Leave No Trace Campout

I went to last night's Troop meeting to pay for the upcoming campout. I thought we were going to Beautiful Camp James Ray, but instead are headed to Lake Ray Roberts to the Isle of Dubois in the Wild Plum camping area. It is to be a Leave No Trace backpacking excursion. Surprise, surprise, surprise!!!

Now I have to confess to being absolutely spoiled by the Troop quartermaster. I never have to think about food, the SPL and his staff plan all our meals - the QM does the shopping and we pack up and go. Between teaching school, getting the laundry done, and packing our Fridays are full. It has been very nice not to have the added pressure of dealing with food. I need to make sure and get something nice for our QM -he deserves it.

Beloved and I will go shopping today to see what we can get in the way of food for the weekend. Everything must be non-perishable, create no trash and fit into a ziploc freezer bag - which then all must fit into a gallon sized ziploc bag. All meals must either require no cooking or just add boiling water.

Ideas for meals include - of course, the Beloved's list is completely different than mine:

• oatmeal, granola bars, breakfast bars and fruit
• summer sausage, cheese and crackers - Beloved wants vienna sausage (he will eat anything)
• broccoli and cheese rice with chicken - I think I heard chili from him
• snacks - granola mix and fruit

I am thinking I might be hungry after this trip to the woods. I am sure Beloved will be ready for a root beer float, maybe we will stop off at Sonic on the way home.

For those of you not familiar with Leave No Trace, here are 7 principles of LNT.

1. Plan ahead and prepare
2. Travel and camp on durable surfaces
3. Dispose of waste properly (pack it in, pack it out)
4. Leave what you find
5. Minimize campefire impacts
6. Respect wildlife
7. Be considerate of other visitors

The principles of Leave No Trace might seem unimportant until you consider the combined effects of millions of outdoor visitors. One poorly located campsite or campfire may have little significance, but thousands of such instances seriously degrade the outdoor experience for all. Leaving no trace is everyone's responsibility.

It will prove to be an interesting weekend, where hopefully we all learn some important lessons. I love camping and backpacking and want my future grandscouts, great-grandscouts and great-great-grandscouts to have the same fun outdoors I did.