Cold winter temperatures greeted the Branch Hoppers for their final outing of the Fall 2012 season. In Explorers’ Club, Scouting refers to an exploration during which we travel, or traverse, from one place to another. It involves dedicated supporters who can drop us one place and pick us up at another. Thank you parents for facilitating this experience!
To avoid getting too wet, we hiked to shelter under large trees. There, we played games and welcomed Marcus to the group. Marcus is a member of the older group called the Firestalkers, and also involved in the Explorers Mentoring Apprentice (EMA) program. He joined us for the day and added tremendously to the Branch Hoppers’ experience.
We started our journey and found many mushrooms along the way. We also walked through a living history of logging, seeing notches in the sides of huge cedar stumps. And Explorers did lots of climbing in and through these stumps to get to know them more!
It didn’t take long until we came to a perfect clearing in the understory. Though the trees kept us rather dry, there seemed to be a lot of open space to explore. Matt showed us the earth shelter he built and slept in! Explorers took turns getting into the shelter and feeling how warm it was inside.
Some were even inspired to build their own. Though the Art of Shelter-Building is a skill that the Branch Hoppers might not learn until next year, we learned the very basics about shelter frame and the importance of lots of debris for insulation. We used sticks as rakes and gathered together pile after pile of leaves. To get more in the exploratory mood, we also painted our faces with the charcoal from burned old cedar stump!
With a long way to go still, we began to hike in earnest. Coming across different trail maps and forks in the road, we discussed the importance of maps and the basics of reading them. Like shelter-building, we will develop the Art of Map Reading in future seasons. But Explorers did learn some foundational practices for trail junctions: stopping, waiting for the entire group to arrive, and deciding as a group where to go. This is a keystone for safe wilderness travel in the future. Good work, boys!
We stopped short of the parking lot in order to wrap up the day and the season. First, we learned a new game, Incoming, which builds on Explorers’ camouflage skills. Then we reminisced about connections to previous outings including the plants and animals we met. Our web of life activity reinforced the connections between and among all things in the ecosystem. We reflected that our service work is one way to re-build connections that may have been lost.
As a strong end to the day, we followed themotto, Attitude of Gratitude, and enjoyed apples together while participating in a Circle of Thanks. And we will continue this motto to end this blog post. Thank you parents so much for facilitating this traverse. And a big thanks to you Explorers for a great first season. We look forward to seeing you for the Mountaineers Lodge in February, the Spring 2013 season, and at the Summer Camp as well.
Please check out more images from this outing in the photo gallery. If you want to review the themes that guide Explorers’ Club activities please look at our mottos.
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