Scouts Canada Finds That Canadians Are Pretty 'Meh' At Camping
Scouts Canada published the results of a recent survey of 1000 Canadians to gauge their basic outdoor skills. Turns out, Canadians are pretty ‘meh’ at camping (try answering the following yourself to see how you would fare)….
1) What would you do if you encountered a Black Bear in the woods? - 23.2% of Canadians would do the wrong thing
'Run' - (8.6%)
'Play Metallica on iPhone and live stream’ (5.6%)
'Stare directly into their eyes to scare them' (5.5%)
(an extremely bad idea) 'attack first' (3.2%)
14.9% of Canadians simply said that they don't know.
“We’re having a little fun with this survey, but the real point is that we wanted to understand the gaps that Canadians are facing in their connection with nature and important outdoor skills, and how Scouting meets that need by grounding kids in real-world experiences that prepare them for life.
When families and youth in Canada are empowered with skills to enjoy fun outdoor adventures with confidence and safety, they are also set up for success in the world as resilient, capable and well-rounded individuals”
2) Which plants from a list of wild plants were safe to eat?
46.7% of Canadians flat out admitted they had 'no idea.'
26.4% of Canadians incorrectly identified wild plants such as Winterberry and Buckthorn as 'safe to eat' (they are NOT.)
3) What is the camping competence of 'most Canadians'?
61.7% answering 'Ok.'
12.0% optimistically said 'high.'
14.7% said 'poor.'
6.4% said 'bad.'
5.2% said 'dangerous.'
4) What is your own level of camping competence?
36.3% of Canadians said 'ok,'
39% Admitted their skills are poor at best, if not outright dangerous (as in-- burn down the tent kind, drink from a puddle, couldn't make it through the night kind of 'dangerous').
“We’re calling on seasoned Canadian campers and nature lovers who DO know what they are doing to volunteer and help even more youth in Canada benefit from Scouting. We’re also calling on individuals who are passionate about youth leadership and empowerment, to volunteer and develop outdoor skills along their Scouting journey through training and peer support.”
5) How do you properly dry wet clothing and gear?
(46.9%) said 'they don't know.'
7.2% would make the bad choice of 'placing items 3 inches from a fire.'
4.5% would (inefficiently) choose to 'flap until dry.'
3.2% would 'blow on them until dry' (this is not advised.)
2.2% would 'wrap in a jacket to absorb moisture.'
On the plus side, 36.0% correctly responded 'wring out and drape.'
6) How long do you think pitching a tent would take?
35.7% said 'they have no idea' (suggesting that it might take a while.) Conveniently, the average Scout can set up their own tent in 15 minutes.
15.2% said '30 minutes.'
10.0% said '45+ minutes.'
11.4% optimistically said '5 minutes or less,'
27.7% said '10-25 minutes.'
7) What do you consider to be your biggest camping mistake?
"Sleeping in a tent and cougars were mating in the middle of the night … claws through the tent …"
"Eating moss"
"Forgot glasses"
"Going to outhouse in the dark"
Flooding related issues including: "set up tent facing rain so filled with water," "Groundsheet set up incorrectly so caused massive flood."
"Locked key in car"
"Ran over my phone"
"Burned tent with hot lantern"
