>>What I didn't know, until I saw him pulling some things to eat out of his pack when we were back at the car, was that our leader had a tightly packed stuff sack with a sleeping bag in it,...<<

Then there was the trip when I was in such a hurry to get of the train from work and over to the departure point that I forgot MY sleeping bag at home. <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

Fortunately we have a couple of extra in the trailer for such greenhorns! <img src="/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

BTW, one danger of playing hardball with youth is that they'll often disappear from the troop after a "hard" weekend. There's a fine line between toughing them up and ultimately discouraging them from the outdoors forever.