Matt Gidney
A chill swept through the morning air as the Trailmen laced up their boots. The crew from Troop CA-0110 stood on the edge of Agnew Meadows, eyes cast toward the distant peaks that stretched across the California High Sierra. Their journey would take them over fifty rugged miles, pushing them up to 11,000 feet, testing ...
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Matt Gidney
In the summer of 1900, on the dusty plains of Mafeking, South Africa, Colonel Robert Baden-Powell surveyed his unlikely army. It wasn’t only the British soldiers stationed with him that caught his attention—it was a cadre of young boys, the Mafeking Cadet Corps, carrying messages and supplies through dangerous ...
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Matt Gidney
It was the summer of 2023. Troop ID-0412 had just finished scaling Borah Peak, the highest point in Idaho at 12,662 feet. Just a year before, they’d tackled Mt. Adams in Washington, a 12,281-foot volcano. The crew sat around by the river, airing out sore feet by the fire and jubilantly reflecting on their shared ...
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Stephen Ashton
"Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." —Jesus (John 15:13)— "Forgive me for being so ordinary while claiming to know so extraordinary a God," chronicled Jim Elliot in his journal. "We are so utterly ordinary, so commonplace, while we profess to know a Power the Twentieth ...
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Matt Gidney
In The News Service Leadership
Amid the smoke and chaos of the wildfires raging through Los Angeles, with entire neighborhoods reduced to ashes and families torn from their homes, a group of Trail Life volunteers stood in the gap, bringing hope to desperate people in need. On Saturday, January 11, as fire crews battled the flames and the National ...
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Staff
In The News Mentoring Parenting Leadership Masculinity
Trail Life USA proudly announces the launch of Fathers & Families™, a transformative ministry initiative designed to equip men to rediscover their God-given identity, embrace their influence, and lead with confidence in their families, churches, and communities. Rooted in the principles of identity, community, and ...
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Stephen Ashton
"Our fathers were Englishmen who came over the great ocean, and were ready to perish in this wilderness; but they cried unto the Lord, and He heard their voice, and looked on their adversity. ... Let them therefore praise the Lord, because He is good, and His mercies endure forever. Yea, let them that have been ...
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Stephen Ashton
There’s something about the masculine soul that craves risk and adventure. Men weren’t created for monotony. In a world that often feels too structured and predictable, there is deep longing to step outside the box, break free from the mundane, embrace the unpredictable, and rise to the challenge. It isn’t ...
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Scott Clough
Parenting Troop Adventures Masculinity
How did I end up in the middle of Iceland with two sons and a bag of freeze-dried reindeer soup in my backpack? Let's start with the obvious - the boys in our Troop are ambitious and the leaders are crazy. But there's logic to our insanity and I think the other dads would agree with me on this. Let me explain.
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