>>105123>continuedExpert:
• Local Knowledge – I think most of our family is now pretty familiar with the Eastern Sierra Nevadas.
• Sparky – Boyscouts
• And They Called Me Crazy – I use some bushcraft skills all the time. Sometimes situations just pop up and occasionally something that I learned comes into play.
• Orienteer – Boyscouts
• Das Boot – Edison Lake scout camp with Duane Black as leader. His son and I won a homemade raft race together across the narrow part of the lake.
• MacGyver – We have all done this whilst camping. Something will always break, and we always find a way to fix it in a non-conventional manner.
• Birch Bark or Sphagnum – Ryan and I both used rocks to wipe our buttholes at High Lake on the second Langley hike.
• Leave No Trace – Besides that we should all do this, it is a part of several merit badge requirements, and we never neglect to remind a first-timer of this concept.
• Weather Frog – Lone Pine Peak with Ryan and Bryant. It was no surprise that before we reached our stopping point, that it was about to get wet and electrical on top of that mountain.
• Able Seaman – I was on a 378 in the CG. ‘Nuff said.
• Worth Your Salt – Same as for “Able Seaman”.
• Bombadil – Wilderness Survival merit badge. You forget some, but you learn new ones too.
• Discovery Channel – I hike with my wife… sometimes alone together…
• Condensation – I camp with my wife…
• Hardwood – For when I don’t hike or camp with my wife.
• Stargazer – 5 solid nights when Patrick and Mike decided spontaneously to be besties and kick me out of the two man tent that Mike and I were previously sharing.
• The Name’s Ivan – The drunken cowboy in Bishop, right before bouldering in the Buttermilks. This may be a stretch, but it’s close. He DID ask us to give him a ride back to his home state of Mississippi.
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