A Great Scouting Adventure

Scouting is sissy stuff? No way.

Especially had you cast your lot with Tom Sholes’s version of Scouting, where the password was simply “High Adventure.” You would have huddled in sub-freezing temperatures in the “warmth” of a mountain snow cave, stood with aching legs and a windblown face on the summit of a majestic mountain, trudged endless miles through the deserts southwest in search of ancient Indian ruins, or felt the exhalation of pointing your canoe into a frothing caldron of wild whitewater. In Tom’s troops, you didn’t study Scouting, you lived Scouting.

A student of the American Indian, Tom saw the natural blend of Scouting with both nature and with Native cultures. The result: hundreds of Tom’s Scouts, colorfully costumed with dance bells tinkling, learned to” feel” the beat of the drum, and the art of tapping their moccasins gently on their Mother Earth. And he did all this with a focused eye on developing young men and women into free-thinking individuals who loved life, respected others and understood the meaning of his motto, “The price of freedom is responsibility.”

Share the ride, the adventure, as a young, “greenhorn” Scoutmaster grows to become an exceptional outdoor leader of young men and women.

Excerpt: Entering Government Rapid

"The camera corps and rescue troops stood ready on the sideline. We tightened the ties on our life jackets, pulled on our kneepads then kneeled with our backs to the seats. Carnell was finding religion, crossing himself as we pushed our canoe out with visions of that big, unforgiving sinkhole immediately ahead. We made the left turn into the rapid and executed some paddle power, quickly moving a safe distance from the hole. Ahead was a solid wall of water. I felt as if we were paddling into a tsunami..."