I think at the Cub Scout level, your pack is doing great to get the family camping concept started, however you do it. Some of the boys will be ready to go to the next level, some won't. It's great to have families together outdoors, and if you can help facilitate that through the Pack, you should feel great about it.

When they get to Boy Scouts, you can start to further cultivate the ability to be self sufficient. For one thing, a lot fewer parents volunteer to camp out when they have to carry their gear in on their back, and don't have the comforts of home, so you'll mostly be dealing with the boys, some experienced parents, and the Scout leaders, who hopefully have some experience and training. Slowly moving the boys from the "back of the SUV" camping, to a week or two with just what you carry on your back or in your canoe is more like art than science. We all had to take small steps to get there.

There have been some great thoughts in this thread on managing the balance between coaching the boys how to handle themselves, in new situations, while keeping it safe enough that they come back ok. When I started asking about what equipment people bring along as leaders, it seemed to bring out a number of other interesting tangents. I particularly heard the message of letting the boys sort through their problems, using whatever THEY had brought along, as much as possible. After all, learning to improvise is something that is often best taught by working through a real situation.

I just read a couple of the pointers people added referencing examples of "lost day hikers". They reinforce the importance of the work we do as leaders of young folks trying to learn how to take care of themselves. I know that this forum has been very helpful for me to provide contrasting ideas and methods for coaching these young men. Thanks for your advice. The examples really drive home how easy it is for folks to get themselves into trouble. The story about the mother and daughter who's bones were found a couple miles from the trailhead was the most recent one I scanned. Very sad. I'm collecting the examples to prepare a talk for our Troop, particularly for the parents who are questioning the need for survival training, and high adventure experiences.

I am amazed at how little "common sense" people have. As part of a SAR team we are called to help those who are missing. One incident really drove home the idea that people are not prepared to leave thier homes for any reason.

A mother and son decided to take a bike trip through the woods across the street from their home. It was a warm fall day and the two were wearing short sleeve shirts and shorts when they left their home around 4:30pm. Daylight savings had just happened within a week and it got darker an hour earlier than they were expecting. They crossed the street in front of their house, road 100 yrds over a dirt road through a field to the edge of the woods. They followed the dirt road into the woods. Once the road entered the woods, it went down hill and only down hill.

They got into the woods and it got dark due to the heavy trees and daylight savings. The temp started to drop. They continued downhill on the dirt road. Eventually the road emptied into a brair tangle at the edge of a swamp. They picked up their bikes and carried them through the swamp. They stopped after a while and huddled through the night. At daybreak they got up and walked out of the swamp to a nearby road. Law enforcement was patroling the perimeter and picked them up around 7:30am.

If you are lost in the dark and you have been following a road downhill to get where you are, wouldn't you head uphill following the road to get out? If you followed a road until it turned into a swamp, wouldn't you stop there instead of carrying a bicycle through briar tangle and swamp?

To make matters more exciting, the mother was reportedly afraid of the dark but she started out on a bicycle trip at 4:30 in the afternoon when dark was at 5:30. Instead of cycling in open areas, they headed into heavy forested area. The boy was reportedly taking meds for mental stability but was unable to take his meds because he was in the woods all night. So you have a mother who is afraid of the dark so is not very mentally stable taking care of a boy who is mentally unstable without his meds.

The temp dropped that night. We were wearing sweat shirts while searching for them. They were wearing short sleeve shirts and shorts adding mild hypothermia to their mental status. Additionally they missed their evening meal so were potentally developing low blood sugar conditions.

As we were walking down the road in the woods, we could see streetlights to the left. So at most we were 500 yards from streetlights. Wouldn't you head towards a streetlight instead of through briars in shorts?

Both survived with only scrapes from the briars and mental exhaution from their ordeal. All of this within 1000 yards of their home.