Into the Woods

If June and August were for the beach, July was for camping. I joined the Boy Scouts almost as an afterthought; all the either guys in the neighborhood had joined up a year or two before me and it just seemed like a good way to tag along. We would do all sorts of community service activities around the neighborhood fixing up parks and schoolyards and all that but the real highlight, of course, was the camping.

One of the big benefits of living in Northern Virginia is that a little over an hour west and you were deep in the Appalachians. In my five years as a scout of various rank, I laid down canvas in Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina. Sometimes there wasn't canvas at all and it was just me in a light sleeping bag under that clear summer sky. Sometimes it was in the dead of winter and you'd have to make sure you had a decent bedroll otherwise the cold earth would drain all the heat right out of your body overnight. I remember once accidentally spilling some water in a tent and waking up to find it had all frozen solid overnight.

The Boy Scouts justifiably get some slack for being slow to adopt more progressive policy especially in regards to the LGBTQ community. I've had friends rescind their Eagle Scout inductions because of this and I respect the hell out of that and definitely agree with it. I can really only speak to my own childhood experiences with the organization which taught me a lot about surviving out in the wilderness.

That included learning how to build a fire, refining my cooking techniques, how to shoot and track, etc. It also taught me how to cuss! Remember, I was in the middle of elementary school when I started so I took to talking like a little sailor really fucking fast! That was maybe the only lesson that I took back to the suburbs and city living.

Did I get a bunch of merit badges? Shit yeah, I did. They were a mix of the typical outdoors badges (Camping, swimming, orienteering) with the more fun ones (Rifle shooting, cooking,...basket weaving?). During my time there, I developed a reputation for being a decent cook and card player (you guys think I can only play solitaire or something?), a surprisingly good shot, and completely fucking hopeless at canoeing and tying knots.

What the hell is even going on here?

I remember one canoeing trip just basically zig-zagging down the Rappahannock, effectively doubling the work and distance, my lone canoe trailing behind the rest of the group by dozens of yards. Slept like a damn champion that night though.

Honestly, I think my favorite thing about it all was the camaraderie out their in the woods. It was not uncommon to set up under a tarp after dinner with only the light of some propane lanterns and play cards while listening to music playing softly from cheap battery-powered speakers into the odd hours of the night. Whenever I think about camping as a kid, that's definitely what comes to mind first.

I quit scouting halfway through high school. I had started working, was really coming out of my shell socially, and priorities had definitely shifted at home. With that, I haven't really gone camping regularly since but every now and again I'll venture back out into the great outdoors and get in touch with all that again. Nature has always never been something for me to enjoy passively; be it at the beach or in mountains, I want to get in it and get my hands dirty.