking trips.

The ingenious technique 'boils down' to this ;  measure ingredients into a 1 quart freezer bag and add hot water, wait a few minutes and viola! - a great-tasting meal.

Most of the recipes consist of ingredients you can find on the grocery store shelf Add a home food dehydrator and the possibilities really expand.

In preparation for a backpacking trip I prepared a freezer bag cooking demo for our Scouts and they were impressed by how easy and how cool it was to cook something better than a brick of ramen noodles. (Jeeze, they really love ramen noodles too - yuck.)

Blogster and author Sarah Svien offers a book, home made cozies (an insulating fabric envelope for freezer bags) and a few hard to find supplies in the Freezer Bag Cooking Store. Her website features a blog and quite a few recipes.

The Gear and Techniques features basic "how to" instructions and advice.

Related Posts on Scoutmaster

Freeze Dried Food
Baking for Backpackers
Honeyville Food Products
Freezer Bag Cooking

Two  of my favorite freezer bag recipes (the brownies are truly amazing) are included after the jump.

The Cascade Effect - How Hikers Get Lost

Going in the wrong direction
By Denny Boyles / The Fresno Bee

09/27/07

It's called the "cascade effect" -- a catchy name for the way one mistake leads to another, and a quick explanation for how a hiker who takes one step off an established trail is one step closer to trouble.

Park rangers and search and rescue experts say that hundreds of hikers take that one wrong step each year. The key, they say, is where their next step takes them -- back toward the trail or further down a perilous path.

Ron Hoggard of Corcoran became lost two weeks ago after leaving the trail for only a few minutes. When he tried to find the path again, he went the wrong way and spent the next three nights with no food and little water, trying to find help.

Hoggard, 58, had never heard of the cascade effect, but said after he was found that he believes it can happen to anyone.

He also believes he was lucky.

In the case of Ottorrina "Terrina" Bonaventura, the cascade effect led a hiker with decades of experience down a wrong trail, and what should have been a short walk with friends turned deadly.

Bonaventura, 80, was on a day hike July 30 when she apparently headed the wrong way down a trail. Another hiker spoke to her later in the day, several miles from her destination, but she did not say she was lost or ask for help.

Her body was found two weeks later, miles from her campsite.

Full article LINK

via Two Heel Drive