High Sierra Topix

What games do you play when camping/backpacking? Cards, dominoes, chess
when with a group? If solo does anyone work cross word puzzles? Did anyone
play capture the flag or a version of it back in the day when with a larger
group or boy/girl scouts? What do your younger children play, how about your
teenagers? Any of them haul electronic games along?

Games, Games? I don't need no stinking games! Sleep, eat, fish, hike, eat, fish, drink, eat, fish, read, sleep... Sometimes when my wife is with me there is a little variation.

Mike

Hey Maverick,

I'm a Scoutmaster for my Boy Scout Troop and I don't allow any electronics, only a cell phone. My thing is to get the Scouts to talk about the hike, what they liked or dis-liked about the trip. Some Scout may have a deck of cards, but that's about it and so far, they all go to sleep very early. I try to have things planned for the Scouts to keep them busy all day long. It sure wear's me out.
Don

No electronics on our Scouting backpacking trips, other than cell phones with adult leaders.

We typically bring playing cards and one of my boys has a cool checker board bandana and little foam checkers that weighs next to nothing. The guys are usually tired by nightfall, but some kind of game is very good for those afternoon rain-showers when we might hunker down for a bit. Last August, some of those storms lasted several hours and the cards were very popular.

It's not a game, but I have a cool ultralight kite I like to fly over Sierra lakes from time to time. "Hey, fellas, remember Ben Franklin?" :retard:

Although we fish, hike, wade and screw around on off days, I'd never support a game like capture the flag, etc... that would involve running cross-country, yelling and etc... That doesn't fit my wilderness ethos and I wouldn't want to deal with the image it could project to other backpackers.

oldranger wrote:
Sometimes when my wife is with me there is a little variation.

Knew I should have written "G" rated.

No games per se...but I do take a tiny Sudoku book, that serves as both entertainment and fire starter. Once I finish a puzzle, I leave it in the book...and every once in a while I can start a fire with those.

Other than that, it's fishing, sitting around the fire, watching the sun go down, watching the starts come out...and, yes, my wife is there too!

My wife and I have enjoyed many rounds of dominoes in the backcountry on our travels. We usually play a game during one of our midday snack breaks, and often play some more in the tent after dinner.

I carry my smartphone with me now (mainly for an alarm clock) and have some games on it, but I don't touch those

I am not really big on games, but I have played cards a handful of times. I never bring cards or anything like that. Occasionally I will bring pad and paper to draw or write. Usually I hike all day, and spend downtime in camp studying the maps.

In scouts we played capture the flag, hide and seek, ect....fun fun fun!

Oh, and I carry a smartphone with me too, and I have peaks passes trails on it. I will read that if I have battery power to spare

Only once. Last year when my kid and I were "stuck", we made a checkerboard and played many games. Other than that, there's too much to do. I'm normally (always) the cook and clean-up, so there's no time in the evening. I brought a book once, it was a solo trip.

Good point--I once carved a chess set ( very minimal) during a rainy few days forty years ago.

And we played chess once before the clouds disappeared.