Hot Springs Winter Camping with the Scouts

Molly's Tubs is a place I love for winter camping, and I took my winter camping class there, and introduced Troop 100 to the joy of hot springs winter camping. On a recent trip we headed out the two miles to Molly's Tubs using sleds to haul our gear. 

Once in camp, we set about making snow shelters or putting up tents, and made a fire. Bryan show that when tenting in the winter, its nice to cut a big pit in front of the tent door, for sitting and getting into the tent. 

Below, Bryan demonstrates a typical camp set up, with a comfortable bench seat, sitting on a foam pad, a foam pad under the feet, and a stove platform with a wind screen around a gasoline stove. The shovel has a length of duct tape around the handle, and the D handle helps in snow digging ability.  

We set up a diversion for the scouts, a biathlon. The scouts snowshoed from one shooting post to another, and at the shooting station they shot BB guns at targets in the woods. This area had been burned over by a forest fire the previous year, so we had plenty of visibility in the forest.  We formulated a score based on speed of travel, plus accuracy of shooting, and crowned a winner.