Monday, December 11, 2017

The Sculpins Complete Their First Navigation Challenge at Padden Gorge

The Sculpins met for their final outing of the year last weekend on what turned out to be a cold but bright and sunny winter day. On this outing, the Sculpins were tasked with a navigation challenge that required them to use their collaborate and compromise skills to make decisions about where to go as they led themselves from the Padden Gorge all the way to the dog park at the other end of Lake Padden Park. Of course, we would take time to explore interesting off trail areas and play some games!
Frosty mornings on the trail


After all of us had arrived, we headed underneath a large cedar tree for our opening circle. As we began to circle up, one of us noticed some interesting looking scat. Naturally, we decided to take a closer look. Upon further inspection, we discovered that there were actually rose hips in this scat. With this knowledge, we took turns theorizing what kind of animal would have left this sign; who eats rose hips?


At our opening circle, the mentors provided the Sculpins maps of the park and instructions. The Sculpins were told that, as long as we made it their by 3:00pm, they could choose any way they wanted to get from where we were all the way to the dog park. We used the scale on the map to discover that the dog park was about 1.5 miles away. The Sculpins knew that this distance could be traveled in about an hour, or maybe even less, so they were excited to find a good spot to eat some lunch, do some free exploring and maybe even play Spider’s Web!
This is the same map that we handed to the Sculpins

After opening circle, we hit the trail and began navigating our way through the park. At first, our circles were slow, unfocused and sometimes frustrating for us. As we made more decisions about what trails to take as the day wore on, we became better at putting our decisions into context and identifying acceptable compromises quickly. As the Sculpins grow in Explorers Club, they will be given more and more voice and choice, and these collaborate and compromise circles are a crucial part of that process.
Our first decision point on the trail; which way to go?


We split our time between hiking along the trail and taking time to stop and explore all of the cool new areas that we were discovering. We climbed on downed logs, investigated Padden Creek, had snacks, observed fungi, found vistas and even got in two great games of Spiders Web!
A huge cedar tree that recently tipped over; the ground is wet this time of year

Hiking through the Padden Gorge

We came across some interesting patterns



Our closing circle held a bit more weight than it usually does. Today, Conor announced to the group that he will no longer be their Mentor at Wild Whatcom. Conor explained to the boys that another opportunity (working as a Montessori teacher in Spokane) had presented itself to him, and that he needed to take that opportunity. There was an initial wave of surprise and sadness that came over the group. We appreciated the opportunity give thanks for Conor’s time with us during our Attitude of Gratitude in our closing Circle of Thanks.


The Sculpins are better for having had Conor as their mentor. His playful, curious spirit will live on in this group was we continue to explore together for the rest of this year and for many more to come!

To see the rest of the photos from our day, click here!

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