Scouting Hints and Tips

Scouting Hints & Tips

Nobody knows everything, but everyone knows something. This page is dedicated to giving hints and tips to everyone about aspects of Scouting, that will hopefully make the Scouting experience much better. At the moment we offer tips on Camping, Hiking and Pioneering. Soon we will be offering tips on Troop nights and other acivities, so pop back soon. You can email us any of your tips that would help your fellow Scouters.

Camping Hints and Tips

When sleeping in blankets, or using a blanket for additional warmth, have more layers below you than on top of you. This is because the ground produces more cold than the air.

If your tent does not have a sewn in groundsheet, instead of digging a drainage trench around your tent in bad weather, raise the edges of the groundsheet with wood. This forces the rainwater underneath the groundsheet.

Dont take valuables or sentimental items to camp, in case they get lost, broken or stolen.

Air sleeping bags once a day. Even the best sleeping bags trap your sweat at night and after a few days they start to stink and go mouldy

Unless its raining open up your tent every day. If its dry roll up the sides but if wet hang them up to dry/air. During the night you will breath out carbon dioxide and water vapour and air borne germs. Opening up the tent makes sure that this is blown out and will make you tent a far more pleasant place to be.

Check that you have all the poles, pegs and fittings BEFORE you take a tent out. There may be some missing and you could be miles from home and no way of holding your tent up.

Don't camp under trees. Water carries on dripping of trees hours after the rain has stopped and the roots will make it difficult to bang in pegs.

Don't camp near mossy grass. This indicates damp ground and there will be thousands of flying insects.

Don't touch the side of your tent. This will allow water to pass through and it will drip on you. If someone does touch the side and it drips then run your finger down the tent from the drip to the edge and the water will flow away.

Wear shoes at all times. Camp sites are not carpeted and have broken tent pegs, bits of glass, snakes, old bits of barbed wire, and sharp stones on them. If you injure your feet you may have to go home.

Loosen your guy ropes at night. On tents made from natural fibre loosen the guys a fraction each night as the damp night air can cause the fabric to shrink. If the guys are too tight then as the tent stretches the pegs will come out. Man made fibres shouldn't need this.

Make sure your ground sheet is inside the tent. Ground sheets out side the tent will catch rain and funnel it onto your sleeping bag

Don't take your ground sheet right up to the door. Leave a gap to store your muddy boots by the door so your sleeping bag wont get dirty and you will be able to find them easily.

Respect other people's camp area. While you are at camp your tent is your home and the area around it should be treated the same so don't go in unless invited. If you do someone will think that you are stealing.

Don't run around tents. You will trip over a guy road and crack your head open on a tent peg, not to mention damage the tent.

Make sure your gas bottles are full before taking them to camp. Gas bottles tell you how much gas is inside but don't normally tell you how much the bottle itslef weighs. When you get a new one weigh it on the bathroom scales and write the weight on a sticker or label around the neck. Check this occasionally and when the new weight is almost the same as the original minus the weight of the gas you know the bottle is empty.

Don't store fuel in a tent, EVER. Scouts have died from fuel leaking, both gas and meths by being choked by fumes or burnt alive.

Learn to cook at home before you go to camp. Also understand a little bit about nutrition, that way you won't go hungry at camp and on activities

Keep food cold in a cool box full of water. One way of keeping food or milk cold is to keep it in a bucket or box of water.

Cylindrical airtight container for loo roll. Wet toilet paper is useless. Plastic bags collect water and get lost, hanging from the tent they get damp and left on the ground they get muddy and damp.

Use dead wood from a tree when lighting a fire - it will be drier than wood found lying on the ground.

Keep your knives and axes sharp - there will be less chance of slipping and accidental cuts.

Always use a figure of eight motion when sharpening on an oilstone - this will even the wear on the stone and make it last much longer.

Keep all food and drinks away from your sleeping tents and this will reduce the risk of invading ants and insects.

When packing your own kit for camp, put a bin liner in your rucsac first and then pack the clothes in the bin liner. Therefore keeping your kit dry should your rucsac get wet.

Always remove all grass / leaves and debris from a tent as you fold it up - they will rot during storage and ruin your material - especially canvas.

Always hank your guy ropes when striking a tent - they will not be tangled when you next pitch it.

If your tent is wet, or even just damp, when striking it, dry it out before storing it, especially if it is canvas.

Put a plastic groundsheet under your tent when pitching it, this reduces the dampness to the bottom of your tent, and is then quicker to pack away.

Rub the outside of billies and dixies with soap or washing up liquid before cooking. It makes the removal of the soot much easier.

Bake eggs in the campfire embers. Just a pin prick hole in one end is all that is required for a perfect hot snack.

Hooks are made out of forked branches that are cut to useful lengths so that when lashed to a tree, you have hooks to hang your pots and towels.

Orange peels are great for making eggs and muffins -- just cut open near the top, scoop out the fruit (but not damaging the peel,) pour in the egg or muffin mix, and cook over the fire.

When camping, a piece of white paper seems to attract ants to it rather than to food, or your tent.

Building a campfire from scratch first thing in the morning can delay breakfast. Instead, "bank" the fire by burying some embers in a few inches of ashes. Without much oxygen, they'll smolder slowly all night. This little trick also shows the importance of scattering a fire (and dousing it with water) when you want to make sure it's out!

Especially in the winter, gather up a thick layer of leaves or pine needles before you put down your tarp or tent bottom. They insulate you from that block of ice called the ground and feel like a dream.

Wearing two pairs of socks will help prevent blisters. As soon as you get a foot blister, sterilize a needle or knife blade and poke a tiny hole in the side of the blister to drain the fluid. If you don't, the blister will rub open on its own and hurt.

 

Hiking Hints and Tips

Allow a general speed of four kilometers per hour when hiking with a day sack or light rucksack.

When hiking, wear two pairs of socks. Not only does this cushion you feet and reduce friction to the foot, but the outer pair can be turned down over the knot in your shoe laces to stop them getting caught on tree roots, etc.

Always carry a bivvi bag for emergency use.

Be careful of metal objects affecting your compass when using it - belt buckles and metal gates can cause havoc!

Powder your feet and socks before starting a long trek.

Look after your boots and they will give you many years of service. Always clean them after use, and never allow the leather to dry out during storage.

Keep your emergency matches in a waterproof container such as a film canister. Tear off the side of the matchbox and put it in the container if the box will not fit.

Never forget matches. You can never have enough matches because you'll find that the wind and wet wood will always be working against you.

An easy alternative to matches is a Zippo cigarette lighter: It won't get wet, lasts a while, and is always handy.

Dip the heads of your emergency matches in candle wax to make sure they are dry.

Wrap your spare torch batteries in food film - it keeps them dry, together and stops them shorting out.

Place all your spare clothes inside strong plastic bags inside your rucksack / daysack. In fact, everything that must not get wet should be protected in plastic bags inside your 'sack.

Wear many thin layers of clothing to keep warm, rather than one thick garment.

Always have a hat with you as most of the heat lost by the body is through the head.

Make sure your gloves have long thick wrists. A second major source of heat loss is the wrists where the blood vessels come close to the surface.

When walking in groups, choose and walk with a 'buddy'. That way should you or he/she become separated from the group, the alarm can quickly be raised.

At night, avoid switching on your torch once your eyes are used to the light, so you do not lose your 'night vision'. When the moon is full, and the sky is clear, there is enough light to read by!

When map reading at night, close one eye before switching on the torch, and keep it closed. That way you will only lose your night vision in one eye.

When hiking in wet ground, put your first pair of socks on, then a plastic bag, then the second pair of socks. This way your feet stay warm and dryish even when your boots are soaked.

Knotting and Pioneering Hints and Tips

Use a Sheet Bend instead of a Reef knot when joining ropes of the same thickness that MUST NOT come accidentally undone.

Use a Double Sheetbend when joining ropes of very unequal thickness, or when the rope is slippery.

Always use a Sailmakers whipping when whipping ropes - it lasts much longer than a standard whipping, and looks better too!

The length of a whipping should be approximately the same as the diameter of the rope.

Burn the ends of synthetic ropes instead of whipping them.

Used waxed cotton to whip natural material ropes, and nylon whipping twine when you whip a synthetic rope - but see above!

Use a Japanese lashing to form a tripod, the lashing is self tightening when the legs spread.

Always bind whippings with the lay of the rope (usually anticlockwise). It tightens the rope fibres, and when the rope relaxes, it tightens the whipping further. If you whip in the opposite direction - against the lay of the rope - when the rope relaxes the whipping will loosen.

Use man made fibre ropes for water based activities such as raft building - the ropes will not jam so easily. Some man made ropes will float - a boon when a raft comes apart!

Use a Figure of Eight knot instead of a Thumb or Overhand know when tying stop knots - it does not jam so readily.

Undo a Reef knot by pulling one end sharply back over the knot - the other end will (should?) form a Larks Head around the first end, and slip off.

Be wary of using a Clove Hitch when starting or ending lashings. The poles can turn and allow the Clove Hitch to unroll. Use a Round Turn and two Half Hitches instead.

Always lock a Clove Hitch with a Half Hitch or two to stop it unrolling.

Be wary of lashings made with wet or damp sisal ropes - they loosen when the rope dries out!

Always coil your ropes after use, to keep them in good condition.

Keep ropes in metal boxes, so they dont get wet or affected by damp.