When planning the Spring Season for the Red Tailed Eyas The culminating traverse from the two dollar trail up to fragrance lake and down to larrabee state park was a gamble. Mid November can provide us with nice sunny weather for outings, but it can also dish out a fare share of rainy windy and cold days. The Red Tailed Eyas lucked out on the weather as it happened to be a beautiful clear crisp fall day; perfect for a long traverse in the Chuckanuts.
With a cold day we all decided to hike the first part of the trail before sitting for our opening circle. The two dollar trail starts of by gaining a good chunk of elevation in a series of steep switchbacks; perfect for warming up our bodies. At the top of the switch back the boys in front found a wonderful spot for an opening circle just off the trail under a couple of large cedars and douglas firs. We settled into a circle to hand out jobs and talk about our traverse. A traverse is unique to Explorers in that it requires a certain amount of commitment since it demands ending up at a specific spot at the end of the day.
With a tribal elder now in place we left it up to The Red Tailed Eyas to decide where they wanted to take breaks and how they wanted to spend the time that we wouldn’t be hiking. The boys were reluctant to step up to make the decision and spent most of the first part of the circle talking amongst themselves about unrelated topics instead of working together to make the decision. As a mentor this is a tricky moment where you need to provide the boys enough time and space to make the decision on their own with the belief they have the skills to do so; but also give them enough guidance and tools to make the decision making process as smooth as possible. It took a while and more guidance than usual but eventually the Red Tailed Eyas came together and made some key decisions about the day. As we began hiking one of the boys said “wow that didn’t take much time once we all focused on what everyone was saying” I couldn’t have agreed more.
With a cold day we all decided to hike the first part of the trail before sitting for our opening circle. The two dollar trail starts of by gaining a good chunk of elevation in a series of steep switchbacks; perfect for warming up our bodies. At the top of the switch back the boys in front found a wonderful spot for an opening circle just off the trail under a couple of large cedars and douglas firs. We settled into a circle to hand out jobs and talk about our traverse. A traverse is unique to Explorers in that it requires a certain amount of commitment since it demands ending up at a specific spot at the end of the day.
With a tribal elder now in place we left it up to The Red Tailed Eyas to decide where they wanted to take breaks and how they wanted to spend the time that we wouldn’t be hiking. The boys were reluctant to step up to make the decision and spent most of the first part of the circle talking amongst themselves about unrelated topics instead of working together to make the decision. As a mentor this is a tricky moment where you need to provide the boys enough time and space to make the decision on their own with the belief they have the skills to do so; but also give them enough guidance and tools to make the decision making process as smooth as possible. It took a while and more guidance than usual but eventually the Red Tailed Eyas came together and made some key decisions about the day. As we began hiking one of the boys said “wow that didn’t take much time once we all focused on what everyone was saying” I couldn’t have agreed more.
With our decision made we began the hike up the trail toward fragrance lake. The hike went quickly. A good pace and few stops got us up to the lake in time for lunch. We found a great spot around the edge of fragrance lake. An open sandstone rock provided enough space for everyone to spread out. As we sat we saw the ripples cast by small fish feeding at the surface of the lake, and saw several birds fly far above us. Even on this still cold day the forest was full of life.
The cold weather kept our lunch break short; before leaving we gathered the boys together to make a quick decision on whether we wanted to head straight down to larrabee state park and have extra time at the beach, or spend our extra time in the forest around the lake. Again the Red Tailed Eyas could not hold their focus in the group long enough to make this decision quickly. With everyone getting cold as we stood there a couple boys stepped up to be really strong leaders in the group and help the boys make a decision.
We decided to spend our time up by the lake playing Spiders Web.The boys found a great spot for a game and organized it with little help from the mentors. It was nice to see the Red Tailed Eyas take initiative and really throw themselves into making a group decision. We had a short, but really good game of Spiders Web before it was time to begin our hike down.
We decided to spend our time up by the lake playing Spiders Web.The boys found a great spot for a game and organized it with little help from the mentors. It was nice to see the Red Tailed Eyas take initiative and really throw themselves into making a group decision. We had a short, but really good game of Spiders Web before it was time to begin our hike down.
We had a quick and pleasant hike down from fragrance lake and made it to larrabee with plenty of time for a good closing circle. In our closing circle the boys all shared sincere gratitude from the day and talked excitedly about the upcoming Spring Season. Thank you Red Tailed Eyas for your persistence and growth with group decisions and your undying curiosity and enthusiasm about the forest. Please checkout our photo gallery from more pictures from our outing!
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