Why are the girls more cheerful than the boys?

Out riding this morning, dull, cold and drizzling.
Approach a group of young girls all kitted out for their DoE trip, as I pass say morning and was greeted with big smiles and greeting from all of them. A few yards down the road a group of boys also kitted out for a DoE trip, said morning and… nothing just a deadly silence.

Boys at that age are all about proving how macho they are, so that they can impress the "kitted out girls".

my DoE group for my gold qualifying this year is myself and 5 girls 😆

Anyway, if i see anything MTB related while on DoE i usually greet it with big smiles. 😉

When I did DoE gold it was just geeky lads. I am no longer a geeky lad though. I am now a geeky man.

seen a few documentaries that investigate this sort of issue – when they get to the hostel the girls will be in the hot showers with soap and music and lots of laughter – meanwhile the boys will be in the bunks and be expected to check the density of the pillows

oh if you're going to get into that….

Silver qualifying my group planned a nice route but it was criticised for being too short despite taking in a lot of peaks and doing a lot of climbing.. the girls group however.. were pretty much allowed to walk round the edge of the lake doing a shorter than route than we proposed by about 10 miles and doing about 100m of climbing a day :/

they always get the nicer rooms at the hostels too.. strange stuff.

Hostels? DofE? Think someone's missed the point. I can remember carrying a Force10 for my Bronze which when you weigh about 6 stone and are 5'3" tall was a bit of a struggle.
About 15 years ago we used to assist with a Surrey group and it was quite funny the we used to walk with 25l kimmsacs with plenty for a weekend and the kids all had 60 or 70l rucsacs with hairdryers, 2 or 3 spare pairs of jeans (packed by mum) and more. We used to take luggage tags and bin liners so after the first day they could ditch 2/3rds of the unwanted stuff.

oh hostels as we have training days and general hiking days before the actual expedition. then its 4 days of tent + lotsa food – i never seem to take enough.

^ +1 about the hostels. Was the force10 the Vango orange A-frame thing? That's what we had to use. Kids these days…

When I did my DoE Gold we stayed in hostels, however we did do it in the Alps, and as payment for staying in Hostels we had to do a peak each day. It was one of the hardest things I have done, but ultimatly worth it

I sometimes instruct DoE gold mountainbike expeditions and yes the lads can be hard work at times … they often forget that riding a fully loaded bike off road is hard work 😉

Stuart

@still. how are those run exactly? i've always been curious

.duncan the cycle expeditions are done pretty much the same way as walking expeditions. Groups are expected to camp and carry all their own gear (panniers etc). Daily ride time is meant to be 6 hours in the saddle covering around 50k per day … for various reasons (poor nav', being lazy, etc) I've seen groups out for 12 hours. One group of lads from a very posh school once took 7 hours to ride 9K 😯 over part of the Sarn Helen.

The hardest part is making sure atleast some of the group have a certain amount of mechanical know how … buckled rear wheels is the biggest problem due to the weight they're carrying and (often) poor riding.

Finding 4 day routes that'll keep they away from temptation can also be tricky … Scotland and mid Wales tend to be the prime areas. Wide open spaces and no shops!

Stuart

Why are the girls more cheerful than the boys?

I teach DofE expeds – trust me you're so wrong it's unreal. The girl groups start off sweetness and light and turn into bitchy packs picking on each other unless they were all a group of friends before starting it. The blokes generally look a bit tired but still fairly cheery even when it's raining and horrible. And they don't tend to bitch and moan.