Where are you going?

Most of the time, the location will be decided at the annual Committee Calendar Planning meeting. If this is the case, you’ll need to understand some things about the trip chosen.

 

If it’s a camping trip, you’ll need to know (or decide) if it’s for Scouts and Adult Leaders only, or if it’s a family trip. This is important later when organizing patrols, menu planning and arranging drivers. For a backpack trip, you’ll need to understand the level of difficulty. Things to understand are total distance and total elevation gain. This is important so that you can determine if any skill or physical ability limitations should apply to the trip. You don’t want first year Scouts climbing Mt. Whitney!

 

If the trip hasn’t been decided, then it’s up to the Troop or PLC. The first thing to decide is whether to do a camping or backpack trip. Generally, we try to balance between the two (i.e. 6 of each per year). Once you’ve decided he trip type, then you have to decide where. There are a lot of factors here. For camping trips, many times reservations are required and depending on where you want to go, it may be impossible to get them on short notice. You might therefore consider a campsite that is on a first-come, first served basis. For backpacking trips, where you go mostly depends on the level of difficulty factors discussed above.

 

Some favorite camping spots:

 

Desert

• Joshua Tree National Park – Sheep Pass Group #6

• Anza Borrego State Park, Palm Canyon

• Death Valley, Furnace Creek camp and pool

 

Sierras

• Yosemite

• Mt. Langley

• John Muir Trail

• Sequoias

• Rae Lakes Loop

• Rancheria Falls at Hetchhetchy

 

Local

• Mt. Pinos/Sheep Camp

• Fish Bowls

• Piedra Blanca

• Sespe River

• Santa Cruz Island