Pacific Chorus Frogs Complete Navigation Challenge #2 and Build Shelters

In Explorer’s Club, participants are typically given more autonomy and voice than they are used to. Empowering the group to make decisions about where to go and what to do allows the mentors to see what the boys are passionate about and interested in. As mentors, we often find that what we had in mind for the day is not what the boys are interested in so we change our plan on the fly to meet the interest of the group. We call this flexibility our 50/50 principle; plan for a whole outing, and be comfortable with completely changing 50% (sometimes 100%!) of it.

Moving through the western red cedar and western hemlock trees in the Padden Gorge

In order to give an Explorers Club group their own voice, they must first learn how to speak as a unit. The boys know that in order to make a decision about our outing, they must have a consensus before the decision is official. We utilize a collaborate and compromise circle as a tool to help the group make decisions. Making a decision as a group is an important skill to learn early on in Explorers Club because as the groups get older and more mature, the mentors give them more voice and choice during outings.

To reach a consensus, we select a Leader of the Day to make sure that every group member's’ voice is heard and to shepherd the group through the decision making process. During their first year in BEC, the mentors modeled the role of Leader of the Day. Now, in their second year, the mentors have intentionally stepped back from playing the role of Leader of the Day and are allowing the boys to practice their circular decision making skills. Last outing, on Lookout Mountain, they had their first navigation challenge where they had to make many decisions about where to go as a group.  

Collaborating and Compromising at Lake Padden Park. Which way should we go?

On our outing at Lake Padden, the boys were handed their second navigation challenge of the year. As they made their way through the network of trails at Lake Padden, It was great to see the progress that they had made in making group decisions, even since just the beginning our our last outing together! The Pacific Chorus Frogs are still learning for sure, but they are becoming more comfortable with the process and are even starting to use it organically without prompting by the mentors!

We started our outing with a bit of vocabulary practice. What does the word traverse mean? We discovered that it meant that we would be travelling to a new area and would not be returning to our starting point. The boys were quick to recognize that, since we would not be retracing our steps at any point, they would have to be extra attentive to keeping their gear with them and not leaving anything behind as we moved through the woods.

As we made our way up through the Padden Gorge we theorized as to what all of the old concrete structures were in and around the creek. Some of us guessed that maybe they were homes for trolls! Others guessed that they were to control the flow of the creek; even more thought that they controlled the depth of the lake! We will have to come back in a few years as a group and see what we think then.

Troll home?

Padden Creek

Fungi!

It felt good to hike, but our legs were tired and we needed some food and water. We took a break on a fairly exposed hill where the rain and wind started to make us cold. We quickly decided to find a better spot to rest so we went deeper into the woods in search of a calm spot.

We eventually found a patch of forest that was protected from the wind. Even though it was raining, we stayed warm and (somewhat) dry because we were all prepared with full suits of raingear!

Getting a snack, out of the wind!

At this point, our outing became a perfect example of the 50/50 principle in action! The boys were especially excited about building shelters today and the physical labor helped to keep us warm. So, the mentors met and decided that following their energy for shelter building was far more powerful than trying to make the boys continue to navigate around Lake Padden Park.

For the next three hours, we worked together to build two different styles of shelters. The conversation was rich as we discussed the pros and cons of various shelter designs and shared new ideas about what materials to use to build them and how to use them.

Starting with a bed of spring Douglas fir boughs

Y-stick, ridge pole and ribs

The other shelter blended in well with the landscape!

Starting to add our insulating and waterproofing layer.

We fit!

Eventually, our time together was starting to come to a close so we had to stop the shelters where they were and head toward our closing circle. First, however, we had a bit of “show and tell” as the two crews shared the powers and challenges of their respective shelters. The Pacific Chorus Frogs are going to have a head start when it comes time for them to learn the Art of Shelter Building during a later season.

Discussing how this shelter was built and what we would do differently if we were to do it again. The Pacific Chorus Frogs are becoming skilled "debriefers"

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, that was followed by laughs and appreciation as we honored Conor’s time with us during our Attitude of Gratitude practice in our closing circle. The Pacific Chorus Frogs showed us their growing emotional intelligence as they shared their gratitude for Conor and the time we have spent together.

The Pacific Chorus Frogs 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!

The Pacific Chorus Frogs Navigate at Lookout Mountain

Into the woods for our opening circle

The Pacific Chorus Frogs gathered for their second outing of the fall season at Lookout Mountain Forest Preserve. This place is a special spot for Explorer’s Club. It sits on the outskirts of the dense area of Bellingham development and as such provides a good opportunity to observe tracks and sign of some of the more typically elusive animals (ex: cougar, bobcat, bear). Additionally, it's relatively untracked forests are home to some rare plants (yew trees) and lots of fungi.

Some of the fungi that we saw today

Today, the Pacific Chorus Frogs were tasked with a challenge. Their earth skill for this season is the Art of Navigation and as such their challenge was navigation oriented. For their challenge, they were tasked with leading us through the trails at Lookout Mountain to a small waterfall about one mile away from the parking lot. The only tools that they were given were copies of maps of the area. The mentors knew that the Pacific Chorus Frogs would need to utilize their collaboration and compromise skills to come to consensus about which way to go when the trail forked. In this sense, this challenge included an introduction to navigation while at the same time requiring strong group leadership and circular decision making. During this whole challenge, the mentors would not step into their circles; they had to make decisions about where to go and come to consensus around those decisions on their own.

Hmm, which way to go?

It took a while for the boys to get into a comfortable decision making rhythm. The first couple of circles were difficult as their selected Leader of the Day struggled to find a way to quiet the group down so that they could actually listen to each other. Eventually, a couple of other boys stepped up and helped the Leader of the Day fulfill his leadership duties and the decisions became easier and easier to make.

Are we there yet?

At the conclusion of our challenge, when we had reached the red “x” on the maps that we were handed, we got the see the motto The Map is Not the Territory (another way to think of this: you can’t eat the menu, it is just a representation of the food) in real life. On the map, it was indicated that a waterfall would be here for us to wonder at and play around. What we found was a small creek - hardly a booming waterfall. It was so different than what the map made it out to be that even the mentors wondered for a bit if we actually were in the right spot! As it turns out, we were certainly there. While the boys were originally disappointed by the lack of a waterfall, that disappointment quickly faded as we found the area to be rich with discoveries: small animal dens, deep creek pools and plenty of sticks and big logs to make a bridge with.

Big, old growth nurse logs

Navigating steep creek banks

Vine maple, thimbleberry, salmon berry and ocean spray

Exploring down stream at the creek

More fungi!

Today, the mentors had to remind the Pacific Chorus Frogs to stay safe more than they should have to. All of the Pacific Chorus Frogs know that they are the first ones who are responsible for their safety; indeed, the actions they choose to take directly increase or decrease their level of safety. Despite this, sometimes our excited energy and rowdy behavior can make us forget this fact. So, we had to revisit our S.T.O.P. model of personal safety check ins a few times today. Because safety is fundamental to what we do in Explorers Club, we had to bring the group together a couple of times today to specifically call out unsafe behavior and a lack of awareness among many members of our group. This is not unexpected for groups in only their second year, and the mentors were thankful that no one was hurt and for the opportunity to talk about responsibility and safety with the Pacific Chorus Frogs today.

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

Pacific Chorus Frogs Identify Plants at N. Galbraith Mountain

Our second outing of the spring season brought us together at N. Galbraith Mountain Trailhead. Galbraith is a special forest as it is managed for recreational use (including an extensive network of mountain biking trails) as well as logging, so when we explore here we get to see parts of the forest that are in many different stages of succession. Moving between healthy patches of forest as well as clear cuts throughout our day lets us see first hand the dramatic change that happens when we log forests, as well as providing a good starting point for conversations surrounding sustainable harvest.

Exploring new places

Before we hit the trail, we had to gather in the parking lot at N. Galbraith Trailhead. We had two explorers joining us from another young group as well as an Explorers Mentors Apprentice (EMA). EMAs are explorers from our oldest groups that elect to come out with a younger group on an exploration and share their experience and knowledge.

We started our day as we always do with an opening circle. In this circle we formed a loose plan for our day (one that could be adapted should other opportunities arise!) and passed out our jobs. Passing out jobs is a way for us to share the physical weight of all of the things that we need to bring with us (field guides, toilet paper, apples, bandanas, etc.) on an Explorers Club outing. In this way, we all individually get a chance to be a part of and help our Pacific Chorus Frog community.

We were happy to be able to enjoy some spring sunshine during our exploration today. As much as we appreciate and love exploring in the rain, it was nice to feel the suns energy warm our faces. The dirt jumps provided us with a great track for running, jumping and holding races.

Exploring trails

As we moved from the dirt jumps, in one moment we were standing next to towering cedar trees and sword ferns; in the next we were standing on a gravel road surrounded by bare earth and burn piles of mangled limbs over 20 feet high. Some of us formed theories about where the animals that used to live in this area have since moved to.

Dirt jump fun!

We made our way through the clear cut to a patch of relativley healthy woods. We observed and explored big nurse logs, a babbling stream, cedar trees and big leaf maples covered in moss.

Spring brings lots of water, and fresh skunk cabbage!

Our earth skill for this season is the Art of Harvest. A fundamental part of harvest is plant identification. To practice our plant identification, we played a game called Nature Concentration. In this challenge, the mentors revealed to us parts of a few different species of native plants. Then, we worked in small teams to go out into the forest and retrieve samples of those native plants we had been shown. Today we got to know western redcedar, western hemlock, licorice fern, and huckleberry.

Hmmmm, what do we still need to find?

Harvesting licorice root

We finished off our day with a big game of spider's web. Our EMA for the day was chosen to be the spider and boy was he a good one! We found that we had to sneak slower and lower in order to evade the sharp, watchful eyes of the spider. We welcomed the opportunity for growth that playing with older, more experienced explorers provides us.

We found this trillium while we were sneaking around during Spider's Web!

As the sun started to break out from behind the clouds we made our way back to the trailhead where we found our families waiting to scoop us up after our adventure at N. Galbraith.

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

Pacific Chorus Frogs Spend the Afternoon at Whatcom Falls Park

Lowland snow is a special treat here in the Pacific Northwest. It is fun to play in, great for tracking animals, and just plain beautiful to behold. However, it does create some logistical challenges and because of these we got to have an evening outing after a half day of school; what a busy day! We are grateful for the flexibility of our group and felt lucky to all be able to still get to explore together.

Checking out the falls

Today was our first outing of the spring season and we came ready to move after a day inside at school. Lucky for us, Whatcom Falls Park is a great place for us to do some free exploration and release our excited energy. We also had the opportunity to practice our group decision making skills, see some nocturnal animals and look for crayfish in the creek.

Exploring the woods in Whatcom Falls Park

We are one of the youngest groups in BEC, and as such we are still familiarizing ourselves with the culture. A big part of that culture is making decisions as a group regarding what to do and where to go during our outings. For many of us this is the first time that we have been given this kind of agency. Coming to a consensus is a very difficult task for any group of individuals, adults or kids, and the mentors appreciated our effort and commitment to coming up with a decision that satisfied ALL of the members of our Sculpin community.

We found this beautiful nurse log with cedar roots running its full length

Some of us even practiced building a debris hut

Are there any crayfish down there?

The final seconds of daylight slipped away from us as we walked back to the parking lot to meet our rides. As a final send off from the forest to us, a bat appeared above our heads as just as we were crossing the bridge! We were lucky to be able to watch it feeding on flying insects for a couple of minutes before we had to leave the park. We were glad to have had an afternoon that included some community development as well as some interesting nature surprises!

Be sure to check out the rest of the pictures from our outing here.