Making Problems into Possibilites at Locust Beach

On yet another February outing, the Roosevelt Elk Calves met up at Locust Beach ready to see what we could find. The beach is always a place full of mysteries to investigate and there is never a lack of the unexpected. This would hold true throughout our outing, but our first unexpected encounter definitely stretched our edges.

Taking in that fresh ocean air

Making our way down to the beach we took in scenery breathing in the fresh sea air while getting an impromptu kite surfing demo by a fellow beach goer who was out trying to catch a few waves on a windy afternoon. Traversing along the beach, the high tide forced us to clamor over a muddy mess of eroded hillside in order to push to the northern part of the beach. Bringing up the rear, the mentors were met with some sounds of distress; “I’m stuck!” “I lost my shoe!” “Help me get free!” Before the mentors even knew what had happened, half the group was stuck knee deep in a thick mud. Upon further inspection we discovered the ‘mud’ was actually clay! The crumbling clay had mixed with a small stream draining off the hillside to create a substance that clung onto boots, hands, and anything else that ended up in it. As the first half of the group, who made it across the muddy mound before it was mixed up into a clay bog, began gathering chunks of clay for pottery projects, the mentors were left helping the rest of the group dig themselves out. With a little ingenuity and a patience we were able to work ourselves free. Grabbing driftwood and tree branches the mentors laid down a foundation of debris to help spread our weight across the viscous surface. With all the Elk Calves safely across the clay pit all that was left was for the mentors to dig out a few shoes and we were back on track for the rest of our outing.

A ball of harvested clay

Any better symbolism for "turning problems into possibilities"?

 With such a curve ball thrown our way at the start of our outing the mentors decided to toss out some of our tracking curriculum in order to let the group explore and play to get some morale back. Unsurprisingly this group had a wealth of inspirations to follow today. First and foremost was gathering clay to work into some a variety of pottery projects. Keeping the fun times rolling we pushed further along the beach and were off onto our next project; a driftwood shelter. Busting out the saws we practiced safely cutting pieces of driftwood down to the right size. Next up some of us decided to try and make some stone tools. Finding particularly nice stones to grind an edge onto a couple of the Explorers set the intention to make a stone axe. Although this lofty goal wasn’t going to be accomplished in one outing it was impressive to see this sort of inspiration to work on a primitive skill arise without any prompting from the mentors. Our final project for the day was practicing some of our fire skills. Foraging along the beach we found a nice piece of birch bark, some dried grass, and a few other tinder materials. After some preparation and guidance from the mentors a few of the Elk Calves took turns trying to spark a flame with ferro rods. Lastly the remainder of the group got lost exploring the shoreline. Walking up and down, picking through the muck to find sea worms, wading out into the shallows, and cracking jokes the whole time, we all found something to keep us entertained and smiling. 

Grinding an edge onto a rock to make a "stone axe"

Working on a driftwood shelter

Working on our fire skills (oh and by the way we found a bird wing!)

With our outing coming to a close the group circled up for a discussion on some of the deeper philosophies that drive our development in the Art of Tracking. Continuing on with our analogy of thinking about tracking as reading a story (tracks=letters, line of tracks=sentences, etc.) we discussed the questions we need to ask while we are trying to read our tracking stories. Just like English class we use the same questions when writing a story; Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How:

1. Who made this track (Track and Sign Identification)
2. What was the animal doing (Track and Sign Interpretation)
3. When was this track made (Track and Sign Aging)
4. Where was this animal coming from, where is it going (Trailing)
5. Why was this animal doing what it was doing (Ecological/Environmental Tracking)
6.  How was this animal feeling (Intuitive Tracking)

Each set of tracks can be read to reveal its unique story

Although we only got a quick introduction into these basic tracking principles we hopefully planted a few seeds that we can harvest on future outings. With just enough time for closing circle we shared some thanks and cruised back to the trailhead to meet the parents. This was an outing that truly embodied our Explorers Club motto; “make problems into possibilities.” Despite some early setbacks, the Roosevelt Elk Calves rallied and ended up having a jam packed outing full of exploring our inspirations and working with all the mysteries and unexpected discoveries the beach always seems to offer.

Make sure to check out the rest of the photos from our outing here!

Sometimes its easy to forget how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful place!