Owner's Scouting

	Your host and outfitter, John Schiefelbein, first paddled the border lakes canoe country as a Boy Scout in 1965. The previous year, on the summer camp staff for the old West Suburban Council near Chicago (now DesPlaines Valley Council), he had guided Scout canoe trips on the Wolf River in northern Wisconsin. It was on these early trips that his love for the wilderness, canoeing, and Scouting began. As the years passed, his skills were honed through backpacking in the Rockies, SCUBA diving in the Caribbean, and mountain climbing in the Pacific Northwest. While serving as an intelligence pilot in Vietnam, he taught the skills of survival, escape, and evasion as his unit's Training Officer. Upon returning to civilian life, the call of the canoe country kept bringing him back year after year.
	In the 70's he became very active with the Heart of America Council (Kansas City), mainly in the area of Council Adult Leader Training and District Programs. In addition to teaching Scouter Basic Training and Show-an-do, he served in several staff positions for the North Central Region's "Wood Badge" advance training program. His favorite course, however, was the council's High Adventure Brigade Training held each fall. There he had a chance to share his well honed knowledge of, and deep feelings for, wilderness canoeing.
	In 1983 he decided that outfitting canoe trips in northern Minnesota should be his new career and formed NORTH COUNTRY CANOE OUTFITTERS. His current Scouting contacts are primarily in the area of outfitting many Scout units each summer so they, too, can fall in love with the north country.

Owner's Scouting

ACTIVITIES ATTENDED:

1960 National Jamboree - Colorado Springs, Colorado

1963 Region 7 Explorer Canoe Base - Boulder Junction, Wisconsin

1964 National Jamboree - Valley Forge, Pennsylvania

1964 Philmont Scout Ranch - Cimarron, New Mexico

1965 Region 10 Explorer Canoe Base - Ely, Minnesota

1965 National Order of the Arrow Conference - Indianapolis, Indiana

1966 National Camping School (Scoutcraft) - Schiff Scout Reservation

1981 National Order of the Arrow Conference - Austin, Texas

VARIOUS ADULT POSITIONS HELD:

Unit Organizer

Troop Committee Member

Troop Committee Chairman

Assistant Scoutmaster

Scoutmaster

Unit Commissioner

Assistant District Commissioner

District Vice-Chairman: Program

District, Council, and Regional Training Staffs

AWARDS RECEIVED:

Scouter Training Award ('79)

Scouter's Key ('80)

Commissioner Arrowhead ('81)

Commissioner's Key ('82)

Wood Badge (2 Beads) ('82)

Wood Badge (3 Beads) ('83)

Tribe of Mic-O-Say, Honorary Warrior ('83)

Order of the Arrow, Brotherhood Member ('63)

Pro Deo Et Patria, Lutheran Scout Award ('64)