Here's proof...

...that the boys did learn how to use their map & compass skills at the camp-out before our day hike to Oyster Dome!

Joseph taught members of his patrol how to orient a map, and to adjust their compasses for declination.

I went over a few of the finer points of interpreting map legends and made sure all the boys were checking the trail map at stops along the hike.

However, as previously mentioned, a few of the boys (including 2 of mine!) did manage to take a wrong turn (highlighted in red on the map where the yellow and red lines diverge).

"I say that the front guys should have the map!" explains Joseph.

"We didn't see the turn-off, I looked but I didn't see the trail. I guess I should have looked a little closer. When it started to flatten out, I thought, 'HMM I don't remember seeing that the trail would flatten out.' My instincts were telling me that we'd gone too far, but I asked Ezra and Boaz and they said that they hiked it last time when they hike to Oyster Dome.

"When we found that we had gone too far (because I noticed that the sign said Lily Lake instead of Oyster Dome) we were about to turn back when Ezra heard my mom yelling 'JOE!' Then I whistled with my handy whistle on my backpack...and then we walked faster than we we had been going. I thought, 'I'm kinda relieved that we found our way back again, but kinda disappointed that we hiked an extra mile and a half.'

"It taught us that we should stop more often to wait for the slower hikers."