Missing scout didn't want to go camping

[Justa Heel]

Survivor Scout didn't want to be camping

By ESTES THOMPSON
Associated Press Writer


McGRADY, N.C. (AP) -- The lost Boy Scout who survived on creek water for four days in the North Carolina mountains had told a friend before wandering off - apparently to try to hitchhike home - that he didn't want to camp out anymore, a fellow Scout said Wednesday.

Twelve-year-old Michael Auberry had slept in that morning while the other Scouts went hiking, but he seemed fine when they returned for lunch.

The boys thought he had just gone to clean his mess kit after eating, fellow Boy Scout Griffin Prufer told NBC's "Today" show Wednesday. But as the time wore on, they grew worried.

"I noticed my dad going into the woods yelling and screaming his name and blowing whistles and stuff," Griffin said.

"I was scared," he said. "He (Michael) said something to his tent mate. He said he didn't want to go on camping trips anywhere."

That was early Saturday afternoon. The hours became days as scores of searchers with trained dogs and heat-sensing helicopters scoured the area for the missing Scout. Then, just before noon on Tuesday, a search dog named Gandalf caught Michael's scent about a mile from the Scout troop's camp site.

Gandalf "popped his head three times" and there was Michael, walking along a stream, said Misha Marshall, the 2-year-old Shiloh shepherd's trainer.

"He was a little dazed," Marshall said, and he was tired, hungry and dehydrated, but calm. The searchers help Michael out of the woods and gave him granola bars, crackers and water. Later, at a hospital with his parents, Michael ate chicken fingers and asked for cookies.

"He was homesick," said his father, Kent Auberry. "He started walking, and at one point when he was walking he thought maybe he'd walk as far as the road and hitchhike home."

"We're going to have our lectures about hitchhiking again," the father said. "We've had them in the past, but with a special vigor, we'll go over that again with Michael."

Michael said he slept in tree branches, drank river water and curled up under rocks while he was in the wilderness. "He saw the helicopters and heard people calling him, but he yelled back and they didn't hear him," Auberry said.

"He's got a tremendous life spirit," the father said, adding that Michael "wants to thank Gandalf especially - even though he ate the peanut butter crackers they gave him."

A celebration service was planned Wednesday evening at the family's church in Greensboro, though organizers said they didn't expect Michael or his family to attend.

Michael had worn two jackets, one of them fleece, and was believed to have a mess kit and potato chips with him when he disappeared. The temperature dropped into the 20s some nights, and he said he lost his hat and glasses in the woods.

Once rescued, though, the first thing he said to searchers was that "he wanted a helicopter ride out of there," said Blue Ridge Parkway ranger David Bauer.

Aside from a few cuts and scratches, Michael was in good health. He was given IV fluids in the ambulance to help him rehydrate and told his father he wanted to sleep, said ambulance driver Bud Lane.

Hours earlier, the boy's father had talked about one of Michael's favorite books when he was younger, a story titled "Hatchet" about a boy whose plane crashes in the wilderness, and how the boy survives on his own.

"I think he's got some of that book in his mind," Auberry said.

He said Michael had been reluctant to go on the trip. The boy had asked his dad if he would give him $5 if he didn't have a good time. Auberry said he assured him that if he wasn't happy on the trip, they would do something fun together the next day.

"To have our son back is a tremendous blessing," Auberry said Tuesday afternoon. He also offered a plea from Michael about making up his sixth-grade schoolwork.

"He's worried about make-up work in Miss Self's class," Auberry said. "So if Miss Self could cut him a break, he would be very, very grateful."

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I’m glad the retard kid and his dad are so flip and amused about the whole thing.

Sure the teacher will cut you a break on your homework, kid…. Just as soon as your dad pays back the taxpayers for the money it cost to employ two dozen men and fly heat-sensing helicopters all around looking for your ass all because you decided in the middle of your camping trip that you didn’t want to go camping.

But really I can understand how the kid felt. I’m not a big camping guy myself.

That's why I never JOINED THE BOY SCOUTS when I was a kid. However remote the chance may have been, I didn't want to be one of the unlucky members of this organization forced to go on one of these said "camping trips".

[Neely8]

I went on many camping trips with the scouts. Never had anything "unfortunate" happen. I actually learned alot and hope that my son joins the scouts once he is old enough.

[Justa Heel]

Yeah, my comments were more directed at the stupidity of joining the Boy Scouts *if* you don't want to camp, given there's a very high likelihood that's what you'll end up doing.

[Neely8]

Yeah, my comments were more directed at the stupidity of joining the Boy Scouts *if* you don't want to camp, given there's a very high likelihood that's what you'll end up doing.

This is true. Although there are alot of things that the scouts do besides camping. If there were camping trips that I didn't want to go on then I didn't have to. It would make it hard to earn the badges necessary to advance though so I see your point.

[Ken]

I freakin' hated camping w/my son's boyscout troop. Hated that shit. Did it once, and will never do it again.

So, this one time I went, we actually didn't camp out, in the truest sense of the phrase. We slept in a fucking cabin in the Laurel Highlands of PA (think Appalachians). Place was about 20' x 20' and of course, not winterized, unless 'comes with a woodburning stove' and 'can see through the cracks in the walls' means winterized in your neck. It was November or something like that. Remember, this is in the shithole better known as western pa... a cold freakin' place in November.

So, the day we arrived, it was about 40 degrees and drizzling. For this self-proclaimed weather pussy, 40 degrees was 30 degrees too cold. The last thing I want to do is partake in a scavenger hunt and look for a pine cone in this fucking weather.

There was no grass around this cabin. Zero. You see, it must have been used weekly by other troops because it was one big mud pit around it. There was absolutely no refuge from the mud. You look left; mud. Look right; mud. Look down; mud. Look into the distance; mud. Look at your car across the mudlantic ocean; paradise... which you can't get to. You walk out the door of the cabin, and your only way to avoid the mud was to become Carl freakin' Lewis and get a running start from in the cabin and triple jump your way out the front door over the moat of mud.

Inside the cabin, you've got 12 kids, who could care less about the mud. They see nothing wrong with coming in and out of the cabin through the mud. With each trip, they drop several clods of mud onto the floor. The concrete floor looked like a herd of wildebeasts passed through and each took a dump as they did. Scattered about the inside of the cabin was a cot for each of us. On that, are our sleeping bags, change of clothes, and toiletries, none of which you let touch the floor since it was covered with dried and wet mud clods. When it was time to sleep, you walked to your cot, picked up wildebeast shit on your feet as you did, and crawled into your sleeping bag... with the wildebeast shit. You tried your damnedest to tune out the the slant-eyed kid's father who snored more loudly than I've ever heard anyone else snore. His cot was next to mine, my luck.

It was freakin' cold by this point. Maybe 20-25 degrees outside (rememebr, 45-50 degrees to cold for me)? The woodburning stove burns down at about midnight which you realize when you wake up frozen. So, I get up to throw a few more logs in. Doing so, I pick up more wildebeast shit on my feet and track it back into my sleeping bag.

2 AM: repeat

4 AM: repeat

7 AM: wake up and realize that the stove wasn't stoked in three hours and it is fucking cold as hell inside.

7:30 AM and I'm now supposed to enjoy some eggs and bacon cooked over a campfire in what is now not just in the middle of a mud pit, but a mudpit covered by the 2 inches of snow that fell overnight. I'm also supposed to enjoy eating this grub inside the cabin, surrounded by clods of mud and general fucking shittery.

Fuck that. Couldn't wait to get back into my car and drive home as fucking fast as I could. I think my son felt the same sice he quit the fucking boy scouts soonthereafter and hasn't asked to go camping EVER again. We never talked about that day. I can possibly see the two of us sitting on my front porch someday in the future... He back to visit his old man for the weekend. Beers in our hands, I ask him, "Remember that time we went camping w/your boy scouts?" He'll look at me, crack a smile, tip the bottle back for another swig, then look at me and say, "Fuck that shit."

[Tom In VA]

Aww c'mon mvscal, he tried so hard to sound tough too.

Give him a break.

[ucantdoitdoggieSTyle2]

I freakin' hated camping w/my son's boyscout troop.

Lemme guess.. part of earning their Merit Badges in Sports and First Aid involved a bunch of 12 year olds beating the shit out of you and then nursing you back to health. Pussy.

[MgoBlue-LightSpecial]

Gee, Ken, it's too bad you had to rough it inside a cabin, in cold weather, with mud on the floor. Sounds like a horrendous camping experience. Next time, check and see if there's a Sheraton nearby the camp site, and you can check on your son in the mornings before you head back for the continental breakfast.

[Derron]

So the kid stole his "tentmates " stash and spent four days smoking it and jerking off over hollow logs.

Been out west he would have been cougar bait the first night.

[Diego in Seattle]

Yeah, my comments were more directed at the stupidity of joining the Boy Scouts *if* you don't want to camp, given there's a very high likelihood that's what you'll end up doing.

Doesn't sound that unusual to us.


Sincerely,
military recruits who join to get an education & end up suprised that they might actually have to enter combat

[MgoBlue-LightSpecial]

This thread should be getting more run. I'm disappointed in all of you.

[Tom In VA]

Looks like Ken got bode. Kind of like how nobody wanted to run to L.T's side of the field.

[MgoBlue-LightSpecial]

Kind of like how nobody wanted to run to L.T's side of the field.

Uhhh, right. More like how everbody dropped into a prevent after Ken got put in at tailback.

[Tom In VA]

Look Mgo, have at him man, do you see that above you ? Look at that story. It's got everything. He used... sarcasm. He knows all the tricks, dramatic irony, metaphor, bathos, puns, parody, litotes and... satire. He's vicious



Might as well call him Doug.

[IndyGunClown]

[quote="MgoBlue-LightSpecial"]This thread should be getting more run. I'm disappointed in all of you.[/quote]

Does it fulfill your "smack credentials" MGO? Is it that EPIC of a thread? Is it the coolest thread you've ever seen? Are its smack proportions so smacktaculous youve got to let others know?

Damn, what am I doing? This smack board could get me laid If I showed women? It'd get me a beer if I showed it to my buddys. This website is so smackfuckintastic I cant hold back.

[ucantdoitdoggieSTyle2]

Kind of like how nobody wanted to run to L.T's side of the field.

What the heck does this have to do with LaDainian Tomlinson?


Sin,
Idiot Charger Fan

[Dinsdale]

This smack board could get me laid If I showed women?

Twice.

[MgoBlue-LightSpecial]

Does it fulfill your "smack credentials" MGO? Is it that EPIC of a thread? Is it the coolest thread you've ever seen? Are its smack proportions so smacktaculous youve got to let others know?

Try as you might, but nobody is buying that you wouldn't still be a "regular" here if you hadn't received a MASSIVE pile-on for being outed as a tremendous lowlife, degenerate piece of white trash.

[IndyGunClown]

[quote="MgoBlue-LightSpecial"][quote="IndyGunClown"]Does it fulfill your "smack credentials" MGO? Is it that EPIC of a thread? Is it the coolest thread you've ever seen? Are its smack proportions so smacktaculous youve got to let others know?[/quote]

Try as you might, but nobody is buying that you wouldn't still be a "regular" here if you hadn't received a MASSIVE pile-on for being outed as a tremendous lowlife, degenerate piece of white trash.[/quote]

Does this hold true for every poster that has quit posting in this shithole?

I remember Domelopper was one of you cunts and his ass ended up on a reality television show being forced by the airlines to take a sink shower.

I wouldnt be a regular no matter any past history. I would still tell you 5 remaining asshats that you fucking suck for not letting go of this piece of shit board years ago every time I take a shit and I'm done w/ cnn.com. Wait, thats what I do now.

[PSUFAN]

I wouldnt be a regular no matter any past history.

Seems like you're having trouble with that. Luckily, I can help.

[IndyGunClown]

[quote="PSUFAN"][quote]I wouldnt be a regular no matter any past history.[/quote]

Seems like you're having trouble with that. Luckily, I can help.[/quote]

Can you?

Can you give me the power to smack others and be a super dooper smacker?

[MgoBlue-LightSpecial]

I wouldnt be a regular no matter any past history.

Oh, but you are. Each and every time you hit submit, you're proving that fact. You are the very thing you're ridiculing.

You're only gone from this board when you're forcibly removed. Otherwise, you can't let this place go. You just can't do it. You NEED the abuse.

[Tom In VA]

I see what you're saying Mgo, but let me make sure ... with an analogy.


Opening day next NFL season.


I can't believe after all these years you guys are still playing football. Sheez it sure would be sooooper dooooper :rolling eye: if we could be a sooooper dooooper football team too. Don't you fags have anything better to do than to play football ? I bet it's that vast array of black cock that keeps you coming back to the game. Some people HAVE a life.


Sincerely,
Arizona Cardinals.


Something like that ?

[Rootbeer]

Getting back to the crust(sup Shoalzie?) of the thread, the kid got lost because his leaders failed him. Never, NEVER leave a scout alone. Never leave a single scout with a single leader or a single scout with multiple leaders unless absolutely unavoidable. A scout is never left alone. If he wants to sleep in and skip the hike, he must convince another scout and a leader to stay with him. That's one of the most basic tenants :shoalzie: of BSA leadership.

I'm an Assistant Scoutmaster in my BSA unit. I am in charge of boys between 11 and 12 years. We go on about 3-5 campouts per year. When they turn twelve they'll be doing a campout every month and a week-long camp in the summer. At 11 years old that's a little too intense so we keep our program age appropriate. Winter camping is one sure way to make a kid hate camping. We're conscious of this and do everything we can to make the camp enjoyable. We meet two weeks prior to the camp and as leaders we bring our fully packed bags and pull everything out to show the boys. The next week the boys bring their fully packed bags and I go through them piece by piece. If a boy packs right and the leader packs right you won't have a problem. On the winter camp we bring a ten gallon milk can with a spigot welded into the base. We'll boil that water and pour it into 1 liter bottles that a doctor once used to irrigate wounds. These bottles won't melt at 212º. The boys put the bottle into the bottom of of a good quality sleeping bag and they'll stay warm all night even in below zero temperatures. When done properly, camping is enjoyable and educational. If your unit isn't making it enjoyable, encourage your leaders to get more training.

Our district formed a new unit from a group of troubled youth a few years ago. Most of these kids were outcasts and flirting with jail. They didn't fit well into a traditional troop. The guy put in charge of oversight let the boys run their own program. They elected their own Patrol Leadership, planned their own activities, set their own budget, organized their own achievements. The leader only had to mentor the boys, oversee the activities, ensure safety, pass off achievements, and file paperwork. After about a year the Troop was wildly successful. They were honor troop at many camps and basically governed themselves. A new kid joined the Troop and started acting all tough. When the leader wasn't around he told the others how he was going to sneak out of camps and buy beer with his fake ID, steal stuff from other camps, etc. After the meeting the Senior Patrol Leader took the kid aside and said "Look, Mr. Jones doesn't wake easily but when he does, he wakes all the way and he has this tomahawk. If he catches anyone sneaking around he'll throw the tomahawk. If he hits you, you gotta buy him a candy bar the next day." The new kid called bullshit on the story and the SPL never told Mr. Jones what he told the new kid. At the next meeting by random chance or divine intervention Mr. Jones came to the meeting with his tomahawk tucked into the back of his belt. New kid was jacking his jaws a hundred miles an hour until Mr. Jones turned around to set his stuff on a table. New kid shut up immediately and went on to earn his Eagle Scout Award. In that unit over 75% of the boys became Eagle Scouts. They had the highest percentage of Eagle Scouts in the District several years running. Scouting is a good thing if you do it right.

[MgoBlue-LightSpecial]

Winter camping is one sure way to make a kid hate camping. We're conscious of this and do everything we can to make the camp enjoyable.

Does that include winterizing the cabin and making sure mud isn't tracked in?

-Ken

[Rootbeer]

No but it does include encouraging participants to wear shoes especially when there's mud on the floor and it's cold outside.

[MgoBlue-LightSpecial]

Ok...

What if there's mud on the floor COMBINED with grass clippings?

What do you do then?

[ucantdoitdoggieSTyle2]

What if there's mud on the floor COMBINED with grass clippings?

What do you do then?

And grass clippings, you say?

.
.
.
.

Call Search and Rescue to have Ken and Rack Fu extricated from the mother of all catastrophic disasters.

[Rootbeer]

Ok...

What if there's mud on the floor COMBINED with grass clippings?

What do you do then?

A. Be thankful it's warm enough to need to mow the lawn.

B. Rinse your feet before climbing the steps to the spa.

C. Tell the yard crew to cleano la clippings por favor.