Red-Tailed Hawks Savor Fall Colors in the High Country near Hannegan Pass

The Red-Tailed Hawks met for their second outing of their final year on an absolutely beautiful fall day. The cool, clear weather, the explosion of fall colors, and mostly vacant trails are great reasons to get into the backcountry of the North Cascades this time of year. Before we loaded onto Moose, one of our Wild Whatcom busses, he had a circle and reminded ourselves of the increased risk of exploring deeper in the woods and agreed that we would maintain a backcountry mindset for the remainder of our day together.

Finding Pikas among the boulders near the trailhead

When we arrived at the trailhead, we took a moment to gather our packs as the mid-morning sun melted the last remaining patches of snow that fell the night before. Before setting out on the trail, the mentors prompted us to identify where we were. We used our collective knowledge and understanding to place ourselves near the headwaters the Nooksack watershed.

Lion's Mane fungus

One of the great aspects of the Hannegan Pass Trail is that it traverses along one side of a valley, alternating between avalanche chutes full of slide alder and vine maple and sections of old growth hemlock and fir forests. On a nice day, like the one that we had, you can see all the way across the valley and see the snow-dusted craggy peaks on the other side. On this hike, the stunning vistas were not located solely at the destination.

The Red-Tailed Hawks were appreciative of the fact that we were granted with so many great views along the way because we never made it to the pass. We have a motto in EC that states, “It’s about the journey, not the destination,” and the RTHs embodied this today. We took many breaks to observe bright yellow and red vine maple leaves, to find some mugwort, and to identify the tall, old conifers in the old growth forests along the way. Of course, we also took time to enjoy our lunches and hot chocolate while appreciating the stunning views across the valley.

A quick trail break for some food and water

Checking out some mugwort

Our first glimpse of Ruth Mountain as we come out of the forest

Ruth Mountain at the head of the valley

Back down at the trailhead, we took some time to talk about our EMA program and what being an EMA means. In our EC mentoring community, we often talk about how, “you teach who you are.” We asked the RTHs to think of and share some aspect of themselves that they plan to embody and/or bring to the younger group during their time as an EMA. This exercise did an effective job of highlighting how much experience and wisdom that the RTHs have. The younger groups are lucky to have the RTHs out with them as EMAs.

To finish, we had a circle of thanks where we practiced our attitude of gratitude just like we always do. We also shared excitement as we anticipated our next outing where we will be practicing the Art of Shelter by building snow caves!

To see the rest of the glorious photos from our day together, click here.

The Red-Tailed Hawks Set the Tone for Their Final Year Together

Every Explorers Club group gets a name given to them when they begin their journey together. As the groups age, they grow, learn and gain experience together.  After they have had a few years under their belts, the mentors let the group know that they can now change their name if they want, as long as they can all come to a consensus about what that name should be. Some groups change their names to reflect particularly challenging outings that they have had (Storm Wolves, Daredevils Club, Vespula Veterans). Other groups choose to change their name when they feel that they are entering a new stage in their Explorers Club journey. So, at the end of our inaugural campout of their last season together in Explorers Club, the Red-Tailed Eyas sat on a thick bed of moss under a towering old growth Hemlock and decided to change their name and become the Red-Tailed Hawks!

Our trusty steed, Moose

Now that you know how this weekend ended, let's start at the beginning. We gathered at Samish Woods and we shared stories of summer and reconnected with those members of our group that we hadn’t seen for a few months. Before we got on the bus, however, the mentors felt that it was important to introduce (or remind) us of what a “backcountry mindset” looks like.

The mentors let us know that, because we were going to be much further from definitive medical care (aka, in the backcountry), we would need to adopt a new way of being that was different from our behavior and attitudes on our usual, frontcountry explorations together. Together, we anticipated hazards and discussed actions that we could take to mitigate these hazards and the increased risk of being in the backcountry. We all agreed to “dial it back” before we got onto the bus and to keep living within that backcountry mindset for the next two days.

It was late morning by the time that we reached the Welcome Pass Trailhead, which was also our campsite. We took some time to scurry around in our new surroundings before we decided where to set up camp. We the RTHs are adept shelter builders and we utilized our knowledge of how to pick a proper site for a survival shelter to inform where we setup our tents. Once our sites had been picked, our mentors gave us our tent groups and tents and left us to our own devices for setting up our and organizing our gear inside of them.

Once we had taken care of getting the camp set up, the mentors allowed us to decide for ourselves how to use the next couple of hours. The forest floor was covered in thick moss and the pit and mound topography of these woods made our choice to play a game of Spider’s Web an easy one.

After the game we came back to camp to have a snack and, as is so often is the case with adolescent males, some roughhousing broke out. It was playful and all in good fun, however we had done a poor job of considering our backcountry mindset in this instance. The mentors tried to remind us to tone it down but we just couldn’t listen. After continuing to make unsafe decisions after we had been reminded to be more aware and intentional with our bodies, the mentors had to call us into a circle so that they could relay the importance of staying safe in the backcountry. The mentors found that, once we were all in a circle, we listened much better. High school is just around the corner for us, and the mentors let us in on some of the new responsibilities that we would have to take on as we entered young adulthood. As a group, we came away from that circle with an improved understanding of responsibility and a new awareness of what that responsibility needs to look like in our actions and choices.

Snacking

Our campout centered around what it means to be the eldest Explorers Club group and how we can get the most out of our last year together. We explored the idea of responsibility and maturity through a variety of different avenues. During an hour long sit spot, we had the opportunity to ponder what our relationship to nature looks and feels like. We spent time exploring old growth climax succession forests where cedar and hemlock dominate the canopy and shade out the understory. That leaves the forest floor covered with thick moss and sparsely spaced shade tolerant sword fern, huckleberry and hemlock saplings. We shared stories of our younger Explorer selves in order to see how much we have grown individually and as a group across a broad range of skills. We shared some of our trepidations about high school and about disbanding as a group next year. We also got the share with each other our answers the the question, “Why are you here, doing Explorer’s Club?”  It was inspiring for the mentors to see this kind of growth and depth from a group who not so long ago shirked new responsibility because childishness was so much more comfortable and easy.

A relativley young forest still full of small, tightly packed Douglas firs

Because of the steepness, smoke, and coming rain, the RTH decided to turn around at this point on our hike (about half way) They chose to spend the remainder of our day in a beautiful patch of old growth forest just off Hwy 542.

Huge downed trees provide excellent climbing structures..

... and great ways to move through the forest!

Returning to the bus after our closing circle.

The mentors felt honored and privileged to get to be a part of the Red-Tailed Eyas maturation into the Red-Tailed Hawks this past weekend. The mentors have been encouraging the RTHs to lean into new responsibility and maturity for a while now, but ultimately the RTHs decided to take that step together, on their own time. We are excited to see how this shift manifests in our coming outings and throughout our final year together.

Red Tailed Eyas Stretch Edges and Look Forward at Deming Homestead Eagle Preserve.

The Red Tailed Eyas completed their 2016-2017 season with an exciting, truly adventurous outing at Deming Eagle Park. There was a certain sense of ceremony to the day, at least for the mentors, because next year, the Red Tailed Eyas will be the eldest group of explorers in BEC. In an inspiring illustration of that transition, the RTEs leaned into the challenges of the day and intentionally made the choice to stretch their edges!

We piled into Moose (one of our trusty Wild Whatcom busses!) and headed for Deming Homestead Eagle Park for an extended outing. We were fortunate to get the best that spring weather has to offer with mostly clear skies and comfortable, warm temperatures. These conditions allowed us to go further today, and we are grateful for that.

Our plan for the day was to walk across a few hundred yards of an alluvial plain to eventually reach the bank of the Nooksack. We expected this to be a mostly dry hike with a few minor water crossings. Reality would offer up a different set of circumstances.

Upon reaching the park, we noticed that there was water almost up to the parking area! It turns out the recent rains combined with the sunny, warm weather of the day had caused lots of melting to occur in higher elevations, greatly increasing the flow of the Nooksack. We met as a group to make a decision about how we wanted to move forward with our day. Would we attempt to cross the cold, thigh deep water in an attempt to reach the main stem of the Nooksack, without knowing for sure if we would even be able to make it? Or would we decide to explore and play games in the meadows near the parking lot for the day?

Making decisions

We found a snake today too!

Knowing that we would likely be uncomfortable, cold, disoriented, and quite muddy at certain points of the day, we decided, in spite of that, that we wanted to go forth and attempt to find the main stem of the Nooksack. The mentors were impressed with the compassion that we showed each other by listening to each members reservations about the plan and collectively seeking ways to help each other feel good about our plan. Upon reaching the consensus, we prepared to cross some very cold water.

After sending out some scouts, we identified the best area to cross the first stream. We utilized our navigation skills and our resiliency as we made our way through dense thickets, crossed cold water that occasionally reached as high as our waist, and slopped through deep mud pits! Despite all of these challenges, we maintained a positive attitude that was contagious.

We followed our best instinct and used clues in the landscape to find our way to main stem of the Nooksack. Upon reaching the open stream bank, we allowed the suns strong rays to warm our bodies to the core.

Sunshine on the Nooksack

Soaking it allllll in

  

Cooling off in the chilly water

  

Somewhere in all that sand, there is an explorer!

After a quick activity that highlighted the natural tendency of humans to exclude one another, the mentors sat us down for a conversation about community. The mentors appreciated the courage we exhibited by sharing some of our personal experiences with bullying during this conversation. Being in the thick of middle school, hormones and growing pains, protecting each others emotional safety is a paramount responsibility for all members of our group. With this in mind, we renewed our commitment to maintaining a safe space at Explorers Club. The mentors noticed that, especially after this transformative year of exploration, we have reached a point in our maturity that we are able to have these serious discussions, and for that they are grateful.

This outing was a triumphant end to a year of important growth for the Red Tailed Eyas. At our closing circle we all gave thanks for our awesome day together. We also built some excitement by looking forward to next year, when two of our nine outings will be over nights! After changing into some dry clothes that (some of us!) had bought, we piled back into the bus and headed back to Bellingham.

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

Red Tailed Eyas Huddle and are Challenged by Fire Making

The Red Tailed Eyas met for their second outing of the spring season at the N. Lake Whatcom Trailhead. After reviewing the weather history, it turns out it rained almost a half an inch in Bellingham on this day! These observations matched what we actually observed in the field: rain, and lots of it! Luckily, Conor brought a tarp for us to use.

On our last outing, we were given a shelter and fire building challenge. We learned a lot during our debrief of this activity and recognized topics that we would like to learn more about. One of those was learning utilize tarps and paracord when making shelters. We also recognized that we needed more instruction on how to build a fire outside, especially in wet environments. Today the weather and the woods provided us with a great opportunity to further both our shelter and fire skills.

The space left where a nurse stump formerly existed

Hiking in the rain

After a long hike up into the woods, we came across a semi-protected grove of cedar trees and decided to set up camp here. We were introduced some of the considerations of setting up a tarp for a rain shelter. What way should the tarp angle? Will the wind affect the tarp here? What if I don't have very much paracord?

Taking refuge from the deluge

After getting our tarp set up, we sat down for a snack and a quick drink of water. After this, we set off into the surrounding forest to harvest materials that we needed to build our fire. Some of us collected brachiated hemlock boughs to use for kindling, others pounded cedar bark for tinder, and the rest of us found a downed cedar tree that looked like its branches may have been dry enough to use as fuel for our fire.

Preparing fuel by removing the bark from some downed cedar limbs

After some good group discussion around how to build and maintain a fire, and adequate time to source all of our materials, the time came to try and light this fire. This was challenging, and many of us took turns using ferrorods to send sparks into our (ideally) dry tinder bundle. In the end, however, we were unable to get this fire started. 

It was a solid attempt!

 While reflecting on the whole process, we recognized many things that we did well. We utilized all of the members of our group and shared the tasks of kindling collection, fuel collection, and tinder bundle making. We gathered enough of these materials so that we could maintain this fire for at least a half an hour. We respectfully took turns trying to light the fire. Unfortunately, we did not do a good job of keeping our materials dry while we were collecting them, and that ended up being the fatal blow to our fire building process. Nonetheless, it was a great learning experience for us as a group and illustrated the challenge of building a fire in a wet, wet forest. We decided that we deserved some warm tea after a strong effort, so we harvested cedar and hemlock tips and licorice root fern and made some warm drinks for our cold hands!

Heating some hemlock, cedar and licorice root fern tea

It should be noted that in addition to working well together as a group, we showed amazing resiliency today. It would be hard to imagine a randomly compiled group of middle schoolers who would be so happy and content to explore in a downpour for five straight hours. The mentors were impressed with our ability to keep ourselves entertained and happy with imagination games as well as task oriented focus. Be sure to check out the rest of the pictures form this outing here.

The Red-Tailed Eyas Collaborate at N. Galbraith

For their first outing of the spring season, the Red Tailed Eyas gathered at N. Galbraith.  As we waited for everyone to arrive, some of us rubbed the sleep from our eyes while others partook in some typical morning roughhousing.  During this time, some of us remarked, almost proudly, that as a group, the Red Tailed Eyas don’t have “focus” and that we “don’t work well as a team,” and “would rather squirrel about in the forest,” than exhibit real intention.  Little did they know it, but they were about to make themselves liars.  As it turns out, the Red Tailed Eyas have a strong capacity for collaboration and focus that many of them did not believe they possessed!   

The more debris the merrier (warmer)!

In the month or so prior to this outing, we experienced a whole range of storms.  We had lots of snow, rain, some freezing rain and of course, plenty of wind.  This was evident as we moved through the forest; whole trees had been uprooted and fallen over, taking out smaller trees on their way down.  The usually voluminous ferns had been flattened by the weight of the snow and freshly fallen trees and many broken limbs now littered the forest floor.

A meeting of the minds in our opening circle

After our opening circle, we moved deeper into the woods and came across two shelters that had been built by another BEC group a few months earlier.  We took time to assess how well these shelters were built and discussed the plusses and minuses of each.  We then chose to redistribute these shelters back to the forest in order to keep in line with our Leave No Trace ethic.

One of the shelters we found - looks like someone spent a night in here!

Then, suddenly, the mentors presented us with a surprise challenge! Because we are one of the oldest group, and our earth skill for this season is Shelter 2, the mentors designed this challenge to test our ability to build fire, build shelter, and work together.  

The mission that we were tasked with was to build a shelter (one that would allow us to survive one night in) and a fire that lasted for at least ten minutes.  The only materials that we were given by the mentors were two matches! In addition, we were allowed to use our knives and any other means of starting fire (flint/steel) that we had with us.  With that, the mentors started a stopwatch, stepped back, and left us on our own to figure out, as a group, how to complete this mission!

Planning how to complete our mission

After some initial group planning and delegation of tasks, we got to work in the shelter and the fire.  Some of us collected sticks to build the frame of our debris hut. Others began to search this saturated forest for any hope of dry wood for fire building.  Eventually, our hour and ten minutes were up (we were granted a ten minute extension by the mentors just before our original hour expired). We managed to build an effective debris hut and prepare a tinder bundle and some small kindling for our fire, but were not quite able to get it lit out there in the wind and the cold.

Adding more ribs to our debris hut skeleton

The "skeleton" of our debris hut

Harvesting cedar bark for our tinder bundle

How should we build this fire?

Debris hut in a partially completed state

Trying to light the fire with flint/steel after we used up our two matches!

It takes a lot of debris to keep us warm in a debris hut

We held some great focus in our debrief of this challenge.  We felt that we had done well on the shelter portion of the challenge and after assessing the debris hut themselves, the mentors agreed.  While we were discouraged by our inability to start a fire, the mentors were less concerned with this.  They told us that we had done very well in preparing our tinder bundle and collecting and preparing some very dry sticks for the fire.  It is hard to build a fire in the wet woods, even with matches, and this really challenge helped us see areas where our fire skills can improve.

The richest conversation came during our debrief of how well we worked together as a team.  We recognized that everyone brings tidbits of knowledge and experience to a group and it is important to make sure everyone is heard in order to do our best as a group.  It was also noted that we worked together better when we were flexible and willing to compromise rather than stubborn and concerned only with our own wants and needs when it came to distributing the individual tasks necessary to complete our shared mission.

After three and a half hours of intentional, focused work and some solid self reflection, the mentors gave us the rest of the outing to do with what we pleased.  We found some bike jumps hidden in the woods that held our attention for the rest of the outing.  We had a blast running, jumping and racing up, over and around these dirt sculptures for the rest of our day.  We even got to see and hear two barred owls talk to one another in the branches right above where we were playing!

Running and playing on the jumps

Cringe-racing casualties

Looking up at the two barred owls who were looking down on us

In our closing circle, we shared what we were grateful for (as always) and also shared what kinds of skills we would like to work more on this season.  We expressed a desire to learn about different styles of shelter (now that we seem to have the simple debris hut down pretty well) and more about fire.  The mentors were excited to assist us in our quest for more skill and experience in these areas. As a final takeaway from the day, It was encouraging to see how capable we really are and how good we can be at working together when we set real intention around that.  We are excited to grow our skill surrounding fire and shelter this season, and to continue to explore how effective we can be as a group when we work together!

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