PowderHorn Weekend #2

PowderHorn Weekend #2 - June 12-14, 2009
Camp Resolute
Bolton, MA

Friday, June 12th:
Due to some family coordination problems I had to arrive late to this weekends events. I told the staff ahead of time so they knew and said it was ok. I drove up through some wet weather (and humid) but the ride wasn't too bad. I knew the general location of the camp but followed my GPS instead. Which took me around the world to get there, but hey it did get me there. :)

I arrived just after lunch and missed some of the sailing program which I heard was excellent. I did make it for the GPS and land navigation program which was very interesting and included a lot of information. To me personally Land Navigation is the most important skill second only to First Aid, but then again that's me. We had discussions on GPS and map reading as well as orienteering.

The afternoon brought some free time though participants could go out on the water if they chose. I took the time to setup my tent before the rain really started to come down and got back into sync with my crew. The tenting area was heavily wooded and the bugs were coming out. Fortunately I found a decent spot and was able to put down at least one coat of seam sealer on my 4-man Eureka 2-door tent where it leaked a few trips ago. This time around no additional leaks but will put at least another coat on when I get a chance.

Later we had more discussions on Venturing topics which I believe included talks about how to improve relations between crew's and troop's. This has been a reoccurring topic as a lot of troop's feel threatened by the crew's in taking older scouts away. It's a hard balance since troop's will want the boys to continue with the troop yet gain the benefits of a crew. As most of us already know keeping the older scouts attending one troop meeting a week is difficult, making them choose between the two groups may prove near impossible. It's a tough situation that the troop and crew must deal with openly and frankly which isn't always the atmosphere of adults in scouts when it comes to recruiting and attendance. Yes adults do tend to get in the way and create unnecessary road blocks due to arrogance and ego. Enough of that for now.

We also discussed Celestial navigation which to me really didn't offer much more than where the north star was and how to get sky charts (which I already knew). It was a nice refresher but offered nothing really helpful for scouting. I don't plan on using the stars to navigate out of the woods. Make a shelter and sleep is a better option in my opinion.

We ended the day with a cracker barrel and fire along with some great jokes. Overall the day was interesting but contained little in the way of revelation.

Saturday, June 13th:
I don't know if it rained over night, I believe it held off or at least wasn't a lot of rain to notice. The morning did start off nice and bright with a great breeze. We did note that the "little blue people" (cubs) showed up last night and during the day so we had to move our venue again to accommodate their events. I didn't mind it so much but there were some people that were annoyed that our training had to adjust for other groups. I say deal with it! :)

So the morning's topics were Emergency Prep, Expedition Planning and Physical Fitness all of which were well done by their presenters. The one that made the most of an impression was the Expedition Planning. The gentleman that provided the materials and discussion was well experienced in this area. Putting together plenty of different treks both to Philmont and other scouting locations over the years. His experience, ideas and finally his check list was born from years of planning and I hope many people will use it. The other two classes were great and the gentleman who ran Physical Fitness really got us thinking and talking. He explained BMI (Body Mass Index) which is a hot topic right now especially with the new scout medical forms and talked about difference with scouts and adults. Overall I wish he had even more time as he ran short. All three presenters had a passion which was well evident.

After lunch we were able to spend time on the climbing course and also get our "Climb on Safely" training. The training doesn't certify us to run a climbing course but it gives us information on what should be happening and what we should be aware of when we are at a climbing course. I didn't attempt to climb the wall opting instead to observe and learn the do's and don't's of the area. It was well done and we had a lot of fun. Afterwards we spent more time on wilderness survival which added a few things but not really a lot to what was already discussed.

Later we had a historical re-en actor come with costume's and regalia which while very interesting didn't have much to do with the course. I'm not quite sure how that related to the course. But he had lots of interesting information. Following that we had a short course on communication and while interesting didn't quite measure up to what I thought it would be about. Again good information but nothing that I don't think everyone didn't already know.

It was evident throughout the course that at times they lacked a focus or syllabus on what exactly they were driving at. Wood Badge had lots of pieces which all pointed in a particular direction and near the end they pulled all the pieces together to the focus. Powderhorn consistently showed lack of clarity and focus on an objective. Sure many of the topics were good but a good portion were completely irrelevant.

We ended the day with a show on venturing awards and a discussion of how troop advancement and venturing can be done together. This repeated some of the earlier information but at least this time they had posters and samples of the awards and a better power points on how they fit together.

The evening ended with a campfire but I was beat so I hit the sack as early as I could. We expected (and got) a good amount of rain over night and I wanted to get as much sleep as I could.

You might ask was the course boring? No it was not boring and knowing several of the other leaders helped. But there were times during this weekend that I didn't feel as though the course really captured my attention.

Sunday, June 14th:
Ah, the final day and time for our "Bling"!

Yes, I think the only real driving force today was knowing we were getting our award and heading home. As is the case with a lot of camping trips by the last day you're ready to head home. This was the case for me. I woke up early listening to the rain and then packed up my gear as best I could. Getting everything to the car and staying dry was a challenge as it was muggy. I was able to get things packed and then got my Class A uniform on as was requested for the day. I was definitely ready to head out.

After a quick but really nice inter-faith service lead by one of my crew mates with us helping we got moving. It started with a discussion by one of the participants on his experiences with high adventure (Northern Tier). And he did a great job on this presentation and materials. If his slide show is on the course CD when I get it I'll post it as it shows some real back woods canoeing and camping. Amazing stories and also great information on how to get your older scouts to the high adventure. This was what some of the crew's needed to hear so that they could get their older scouts involved in this type of activity.

We had some more discussions but really everyone's eyes were focused on the clock. So after a short break we had the Powderhorn awards ceremony which was nice and to the point. We had a quick lunch and then were were off to head home.

It was great to get back home, for me I camped four of out seven weekends in May/June so I was definitely ready to be home with the family.

Some parting thoughts:

* While it's not really fair to compare, Wood Badge and Powderhorn are supposed to be both premiere adult leader training courses. Powderhorn is inferior to Wood Badge by far, venturing leaders need a far more challenging course.

* Was it worth the cost? No, it was not worth the full amount however I will not be seeking a refund or compensation. Each course provides different things and each participant has different expectations. I got what I expected to get from this course. Plus the added benefit that this was part of my Wood Badge ticket.

* Camp Squanto has better food than Camp Resolute

* The staff while knowledgeable always seemed to be confused or unsure of what to cover in some of the classes. This hesitation was evident throughout both weekends.

That's all I have for now, if there's anything worth adding I'll post a follow up.

-Stephen