The Red Tailed Eyas gathered for their third outing of the season above lake padden right at the foot hill of galbraith mountain. This is a really great patch of forest that is off the beaten path for most hikers and has many acres of woodland that sits well of trail, a perfect place for us to explore. We made our way out of the parking lot in search of a good opening meeting spot. We joked about halloween costumes, compared amounts of candy swindled for the year and explored licorice fern roots on our way to opening circle. 
At opening circle we talked about how the last outing (service at connelly creek!) was a pretty structured outing. The need to wander, explore, and make decisions as a group was expressed by all. On this note the boys decided that we all needed a game.
We headed into the forest in search of a good spot to play Eagle Eye This was a new game for all the boys and everyone expressed excitement to learn it. We found a lush valley veiled by giant sword ferns and numerous fallen mossy logs; this is just the kind of environment that lets explorers and mentors alike disappear into the underbrush. We began our first round of eagle eye, everyone dashing in different directions to hide before the “eagle” opened his eyes. From my hiding place nestled at the base of a sword fern I could hear boys yelling and small arguments about whether or not someone had been seen or not. This commotion persisted through the game and escalated to the point that I even had a hard time hearing the eagle bring us all in. As the first round ended we gathered together as a group to discuss the game. There was voices of those that felt impatience at the fact that the rest of the group had been so disruptive. As mentors we strive to give these boys the tools necessary to let them settle these questions of fairness, honor, and respect rather than step in and solve them for these boys. After a solid twenty minutes of discussion these boys identified the points of friction in the game and came up with ways to solve these.
The next two rounds went really smoothly. Significantly less noise, fewer disputes about who had been found and who had not, and overall a much better attitude toward the whole game. Realizing our impact on this little patch of forest we decided to move on in search of new terrain to explore. We spent the rest of the day exploring this patch of forest, running through the woods, Hide, spy training games, remembering birds, getting to know trees, laughing, staying warm, tasting licorice root, and rejoicing the lack of rain.
As the day ended we again stopped to make some decisions on how to spend the rest of the day. Some boys wanted to practice their carving others wanted to play a Spiders Web and others just wanted to keep exploring. It was challenging to do so much work on group decision making in one day. These boys are still working on listening to others as they speak instead of continuing with their individual discussions. Again it took a while but we did finally reach a point where each boy had said what he needed to say and the group had maintained enough focus to hear each other out.
We had a brief closing meeting and headed back just before the rain started! thank you Red Tailed Eyas for a fun filled outing! I am so happy to be a part of your time in Explorers club! be sure to check out our photo gallery for more pictures.
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