The faint January sunshine welcomed Explorers to a new and exciting traverse. Energy grew as the boys arrived. With explorers from four groups (Alevin, Gray Wolf Pups, Salamander Efts, and Branch Hoppers) there were many introductions to be made. Mentors Dave and Greg were excited to get moving so the meeting was ended with a quick game of Hide! It was amazing to see how strong the culture of Boys Explorers Club is witnessing the boys across groups participating in an opening meeting and playing Hide! together without missing a beat.
The bounding energy of the Explorers propelled us down the trail in search of a “really big Cedar tree” that Greg wanted to stop at. When the boys arrived at the tree another game of Hide! ensued, which led the boys off the trail and into the magic of the forest. The mentors love games that take us off of the trail for precisely this reason. This spot in particular has some special things to learn about including fatwood.
Fatwood is the remaining pitch-saturated wood commonly found in Douglas fir stumps in our forests. It is an amazing resource and is fairly abundant—if you know where to look. After nearly falling in the hole left from a rotted stump, Greg removed a twisted piece of heavy root that remained. This piece of wood was totally saturated with resin and provided each explorer with a small piece of wood to stick in his backpack. This wood is a fantastic fire starter because it can be used to light much larger pieces of wood when constructing a fire. Typically, one cuts a few slivers of the fat wood and uses them as tinder to ignite small kindling. Greg cut the root into several pieces and then used his knife to split them into enough sticks so that boys could each have one. After a brief demonstration of its fire lighting capabilities, it was time to move on and keep exploring towards the lake.
After some discussion and a bit of scouting, the group decided to climb back to the trail and head down to the lake. Many boys were lugging huge pieces of fatwood gathered from stumps along the way! Father down the trail, the Explorers again discussed the desire to travel off trail to the lake and had found a suitable place to descend from the old grade to the lake trail. After a brief discussion, we all carefully walked down the slope mindful to not step on ferns, Oregon grape, or any other green things. Just above the trail, Dave was excited to see a recently fallen alder and was sharing its value for making components for fire by friction. We opted to leave it alone and continue on our way down to the lake.
The trail brought us quickly to the lakeshore and from our spot on the bank we were able to see the opposite shore bathed in sunlight! We set out around the lake to find a spot in the sun to eat, but the clouds returned and we decided to stop short and eat some lunch before we headed down. The shores of the lake have massive stumps from the first wave of logging. Springboard notches are abundant on these old stumps and speak to a time before chainsaws. It is hard to imagine sawing through a six-foot diameter tree with a two-person crosscut saw perched six feet above the spongy ground!
After some lunch, the Explorers and Mentors began the decent to the trailhead where the parents would be waiting. The call to play games transformed Dave into a wily deer and the boys became cougars trying to ensnare this animal with out being caught moving. Dave the deer was so fast and elusive that it was difficult to keep track of him and soon the cougars were scattered along the trail and the hillside. Eventually, Dave was cornered and caught.
The walk to the pickup location was steep and the 1.8 miles whizzed by. Just short of our destination, the mentors found a spectacular location for a closing meeting. The boys were eager to give thanks and their excitement and joy was abundant. With no time to lose we walked the last stretch (quickly) and made it to the cars right on time (amazingly!). Thank you Explorers for your good work today. You were ambassadors for your respective groups and will be able to bring the stories from this outing back to your own groups. These first winter outings have been a huge success because of your willingness to come adventure in uncertain weather. Thank you parents for bringing your sons out (and up Cleator Road) for a day in the forest. This wouldn't be possible without your support!
Check out the rest of our photos in the winter photo gallery.
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