Hey Ed,Rik and All, Yes those were good times. Scouting started me on my outdoor journey as well. Our Scout Troop still does the "Foil Packet" meals, and they sure are good. We always put a couple of tablespoons of water and a pat of butter in with the meat and veggies. If you make your foil packet correctly, they puff up from the water turning to steam. Rik is correct about campfires. I think that learning to build a fire is much more important than learning to use a stove. I know it sounds like blasphemy, but I consider fire building an essential skill and feel our Scouts still need a lot of practice. Didn't someone post the link to a website that had Optimus 77/91 clones for $20.00. I think it was a company that sold Swiss Military Surplus. I would imagine this would be much more efficient than the Swedish Military Trangia and a good buy as well. Cheers, Manny Assistant Scoutmaster Troop 50
I agree about learning to build a fire. This is a good deal more difficult thing than learning to use a stove, particularly in adverse conditions, and constitutes an essential survival skill. Our daughters in Girl Scouts got into the foil packet campfire meals and their daughters, too. They usually cook up some at the clan campouts. It's a very good method.
Yeah my troop, (troop 68 in rochester NY) everything was very fire based. There were occasional coleman two burners usually at camporees. (I didn't notice if they were propane or otherwise.) We used iron stand up type wood burners at Massawepe (Now the Adirondak scout reservation) Presumably to reduce impact on the heavily used campsites. We didn't cook in small groups on backpacking stoves. My troop had a hard enough time keeping zippers on our Timberlines.
Hi Paul, Our Troop still does! What did you think of the Adirondak Scout Reservation? We are always looking for new places to go. I'll be photographing my 8R at Camp Nooteeming next weekend. Manny
One of my friend's fathers worked for a textile company and he had all of the zippers replaced with the big toothed metal ones like on a M-65 jacket. Massawepe was cool. It was a different experience than the other camping trips that i had been on to that point. It was a week long for example. There were a lot of other groups using the same facilities so everything was very regimented and scheduled. Because of the presence of bear, all of the food was kept at a central "PX" and the patrols each had an iron cookstove. We went to the PX, got our food and brought it back to cook and eat. I remember one of the leaders brought a dutch oven and made peach cobbler for the whole troop. It was GOOOOD! All the cobblers I've had since have to live up to that memory. I also remember the care packages which arrived on the second or third day. By my figuring that means that our parents must have sent them before we left. I remember one kid that got a large quantity of fruity mentos candy in his and didn't want to share. I also remember how he must have jacked his blood sugar up so much that the mosquitos left him practically delerious with bug bites. I remember going on a "20 mile hike" to a primitive campsite and finding the basecamp when looking for firewood. I remember that the platform tents were infested with spiders... Lots of spiders. I think the camp was devided into different smaller group camps. I seem to remember that i stayed at the one called "Forrester" and we were all jealous of the kids at one called "Moutaineer" because they had a mess hall. All in all it was an awesome trip for a little kid.
Are you guys talking about Massawepie near Tupper Lake/Colton NY? If so,what a small world. I live an hour from there,spent many a moon there. Awesome place with some great brook trout. As a scout leader way back,I helped run phone lines through the trees,probably gone cell by now. That was 25 years ago.or more.
I can relate to the experiences and education quotient of parents and fire I have three daughters all of whom have travelled the Girl Guides (U.S. = Girl Scouts I think) route. At one standing camp where a large wood-fired water boiler was being used to supply hot water for all and sundry one of the early tasks of camp was to fire this sucker up. At the point of lighting I happened to glance around to see a boy who would have been somewhere between 8 and 10 say with a look of expectancy on his face - he knew that fire was to be made here this day! I introduced myself, told him what the apparatus was and how it was going to boil water. He went and collected more wood! Ah, a convert. Then for the finale I asked whether he wanted to light the first match. Instruction on how to open, where to hold the match with wet fingers (... not at the red end. Hey, sounds simple, but watch some people ...), how to strike and the like. Well, the time it took from him wandering from where he had come from to this point in time corresponded to the time his mother's in-built protective intuition kicked in and she must have started a grid search to track, locate and retrieve errant son, in amongst tents, girls, food, utensils and all that stuff that boys have a habit of following (only boys....?) Anyway, we're about to strike the match that transported 'boy' to 'experienced-boy' and all the hormonal changes that would ensure from this rite of passage, when a hand stronger than Sampsons bodily re-transported him physically backward at not quite the speed of light that left an unlit match temporarily in midair to slowly fall earthbound, unlit and cold. The look on the boys face said it all. It's a pity that his mother could not see it as she smothered him while expending some considerable force of words on the how irresponsible it was to "teach boys how to light matches" ! Quite what she was protecting - her or him - I'll never know. But I know one thing, he's gonna light a match sometime, and now he knows how. Parents eh, who'd have em? Much the same as kids! Regards all, Rob
Very cool Paul,I have been Deer hunting near there lately. Pushing a BIG deer around there,He is teaching me. I hope He teaches me a little too much. I thought I spelled it wrong ?
