Why care about "days" camped in addition to "nights"?

Why should we care about “days” camped if requirements care only (?) about nights? So, when we have a Friday/Saturday/Sunday campout, we count that as 2 nights and then, by default, count it as 2 days. Is there any reason to be more accurate on the days side? What am I missing?

NOAA awards call for them

2 Likes

There are some requirements that use “days”. Here are some:

  1. The National Outdoor Awards
  2. Backpacking merit badge

If you are camping Friday / Saturday / Sunday, then I would count it as 2 nights / 3 days.

On the main NOAA it talks about days and nights, but then moves to just units of nights for accounting purposes. Is there some where else it talks of days?

“ 4. Complete 25 days and nights of camping—including six consecutive days (five nights) of camping (Sea Scouts may be on a boat), approved and under the auspices and standards of the Boy Scouts of America—including nights camped as part of requirements 1 through 3 above. Scouts must complete six consecutive days (five nights) of the 25 nights at a BSA accredited resident camp.

A gold device may be earned for each additional 25 nights of camping. A silver device is earned for each additional 100 nights of camping. The youth may wear any combination of devices totaling his or her current number of nights camping.“

I do see where backpacking trek could be 3 days and 2 nights. Thanks for the reference!

The NOA badge for Camping says:

“4. Complete 25 days and nights of camping …”

In most cases, the number of days is probably the number of nights camped + 1.