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About Clarke Green
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I was at the same presentation in Iowa City. The two scouts I brought down were very excited on our drive home. I asked them five things they learned and we talk the whole way home how we can teach other guys in the troop to hike and camp light. We have two crews going to Philmont in June. I only wished they could have came along to gain some knowledge. I bought Andrews book and will be sharing the information to the troop.
If you get the chance to attend one of Andrew Skurka’s Gear & Skills talks, it is a good presentation. Son and I just got back from the Iowa City session a few minutes ago (traveled 2 hours). Well worth it for me, great dad / son time to and from and learned some good info from Skurka. Added benefit is the high level enthusiasm my son has renewed towards his scouting goals. A big thanks to Andrew for getting out and doing what he’s doing.
Thank you Clarke for persevering with Andrew to get the interview. I hear there were some challenges.
Glad you got out to hear Andrew. It took us two or three tries before we got the interview recorded. He’s on an ambitious speaking schedule and finding the time was difficult.
I agree that Andrew Skurka is a revelation to preparing for outdoor adventures. Our boys have a backpacking trip coming up on the AT and I’ve already pointed our SPL in the hike light direction. He’s working with our Instructors and Patrol Leaders to make this theme a part of our next few meetings. I’ll be along and going as light as I can. I would like to say I’ll be an example, but I see it as more of a necessity for the knees.
Your SM Minute on the Vision we should share as leaders is right on target. I remember hiking with our scouts one very wet and chilly day. I could see that the moral was pretty low. One of my ASM’s started singing Mr. Blue Sky by ELO and really lifted the spirits of everyone. I vowed from that moment on, I would always be CHEERFUL and energetic about making these tough, but rewarding trips. It’s for the boys!
“I hate it when a scout vows after that kind of trek that he will never do it again.”
Allan, hopefully I don’t just sound ornery 🙂
I love it when a Scout vows after that kind of trek that he will never do it again, then after about three weeks he forgets all the bad stuff and does do it again and does it again a lot and eventually teaches other Scouts how to do it right and goes on as an adult to bigger adventures.
(ps – that would be Paul, who I mentioned above 🙂 )
Clarke, this guy was great. I wish you had had him on two weeks ago. We went backpacking this past weekend, and I had three first year scouts who had never done it before. Even with my expert teaching on light weight backpacking, they still brought heavy gear in backpacks that did not fit them properly. (I did tell parents to get those dragonfly backpacks you had on another blog page). Plus it was wet and muddy from the prior weeks rain. We had good weather on our nights out. I hate it when a scout vows after that kind of trek that he will never do it again.
No Skurka in the Southeast? 🙂
I suppose that we have very flat, unchallenging trails down here 🙁 Maybe we can get him down here for some swamp hikes through the Tosohatchee.
I thought that the point about concentrating on hiking and not on camping was important. There is a point at which a person just has too much weight to be comfortable or for the hike to be enjoyable. Discovering that point and how to deal with it is a place we must all go if we are going to hike much.
In 1998 one of my Eagle Scouts, Paul, was on a through hike on the AT. One day, as he was hiking along, a guy came up and started a conversation. He was dressed in work clothes (flannel shirt I think) leather work type boots and had a canvas knapsack. They hiked and chatted for a while and then the guy hiked on ahead and Paul never saw him again on the trail. The man turned out to be Earl Shaffer, the first person to through-hike the AT. He was almost 80 year old, on his third through hike, and it was the 50th anniversary of his first hike in 1948. Paul said that he was carrying very little and that he hiked pretty briskly.
I went camping last weekend, and as I got closer to the campsite I saw a sign that said ‘Campsite left’. So I turned around and went home