If I am not leading or instructing and monitoring a student crew, I am very uncomfortable doing nothing by blindly following in a train of footsteps. I must at least monitor navigation with map and compass, as that is kind of my thing. I would hope the leader would take a moment from time to time to point out significant landscape sights and trail landmarks as we go and he or she thus can keep tabs on everyone behind.
Quiz question for debate: Who, arguably apart from the leader at the moment, is the most important person in a line of hikers? Some would say the last person as the sweep, who can see everyone toward the front, but I contend it is the next to the last person as the most important. Who else is positioned to best know where the last person in line is and what if that last person (often the weakest) develops a problem and falls back? Perhaps important to me as I come from training the sometimes aggressive and athletic leaders of youth (Boy Scouts) wherein the adult scout masters of questionable fitness are often at the end of the line.
Ouch, as a less than fit scout leader, I should be offended, however, I would say the group in total is too large and diverse to label either way. As they are volunteers across all of America, they run the gamut from people without a clue who want to be outside with their kids to people who think the group should be some form of quasi- military trained team.
It starts with planning, more planning and then research and planning. My wife and I also did a school youth group, before we had kids and the one unknown who struggled was a scout who joined late when we had an opening. As with any other group, you need to know your group, their strengths and weaknesses and what they want to see and do.
Just in our troop, our most fit leader is over 70, has a Grand Teton ascent in his past and a Lincoln & Lafayette winter trip in the winter that had the most snow on record in the Whites. We have leaders with less experience also. A former leader loves the story about going to Greenleaf and thinking three miles in the neighborhood would be the same as three miles up the OBP.
I was doing a warm-up to get times a few years ago before our troop was set to visit Mizpah. That weekend, a leader died on the C-Path from a Troop in MD. I had started the day thinking I was going to tell my group, we should get from point A to point B in x and then to the hut in X- plus an hour. By the end of the day, my message was that we have all day to get to where we are going, there is no need to hurry or push. (If you needed 7 hours, fine, take it) No one needs or wants to hear a teenager groan and whine. You certainly don't need their parent dropping on the trail either. (Some of our kids saw a man with heart history, not in scouts, drop on Giant in the ADK's a couple of years ago, I have no intention of having the next one they see be someone they know, hopefully, they won't see that again.)
FWIW, one of my favorite quotes is "that is why I hike alone" we do take the kids but we rotate between hiking, canoeing, bicycling and other seasonal things like staying at a ski resort and this year sailing with Sea Scouts. I have no idea if I have a budding mountaineer, a whitewater kayaker or bicycle racer in my midst, it's my duty to have them like the outdoors, not do a death march on one of their first outings. Personally, I enjoy the canoe trips better with the scouts, their is less whining overall, it is great bonding with your child and few of us paddle 60 or more miles in a fairly quiet place like the Allagash or see CT from the river.
I'd rather hike multiple peak trips or longer days when I set the leaving time, the pace, the meals and company with a couple of close friends and maybe their kids or alone. We have had three kids complete their 20 mile hike for the hiking MB in the past year. (Remember, this is a Country-wide group so the requirement is distance, not elevation gain as you would penalize FL scouts while CO scouts in CO never hike below the highest elevation in PA. Oddly, the camping Merit Badge has or had when my son earned it, an elevation gain requirement) One boy did his 20 on Bondcliff and Bond, the others on the Cape Cod RT. While my son's Bondcliff trip had great weather, I've done that on miserable days too. I'm glad the Cape Weather on 5/18 was ideal, even being able to carry an umbrella for 20 miles would not have made that a fun time in the rain. (All three have years of doing 3-12 mile hikes & knew what to expect)
Regarding who is the most important, it is the leader. The leader is not necessarily the one up front. I lead many of my hikes from the back. If there is a question on conditions, directions, how far the group is spread out and the make up of the group, we plan accordingly. Typically we stop at junctions to regroup, if people are familiar with the trip, they are allowed to spread out more. Snow, visibility and weather play a role in that.
You need people at both ends who communicate well and know what the other wants. Most of the time, my, now 16 year old leads, he knows to stop at views, junctions and I know he has clothing to wait on a windy summit for a little bit while the group catches up. The same is for driving places, I'd rather sweep and know everyone is in front of me then worry about if the last one is keeping up. If the next to last person falls back, then I can lead them so we can catch up. As long as the rabbit up front stops where & when I want, and is at least fearful of bad weather, I'm pretty flexible who's up front. (I need my son to start reading guides more as some day, he and his friends can go without me & they don't do enough pre-planning, probably because I'm a bit compulsive about it....
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