Fall in the Pacific Northwest is truly a magnificent sight
to behold. The colors are breathtaking, the
forests are alive with preparations for winter, and the welcoming cool air is
crisp and clean. It’s also brief…sometimes
shockingly so. This year it seems winter
has come blowing in early and with determination. On our November 4th outing to
Arroyo Park the Sculpins were there to meet it.
They came prepared with the right gear and the right attitude. The Sculpins enthusiastically turned a
problem into a possibility.
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| Cold and snowy conditions beside Chuckanut Creek |
Mother nature threw us a snowy curveball this weekend, and
our original outing to Lookout Mountain Forest Preserve was relocated to a much
closer to home Arroyo Park. The Sculpins
arrived at the North Chuckanut Mountain trailhead with a little bit of
nervousness due to the cold weather and the abruptness of the snow, but they
were all well prepared with the appropriate cold weather layers. Their nervousness quickly melted away to huge
amounts of excited energy as the snowballs started to fly. Our opening circle took a little longer than
usual. It was important to go over the
plan for the day and to discuss the safety concerns that go along with
exploring in cold and wet weather, but who can concentrate with snow on the
ground?
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| Slippery bridge and branches heavy with snow |
The Sculpins are working on navigation as their earth skill
this year. The Sculpins checked out the
trail map. We talked about using natural
features to keep your bearings and understanding where you are in relationship
to where you started out on the trail. The
mentors had plans to dive deeper into this theme with various activities and
map reading. Much of these ideas were
quickly discarded. Sometimes you have to
deviate from the best of plans to fully embrace your time in nature. The trail to
Arroyo Park was covered with snow. The
smaller trees were bent over and drooping from the weight. The winds from the day before had uprooted
trees, and branches were down everywhere.
We shifted our original game plan to encompass a similarly powerful
lesson for the day. We played in the
woods.
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| Checking out a really cool waterfall |
On our hike to Arroyo Park the Sculpins made giant
snowballs, navigated downed trees and branches, and explored a waterfall. We crossed paths with a trail marathon and
got ambushed with snowballs by another Explorers Club group the Cave Dwellers. We set up a base camp under a
couple huge cedar trees and right next to Chuckanut creek. It was a perfect place for free exploration. One of our awesome mentors brought a camp
stove, and hot chocolate was ready for any who wanted to warm up.
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| Grabbing a quick snack at our base camp |
We again met up with the Cave Dwellers and decided to
combine our outings for a portion of our trip.
The large group was split up into teams and given 15 min. to build a
fort and stockpile snowballs. The Sculpins and the cave dwellers had a massive snowball fight. Inevitably, as the snowball fight stretched
on the boys got wet and tired. Emotions
were running a little hot, and the need to address some interpersonal stresses
arose. Escalation and de-escalation was
discussed, and we ended the outing with a positive closing circle.
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| Setting teams and rules for an epic snowball fight |
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| getting ready for a snowball fight |
Turning problems into possibilities is an important Wild
Whatcom motto. The young people
participating in explorers club are constantly navigating ideas, issues and
factors that are rich with complexity. Again and again I am amazed by the flexibility,
insight and awareness demonstrated by these explorers. Change is constant. Shifting weather patters, our natural world, and
interpersonal relationships are consistent themes of adversity. The sculpins embraced all of these concepts
with lots of energy, smiling faces, and of course…a little hot chocolate.
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| Snacks and hot chocolate |
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