Your Most Important or Favorite Wilderness Skill

John Goering said:
Then there is that poop disposal thread. Can't think of too many things more gross than T paper festooned excrement piles and used tampons behind every tree and shrub at some trail heads.
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YES!! Pooping in a bag/how to dig a hole!! Definitely a top skill to instill in youth. Adults too but they are often to set in their ways. Hard to believe it is hard to teach an adult to dig a hole to poop in but I've heard it so much that it no longer amazes me. Poop on a rock covered by another rock=one of the biggest "come on"s I've ever exclaimed at someone.
 
Knots. As a young boy my Dad patiently taught me how to tie 6 - 8 knots and I would practice over and over then proudly show him once I had it mastered. Since then I have learnt a few more and I find myself using them more and more often.

My suggestion, give each scout a 2' piece of cheap cloth rope and teach them 6 - 8 knots.

I hope this helps.

Rob
 
"Leave things better than how you found them."
Applied to life and scouting.
 
Caltopo is definitely fun. I've had DeLorme's USGS raster based mapping for MT for better than a decade, but that coverage stops at the state line and you have to spend another $100 to continue. Not to mention it is a big stack of CD's. Caltopo is much more usable in every respect and the layering of contours/trails on the Google base is just hard to beat for a field map. Amazing free resource!
 
DrNed said:
As a leader of Boy Scouts I'm going to doing something different this year. On each of our trips we're going to devote some campfire time to learning an important outdoor skill.

So I'm curious, what is the skill you possess that you feel is most important to your backcountry experience?

Explain what it is and how you would teach it to others. Do you have a link where it is explained or demonstrated? Share that too.

Thanks
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Another vote for LNT from me. Nothing I can think of that hasn't already been said. Importance of and how to keep a clean camp and keep your food safe and away from bears is a big one in addition to yourself.

Scott Chandler said:
...Another skill I discourage... cairn building. No. Just no.
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Looks like @Nick is going to need a redesign for the BCP logo. ;) Seriously...I can't recall every building one myself, but there has been a time or two where there have been some already set up that were useful in helping to save time from having to pull out the map and orient myself. On the other hand, there have been other areas where I didn't see the need for any and found there to be an over abundance of them at which point they become an eye sore. I can also understand any dislike for them due to them taking away from the wild and remote feel by making it obvious someone has already been there.

John Goering said:
...Then there is that poop disposal thread. Can't think of too many things more gross than T paper festooned excrement piles and used tampons behind every tree and shrub at some trail heads.
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It's even worse when you find it all over areas that are far away from a TH. There is tons of all of the above under a stand of trees at the edge of Timpanogos Basin where an old toilet used to exist. I have also seen used tampons and TP scattered underneath all the brush at the toe of Jacob Hamblin Arch down in Coyote Gulch. Shouldn't take much to take a heavy duty ziploc doubled over with a small OPsak to pack it out. Easy to empty out at home and the OPsak is quite durable and can be easily cleansed and sanitized for reuse later on.

LarryBoy said:
Ever given Caltopo a whirl? I absolutely love it and will rarely if ever buy commercially made maps again. There's just so customization possible with these maps. My favorite trick is to set a slope gradient layer to about 40% opacity and overlay it on a USGS quad layer. Makes it much easier to read at first glance. Grab somebody's gpx track online and add that to the topo, and you have a perfectly scaled topo with a trail marked, printable in whatever size you prefer. Technology's great, huh?
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Caltopo is awesome! I need to start donating a few bucks every time I use it to setup a trip. The fact that it's free, allows you to set up routes, points, etc. with a good selection of customization options and icons and save them on different maps to a google or yahoo account, in addition to allowing import and export or all relevant formats is awesome. I compared it with that of AllTrails and AllTrails doesn't even allow you to backtrack a point as you're drawing a route if you mistakenly click the wrong spot. CalTopo PDF printouts on even regular office paper seemed to come out a bit more clear than Alltrails did too. Gotta love the different scales and printing options offered too. Can't say enough about CalTopo.
 
It wouldn't be so bad if people at least used septic TP so it breaks down faster, as much as it rains it would help. Its not hard to find a big rock away from the campsites, upturn it and then do you business inside, then put it back. I know the forest service isn't rolling in dough, but some of the busier lakes need some kind of a composting toilet. With as many people going up there, you need to either issue permits and have them go thru a quick pamphlet on wilderness etiquette or just find practical solutions to the problems. Personally, I hate it more when cows crap everywhere and by the water. I'm always hoping the wolves and bears will be enough of an issue they go graze elsewhere.

Cairns, if done right is a good thing, as most people are just there to hike for the day. Beats having the SAR people constantly up there. Just a matter of fact that most people have no clue. I constantly see people under dressed, or totally clueless about. if you want a wilderness experience you just have to get away from the more popular paths.

If anything, I think it would be fun to pick some off the wall lakes that have very little info on them and scout them out. Lots of area up there off the beaten track. I would love to find some nice lakes full of big, tasty trout that gets little pressure. I seriously need to make friends with the rangers and get some good tips.
 
WasatchWill said:
It's even worse when you find it all over areas that are far away from a TH.
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And it's even more gross yet when you find a still steaming pile on your own place--------------------------







right after the canines found their Chanel de crap ------------------

Used toilet paper bows for their collars. Just so cute
 
Thanks everyone for your replies!

If I understand the sentiment of the group well enough, it would be more mindset than an actual skill.
Respect for the wilderness and a commitment to leave wilderness better than it was found is job one.

We're doing Little Wild Horse Feb 6-7. I'll let you know how it goes.
 
I think the Leave No Trace principles are the top of the list for me.
 
I'm an assistant scout master. IMO learning what to bring for a specific trip and how to use it is key. This especially applies to backpacking trips and winter camping. I always laugh as scout troops are hiking past on the trail because of their over sized foam pads and monster wal-mart deli sandwiches push me into the bushes. I've actually had a leader talk about how they hauled a dutch oven on a backpacking trip. The second thing is the leave no trace. Some scout troops act as if they are German soldiers in WWII fighting the Russians and practicing the scorched earth policy. The classic example is the scout troop in Utah that cut down a tree for firewood or something and killed a guy driving his motorcycle on the road.
 
I totally agree, it's hilarious to pass scout troops and see the ridiculous stuff they have tied on to their packs. My favorite was the 7-gallon blue water jug I saw someone lugging once. But I still think LNT/Wilderness Ethics is more important. A heavy pack sucks, but ultimately it just sucks for the person carrying it. There's way too much disrespect to the land and other users of it going on out there which could easily be avoided if there was more emphasis on that from the very start.
 
LarryBoy said:
Ever given Caltopo a whirl? I absolutely love it and will rarely if ever buy commercially made maps again. There's just so customization possible with these maps. My favorite trick is to set a slope gradient layer to about 40% opacity and overlay it on a USGS quad layer. Makes it much easier to read at first glance. Grab somebody's gpx track online and add that to the topo, and you have a perfectly scaled topo with a trail marked, printable in whatever size you prefer. Technology's great, huh?
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I LOVE CALTopo!
 
To each their own. My brother in law went backpacking with an ex-marine, who carried a 10 pound sack of potatoes and pans up the trail, I think his pack was ~80 pounds, and he still out hiked everyone else. I am sure everyone else enjoyed the potatoes.
 
andyjaggy said:
To each their own. My brother in law went backpacking with an ex-marine, who carried a 10 pound sack of potatoes and pans up the trail, I think his pack was ~80 pounds, and he still out hiked everyone else. I am sure everyone else enjoyed the potatoes.
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Haha. Reminds me... it's become a tradition on one of our yearly canyoneering trips to try and bring the best "luxury" food item. Things worked up to things like 2-liter bottles of soda. Then one year my brother trumped everyone else... after setting up camp following the last rappel he surprised everyone by pulling a full-size watermelon out of his pack. Everyone had a good laugh... and some watermelon.

Zep
 
Zep said:
after setting up camp following the last rappel he surprised everyone by pulling a full-size watermelon out of his pack. Everyone had a good laugh... and some watermelon.
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:lol: that story is AWESOME.
 
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