Mountain Rangers

Water filtering, A little pond dipping then collecting and comparing pond to river water. Filtering with natural resources vs using a gravity filter as we use on wild camps. We made lavender and mint tea or hot chocolate - no guesses as to which was more popular. 🚱🚰

Mini pancakes cooked on tin can stoves. The Rangers also used a meter to check the levels of carbon monoxide being given off by the candles.

We made it to camp!
Following Storm Eunice which had brought down a few trees at Longrove Scout Activity Centre we delayed camp until Saturday.
Plenty of logs for making fires, a table & stool and catapults with. We finished on Sunday with a couple of hours hike navigating their way through muddy fields, a big feat for tired legs, to Dunstable Downs.

In the wind and rain, under a Snow Moon we walked to explore the ruins of St Peters Church at Stanton Low. With parts dating back to the 12th century it was still in use until the early 20th Century. Stanton Low Country Park

We were inside this week with the elder and willow gathered last week. Learning knife skills for newer members while the more experienced practiced their knife skill by making a Try Stick. Keep hold of your sticks as we will continue developing them and move on to making more with elder.

Happy New Year!
We returned this week for a wet, muddy hike in search of Elder for the Rovers and Willow for the Roamers.
Identifying trees in winter, plus in the dark, is a tricky skill! Elder is easily identified by its white flowers in May and red berries in August /September. In winter the red buds are just appearing.

For our last session of the year we got into the festive spirit with a walk to see the magic of Summerhayes. The older groups had to find their own way there while the younger ones had a Christmas hunt to do.
We wish you all a happy and healthy Christmas and look forward to seeing you again in the New Year.

When we do an Advent hunt at Mountain Rangers we do it in the woods at night of course. The older groups had to conduct a spiral search using a compass and by increasing their steps at each turn. We then got to try out our new kit, a collapsible fire pit.🔥

We took our star wheels to Stanton Low for an evening of meteor shower spotting. With the Leonids at their peak and quite a clear sky we were hoping to see some shooting stars. Over the 3 hours we were there we saw 1!!
The moon was bright, Waxing Gibbous, so making the sky a bit too bright. But we took plenty of gas stoves and made hot chocolate with marshmallows so all not lost.