Meeting up at Lookout Mountain on a drizzly December day,
the Roosevelt Elk Calves were finally reunited with nearly the whole group.
After our last outing navigating along Chuckanut Ridge with only half the
group, it was great to see the whole gang of Elk Calves back together again. Of
course, the playful energy of this group was on full display from the moment
they were dropped off. However, after getting prompted by the mentors to circle
up around the map they quickly pulled it together as they have continually
proven capable of doing. We shared what we did on our last outing with those
who missed it discussing navigation, honing our internal compass, and what
natural features and tendencies we can utilize to help us navigate in wild
spaces. The group was able to recall everything we talked about from using the
sign to determine the cardinal directions, to remembering the number/direction
of turns on a trail map, to pulling on local knowledge of the landscape to
orient ourselves. The Roosevelt Elk Calves were then prompted with picking a
location on the map to navigate to and with some collaboration and compromise
we came to a consensus and hit the trail.
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| Planning our day on the trailhead map |
Luckily, a friendly hiker informed us there was some brush
clearing taking place along the main gravel road. Looking at the map we
determined the best route to take to avoid the main trail and were able to make
it all the way to our destination with only crossing over the main trail once.
Along the way we encountered quite a few downed trees across the trail, so the
Explorers took it upon themselves to use a pack saw to clear the way. Not only
was this a nice way for us to leave a place better than how we found it, but
taking turns sawing up the trees helped keep us warm on a chilly day.
Eventually we made it to the waterfall lookout and stopped to eat some lunch
before continuing on.
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| Working on tree #1 |
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| Working away on Tree #2 |
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| Many hands makes light work, plus taking turns kept us all warm! |
Mustering ourselves with full bellies we continued to push
up the trail to our final destination to hang out by the creek area above the
waterfall. Upon settling in to our destination we decided to spend some time
playing games before transitioning to free time. The Roosevelt Elk Calves came
up a with a game much like sumo wrestling where they took turns going
one-on-one trying to push the other out of a circle. Of course we needed to
make this into a tournament so the Explorers worked their way through a bracket
system to arrive at a champion before splitting off for free time.
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| Eating lunch by the waterfall |
With an expansive environment and a variety of interests to
pursue in our remaining time we all broke off into smaller groups and got busy
building a bridge to cross the creek, practicing our fire skills, or just hanging
out and romping around the forest. The bridge building crew was under tight
supervision as the creek was flowing quite strong and it was a cold day. The
remaining Explorers got together to try and see if they could gather enough
kindling in 10 minutes to start fire with matches. This was no easy feat as the
forest was absolutely saturated and we couldn’t find any material that wasn’t
at least a little damp. Of course, some of the Roosevelt Elk Calves remembered
that Western Hemlock makes some of the best kindling you can find. With its
spindly branches that remain on the tree after dying it is usually fairly dry
and thin enough to light from a match in no time. Unfortunately we just weren’t
able to get anything to light, but it was a good reminder of how important it
is to practice our skills so when we need to rely on them they are honed and
ready to take care of us in a time of need. We finished the day with a hike
back down the trail in high spirits and hopeful for what is in store during our
upcoming outings in the new year.
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| Bridge builders at work |
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| Testing our fire skills |
Make sure to check out the rest of our photos from the outing
here!
