The Roosevelt Elk Calves met at the
base of Stewart mountain for their second outing of the spring
season. As we gathered in the light drizzle, we explored the
interesting woods surrounding the parking lot in this location. The
pit and mound topography here is indicative of a healthy forest and
is also great for running around and camouflaging in!
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| This is how the REC gather at the beginning of an outing |
Once we were all there and accounted
for, we decided to head up toward Stewart Mountain rather than head
toward the beach trail on Lake Whatcom. It just didn't really feel
like a swimming kind of day.
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| Opening circle; nobody brought their swimsuit? |
We walked for quite a ways and gained
some elevation during the first part of our day. We knew that there
was a cool area up ahead to explore, so we were willing to put in the
effort to hike all the way up there right off the bat.
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| Hiking up, up, up! |
When we made it to a spot that seemed
suitable, we were given a choice. The mentors had brought a tarp to
set up, and they wanted to know if we wanted to set the tarp up on
our own or if we needed their help. We decided that, since we had
seen the mentors do this a few times before, we were going to
challenge ourselves and see what kind of shelter we could come up
with using just a tarp and paracord. To add extra flavor to this
challenge, the mentors gave us a ten minute time limit!
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| The Roosevelt Elk Calves put this up all by themselves, no help needed from the mentors! |
At the end of our time, we requested
and were granted a one minute extension, just enough time to stake
out our guy lines! We came up with a fully functional shelter that we
used for snacking and also keeping our backpacks dry.
Since our earth skills focus this
season is the Art of Harvest, we decided to practice harvesting
materials with which we could build a fire. Some of us worked on
collecting tinder, others kindling, and even others larger pieces of
dry fuel. The mentors helped us harvest these materials in an
specific way, using no living plants and gathering them so that minimal trace is left. This took up a good chunk of our day and we
enjoyed connecting our prior knowledge of native plants to this new
knowledge surrounding harvesting materials for fire.
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| Pounding cedar bark for tinder |
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| Utilizing the baton technique in order to make some kindling |
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| With all of our materials prepped, it was time to light the fire |
Eventually, we did get a small fire
going. The purpose of this fire was to teach us about harvest, so we
did not make it big enough to actually warm us up. Even in the
absence of significant heat, we still gathered around; we were all drawn toward the fire by the soft orange and yellow
flames licking the small pieces of dry wood that we were able to find
in this wet forest. Around this fire, we expanded our understanding
of harvest and had a very interesting and focused conversation about
global resource use and sharing. It was inspiring (and quite
impressive!) for the mentors to hear how tuned in all of us kids were
to some of these issues. While we certainly did not solve any of the
pressing environmental issues of our day, we did get a chance to
broaden the scope of our idea of harvest. We started at our own,
personal harvesting that we do in the woods and grew this idea to
include our collective harvesting that we do as a culture.
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| Discussing the flow of resources throughout our world |
We wrapped up this heady, somewhat
intense conversation and finished our day with some free exploration
and games. By this time, the threat of rain seemed to dissipate
and we packed up our tarp and headed for the parking lot where we
would meet our parents.
To see the rest of the pictures from
the day, click here!
