“Camping provides an excellent test of friendship; the rougher the trip, the better the test . Consequently, to find a friend in camp is often equivalent to finding one for life. This alone makes well worth while the camper’s necessity of taking the bitter with the sweet . But there are plenty of other results equally as good. And in the years that follow, the happy bowl of retrospection contains no pleasanter brew than the bittersweet blended of the trials and the joys of bygone camps.” Cave 1914, 194

Hard times make memorable times. I had a ton of fun as a youth camping with my Boy Scout troop and a ton of fun camping as an adult with my reenacting friends. Not all of the campouts or events I attended were ideal or picture perfect. Many were wet or cold, or wet and cold. I regularly forgot something at home that would have been useful to have and made my trip easier. Once I almost suffered heat stroke! It is funny; those times when adversity hit have stuck with me the most and the stories from them are the ones I tell around the campfire. Sure the good times were memorable and enjoyed but no story is really an adventure without some type of adversity.

My favorite story to tell is one where I pushed myself to my physical limits and used almost every skill I had learned up to that point. I was roughly 12 or 13 and working on my Wilderness Survival Merit Badge. All the Scouts in attendance earned at least 1st Class rank, the First Aid Merit Badge, and were Red Cross 1st Aid and CPR certified before they could attend. If my memory serves me, I believe the campout was in March or early April and in Ohio. We tend to get most of our snow and lowest temperatures in February and that certainly plays a large part in my story.

We were eager for this adventure, and for kids, we were equipped pretty well and knew roughly what the expectations would be but we had no idea what the schedule would be for the weekend. Our Merit badge counselors and Scoutmaster planned out the program, the point was to simulate for us Scouts a situation where we were on a winter day hike but was unable to complete it in just one day. The equipment on our backs reflected that for the most part. We had sleeping bags and a 8’x8′ plastic tarp, no tent and enough food for 1 day even though the campout was from 5 pm Friday to 1 pm Sunday. There was snow already on the ground and more snow and freezing rain inbound.

Friday night was easy, we had decently full stomachs from dinner earlier and we were not expected to hike that far. The focus was fire building and making simple shelters for the night using our tarps. How fun it was! That is, until the fire completely died out around midnight and the wind hit along with the cold setting in due to the dropping temperature. We were all dry but that was not enough for a comfortable night’s sleep.

We “woke” up, more like grumpily surrendering and acknowledging the lack of sleep we all got, put our bedrolls in order, worked to get a meager fire going and ate breakfast. Saturday was when the real trials and adventure would begin and all we knew was that there was going to be miles of hiking ahead of us and much of it was not going to be on prepared trails, roads, or paths. We finished our breakfast, cleaned up our site, shouldered our packs and made our way to the start of the hike. Merrily all of us talked and speculated what we would do. Our adult leaders informed us that our goal was to get at least eight miles in before building our next camp. We were encouraged to pick up dry tinder on our way if we could find any. The first mile was on good paths, the second mile the rain started in, the third mile was cutting across a wooded lot with brush and a refresher on how to use a compass and a map, and fourth mile we trudged to make the check point before 1 so we could eat lunch. Finally! The checkpoint was in site and our Scoutmaster was there waiting on us to greet us. The smiles of our Merit Badge Counselors to our Scoutmaster certainly gave the message they thought our progress earned us some words of celebration.

We were dogged at this point. Our outer clothes soaked through and several shoes were as well. The younger ones were wanting to quit at this point and all of us were inspected for any signs of exhaustion or hypothermia. This is where determination and grit was needed, and we hadn’t even ate lunch yet! Those who wanted to quit were surrounded by the rest, cheered on and encouraged. One of us had the idea to take some of the weight off of those who wanted to quit, this was gladly welcomed by those who were struggling and was not entirely by the rest of the group. In the end we all came together and everyone decided to push on. It was this key moment that set the mood and what the plan would be after lunch.

The second half of the day would be hiking in the four miles to finish off the expected eight miles and we were told there would be emergency scenarios that we would come across and need to respond. The last leg of our hike would be a compass course, which at the end we would find our camp site where we would need to build our brush shelter for the night and a surprise would be waiting on us. We were already tired and starting to feel sore, especially the youngest of our group. All of our attitudes started to fail by the time we hit our 6th mile. The youngest Scout who was complaining about being tired and sore feet could not be consoled. When our emergency scenarios were reached all of us found it difficult to cooperate, one of the scenarios was carrying out our Scoutmaster on a litter made from branches and a tarp, he was a big guy!

I am sure you can imagine the tensions building and a scene from Lord of the Flies as we still had roughly two more miles to go. Two from our group of six wanted to quit but the older ones wouldn’t let them. This is where Scout Spirit and the patrol method truly shined in all my years of Scouting as a youth. Two of our patrol were crying, all of us wet, cold, and tired. Our adult leaders were talking amongst themselves if they should intervene. Finally, and I don’t remember how it came about or who was responsible for convincing the others, it was collectively agreed upon that we would finish it out no matter how slow it would take us to get wherever we were going. We would take one sopping cold step at a time.

Three hours later, with not a word among the group we found and entered our campsite for the night. Some of us could muster a weak smile but the majority just slumped down wherever they could find a decently flat piece of ground. Do you recall that I said there would be a surprise waiting on us? A large well fed fire burned and a large pot of chilli soup was on the edge of it simmering. We had made it. Our Scoutmaster cheerfully welcomed us collectively and then made a round to each of us individually telling us how proud he was of our accomplishments. Our adult leaders scooped out the soup and served bowls of it out to us. Gradually we scooted closer to the fire and as our sore muscles rested and and our bellies grew full with warm food our Scout Spirit roared back to life! What was a tedious and arduous adventure full of frustration, pain, and complaining now became something of joyful recollection! We laughed, shared best and worst parts of the day, teased each other playfully, and what can only be described as celebrated.

There was still one task left for our Merit Badge, make a brush shelter. It was dark, cold and getting colder, and of course wet. We no longer seemed to mind it though and no one really complained. We had already accomplished the most difficult part, all that was left was essentially build a forest house. It did not need to look pretty, it only needed to be functional. We all pitched in and helped each other out and as soon as the last armful of leaves hit the roof of the last shelter we were in them and out like a light.

There was no struggle sleeping that night and the following morning came a bit too soon. This time the adults made the fire, had water on for hot chocolate and oatmeal. It was the best breakfast I had ever had up to that point. We were told to gather our things, disperse the material for our shelters so we leave no trace, and head out to the parking lot to head home. None of us really said too much that morning. We were still tired and ready for it to be done.

Since that campout it has been a story all of us have recalled many times, often with a bit of grief given to our adult leaders who would put us through such a thing but truly with an appreciation of having the opportunity. We gained so much from it. We grew closer as a troop. Understood how to really carry each other’s burdens materially and emotionally, and many Scouting skills along the way. We had an accomplishment few youth ever had. We didn’t get a competition ribbon, school wide recognition, and our peers back at school would just add it to the list of why we were weird. We received so much more beyond a Merit badge. Self pride, skills, knowledge that we could push beyond our perceived limits, and one heck of an adventure to tell others. It was a “war story” shared among comrades.