Pack 373 broke camp last weekend and I now have at least two solid outdoorsmen under my tutelage. They had a great time and learned a lot. The Webelos earned all or part of four or five belt loops and pins. We did BB Shooting, Archery, Citizenship and Smimming as advancements. We did rappelling off of a tower too. My boys got a chance to go twice and yes you know I was getting into the high adventure aspect myself. I had as much fun on the tower as they did. There was even a little 6 year old visiting his big brother who scaled the wall and came back down like a pint sized Spiderman.

I’m making sure that we begin to do more cool outdoorsy stuff in upcoming years. Next year the guys will be able to go canoeing. You have to pass the BoyScout swimming test in order to go out on lakes and other bodies of water though so we’re going to work on any new Scouts becoming qualified for the swimming test from this point forward. I don’t want anybody missing out. I have to work on a couple of extra strokes myself so I can pass it and do all the water activities on Boy Scout facilities. Officially, I’m still a beginner. Gotta work on that stamina (LOL).

They made it easy on us leaders too. My Assistant Cubmaster and I didn’t have to do a thing. We just kicked back, relaxed and networked with other leaders. The organizers had Boy Scouts running the show as patrol leaders for the Webelos. Since Webelos is the Cub Scout preparatory rank for Boy Scouting they decided to give the boys a feel for what it would be like to move from Cub Scout den units to Boy Scout patrol units. This also gave the Boy Scouts some good leadership experience to take back to their troops.

I can tell it’s been years since I’ve been camping. Those cots were uncomfortable but it was nice seeing the transition from day to night from my tent. As dusk began to settle in, all the animals made the appropriate transitions to their roles in the scheme of nature. Maybe an hour or an hour-and-a-half before sunset the birds would stop flying and the bats would come out and start chowing on insects flying through the tree tops. The crickets and perhaps other types of musical insects would start tuning up at this point too. When night time settled in the frogs joined in the chorus and it was amphibians and insects all night long. Took me forever to get to sleep with all that natural music (ha ha ha) but I definitely got a close up appreciation for the cycle of things that I never noticed when I was a Scout myself.

My guys start meeting with the Webelos den officially this week and it’s on to building up the lower ranks of the Pack with new boys again. This summer should prove to be good advertising for the effort as my two adventurers tell all their pals what they missed. And they will definitely be the stars of the show at the next Scouting awards night in the next few weeks.

Not involved in Scouting? I recommend it. If you don’t have kids become a leader. You will fill a need and create lasting memories for you and a bunch of kids. Remember the people who created fun opportunities for you when you were younger? Imagine yourself being the subject of stories ten or twenty years from now when little boys turned men reminisce…”Remember when Mr. So-And-So or Mrs. This-And-Such took us to Camp Over-There out on those hiking trails…with the bugs…playing with our flashlights after Taps…with those crickets and frogs singing us to sleep…”