Here you will find pioneering to it's max. Projects that you and your troop can do and specifics on how to do pioneering in a better light.

We are in the Portland,Oregon Area and are a part of the Cascade Pacific Council ,Thunderbird District Every year we put on a Pioneering Merit Badge weekend for our district. It usually follows the Cascade Pacific Council OSI (outdoor Skills Institute) for which we teach pioneering to troop leaders in our Council. The boys will complete about 20+ hours of pioneering skills through out the weekend.
Some images are from those weekends. We are constantly refining our pioneering skills and finding new and unique ways in which to apply pioneering skills. Our program is a constantly evolving process that we work on all year.

We introduce new projects that most others neither have the time or resources to try. We have gone beyond the BSA Pioneering merit badge skills outline in the application of pioneering and the skills.We design our own projects and they are unique to what we do.
Last year we had a succesful weekend building many new Camp gadgets. from simple wash stations with places for lighting and garbage receptacles and drying racks to porch swings with loveseat benches and sleeping platforms attached. Again the saturday program had everyone building full length monkey bridges.

2008 Review:

WOW what a year! Man we made some changes this year and BAM! it went like clockwork. This year we changed the format to a patrol method. We had 5 monkey bridges up on saturday. the boys did a good job working to get them up as did the adults. We had 100 participants again this year. All went home with a completed card and a lot of new knowledge
Sunday, we had camp gadgets everywhere. The adults took on the porch swing and did a great job. after the projects were being finalized, we went back and asked all to embellish them as much as possible. Man everybody got into the swing of things. The adults added a sun bench to the backside of theirs. Even those with simple projects, really did a great job adding new things to old ideas.
Check out the projects in the gallery section. Can't wait for next year!

News for 2009:
Well we are getting close again. This year we are doing bridges. We have several revised bridges this year. we will be doing the suspension bridge again as well as the cable stay but with whole new engineering twist to both. The new project will be the 3 way monkey bridge with floating platform connecting the bridges. Our staff weeknd is coming up this month and we will be trying that one for the first time. I'm sure we will be embellishing it by the time we get to the Merit badge weekend. Stay tuned for updates.

Site Additons:
We have added a projects gallery section to give you a better idea of what we do. If you wish information or better pictures of a certain project, feel free to contact us and we will get you the info you need. Just remember, when your pioneering a project, "think outside the box", after that it gets fun.

Knot Videos are here!
We have added the 16 pioneering knots used in the new video series section. watch as the knots are tied and visually you can see how it is done. coming soon is a narrated series of videos on how to build and construct a monkey bridge as well as videos of the basic lashings and few that are not in the merit badge book, but that you will find a real asset in the construction of your projects. Stay tuned! PM

Our Mission:
Our mission here is to provide you with the knowledge and the means to get your troop out pioneering and having a good time. We have included some tried and true interactive instructional help for you to use. We also have pictures of proven projects for you to try. Of course you may contact us anytime for specifics by clicking the link at the bottom of all the pages. We hope to give you the motivation to seek out the resources and put together a pioneering program, either for your troop or for your district. We feel that pioneering is a dying skill and that it doesn't have to be, if the knowledge is available and resources are with in your community than a quality pioneering program should be acheievable. Your scouting adults will also be highly interested in becoming apart of it.

So grab the rope and poles and let's get going!

PM