This is another great White Mountain hike. We came the long way from Ethan Pond in Crawford Notch, but you can take a shorter way in from the Zealand Falls campground area. The falls are beautiful and great for wading in after a long hike. There is an AMC hut there with spectacular views [...]

  Good starter hikes to rocky summits with spectacular views. Here is a flyer from the NFS that has trail details, history for Mount Chocorua. The Champney Brook Trail is a good choice. Mt. Chocorua is really a great hike, the views are spectacular. We climbed in late spring and Mt. Washington in the distance was still [...]

Dubbed the best hike in the northeast by many guidebooks, I could easily agree. This is a great hike to take fresh scouts on and get them bitten by the scouting/outdoorsmen bug. Spectacular views, the ability to get above the tree line, a great hike up past numerous waterfalls (take the Falling Water Trail up). I [...]

This is a great hike, either in April to watch (or participate in) skiing, late July to still see snow, the fall to get the colors, or winter to take in a great winter hike. Views are great, it is a beautiful area, and if you plan properly, this is really a safe hike. Able bodied [...]

This is a great trip. After we went, we found out there is a small scout camp nearby. Reservations are required by January I think and people compete for spaces. On our way back, we drove up through Amish country which was also very interesting. I thought to go over to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater house [...]

One of the best scouting activities in our area is Orienteering. One of the best local spots for anything scout related is Nobscot Scout Reservation (in Sudbury, MA). Below is a note to our kids on what to expect. I thought it might be useful if you need anything like this. We have also taken the scouts here and introduced them to [...]

  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 [...]

  If you are looking for a nice powerpoint to introduce caving to the scouts, maybe the attached will help. I do not know the author, but this one is very good:   introduction_to_basic_caving.ppt    Here is a guide to caving LNT:  lntcaving.pdf   There are quite a number of caving opportunities in the northeast. [...]

  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 [...]

  Limited scuba activity is allowed under the Guide to Safe Scouting: “The use of scuba is not authorized for a BSA unit, except so that registered Boy Scout youth and leaders may participate in the Scuba BSA program conducted by a certified dive instructor in compliance with this policy. Scuba BSA is not a [...]

(Credit: wikipedia) At 14,494 feet (4,418 meters) above sea level, California’s Mount Whitney is the highest peak in the lower 48 states. Whitney is part of the Sierra Nevada, a fault-block mountain range formed when shifting tectonic plates led to the cracking and faulting of the Earth’s surface. Limited access (one needs a permit to [...]