Like Mt. Washington, Katahdin is one of those classic, must do, northeastern hikes. Logistically it is a challenge because of the remoteness and competitiveness for campground space. The attached gives an overview of the hike. I wrote it using powerpoint 07, if it does not open for you, send a note and I’ll try saving as an earlier version file.

katahdin.ppt

 In the 1840s Henry David Thoreau climbed Katahdin (written then as “Ktaadn”); his ascent is recorded in a well-known chapter of The Maine Woods. His travels followed ancient Wabanaki canoe routes through vast, primitive wilderness. You might want to take in this history prior to any trip.  Lots of information is available in a simple web search. One place to start is the Thoreau-Wabanaki Trail association:

The Ukulele is a great instrument to pick up and learn. With four strings, it’s not at all complicated like a guitar and ANYONE can play it.  You can pick it up and start playing in 15 minutes (the strumming takes a little getting used to). Give yourself a few days to really get better then you’ll be hooked.  What’s nice is it gives you the chance to finally learn the lyrics to tunes you always wanted to know. It’s great to carry around 10-20 tunes in your head to just start singing or playing anywhere (campfires, beach, back porch, parties). It’s easy to teach as well and you’ll be surprised how many people will want to learn after they hear you play.

A few things you need to know –

1. You don’t really need to buy any books. Everything’s out there on the web to download or watch.  Probably the best free tune book is the well known tune book from the Ukelele Club of Santa Cruz. Found here:

http://www.mediafire.com/?nnkmzwg3z2j

This is a big download, but it’s got most of the really good tunes in it. Chordie.com and scorpex.net/Uke  are also pretty good sites for sheet music. (On Chordie, which is really good, go to the right, and make sure you select “ukelele” to get the proper key to play in. If what comes up is not quite right, select the -1 or -2 “semitones” to find a key that is fun to play in.) If you do buy a book, the only one you need is “The Daily Ukulele” from Jumpin’ Jim (on Amazon). It has all the old ones (like “Shine on Harvest Moon”) and some of the new ones.

2. “Ukelele Mike” on Youtube offers a few hundred tunes as tutorials. Very good stuff he puts up. Here’s one just to find him: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Xz06WE0N84&feature=related. You can absolutely learn to play the uke by watching and listening to him.

3. Buying a Ukelele: Don’t start with a total piece of junk – uke’s are cheap, you can get a really good one for $100-$150. You’ll learn there are four sizes of ukulele’s – soprano (the “Tiny Tim” or “Hawaiian Beach” looking one), this is the original size, but the cheap ones are really toy-like. Most uke players have a soprano in their collection, as it is fun to play. For starting, it’s better for you to buy the next size up, the concert model. This is the most popular size and it has just enough “beef” to make it really fun to handle and play. Tenor is the next size up, you can start on this as well, it’s just slightly bigger than the concert and it sounds just a bit deeper. Baritone is the next size up and largest (but it’s still smaller than a standard guitar). Unlike the first three sizes that are all strung “GCEA,” the baritone is strung a bit differently so all the chords would be off in standard noted sheet music (not where you want to start).

A few good Uke’s to consider: the Mitchell MU70 ($99) or the slightly prettier (darker wood) MU100 ($149). I’ve played both. Solid wood, nice sound, high gloss so easy to grip. I have a Lanikai CK-C Concert Curly Koa Ukulele ($170, pictured above) which I like a lot. I also have the Snark SN2 tuner which you’ll also want (or something similar) and I have a hard retro case (not a gig bag).

These are some tunes that are natural uke tunes (easy to play – and while playing the chords you can actually hear the melody) – I highly recommend for your initial tune selections (skip over the ‘Row Row Row Your Boat’ and ‘Twinkle twinkle’ stuff), you can do these:

Jambalaya (Hank Williams)
Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain (Willie Nelson)
Let it Be (Beatles)
Wonderful Tonight (Eric Clapton)
Put Another Log on the Fire (Tompall Glaser)
Me and Bobby McGee (KK/Janis Joplin)
Sloop John B (Beach Boys)
Blowin’ in the Wind (Bob Dylan)
City of New Orleans (Arlo Guthrie)
All of Me (Louis Armstrong)
Imagine (John Lennon)
Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World (Israel Kamakawiwo’ole)
Unchained Melody (Righteous Brothers)
Country Roads (John Denver)
Save the Last Dance for Me (Drifters)
The Gambler (Kenny Rogers)
I Walk the Line (John Cash)
Vincent (Don McLean)
San Francisco Bay Blues (Peter, Paul & Mary)
I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry (Hank Williams)
Happy Together (Turtles)
Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen)
Can’t Help Falling in Love (Elvis Presley)
All My Loving (Beatles)
Tennessee Waltz (Patti Page)
Bad Moon Rising (Credence Clearwater Revival)
Stand by Me (Ben E. King)
Brown Eye Girl (Van Morrison)
Jamaica Farewell (Harry Belafonte)
Annie’s Song (John Denver)
Margaritaville (Jimmy Buffet)
Tonight You belong to me (seen in The Jerk, by Bill Rose & Lee David)
O Come Angel Band (Stanley Brothers)
I’m Your’s (Jason Mraz)
Peaceful Easy Feeling (Eagles)

Below: Another nice Uke – the Oscar Schmidt OU7T Tenor Ukulele with a Spalted Mango top ($187 on Amazon)

As Ukelele Mike says - Happy Strumming!

A friend at work introduced this to me and I introduced it to my daughter. I’m bringing it up because they have a great Junior Program for kids starting at the age of 14. I think this is a great opportunity to do something challenging and really build confidence.  If your son has any thoughts of going to the Air Force Academy, it wouldn’t hurt being part of something like this.

 http://www.soargbsc.com/juniors.php

I also learned about a program in Texas affiliated with a venture crew.  Crews don’t have to be high adventure camping focused. There are crews involved in civil war reenactment, emergency response, railroading, you name it. If somebody was interested in starting a crew either up here in the Boston area or really anywhere in the US, you may want to consider an affiliation with a flight club. Keeping a crew together is hard work, something interesting like this might really get kids in and then keep them interested.

This a link to a brief mention of the Texas program:

http://www.texassoaring.org/Documents/VentureProgram.asp

This is an easy but interesting merit badge. In the northeast, we’re blessed with numerous early American history sites, but I bet wherever you are you can find something interesting. I’ll work on some training material, in the meantime, I’ll share this one piece I was working on:

The Concord Hymn

 ”…And fired the shot heard round the world.” so wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson. This famous poem (actually a sung hymn) is studied & analyzed from grade school through college, but the history of the poem is what I was interested in. I knew it was prepared for the dedication of the battle monument at the Old North Bridge in Concord, MA, but I wanted to get a feel for the circumstances. I visualized the famed orator standing near the obelisk, one arm on the monument, one arm raised high, flags around him ‘unfurling in the April breeze,’ but alas, it was much different. Surprisingly, very little is available on the web, it took hours/weeks to find out what I could.  I eventually had to make a trip to the Special Collections vault at the Concord Library. Maybe you’ll find interesting…

story-of-concord-hymn.pdf

Here is a midi of the tune sung: old_100th.mid

This is a great read on Emerson and transcendentalism: ralph-waldo-emerson.doc

Leave No Trace is not simply a program for visiting the backcountry, it is an attitude and a way of life.

I plan to expand this area considerably, I have lots of material to share on this topic.

Here’s one that is pretty good - an extensive powerpoint done on the entire program:

Leave No Trace Powerpoint (large size (35MB) but a very comprehensive, useful download. Credit: Blaine Boxwell, Connecticut Yankee Council)

Here’s BSA’s comprehensive training doc: LNT BSA Training Doc (pdf)

Here’s LNT’s Trifold handout: LNT Trifold Doc

Her’s another good powerpoint (b&w unfortunately, but good intro material):Intro LNT powerpoint)

Here’s a link to listings of LNT Master Educator’s Courses:

http://www.tcfroar.org/boyscoutofamerica2009mastereducatorcourses.html

Here is a cub handout along with a card I created (for reqt 5):

cubscout-lnt.doc

(from LNT.org)

Wilderness Survival Merit Badge Supplement 

Here are three good survival scenarios to use with your kids. Not part of the badge requirements but can be used as a warm-up or post-badge activity. If you are cabin camping some night and want an interesting group activity, pull these out.

survival1.doc

survival2.doc

survival3.doc

Last year we did this whitewater rafting trip out in western MA. They actually organize a full Whitewater MB class, but we wanted the kids to have an introductory run first before getting into the whole MB requirement process. It was on class III rapids which I thought were pretty mild (albeit, it was a dam release river and I don’t think we got the benefit of a huge rush of water). These kind of trip can be a little on the expensive side ($65-$100 each), but they are worth it. Every kid wants to do this activity. We did ours in early June and wore wetsuits, which was perfectly fine. Here’s a link to the MB program offered by the company we used:

 http://www.crabapplewhitewater.com/group_outings/scouts.shtml

Here’s a few up in Maine:

http://www.neoc.com/content/4033/_Girl_Scouts/

http://www.proriverrunners.com/index.php?page=scout_badges

http://www.adv-bound.com/

scout-whitewater-badges.pdf

These kind of trips are run all over the country. Here’s a couple in PA:

http://www.laurelhighlands.com/activities/meritbadge.html

http://www.wilderness-voyageurs.com/whitewater_merit_badge.htm

You’ll need to google whitewater MB [your state] to find local ones.

Here’s something that looks pretty interesting – earning the geology merit badge (and mammal study) while exploring a cave. They seem to have a nice program designed. Could do all year, not just a summer activity. Lincoln Caverns is somewhat in the area of Gettysburg (center, bottom of PA), so if you are traveling there from afar, you might want to combine the two.

http://www.lincolncaverns.com/groups/scouts/index.html

I’ve been to this one before, just west of Albany, NY:

http://www.howecaverns.com/

They have all kinds of educational programs, they might be able to work with you to design a MB program.

These type of caverns are developed for visitors so they are not the type of activity as mentioned in caving post. My kids loved  Howe Caverns, it is worth the trip.

These may help – free sky maps showing what is in the sky by month.

New one Dec 2010:  http://stellarium.org/

The telescope.com one is a little better for locating planets. Skymaps.com has nice descriptions of the night sky.

http://www.space.com/spacewatch/sky_calendar.html (click on planets 1/2 way down), map at bottom.

http://www.skymaps.com/downloads.html

 If this link stays active, here is a program for the Bird Study Merit Badge:

http://k2gw.tripod.com/birdstudy/