About this Blog

In the summer of 2017, I finished my doctoral studies and started getting back into some of my favorite hobbies.  On my first camping trip in several years, a group of us began discussing how useful the skills developed as a boy scout were to real-life situations and general survival in the wild.  My two companions at the time were both women, who never had boy scout training as an option.  As for myself, I had stopped being a boy scout due to the demands of my studies around the age of 16.  We decided we would begin earning some of the merit badges boy scouts earn, starting with those required to become an eagle scout and expanding to those we were interested in individually or as a group.  We couldn't really call ourselves Eagle Scouts though, even if we completed the requirements... we're in our 30's and two of us identify as women...  After much discussion, we decided to call ourselves Raven Scouts.  We kept the bird concept, but decided the skills we were looking to embody were those of cunning, cleverness, and willingness to try different approaches. Above all else, we wanted to have some fun while stepping out of our comfort zones a bit.  We also gave each other Raven Scout nicknames... I became Mouse, my wife, Courtney became Wolf, and our dear friend Elizabeth became Bobcat.  Thus the Raven Scouts were born.

This blog emerged after several people heard about what we were doing and asked that we start a blog.  Here, we document our journey as we attempt to earn existing merit badges, create new merit badges, and generally have a fantastic time out in the wild.  We hope you enjoy reading about our journey as much as we've enjoyed taking on some new and interesting challenges.

   -Mouse