Matt Gidney

Let Boys be Boys Troop Adventures Masculinity

Five Peaks in Five Days: Troop TX-0022 Conquers the Wheeler Peak Wilderness

Wheeler Peak Wilderness, Taos, NM – July 2025 On July 17, 2025, Trailmen of Troop TX-0022 stood on top of Wheeler Peak, New Mexico’s highest summit at 13,160 feet. But their story began long before the final summit. It began with a bold idea: a backpacking trip to conquer five rugged peaks above 11,000 feet in the ...
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Mark Hancock

Mentoring Parenting Let Boys be Boys Masculinity

What Every Boy is Asking

A boy doesn’t usually say it out loud. But he’s always asking: Who’s in charge? Who’s with me? What’s the mission?
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Mark Hancock

Let Boys be Boys

Boys Were Made to Move

What if the thing that drives you crazy about your son… is actually one of his greatest God-given strengths?
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Mark Hancock

Parenting Let Boys be Boys

Raising Sons Who Won’t Be Swept Away: Forming Character in a Changing World

Op-ed by Trail Life CEO, Mark Hancock, published by TownHall.com on May 18, 2025 On April 29, Meta launched a suite of AI tools designed to seamlessly blend into daily life. Ask a question in WhatsApp — Meta AI answers. Search on Instagram — it suggests. Use your Ray-Ban smart glasses — they see and respond, ...
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Matt Gidney

Service Masculinity History

Davy Crockett: A Trailman’s Kind of Hero

There’s something about the frontier spirit that stirs a man’s soul. The call of the wild, the test of character, the proving ground of adventure—this is where boys become men. And few names loom larger on the American frontier than Davy Crockett.
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Matt Gidney

Service Masculinity History

Raising the Next Great Generation: Why Remembering the Past Is the First Step Toward Building Strong Men

“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.” —Laurence Binyon
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Matt Gidney

Mentoring Parenting Leadership Masculinity

God Sent Men: A Story of Single Motherhood, Mentorship, and the Power of a Troop Family

“When my husband left our family, my prayer for my sons was simple: ‘God, please send godly men into their lives.’”
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Stephen Ashton

Parenting Let Boys be Boys

Delaying Manhood, Developing Manliness

Let Boys Be Boys There was a time when boyhood was an untamed, unhurried thing. When creek beds turned into racetracks for hand-carved boats, the tops of hay bales became mountain peaks to be conquered, and backyard disputes ended in a wrestling match and a handshake.
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Matt Gidney

Let Boys be Boys Troop Adventures Masculinity

Trailmen Don't Hibernate!

There's No Offseason for Adventure When the world falls asleep beneath a blanket of snow, when bears slumber in their dens and squirrels hunker down, waiting for warmer days—boys see something different. To them, winter is a blank canvas for adventure.
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