Woodlands Trail Advancement

The Troop 1202 Woodlands Trail program closely models national Trail Life guidelines, which can be found here. On this page, we will step through the basic parts of each level of advancement, which are the branches, and then move on to secondary and elective advancement. We've also put together another page that describes the program structure, to include what each branch entails, and how credit is earned.

Woodlands Trail is broken into three Patrols - Foxes, Hawks, and Mountain Lions. These are typically based on age, but in some cases, we assign patrols based on grade (for boys with summer birthdays). Foxes start with boys who are 5 by October 31st of the program year, Hawks start with boys who are 7 by October 31st of the program year, and Mountain Lions start with boys who are 9 by October 31st of the program year.

For specific questions on the Woodlands Trail program or its contents, please contact the Woodlands Trail Ranger, Jeremiah Brauhn, at j.brauhn@gmail.com.

After a Trailman earns all 7 branches (one for each area of study/skill development), the earn their Forest Award. This typically occurs at the end of the season awards ceremony (September) but can occur at other points during the year (for example, if the Trailman joined late and needed part of their second year to complete one or more area of study). The Forest award replaces the joining patch.

As mentioned above, the lesson material cycles through all 7 areas each year, so a Trailman will study each area twice during their tenure with a patrol. The content is staggered so that they are studying different material each time - fire building in year one, knot tying in year two, for example, in the Outdoor Skills area. In the second pass through the material, once they have completed the required activities, they will earn a sylvan star, which they will affix to the appropriate color on their Forest Award.

For each branch and star, the Trailman will be required to complete a certain number of activities. In Troop 1202, these are as follows:

1) Core Lesson Material - for each branch, lessons will be taught that focus on fundamentals, such as fire safety. Trail Life places higher importance on some areas than others (Values, for example), so you may see more than one core lesson in a particular area during the program year.

2) Elective Lesson Material - after the core lesson material is taught, elective materials are learned, to help supplement the core material. For example, learning about nutrition is an elective taught as part of the sports and fitness area.

3) Hit-the-Trail Events - in the spirit of applied learning and adventure, Trailmen attend dedicated events focused on each of the 7 areas. Events may cover more than one area of learning. These events are scheduled in addition to the bi-weekly troop meetings. For example, a bike-a-thon may be scheduled to accomplish Hit-the-Trail credit for both sports and fitness, and science and technology.

4) At-Home Activities - at-home activities may be used to make up for a missed core/elective lesson, or hit-the-trail activity. However, at-home activities are not intended to replace attendance at troop meetings. Depending on circumstances (illness, etc), extensive use may be permitted at the discretion of the Ranger and Troopmaster. A complete list can be found here.

The Timberline Award is the highest award a Trailman can achieve in the Woodlands program, and is based on the 4 manhood principles that form the basis of the Trail Life curriculum. Trail Life holds these principles as essential for understanding what it is to have a Godly identity as a man. In working toward the award, the Trailman will not only have to extensively study the four manhood principles, but also demonstrate them outwardly through interaction with others, both within the troop and without.