The "leaders at National" have a lot of different needs to consider and to balance. They have to develop a program to meet the needs of a wide variety of conditions.

So, it is up to us "knowledgeable" light weight backpackers to train others. We have to balance the long term durability of equipment to the attitude/aptitude of young Scouts.





I think if you cross reference this list against several of the equipment lists on this board, you will find many similarities. We have to educate new backpackers that you don't have to take everything on this list!


alanwenker - you are right on with your comments (ditto my comments from above).

We discourage our parents from rushing out and spending a lot of money on gear. We provide them a list and it doesn't include a backpack. We encourage them to use what they have or borrow from others (e.g. older Scouts with left over gear). We only take 1-2 short backpacking trips a year (less than 10 miles) and those don't happen until late fall or early spring. By then, the parents have a good idea if their child is going to stick it out. At that time, we start having meetings where we discuss backpacking equipment. I like to bring my light weight equipment (most of it is quite inexpensive) and show them what they "need" to have rather than what they "think" they'll need.

Again, it is up to us that have the knowledge to train others.

Here is a link that has been shared before and that I share with our Scouts and parents.
http://www.kuffelcreek.com/new_release.htm


Now, can we get back to the topic in the original post?

Tango61