Follow
 |
Podcast: Play in new window | Download Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS |
|
In this Podcast:
Links in this Podcast: |
| Podcast Music |
.Listen to this episode (00:10:51)
Get updates to Scoutmastercg.com by email
About Clarke Green
Comments
Clarke
I am wondering how to go about getting canoes for a troop? The troop I am working with only camps and the current SM is training me to take over. In the past the boys pretty much only camped and this has taken a toll on the older Scouts! They want something more…something different! My troop growing up tended to canoe and backpack so I am eager to introduce the boys to both. I have access to several great beginer rivers in our county and priced out renting canoes. Renting and return transportation for a three day canoe trip would be 1/4 of the price of buying a beginner canoe! Any tips or hints? Btw my name is pronounced Julius Paul
Hey Larry
Almost every good idea has reasonable exceptions!
I kind of thought that the tarp-in-tent tip would cause controversy. My Scouts think I am crazy to put a groundcloth inside my tent (and for other reasons too numerous to mention here) but it works.
Truth be told I am camping under a tarp 80% of the time on top a a sheet of Tyvek so go figure.
Clarke
When I said (above) that I thought that Cliff was wrong, what I was referring to specifically was his comment that “tent floors are not to keep things out”. I understand the part about the structure of a modern tent, but I also think that the floor is there to keep things out.
As to the ground cloth inside or out, I see that as personal preference. I don’t do it the way he does, but it might be right for him. The interview was great. I am pretty sure that I will never have a herd of elk jump over my canoe or see a polar bear from a canoe, but some of my Scouts might someday. Keep paddling!
Great show as always and fun interview Clarke.
I’ll throw myself into the fray as well….on the tarp goes under the tent side. I spend most of my camping nights in FL as well (our Troop is just a few miles up the road from Larry’s).
I agree with Larry on 1 through 3, all excellent points. I honestly can’t add too much more.
Perhaps the ground cloth “in” or “under” argument really depends on WHERE you camp.
Good program, Clarke. I’ve read Rutstrum’s books and I have learned quite a bit from his canoeing instruction. I have worked on his backwards J stroke and I can do it, especially when on an open body of water. We often canoe on things like spring runs so there isn’t a lot of actual paddling and I find myself reverting to ruddering and J-stroking most of the time.
Ok, I’ll step into it about tents. Cliff is wrong. (caveat, I camp almost exclusively in Florida).
1. Tent floors ARE for keeping things out! When I zip up the door of my tent I create a barrier against almost everything I want to be protected from. And it’s not rain, though staying dry is a good thing. Let’s see what we don’t want inside with us: Rattlesnakes, Water Moccasins, Coral Snakes, Copperhead snakes, mosquitoes, ants (lots and lots of ants), scorpions (yes there ARE scorpions in FL!), wasps, deer flies, ticks, cicada killers, no-see-ums, and spiders.
2. I use a heavy duty plastic ground cloth UNDER my tent floor. Ants will chew right through a common tent floor. The plastic tarp, not so much. The ground cloth is wet on the bottom every morning and all of the wetness and wet leaves and junk are rolled up inside and not on the bottom of my tent. I roll the edges up underneath the tent. If I put my tent direcly on the ground it would get very dirty very fast.
3. We almost always camp in sandy soil. What keeps you dry is a tent fly that overhangs the tent ALL the way around. A Eureka Timberline tent is a good example of tent with a fly that totally covers the tent. The rain runs off the fly and soaks up immediately into the sand. I don’t get wet. Ever. I bought a Eureka Prism tent in 1991 and used it until last year (2009). Always put the ground cloth under the tent, never got wet in the tent (it does rain in Florida 🙂 ) and the tent stayed pretty clean and serviceable for 18 years (I camp almost every month of the year). I’ve never seen anyone down here put the ground cloth inside the tent and my scouts don’t get wet (it does rain here in Florida) (unless they don’t set their tent up correctly 🙂 ).
We use the same techniques on the Appalachian Trail hikes (did I mention that it rains real regularly in Western NC?) and we don’t get wet. I am trying to imagine how dirty my tent would get without my ground cloth under it. YMMV.
Clark,
That was a GREAT podcast and I must say that on the very next campout, I WILL be putting my ground cloth inside my tent. Then, I will wait and watch all of the scouts looking at me with the ole head sideways, dog looking puzzled, look on their faces. I might, if asked, explain what I am doing and not be as crazy, as they think I am.
Again, thank you for all the time you put into your podcast they are, as always, informative and entertaining.
Joe