Scouts Explore Montreal

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Troops 260 & 262 sent their Scouts to Montreal for an epic urban navigation adventure. The scouts utilized public transportation, tasted poutine, and roamed through Montreal on a scavenger hunt. The most impressive aspect of the trip was that the Scouts navigated and traversed the city entirely on their own.

Photo by Krystal Holmes
“Bonjour” from the Troop 260 & 262 Scouts in Montreal.

Really, on their own?! How? First, the concept of urban navigation isn’t new to the scouts. While this was Troop 262’s first experience, Troop 260 does an annual urban navigation experience; past cities include New York, Boston and Washington DC. Second, the troops spent weeks planning, exploring city maps, reviewing the public transportation system, and researching city highlights and landmarks. Finally, while the leaders trust and empower Scouts to lead their adventure, they responsibly set-up safety nets throughout the experience, including location sharing devices, communication protocols, plus reviewing their itineraries and meet-up locations.

Assistant Scoutmaster Stacey Coleman said, “It was amazing to see the kids’ excitement and awe when they crossed the border. For many it was their first-time, so it was a big experience.” The Scouts took the border crossing seriously, as it can be an intimidating experience. The crossing was the beginning of many firsts. It was enlivening for leaders to observe the scouts through these experiences: new language, currency, food and culture. The Scouts thought the colorful, rip-proof Canadian dollar was very cool!

The day started with leaders dropping the Scout patrols off at a commuter train station outside the city of Montreal. From there each patrol navigated to a different Tim Horton’s in Montreal. After breakfast the patrols navigated to Place Des Arts, which was the starting point of the city scavenger hunt. At the end of the scavenger hunt, each patrol went to lunch, then continued to explore the city and visit the landmarks they had researched. The day concluded with the leaders and Scouts meeting up for dinner and sharing stories from the day’s adventure. It was a fully immersive and very successful experience.

This trip was a great practice run for the Troop’s next overseas international adventure to Italy this July. The Italy trip includes a blockbuster urban navigation adventure in Rome, plus experiences in the Northern Alps, Cinque Terra, Pompei and Naples.

Troop 260 & 262 offers fun, high adventure activities all year long while teaching important life skills and responsibility, for boys and girls. They offer a diverse variety of activities that introduce new skills and engage kids. If you are interested in learning more about scouting, please email suffieldscouts@gmail.com.

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