Lumberjack Campout 2014

We went on our annual Lumberjack Campout this month to cut firewood for people in the neighborhood that need firewood to heat their homes this winter.  Our troop is constantly changing, and this year we only had 2 older boys, and a bunch of 12-year old boys.
The Adults did the chain sawing to cut down dead trees and saw them up into lengths for splitting, then the 12-year old boys (and some of the adults) carried the logs over by the trailers where the older boys split them with mauls.  Unfortunately with only 2 boys splitting, we were only able to split about 1/3 of the logs, the rest we loaded up to be split later.
The younger boys kept asking if they could build a shelter to sleep in and I had to keep reminding them that they can as soon as all the wood is cut and gathered.  Once that was done, we built a frame out of logs, stacked in a way I learned when I was a boy at scout camp to make a bridge without ropes or nails, just friction.

The "bridge" frame that was then used to make their shelter

The "finished" product - luckily there wasn't any snow or rain cause they didn't
take the time to make it more weather tight

This is the basic design for the friction bridge (shown from the side):

Of course you'll need two sets of the the two diagonal logs and the horizontal log to make it all work.  The circles in the drawing are the ends of logs.  Try it out with your scouts!  It's actually a pretty sturdy bridge that can be climbed upon and played on!

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