We recently observed National Boy Scout Day. It’s the day we honor scouts and encourage everyone to withhold the principles that they stand for. These principles that make up the Scout Law include being trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent. One of the most distinguishing characteristics of a scout, however, is preparedness. In fact, the Scout motto is: Be Prepared. This brings us to the many scouting skills that are thought in order to help scouts be prepared and survive any predicament.
Of course, we’re not forgetting about the female counterparts of our boy scouts. Girl scouts also deserve honor and recognition but they have their own special day, which is on March 12. On that day 109 years ago, the 18-strong Girl Scout organization was officially registered through the efforts of Juliette Gordon Low.
All scouts are thought the value of preparedness or the “state of readiness in mind and body to do your duty” as described by Scouting founder Robert Baden-Powell. This was put into good use during the First World War as the young Boy Scouts were tasked with watching the coasts and other duties.
Sadly, more than a hundred years since the motto was coined, not everyone has taken preparedness seriously. Many don’t even know some of the basic scouting skills. Frankly, preparedness is something that every adult should know and practice already. However, for whatever reason we may have, many of us fail to prepare for what life throws at us.
Pitching A Tent
Scouting and camping goes hand in hand. You can’t mention one without the other popping up in your mind. Perhaps many of you had their first experience of camping through scouting.
Among the scouting skills that are thought while camping is tent pitching. This should be a pretty easy skill to learn, especially since tents come with instructions. However, this is just not about getting your tent up. There some other things to learn before you can actually pitch a tent.
First, you need to find the best spot to pitch your tent. It should be flat, level and not under a dead tree or branch. Once you find a spot, clear the ground as best as you can. Get rid of rocks, branches and other large debris.
Lay the ground tarp on your spot then start pitching your tent. Make sure the door of your tent is facing the right direction. Observe the wind direction first. The door should not face the wind to avoid getting it blown away or blowing rain into your tent.
Building An Emergency Shelter
In the absence of a tent, you should know how to find or build shelter. In an emergency situation, a shelter is one of the first things you need to take care of. You can possibly freeze to death if you spend the cold or rainy night outdoors without shelter.
As a scout, you should always be prepared. Even if you forgot or lost your tent, you can still use a tarp to make a shelter. Tarps, emergency blankets, and bivvy bags are pretty compact and light so there shouldn’t really be any reason why you don’t have them in your pack.
In a worst case scenario, you should know how to build different kinds of survival shelters. You have to make use of what’s around you. If you’re surrounded by snow, for example, you can build a quinzhee. A shovel will come in handy in this survival situation.
If you’re in the woods or on an island with trees, collect branches to make walls and dried leaves for the ground. If you have a hatchet or a pocket chainsaw, use it to gather the straightest branches or trunks you can find. Use vines to tie the branches together to make your survival shelter sturdier. If mud is available, you can use it to strengthen and cover holes on your wall.
Starting A Fire
Fire lighting is one of the most important scouting skills you need to learning. When you’re out camping, you’ll need to start a fire to stay warm and light up the campsite at night. Obviously, you need fire to cook food and boil water.
Before heading out for your outdoor adventure, make sure you brought waterproof matches, lighters, and fire starters. Don’t settle for just one. If you only have one lighter and you happen to lose it, you’re done for. It’ll be particularly difficult to survive the cold nights, especially if you don’t have proper shelter.
You also need to learn how to make fire without these tools in case you’re luck runs out and you lose all your fire starters. One method is to use a signal mirror, magnifying glass, or the lens of your eyeglasses. Use the lens to focus the beam of the sun directly at the tinder. Once it starts to smoke, gently blow on it until it turns into flames. Use this to light up other materials.
Art of Manliness talks about the different ways to start fire without matches. The post discusses old school methods like Hand Drill, Fire Plough, and Bow Drill. You’ll also learn survival hacks such as using batteries and steel wool to start a fire.
Cooking Outdoors
If you can start a fire, you’re halfway to cooking outdoors, another important scouting skill. All you need now is to make a campfire (if you’re cooking on open fire), prepare the cookset, and prepare the food.
Invest on a portable camping stove. It’s lighter and does take up too much space. More importantly, it’s pretty easy to use.
You also need a portable cookset. As great a cast iron skillet is in cooking, it’s not ideal to bring one on your camping or backpacking trip. If you’re car camping, that should be okay. But if you will be doing some hiking, the cast iron pan will be too heavy.
Choose a cookset that comes with a small pot for boiling water and cooking soup. You will also need s lightweight pan, portable grate, tongs and a spatula. You’ll want a spoon and fork, too. As for your knife you can use your pocket knife or multi-tool. No need to bring a kitchen knife.
When it comes to food, choose the ones that cook easy. Also, you can prepare them at home so it will be faster to cook or heat them once you’re at the campsite. Soups and stews, for example, can be made ahead of time and then placed in the freezer. You just need to reheat them using your pot.
Meat should also be frozen. You’ll need a cooler to keep your frozen meat and soup until you’re ready to cook them. This is possible if you’re brining an RV or car to the camping grounds. Those hitting the mountains to rough it out more will not want to carry heavy stuff like a cooler.
If there’ll be fishing involved, you should know how to gut and season a fish. The easiest way to cook it is to wrap the fish in aluminum foil then place it over hot coal. So don’t forget to pack some aluminum foil before heading out. Besides, there are plenty of survival uses for aluminum foil.
Signalling for Help
One of the many scouting skills you need to survive is to know how to signal for help. When you get in trouble, your chances of getting rescued is higher of you know how to catch the attention of other people.
Scouting teaches kids abut distress signals. Contrary to popular belief SOS does not stand for Save Our Souls. The universal signal SOS was chosen because the letters are signified by three dots followed by three dashes and then another three dots. This signal is easy to send and recognize thus was used by ships to send for help.
When you’re out camping, you can use your flashlight to send the SOSO signal. Just click it on and off according to the dots and dashes. Just do three quick clicks for the three dots followed by three longer ones signifying the three dashes and then another three quick clicks. Anyone seeing this will know that someone is in trouble.
Other ways to signal for help include building bonfire. The fire is easily seen in the dark while the smoke is visible at day. Use a signal mirror or any reflective surface such as a Mylar blanket or aluminum foil to attract attention using the sun. Always have a whistle with you even if you’re not in the great outdoors. The high piercing sound will help tell rescuers where you are in case you’re lost in the woods, trapped in a fallen building or threatened by an attacker.
Navigating and Reading Maps
These days, it’s hard to get lost. You have your smartphone and GPS tracker to tell you where you are and where you’re going. Still, navigation and map reading are two scouting skills you should learn.
Don’t rely too much on these devices. The problem with them is that battery life is short, especially when it’s cold. Other potential issues are that they’re usually not shockproof and waterproof. Your phone can be damaged and rendered useless if you drop them from a height or drop it in water. When that happens, you can’t track your whereabouts anymore.
That is unless you know how to navigate using maps and compass. Make sure you have them in your pack before heading outdoors. Of course, you should learn and develop such scouting skills so you won’t have any issues when you need to use them.
Carry a pair of binoculars whenever you go out into the wilderness. Aside from using your map and compass, it would be a good idea to see from afar. You can get a better idea of the terrain before going further. This should help avoid accidents. Plus, the lens can be used to signal for help or start a fire.
Tying Knots
Knot-tying is another scouting skill that is pretty useful in normal life and emergency situations. There are particular knots for rescue purposes, first aid, building an emergency shelter, and for secure the rope around a cylindrical post. Some knots are used for joining two ropes together while there are knots for rock climbing and rappelling. Watch the video below for some examples of knots.
Of course, you can’t make these knots if you don’t have some kind of rope to use. You can use vines for tying but it would be far better if you always have a paracord in your pack or emergency kit.
Using An Axe
Scouts are also taught how to use different tools properly including sharp ones like axes, hatchets and knives. One of the main uses of an axe or hatchet is for chopping wood. This is an important scouting skill if you’re camping outdoors and need wood to build fire or make a shelter.
When chopping wood for your campfire, you need to choose the right one first. Look for fallen trees that are not too green or too dry. Green or living wood has too much water in them to burn properly. Dried wood may be too hard and risky to chop.
Once you find the right downed tree, first thing to do is to limb it. That simply means to chop off the branches. Stand on the side of the tree opposite the branch you’re chopping off. The tree trunk will act like a protective barrier.
Stand with your feet shoulder width apart. Grip the axe well and try a practice swing. This should tell you if you might hit something else around you when you do an actual swing. Remove these obstacles. Make sure no one is nearby, too.
Once you’re ready, remove the thickest limbs first. Aim for the underside of the branch where the limb and trunk meets. Raise your axe with one hand gripping the bottom end while the other is near the axe head. Your upper hand should slide down as you swing your axe.
Learning Basic First Aid
Remember the firs aid relay games during scouting? It was fun doing the fireman’s drag relay and two-man carry relay, right? They’re just not activities to keep the scouts from getting bored, though. The camp counselors are actually teaching you one of the vital scouting skills – basic first aid.
These games thought you how to treat different injuries before carrying the injured to safety. Of course, one should know if the person can be moved or not. That is also taught in basic first aid.
Other basic first aid techniques include disinfecting and treating burns and open wounds, treating sprains, stabilizing fractures, and using an EpiPen for allergic reactions. The Heimlich Maneuver and Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) are skills you should also learn.
To apply this basic first aid scouting skill, you need to have a first aid kit with you always. Make sure you have one at home, in your car, at your place of work, in your bug out bag, and in your everyday carry kit. You definitely should bring a first aid kit when you go camping or backpacking.
Scouting skills have been taught to children for more than a hundred years now. The reason why they’re still at it is that these skills are important even to this day. Go to Gentleman Pirate Club for more survival skills and hacks to help you get out of a dangerous situation in one piece.
