As soon as the Scouts are well on the way and off the main highway the specially planned activities can start, depending upon the type of hike decided upon.

As already mentioned, in the early part of a Troop's life—while the Scouts are inexperienced—these activities will be comparatively simple and varied, and the Patrols will stick fairly close together. Later, as the Scouts learn more of hikecraft, you. and the other leaders can develop problems for the Patrols to undertake which will occupy the larger part of the hike, with the Troop assembling late in the day for reports and review of the accomplishments of the Patrols. (This latter type of hikes are discussed on pages 649 to 670.) Here we shall consider the activities which may be incorporated in hikes for relatively inexperienced Scouts.

Preparation In Scoutcraft

Preparation in various Scoutcraft requirements, of course, comes first to mind. The Scouts are out where Scouts belong: in the out-of-doors. Here they have a chance to learn and put into practice the things which they have been told constitute the life of a Scout, a pioneer, a backwoodsman. Make the most of the opportunity!

They have had their appetites whetted in the Troop meeting room at special Scoutcraft periods. Now nature itself provides the setting and the proving ground. Theoretical presentations disappear, while practice and demonstration with the use of actual materials, actually doing things takes its place.

No longer do you talk of the compass points or show them on a black board. Instead the Patrols take turns leading the rest of the Troop cross-country with the help of an honest-to-goodness compass, the hike leader calling out from time to time a change in the course.

Mapping practice is given by having the Patrols in turn ponder over a route drawn on a genuine map and then leading the Troop forward to its destination.

A one-mile course may be marked off in advance on the road and the boys sent off with one minute intervals to attempt to cover it in Scout Pace in the prescribed twelve minutes.

The Troop may stop from time to time while methods of judging widths of rivers, distances to prominent landmarks, heights of trees are explained, demonstrated and imitated by the Patrols.

Similarly, opportunities for the study of trees, flowers, birds, and possibly animals and tracks, are plentiful and easily worked into the program.

A warning may be in place here: Do not attempt too much. Do not mix the subjects too much together. Set out to do a few things thoroughly and leave the others for some other time. As Dillon Wallace says: "If you are after tree knowledge, leave bugs alone except for something quite out of the ordinary that comes in view."

Check your compass variation in your section of the country. Set your course straight. Scouts learn the compass by using it.

In regard to instructors, it would be well if an expert in the specific subject of the hike could accompany each Patrol and be ready with information and demonstrations when occasion arises. As is obvious, it is easier to demonstrate before the small Patrol group rather than the large Troop group. The ideal, naturally, is to have the Patrol Leaders trained in advance on Green Bar Patrol hikes, so that they themselves may be such instructors.

Other Out-Trip Suggestions For Preparation In Scoutcraft

1. Bring rope along and demonstrate knotting as used by woodsmen. Mend that broken fence or gate with a proper lashing; fasten that boat more securely to the dock, tie timber hitches around actual timber, etc.

2. Send a Patrol ahead to stage an "accident." When the rest catch up with it, demonstrate proper ways of holding back imaginary crowd, of treating "wounded." Then send another Patrol forward to establish another "accident."

3. Send an Assistant Scoutmaster ahead to send simple hike directions in a signaling code. First Patrol to decipher will lead the whole Troop, until it is stopped for further signal instructions.

4. Have Patrols look for especially clear animal or bird tracks on the ground. Demonstrate how plaster cast is made, the cast to be picked up on the return journey when it will have thoroughly hardened.

5. Have Patrols make simple map sketches of route traversed, pacing distances, taking bearings, judging distances.

6. Have Patrols be on the look-out for things which impair safety, the Patrol which first makes the observation to demonstrate to the others how the condition should be corrected.

7. Have Patrols take notes of the journey as a train ing toward the report part of the Fourteen Mile First Class Requirement. Complete reports to a turned in at the following Troop meeting.

8. Demonstrate methods of finding compass observations without a compass, such as with a watch and the sun, moss on trees, leaning trees, etc.

With a contour map, a compass, and certain rules to be followed, off goes one of your Patrols under its own leadership.

Games And Contests On The Out-Trip

Numerous games and contests lend themselves for use on a hike, although only those that aid the Troop in its progress toward the destination should be employed. Also, games and contests should be of such a nature that Patrols will form the teams as often as possible. The games should fit into the general objective of the hike, and may in many instances be directly tied in with the Scoutcraft preparation suggestions given in preceding paragraphs.

If, for example, signaling is the theme, a game of Signaling Touch may send the Patrols scampering in the general direction of the hike destination. First Aid races may readily be incorporated, and much nature instruction may be presented as games and contests. Tracking is particularly adapted for Patrol contests on the out-trip, and any number of contests may be based upon the Scouts' power of observation.

It is important that the rules be simple—simpler than those used for games in a meeting room since it is harder to call the boys back to explain rules after they have gone out into the distance on their quests. Be sure that the rules are (1) easy to understand and (2) actually understood before the game is started. If the game involves the scattering of the Patrols a definite time should be announced at which the Troop will reconvene for further activities.