Scoutmaster Minute used during Northern Tier

“Canoeing with Baden-Powell”

Baden-Powell’s life was filled with adventure, first with the military in India and Africa, then as the founder of Boy Scouts. But it wasn’t until he was 53 and visiting Canada that he finally experienced canoeing and portaging. This great outdoorsman said he was never gripped more firmly by the spell of the outdoors than when he sat by the fire the last night in camp on his canoe trip, long after the others turned in. In his diary he wrote, “a divinely calm velvety night with brilliant stars, moonlit woods, and a deep waiting stillness just broken now and then by the splash of a feeding trout, or the wail of a wildfowl, or, occasionally, the distant moan of a moose—while the fire glowed and smoldered into thin strands of smoke…” I’m glad none of you had to wait until you were 53 to share that same experience with him. Lean back now and close your eyes (really), and soak in the same things Baden-Powell did…the velvety night, the deep waiting stillness, the little sounds of fish splashing and the loon calling, and smell the thin strands of smoke from the fire. Enjoy it all and memorize how it all smells and sounds and feels. If you do it right, years from now you will be able to close your eyes and summon this experience, a special frozen moment from your childhood, and return to it again and again in your memory, regardless of where you are or what you are doing.

—Calvin Gabriel