Backpacking Merit Badge
The eleven requirements with the two plan-and-execute pairs the text names (9(a) into 9(e), 11(a) into 11(b)) drawn as conditions, the scale of requirements 10 and 11 shown at the front, and the two requirements that have to be scheduled onto a trek rather than done at home flagged where a reader will still meet them in time.
12 steps (26 parts inside them). · Version 1, published 13 August 2026 · About Backpacking Merit Badge
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This is the whole plan: everything that could apply to anybody.
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The steps
Stage 1 of 12
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1. The health concerns of backpacking, prevented and treated Requirement
A specific list: hypothermia, heat reactions, frostbite, dehydration, insect stings, tick bites, snakebite and blisters. Both prevention and treatment, discussed with your counselor.
Stage 2 of 12
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2. What to carry, and how to carry less of it Requirement
Two parts, and between them they decide what your pack weighs on all four of the outings this badge needs.
Stage 3 of 12
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3. The crew: how many, how organised, how to keep it safe Requirement
Four parts of trek-crew theory, and 3(d) reappears as a named component of the written plan at requirement 11(a).
Stage 4 of 12
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4. Leave No Trace, waste, cleanliness and campsites Requirement
Three parts. The Leave No Trace Seven Principles and the Outdoor Code are named again inside both requirement 10 and requirement 11(b), which is unusual emphasis.
Stage 5 of 12
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5. Water: treating it, and drinking enough of it Requirement
Two parts, one demonstrated and one explained.
Stage 6 of 12
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6. Navigation, and one part of it that has to happen on a trek Often forgotten Requirement
Three parts. Two are indoor work and the middle one is not, which is exactly how the middle one gets missed.
3 parts
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6(b). Fix your position at three locations, WHILE ON A TREK Often forgotten THIS CANNOT BE DONE AT A MEETING. The requirement puts you on a trek to establish your position on the ground at three different locations. Its neighbours 6(a) and 6(c) are both indoor work, which is exactly how this one gets ticked in someone's head and never actually done. Put it on your FIRST trek under requirement 10: it costs twenty minutes there, and it costs a whole extra outing if you reach the end of requirement 11 without it.
Stage 7 of 12
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7. Preparing for weather that does not cooperate Requirement
How to prepare for inclement weather and how to deal with it once it arrives. One requirement, no parts, and it covers four outings.
Stage 8 of 12
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8. Stoves, fuel, three cooked meals and clean gear Requirement
Four parts. One of them, like 6(b), has to happen on a trek rather than at home.
4 parts
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8(b). Operate a stove safely, and handle liquid fuel safely Often forgotten
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8(d). Clean gear and proper food storage, on a trek Often forgotten The food-storage half of this part is to be practised WHILE ON A BACKPACKING TREK. Like requirement 6(b), it needs you to be out there, and like 6(b) it sits among parts that are all indoor work. Schedule both onto the same trek and neither gets lost.
Stage 9 of 12
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9. Plan a two-mile hike, inspect, pack, and walk it Requirement
Five parts that run as one exercise: the plan at 9(a) is the plan that 9(e) walks. This is the rehearsal for requirement 11 at a fifteenth of the distance.
5 parts, 1 ticked
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9(a). Write a plan and schedule for a 2-mile patrol or crew hike Often forgotten
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9(e). Walk the two miles, fully loaded, using your own plan Often forgotten
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Stage 10 of 12
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all ticked
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10. Three treks: three days and 15 miles each, two campsites each Often forgotten Requirement
Three separate outings of at least three days and at least fifteen miles, each using at least two different campsites, carrying everything you need throughout. Following the Leave No Trace Seven Principles and the Outdoor Code. This is forty-five miles and nine days on one line.
READ THIS REQUIREMENT ON DAY ONE OF THE BADGE. Three treks, each at least three days and at least 15 miles, each using at least two different campsites: 45 miles and nine days in the field, on one line, arriving tenth. With requirement 11 that is a minimum of fourteen days and 75 miles across four separate outings, each needing a date, a route, permission and people. Everything numbered 1 to 9 is preparation for these four trips. Find the dates before you start the badge, not after requirement 9.
Stage 11 of 12
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11. The five-day, 30-mile trek: plan it, take it, journal it Often forgotten Requirement
Three parts that are one undertaking. The plan is a real document, the trek carries a service project, and the journal is kept daily while you are out.
This requirement is a second undertaking on the scale of requirement 10, not a summing-up: five full days, at least 30 miles, at least three different campsites, a written plan, a service project and a daily journal. Nothing on this badge except requirement 10 is comparable. Treat it as the reason the badge takes a season.
3 parts
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11(a). Write the trek plan, six named parts Often forgotten
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11(b). Take the trek as planned, with a service project on it Often forgotten Usually comes after 11(a). Write the trek plan, six named parts. The service project on this trek must be APPROVED BY YOUR COUNSELOR. Agree what it will be before you leave. You will be several days from anywhere when you do it, and a project settled on the trail is a project nobody approved.
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11(c). Keep a daily journal DURING the trek Often forgotten The journal is kept DURING the trek and it is a DAILY one: a day-by-day description with what worked and what you would change. It is written last on the badge, which makes it read like a write-up, and it is not one. If it has not been started on the first night it cannot be kept at all, and there is no second 30-mile trek to fix it on. Pack something to write in.
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Stage 12 of 12
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Counselor signs it off Milestone
The completion date is the date you met the requirements, not the date of the signature.
Usually comes after 11. The five-day, 30-mile trek: plan it, take it, journal it.
Merit badge requirements are republished annually. A Scout beginning work uses the requirements as they stand then; a Scout already working may finish under the ones they started with. Guide to Advancement 7.0.4.3 governs which applies. This page records the date its copy was read. Check it against the official page before relying on it.
This plan is a planning aid: the current Boy Scouts of America publication is always the authority, and the sources used here are listed in full. Each step names its own.