Miscellaneous Information

James E. West Program Suggestions


Prepared by William Donald


H1 - Hiking Methods (includes care of feet, proper hiking methods, trail route descriptions; 45 min; entire troop)
H2 - "Hike-along" (staff man hikes with troop on trail giving suggestions and help on proper hiking methods and packing.)
H3 - Trail briefing (descriptions of trail; mandatory for junior leaders prior to hike if H1 was not taken by troop; 1/2 hour)
H4 - Packing Methods (proper methods of backpacking, types of packs including demonstration of 2 types of emergency packs, hiking with a pack; 1 hour)
H5 - Morning packing help (for inexperienced patrols/troops; a staff man comes into the site and gives the boys suggestions on how to pack and what to bring on the hike; for as long as you want)


S1 - Knife, ax and saws (safe care, use and storage of each; 1 1/2 hours; for tenderfeet)
S2 - 2nd Class Map and Compass (one hour; at shelter)
S3 - 1st Class Mapping (1 1/2 hour; at shelter)
S4 - Lashings and troop pioneering projects (square, diagonal,, sheer, and tripod lashings are shown, applications in projects demonstrated; dovetail notch; 1 1/2 hr.)
S5 - Cooking demo on dutch oven cooking (1-10 hours; includes fire building)
S6 - Cooking demo on utensil-less cooking (2 hours; includes fire building)
S7 - Cooking demo on breakfast meals (1 1/2 hours; includes fire building)
S8 - Breakfast Preparation Help (one staff man discusses ways of preparing various breakfast foods the night before the rneal; staff man comes at 7:00 AM to give helpful suggestions to patrol leader/cook on getting breakfast prepared)


Junior Leadership Training Help (Rather than teaching the troop members directly, we can train the junior leaders who can themselves instruct the troop. We can also go into greater detail on the following topics:)
JL1 Hiking
JL2 Packing
JL3 Trees and Shrubs
JL4 Edible Plants - Nature MB
JL5 Stars - Astronomy MB
JL6 Knife and Axe
JL7 Pathfinding and Mapping
JL8 Council Fire planning
JL9 Cooking and the patrol method


Suggested Other Activities Beeline Hikes (for older boys/patrols)
(1) From Frick Pond (for advanced map & compass)
(2) Within camp to "mysterious area" (Scouts are brought to a view area where they site on smoke on another mountain and beeline as patrols)
Rope Hike (troop evening activity for fun)
Lost person search


N1 - Trees and Shrubs (10 trees/shrubs identified and described for 2nd class and tenderfeet; 45 min.)
N2 - Edible Wild Plants and Poisonous Plants (After describing these plants; 2 plants will be selected and cooked in the water; have boiling water and a fire; 1 hour)
N3 - Tracking, stalking and animal signs (includes games on tracking and stalking as well as identification of animal tracks and plaster casts of tracks made; for tenderfoot scouts only; 2 hours)
N4 - Cave Hike (for fun; may be combined with N1, N2 or N3; 3 hours)
N5 - Stars (8 constellations identified, for second class scouts only; 1/2 hour; help offered afterward to individuals)
N6 - Survival (lost shelters, snares and traps, wilderness lore, dovetail notch; 45 minutes.)
8/13/71