Troop 24 - The High Adventure Troop Patrol Equipment List For Backpacking Trips by Cascade Bill Mooseker

The following equipment list is based on 30 years of experience with scout backpacking expeditions. It has worked well throughout the years.

Before setting out on a trip, the cooking group size and number of groups must be determined. A cooking group is defined as the number of people that the dinner is being prepared for using a set of cookware, stoves, and food.

It has been my experience that the maximum cooking group size is 10 people. Even then a group of that size really strains the capacity of the backpacking stoves used. The optimum cooking group size is 6-8. So for an overall group of 11 or 12 people (12 is often the total group size limit in NF wilderness areas), you would assign 2 cooking groups with a menu planned for 6 people each. For 9 or 10 people you could have a single group of 10 people, but the total cooking time would be much longer than if you had two cooking groups of 4 and 6 people respectively.

Cooking for a larger group becomes unwieldy because it takes increasingly longer to boil water as more people are added. Also check the capacity of the pots available for making the menu.

Cooking Gear:

______Stoves: 2 stoves per cooking group of up to 8 people. (Use 3 for a group of 10)
______Fuel bottles: 2/3 liters per stove for weekend trips.
             3-4 liters white gas per cooking group (for an 6-8 night trip)
______Windscreen for stoves (I use a 3 panel metal screen from a kitchen store.)
______Soap in 4oz squeeze bottle (liquid Dawn, etc.)
______Bleach in 4oz squeeze bottle
______Scouring Pad: (Scotchbrite- put pad and soap in ziploc bag)
______Garbage bag - for putting washed/rinsed dishes on.


For each cooking group:
______Large Pot: 8-10 qt.
______Medium Pot w/ lid: 4 qt.
______Coffee Pot: 8 cup min per group (or one larger pot for 2 groups)
______Fry Pan: 10-12" (Usually not needed.- check menu)
______Large Plastic Ladle
______Large Plastic Spatula
______Whisk (great for mixing cocoa, puddings, etc.)
______Aluminum Pot Grabber - (not needed if all pots have bails).

General Gear

______Tents as required. (Ground tarps not required for summer trips)
______Axe. (Only if campfires are allowed)
______Small metal trowel. (for digging cathole for waste disposal)
______2 - 5 gal. collapsable water jugs. (Reliance)
______2 - 50'- 3/8 in. nylon rope w/ aluminum pulley for hanging food. Throw first rope over
             branch. Pull pulley up to branch. Use second rope thru pulley to hoist food.
             Use two sets for large group.
______Water Filter (Use 2 for large group) - Recommend Katadyn Hiker.
             Check filter before trip. Filter Cartridges last about a year.
             To prolong filter life - Fill Collapsable Jug and filter from it, never from lake or stream.
______Group First Aid Kit.
______Dining Fly 10' x 12' (Optional). Campmor has a light weight nylon tarp.
______50' - 1/8 or 1/4 nylon rope. (for rigging dining fly, etc.)
______Duct tape: wrap on pen/pencil for emergency repairs.
______Extra Aluminum pins for pack repair.
______Sewing Kit.
______Stove Repair Kit (see manufacturer). Check stoves prior to long trip.
             Clean and perform preventative maintenance as required.
______3-4 Heavy Duty Trash Bags.

Patrol Equipment List - Printer Friendly