The Beginning


Bobcat, Wolf and Mouse were the names we gave each other on our first camping trip... We hiked around 6 miles to our site with packs that were far far too full... we had enough food for a five day trip, even though we would only be there for one night.  In our eagerness, we also chose a trail that was categorized as "strenuous" and which ended up being a significant amount of uphill for three out-of-practice campers.  Along the way, we adjusted who was carrying what, changed from pants to shorts, and generally figured things out as we went.  For all of us, it had been years since our last trip into the woods... but this trip sparked a pretty amazing journey for the three of us.


It all really started because we decided to engage in a survival exercise.  Imagining that we were in some sort of post-apocalyptic end world scenario (one where we could survive in the woods, albeit with risk - e.g. not a nuclear fallout situation), we started talking about the skills we each brought to the table, the friends we hoped would be with us and the skills they brought, and generally had a grand time imagining fortifying a perimeter and getting on with surviving.  This is a common topic of conversation in our friend group... this and the classic "if you could have any five liquids be endlessly accessible from each of the fingers on one hand, what would you choose" and the popular variant "they can only be consumable liquids" and the even more popular variant "David, if you choose oil, water, gold, Type O blood, and beer you're going to end up a finger slave"... it's a fun topic of conversation, I promise... but completely irrelevant to this post - my apologies.  The point is, we like these conversations and we were having a good time.  It distracted from the length and difficulty of the hike and our poorly planned packing.


We finally got to the site after hiking 6 miles up the mountain, and we set about making camp.  We gathered fire wood, organized it into piles based on size, pitched tents, laid out our feast and generally did an exceptional job of it if I do say so myself.  



The topic of Boy Scouts came up, since we have a few friends who are Eagle Scouts.  We talked about the skills you learn as a scout and over the course of the next few hours, we decided it might be worth it to look into the Eagle Scout requirements as adults... investigate the merit badge requirements for skills we thought worthwhile... after all, why let boys have all the fun?  I was hanging out with two women who wanted to learn about archery, fishing, tracking, etc.  they both played rugby in college... chances are they could take half the people who ended up as Eagle Scouts in a fight... maybe even at the same time... so why not?


On the hike back out, we made our plans... we would learn survival skills and look into what was required to become an Eagle Scout and we'd go from there.  We didn't really know what we were getting ourselves into, but it sounded really fun and would force us to try some things we might not try otherwise.  Above all, next time, we'd pack lighter, smarter, and we'd be more prepared... that's the motto after all.  Still, that breakfast was worth the pack weight... so maybe we wouldn't pack too light.


   -Mouse










Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Establishing the Raven Scouts

As we prepared for merit badge requirements, we also began reading about the Boy Scout Oath, Law, Motto, Slogan, Sign, Salute, and handshake... these figured fairly prominently in some of the merit badges so we wanted to have a firm grasp... we liked a lot of what we read, but didn't really feel like certain aspects were a great fit for what we were doing. It's important to remember we're amending something written for boys and we're adults... some of these tweaks are to be expected :)  Ultimately we felt that, in the spirit of this whole process, we should come up with our own oath, etc.   We also thought we might be able to approach this a bit more efficiently and combine some of the above... so we whittled it all down a bit and made it our own.  To start, I got us all cool journals to document everything we'd be doing. Before we get into what we created, it may be worthwhile to share the boy scout versions so you can have a basis for comparison. Scout Oat...
Post a Comment
Read more

Into the great wide open

Well, it's been an embarrassing while, hasn't it? Apologies; life has been busy. To be honest, we've been very, very, extraordinarily busy doing all sorts of stuff Raven-Scouts-applicable - we just haven't been documenting it. What a disaster. In this very-weird day and age, if you didn't document it, did it even happen? Hell yeah it happened.  (View at the top of Big Bald on the Nort h Carolina Appalachian Trail) (Mouse, Badger and Bobcat taking in the deep woods of Southern Appalachia) (Mason Farm Biological Reserve on a fall evening) (Badger in the first morning light at Eno River State Park) (Mouse, Wolf, Gypsy and Badger on a Thanksgiving backpacking trip at Uwharrie National Forest) (Badger and Wolf on a long snow hike during a southern blizzard) (Learning how to backpack and build a fire in the freezing rain and ice in Uwharrie National Forest) (Wolf on a very long, very early, very cold winter bike ride to meet Bob...
Post a Comment
Read more

Insect Study Merit Badge

Today I began working on the Insect Study Merit badge! To begin with, you learn about the kingdom, phylum, and class of insects, along with the major orders and families.  You also label the parts of an insect. I also need to observe 20 insects in my area... I took it upon myself to sketch them in my journal.  I started with 6, but I'll keep observing until the badge is complete.  Here we have the common Black Carpenter Ant (Camponotus pennsylvanicus), the Green June Bug Beetle (Cotinis nitida), the Lady Bug Beetle (Coccinella magnifica), the Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa micans), the Green Darner Dragonfly (Anax junius), and the Paper Wasp (Polistes dominula). I did realize, that most of the photos I've taken while camping and hiking weren't insects... A black widow (Latrodectus hesperus) while we were camping at South Mountain State Park.... very poisonous. A flat millipede (Apheloria tigana) on a hike (seen both in South Mountain State Park...
Post a Comment
Read more