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Wilderness Survival, April 14-16, 2010
 Good Afternoon Troop 537

We are back from Wilderness Survival Weekend and happy to report that everyone survived. Not only survived the group seemed to thrive in the primitive conditions.

The group left the church about 510 on Friday afternoon with overcast skies and after the survivors backpacks being checked for smuggled items. The group consisted of 20 survivors, one base camp scout with illness wiping out most of the base camp contingent, and seven adults. We arrived at the property in Jackson County around 6 after eating a sack supper in the car on the way up. The adults and lone scout in charge of them left to setup base camp. The 20 survivors, Steve Rose, and myself took a little hike before arriving close to the wilderness camp area. The scouts had been divided up into 5 groups of 4. Each team before setting up their area was given a wilderness medicine scenario to work through. The teams were then allowed to go to the area and setup shelter and get a fire going. The scenario for the weekend was day hike that things had went wrong on the group had to wait to be rescued so they could bring what you would normally bring on a day hike, first aid kit, and their personal survival kits.The guys also were given suggestions of things at meetings that they might want to bring or think of including in their kits. The message for the weekend was when you step into the woods for any period of time you should be prepared to spend 1-2 nights there as you never know what is going to go wrong. Each group was able to successfully get shelter and fire built before dark. So with good spirits they went to bed with rain starting up during the night.

The group awoke early and had a hearty breakfast of what ever trail food they brought with them and water. They were encouraged to shore up their shelters as the possibility of approaching storms and heavy rains was relayed to each team leader. On Friday night Charlie, Steve, and myself went around to each shelter to talk with them about the pros and cons of their shelter to include orientation so as to make sure they were oriented to protect from the prevailing wind patterns. The boys then meet up with myself and Steve and we were able to get in 3 hours of instruction time with rain some of the time turning to sunshine. Steve covering with the scouts fire building, water purification, and signaling among other things. The scouts were able to work with signaling mirrors, alternative methods of fire building to include building a fire by friction. I worked with boys on wilderness first aid(a personal passion of mine). We covered the basics to include hypothermia, heat illnesses, and dehydration. We also covered animal attacks, snake bites, and insect stings. Then we had the boys work on improvised ways to move a victim to include using paddles to back boards and life vests to stabilize someones neck. We also went through how to build a litter out of sleeping bag, tarp and 50 feet of rope(picture included). They boys then went back to their shelter areas and restarted fires and settled in for the afternoon with some reinforcement of their shelters. After a short period of time the rain became harder and the wind picked up. Some thunder was heard in the distance. The teams retreated to their shelters. Some of the teams weathered the storm by an afternoon nap others by playing cards. All the the guys handled the storm great and all the shelters weathered it well also. The moral and scout spirit remained high throughout the camp out. We had been monitoring the weather conditions starting earlier in the week and throughout the day Friday before leaving and during the camp out. During the afternoon hours the alert of impending late night to middle of the night severe weather was noted and the decision was to go ahead and leave so as not to have to make an after dark or middle of the night evacuation. When team leaders were alerted to the possibility of abandoning camp there was no panic and each went to their team and organized them efficiently and quickly. On Friday afternoon each Team leader and then all of the survivors was given a briefing on the alert and process that would be used to quickly evacuate the area including a rally point. The events of Saturday gave us a chance to practice this to include the signaling and quick evacuation of the area as we had a drill to practice this on our way to base camp.

The adults at base camp and Ryan B the lone scout in charge of them had prepared a breakfast supper of pancakes, bacon, and oranges for the boys before leaving camp. There was also delicious cherry cobbler. At base camp during the weekend Ryan B was able to work on Tenderfoot to First Class advancement.

Although the weekend was cut short it was a rousing success. The Team leaders one his first survival weekend all did a great job and I think became better leaders for it. The team members whether there the first time or repeat survivors certainly were able to learn new things and have new experiences. All the boys through classes at meetings, at camp, and individual conversations with adult leaders was able to complete the requirements for the wilderness survival merit badges. They all learned something they would do differently next time. Speaking for Steve and myself we each stayed with survivors and built our own shelters and same food and water requirements( one liter of water and 3 power bars or the like) we had a blast. Did I mention that the water treatment was very important as the boys had to get their water out of the creek and treat it after the liter they brought with them ran out.

The intrepid group of survivors included:
Scott B
Henry R
Wesley W
Ben R
Jeff B
Matt P
Jared B
Johnathon M
Monty B
Harry B
Tyler G
Seth W
Miles B
Troy Z
Matthew M
Charles B
Wes P
David B
Alex M
Jacob P

Special thanks to the adults that went and provided support Charlie B, Bran P, Ben B, Rich B, Henry M, Steve R, and Tom W.
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