Heavy grey clouds hung in the sky, drizzling over green sword ferns and thickets of snowberry. The rain ran in rivulets off bright raincoats and backpacks as the Short Tailed Weasels huddled in the lower parking lot of the Sehome Arboretum, contemplating the day’s mission: to reach the Sehome Tower before sundown. Though the clouds were low, spirits were high: it’s raining, it’s pouring, let’s go exploring! Explorers live by this motto.
This is the start of the Short Tailed Weasels’ third season (and their second fall) in Explorers Club, and last spring we explored the Sehome Arboretum under guidance from the mentors. This time, the boys would be responsible for their own navigation. How to get to the tower? There are maps, but they don’t help if you don’t know where you are to begin with. So, during opening circle, we helped the boys orient themselves: which way does the freeway run? Which way is the bay? Using landmarks and sounds, not just sights, the boys got their bearings.
During the opening circle we also introduced our new mentor, Jedediah, who specializes in tracking. He just so happened to spot some “magical” deer scat near the circle, and he helped the boys decide whether it was fresh or old. With our bodies and brains oriented, and some new tracking skills under our belts, we were ready to go.
The Arboretum is a special place: a steep outcropping of Chuckanut sandstone with an expansive network of winding trails, eroded ridges and deep, lush gullies. Although it’s smack dab in the middle of Bellingham, sandwiched in between I-5 and WWU’s campus, it’s easy to feel isolated and sometimes even lost. The whole place feels like an endless wild jungle. The drone of the freeway is washed out by the tree canopy and cliffs, replaced by a cacophony of chattering birds and rustling leaves. Every once in awhile, a crow quork startles the forest sounds. The trails keep winding. We kept traversing upwards towards the tower, exploring cliffs, overcoming challenges, and forging onwards through damp underbrush and grey mist.
Finally, the rain eased to a fine mist. Through the thinning clouds, the boys finally spied the outline of the tower and in one last great explosion of enthusiasm, raced to the very top, whopping in victory. We ate our lunch on the tower, and dropped big leaf maple helicopters down from the top, watching them twirl wildly to the ground below..
The thick roof of the tower reverberated dull thuds of raindrops as we finished lunch and began to talk about the art of carving and carving safety: how to sit when you’re carving so you don’t accidentally cut into yourself; how to test your blood circle with a sheathed knife to make sure no one is sitting too close to you while you carve; and some technique, such as how to shave off thin bits of wood, and how to not dig the knife in so deep that you have to force the cut.
We romped back into the woods to find some dry wood for carving. The boys harvested sticks from the cave tunnel just below the tower, and everyone practices sharpening a stick to demonstrate technique and safety. Ask your explorer about their carving homework!
Those boys who finished carving became the group scouts, searching for a good site to play Spider’s Web (if you haven’t heard of this game, ask your Explorer! It’s an all-time classic). After a few great rounds we had to call it a draw, to leave time for our closing circle of gratitude for another great day of exploring.
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