Give Caleb Howard some steel wool, a 9-volt battery, a magnifying glass, magnesium, steel and dryer lint, and the eighth-grader will give you a fire. In fact, that's just one of three ways Caleb can start a fire.

Caleb's exceptional outdoor skills are one reason he was able to become an Eagle Scout at age 13, making him the youngest boy in the state to earn the rank in the last several years, according to the local Boy Scouts of America council.

Caleb has also earned straight A's at Hillsboro-Deering Middle School and has a brown belt in karate. When he's not studying or scouting, he plays soccer, basketball, piano and guitar.

When his mother, Janice Dion, was asked how Caleb does it all, she had not finished her sentence before Caleb interjected: "Motivation and discipline."

Caleb, of Hillsboro, started scouting in first grade.

"My friends were in Cub Scouts, and I thought it would be fun," he said. "I like camping, outdoors stuff."

In fifth grade, he became a Boy Scout and has since earned 24 merit badges - becoming an Eagle Scout requires 21 badges. The most fun badge, Caleb said, was wilderness survival. He and three friends spent a night camping with no sleeping bags and only a small pack of supplies. Although it was June, the night was cold, he said, and the boys slept between two rocks, covered with a roof of sticks and ferns for warmth.

Last year, he served as senior patrol leader - the youngest Scout ever to attain that position in his troop, his mother said. At scouting camp last summer, Caleb was responsible for solving any problems that arose. "They listened to me because I knew more than them at the moment," he said.

Caleb helped several boys switch sleeping arrangements when they did not get along with their tentmates. When one boy had trouble preparing for a swim test, Caleb stayed with him in the shallow end of the pool while his friends went to the deep end.

Shannon McGuire said when her son Andrew broke his leg, Caleb picked up homework for his friend and helped him catch up with schoolwork. McGuire said when she asks Andrew to take out the trash, "He'll say, 'not now.' But Caleb will say, 'Hey Andrew, why don't you help your mom out?' "

For his Eagle Scout service project, Caleb found 20 people to help him cut a new trail on Mount Monadnock. The project rerouted three-quarters of a mile of the lower section of the Dublin Trail. Geoffrey Jones, director of land management for the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, said the society recently built a new parking lot at the base of the mountain. The new route brings the Dublin Trail to the new lot, and takes the trail out of an area that can get muddy and is used to harvest timber. The new trail, which could be open by Memorial Day, follows a ravine and a brook.

"It's an exciting change," Jones said.

Caleb said he spent about 80 hours planning, organizing and finding equipment. He met with a representative from the Forest Society, who taught him about safety regulations and how to use saws and other tools. On the mountain, the group cut trees, removed brush and cleared the trail of debris. The work took about six hours - with enough time for a hike and a picnic.

Both parents have supported Caleb in scouting - Dion is a merit badge counselor, and his dad, Edwin Howard, goes on camping trips with the troop.

"He's very motivated and is a perfectionist. When he colored at age 3 or 4, if he colored outside the line, he'd tear it up as not good enough," Dion said. "I never had to sit with him to go over homework. He never needs help, he just gets it done."

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