Field Guides & Outdoor Skills
Welcome to the Scouting America Field Guides. Whether you are a new Scout practicing for your next rank, a Patrol Leader organizing a campout, or getting ready for a big backpacking trek, these guides give you quick, practical answers in the field.
Each guide includes step-by-step instructions, clear diagrams, and helpful pro tips.
Outdoor Guides
🪢 Knots, Hitches & Lashings Field Guide
Everything you need to know about ropework:
- Core Knots: Step-by-step instructions for the Square Knot, Bowline, Taut-line Hitch, Clove Hitch, Two Half-Hitches, and Sheet Bend.
- Pioneering Lashings: How to tie Square, Diagonal, Shear, Tripod, and Floor lashings for camp gadgets and towers.
- Rope Care: How to whip rope with cord or fuse synthetic ends with heat so they don’t unravel.
Open the Knots & Lashings Guide →
🩹 Wilderness First Aid Guide
How to handle outdoor injuries and medical emergencies:
- Patient Assessment: How to check an injured Scout quickly using the MARCH PAWS method.
- Treating Injuries: Managing bleeding, applying SAM splints to sprains and broken bones, and cleaning wounds.
- Cold & Heat Emergencies: How to build a hypothermia burrito wrap and treat heat exhaustion.
- Calling for Help: When to walk out, when to call Search & Rescue, and how to use satellite messengers or signal mirrors.
Open the Wilderness First Aid Guide →
🍳 Camp Cooking & Kitchen Guide
Master your patrol kitchen and cook great camp meals:
- The 3-Pot Wash System: How to wash, rinse, and sanitize dishes in camp so nobody gets sick.
- Dutch Oven Cooking: How many charcoal briquettes to put on top and bottom for baking, simmering, and roasting.
- Camp Stoves & Fuel: How to safely use canister stoves and liquid fuel stoves in cold weather.
- Food Safety & Bear Triangle: Keeping coolers below 40°F and keeping food 200 feet away from your sleeping tents.
🧭 Navigation & Weather Guide
Find your way on trails and read the weather:
- Topographic Maps: How to read contour lines to spot steep hills, ridges, and valleys.
- Baseplate Compass: How to take a field bearing, take a map bearing, and follow a bearing on the trail.
- Declination: Simple math rules to adjust between True North and Magnetic North.
- Predicting Weather: How to look at cloud shapes and wind direction to know if rain is coming.
Open the Navigation & Weather Guide →