Your Favorite Campout

[cdwscout]

What was y'all's favorite campout (from your youth or adult life)?

For me, it would have to be one on the beach where, after a long day of boogie-boarding, sand-castling building, and swimming, all my best friends and I just got around the campfire and talked for hours on end. That was scouting at its best.

[RWSmith]

This board has been online for over seven years (44k+ posts), and I just have to say...

Wow! What a great topic! Kudos to you, cdwscout.

I'll post my favorites, later. I just wanted to say kudos, for now.

[cdwscout]

I thought I'd tack on two many great campouts:

On a backpacking trip, we hiked down to a river for lunch, and played tackle football (question: is that against G2SS?) on a sand bar in the river. It soon started pouring, and for safety reasons, we had to get out fast. When we got back to camp, it started hailing. I was testing out a new sleeping bag liner and, of course, had decided not to bring my actual sleeping bag. Even though I was as miserable as I had every been, the bonding that it brought was awesome.

At camp this year, I was the ASPL for our troop, and, after one camp-wide campfire, a few of the staff members had a guitar and started singing on the pavilion by the trading post. The SPL and I stayed there, singing, long into the night, just having fun.

[FrankJ]

Camping on Cumberland Island. We did a service project for the park service. Camp at the camp ground normally reserved for pig hunter. It had hot showers & a commercial ice maker.

Several nights at Northern Tier.

LNT camping on just about any wilderness trail.

[Quailman]

I've done quite a few loops in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado & Wyoming. By far my favorite started at Boulder Campground, near Boulder, Wyoming. We crossed the Continental Divide at (IIRC) Hay Pass near Dennis Lake. We left the trail to hike over mostly sheer granite past Alpine Lakes, traversed a glacier, and returned to the west side of the divide at Indian Pass. Great scenery, virtually no other people (none for four days in the middle of the trip) and great fishing all served to offset the fact that it rained pretty heavily the second to last day and my hiking boots froze solid overnight.

[T162Scoutmaster]

My favorite scout outing was when I was a youth, back in the mid '70's.
The guys in the Troop got together and planned a float trip down the Youghiogheny River from Connellsville to Layton. We were going to camp overnight on one of the islands in the river. I remember having two canoes, a small raft and a few inner tubes. We packed all of our gear in the canoes. The river was not flowing very fast, and while there were some spots to stop and swim, there were other spots where we had to drag our canoes and tubes, because there was only inches of water.
Anyway, I remember getting to the island, and making camp. We built a fire, and I will never forget the wonderful feeling of changing into dry clothes
The night sky was as clear as can be. I remember looking up and there was an opening in the canopy of trees that just framed the night sky. One of the most magnificent sights I've ever seen. We all sat around the campfire, cooked, joked around, and just talked and laughed. It was so laid back.
We packed up in the morning, and it was just a short jaunt to our take out point. our parents were there to meet us, and we loaded the canoes and the tubes on the trucks. And just like that, it was over.

P.S. Before anyone thinks that we weren't safe, we all had life presevers, and our SM and ASM were with us.

[wagionvigil]

My favorite scout outing was when I was a youth, back in the mid '70's.
The guys in the Troop got together and planned a float trip down the Youghiogheny River from Connellsville to Layton. We were going to camp overnight on one of the islands in the river. I remember having two canoes, a small raft and a few inner tubes. We packed all of our gear in the canoes. The river was not flowing very fast, and while there were some spots to stop and swim, there were other spots where we had to drag our canoes and tubes, because there was only inches of water.
Anyway, I remember getting to the island, and making camp. We built a fire, and I will never forget the wonderful feeling of changing into dry clothes
The night sky was as clear as can be. I remember looking up and there was an opening in the canopy of trees that just framed the night sky. One of the most magnificent sights I've ever seen. We all sat around the campfire, cooked, joked around, and just talked and laughed. It was so laid back.
We packed up in the morning, and it was just a short jaunt to our take out point. our parents were there to meet us, and we loaded the canoes and the tubes on the trucks. And just like that, it was over.

P.S. Before anyone thinks that we weren't safe, we all had life presevers, and our SM and ASM were with us.

My Backyard On the Yough many times this summer.

[lifescoutforlife]

Only 1 word comes to my mind "PHILMONT"

[jr56]

Philmont

[kc9901mom]

Most of my favorite camping trips have been non-scout trips from my young adult days and mid-adult days. It is very hard to choose just one so here are three.

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park - Back country trek. My husband and I did this trip in Sept. of 2011. We did a 3-day/2 night trek. I hope to be able to take our boys some time in the near future. The most expensive part of this trip for a scout or troop will be the airfare. I would recommend this trip for a troop or crew because one does not have to be concerned with snakes or mosquitos or scorpions. There are ants but they don't bite. The main concerns are fresh water, high humidity/heat, tsunamis, and then there is the continuously erupting volcano. However, did I mention that there are no snakes? Although, you can't have ground fires because of the endangered sea turtles, you do get a semi-private beach experience and you might just catch a glimpse of a sea turtle (although we did not - we did see evidence of nests that we stayed away far away from). A troop could easily earn Back-packing, Camping (except the 20 nights but can back pack 4 miles and gain 1,000 foot elevation - we did over 3,000 feet on our way out/up), Hiking, Wilderness Survival, 50-miler, and Historic Trails. There is also Mauna Kea so you might be able to do snow sports with a snow board if you go at the right time of the year and there are also 3 other National Parks that could be visited on the Big Island.

Big Bend National Park - took this trip in College, mid-20s. We camped at Terlingua, visited the abandoned Mercury mine and cemetary, McDonald Observatory, and Burro Mesa Pour-Off. I remember that we had to pay for water for the shower. It is amazing how fast you can wash yourself when paying for water at $1.XX per minute or 3 minutes. I didn't see (or hear) any snakes, mountain lions, or bears. I remember that the stars were absolutely gorgeous at night.

Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky - My family visited in July. We camped for 2 nights I think. We did 2 cave tours. I will never forget this trip because the first day was so miserably humid and hot. It was 99F but heat index of 105F. We arrived after a heavy rain in a heavily forested area. I am a native Texan and I am conditioned for heat over 100F but we have low humidity (less than 40% on most days) in the summer except on the off-chance we have a thunderstorm or a rainy summer. The best part was that the bathroom had an air conditioner.

[fritz1255]

Our Troop does an annual September campout at a nearby nature center in a beautiful setting where we empasize gourmet cooking, and the dads sit around the campfire after the boys have gone to bed and talk, sometimes four hours. Oh, and we do not discuss the fine points of G2SS......