Weekend Camping W Boy Scouts Tips Please!

Your troop should have a packing list.

Coordinate, coordinate, coordinate! You don't want everyone bringing their own stuff - it's a lot to carry in, and you may leave out things that are essential. Moreover, the point of scouting is to learn to work as a group, from packing to shlepping things in, to setting up camp, to planning/preparing meals, to cleaning up. That means that people DON'T just pack their own stuff - they share and delegate and collaborate! And camp areas have regulations about what's allowed and not allowed, or what's unnecessary because it's already provided. If you have a check list but you still have to bring all your own food and stoves, it actually doesn't sound all that organized to me! However, if they have given you a list that just doesn't include food or stoves, that may mean that they have already done that out of the scout troop treasury. So the worst thing you can do is get in the way of that by bringing other stuff - it's too much to carry, and it disrupts the planned activities.

I wouldn't advise you to do anything until you go back to the trip organizers and ask how food and stoves are being handled. If you take a grill but they've planned on stew or scrambled eggs, what will you do with the grill? If you take a stove but they've packed burgers and granola, what's the point?

And again, you are trying to teach the scouts how to "be prepared" by planning for contingencies, not to go off on their own and do their own thing. If there are significant food issues (intolerances/allergies), you need to address those and perhaps they will tell you to bring your own stuff, but otherwise I wouldn't go that route!

Coordinate with the troop or pack leaders, please. They may or may not want families bringing their own stoves and grills, etc. for safety reasons. They may or may not want you bringing your own food (unless you're the leaders yourselves?). Depending on where you're camping, you may be forbidden to bring in certain types of cooking stoves or grills or fuels for them. And food needs to be either locked in cars overnight or kept very tightly sealed in coolers etc. to keep animals away....If you're not the leaders yourselves, suggest that every family that's going coordinate these things via e-mail so there isn't duplication or stuff brought that isn't permitted in that particular campground. Many parks and campgrounds around here actually ban people from bringing in their own wood for fires, as well, for a very good reason - the presence of certain bugs that can be very damaging to the parks/woods if imported via firewood from people's yards etc.

The leaders should know all this or find it out for you. When we do Girl Scout camping the leaders deal with the cooking setups etc. but then, it's just the leaders and girls, not the whole family.

M.,

All of the cub and boy scouts camping trips I have been on - the troop provides the food for all who are attending. This is what your dues pays for and to top it off? Food allergies!!

What we had to bring?
* flashlight with extra batteries
* tent - big enough for the number in your party (as in mom, dad, son NOT the entire troop)
* Sleeping bag
* Pillow
* Ground cover
* ax or other tool for cutting wood and hammering the tent stakes into the ground
* change of clothes
* towel
* toiletry bag - tooth brush, tooth paste, deodorant
* personal first aid kit - the Troop will have one - but a back up is never a bad idea

Do NOT plan on a shower. The towel is good to have.

The troop is supposed to be teaching the boys how to make do, survive, and show them THEY CAN DO IT...so they will plan their own meals, the Troop leader will gather the grocery list and go shopping. Sometimes in the pack, the different teams take care of their own lists.

Contact the Troop Leader. Ask the following questions:
* what meals are planned with the troop?
* will you need the parents to provide anything - if so - what?
* do you want parents to bring fire wood? (sometimes where they are camping does not allow the deforestation and you need to bring your own firewood in)
* inclement weather plans?
* are their plans for S'mores or some other camping treat?

Our troop has VERY large (like 4 feet long, 2 feet tall) coolers and all the food is in there.

Good luck!

Leave it to the troop. You do not bring a grill or camp stove. This is Boy Scout camping not family camping. You will be given a list. Usually extra clothes, big spray, sleeping bag, etc. food is bought by the troop. Sit back and wait for your instructions.