This February, Troop 581 headed to Camp Rock Enon in Gore, VA for a weekend of wilderness survival skills. Camp Rock Enon is located within the BSA’s Shenandoah Council about an hour and a half drive from Gainesville. It’s a favorite of the troop and provides ample opportunity for Scouts to practice their survival skills.
The focus of this camping trip was the Wilderness Survival Merit Badge taught by counselor Mr. Weaver with the assistance of Scouts that had already mastered these skills. This merit badge teaches Scouts the skills they need to survive and to be located should they find themselves in an outdoors survival situation. After setting up camp Friday night and getting a good rest, the Scouts were up early to have breakfast and get started. First up was building shelters. Scouts spent the morning building debris shelters out of materials found in the woods.
After a quick lunch, Mr. Weaver provided instruction on other survival skills to include fire starting, water purification and signaling. All these skills are critical to being able to survive in the wilderness and everyone nailed it. After dinner, the Scouts had one final requirement to complete – to spend the night in the shelters they built. An important part of wilderness survival is being mentally prepared for the unexpected and by spending the night in these shelters, they learned that they now can find shelter in the worst of situations.
The next morning, breakfast was provided by the adults for a job well done. Hopefully, none of our Scouts will ever find themselves in a real survival situation but if they ever do, they will have the basic skills necessary to come out of it ok. It’s a direct call to the Boy Scout Motto – Be Prepared.