re: Sitting in a tent in the crater of an extinct volcano in the Utah desert

quote:

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When I was young, we had a Scoutmaster that would take us to do some sort of camping one weekend a month. As I got older, I realized just how much time that man invested into taking us out and teaching us. He was a good man and passed away a few years ago.

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It does take a lot of time. Our former head scoutmaster handed me the reigns at Christmas. The scoutmaster previous to him said to me at the Court of Honor that night, "There comes a point when you just can't give he kids all that they fully deserve." I'm not there, but there a big jump in responsibility from Asst Scoutmaster to Scoutmaster.

Last week before we left I spent close to an hour putting together a 1 mile orienteering course near our campsite. And I did all that just so 3 or 4 of our younger scouts could pass off 1 requirement for first class (it's a very hard requirement to pass off because there aren't many courses out there). But, it was a great adventure. We paired our younger scouts up with our more experienced ones and turned them loose in the desert. Even our other scoutmasters had a good time trying to figure out the course. (On the downside, Dumbo here lost the map (cheat sheet) with all the waypoints listed on it. Fortunately, I knew where the final point was.

I order a couple of really nice compasses for the pair that "won" and a couple of other goodies (paracord bracelets, really good fero rods (we don't allow the scouts to have matches or lighters in our troop)) for all the ones that finished.

RIP to your friend. He shound like a really good fellow.