My wife taught Kindergarten for many years. For over a decade, her district offered half-day Kindergarten only. Then the district, partly in response to her urging, began to phase in all-day K. Presumably thanks to her dedication to the change, her’s was one of the first classrooms to make the change.
As she was preparing for her first full-day class, I was speaking with her about what the extra time meant for her curriculum. Would she add to her existing subject areas or institute additional topics? Her response (paraphrased) - “ You poor, innocent, unwitting soul. I don’t need to add more work to rush through…I need the extra time to do justice to the curriculum I’ve been teaching!”
A similar sentiment applies for Saturday’s Lizard Lake outing. The Blanchard Mountain area in the
southern Chuckanuts offers so many opportunities for skills work and play, the mentors fell into the same trap I failed to avoid many years ago; we started up the trail with a long list of options to fill our longer-than-usual seven hour outing. And what happened?
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| Play misty for the Alevin |
Rather than a record number of different activities, we did three tried and true: we hiked and explored, we practiced making and tending a fire, and we climbed over boulders and into caves.
The hike to Lizard Lake was a demanding one. It began on a logging road that rises gently through forest and salmonberry bushes, with pastoral views of Skagit County farmland near Alger. We then turned West into the woods and up switchbacks toward Lily and Lizard Lakes. I had anticipated that we would take time for games along the climb, but we mostly pressed on as the boys were eager to get to the lake.
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| Log-walking to the far side of the lake |
Once there, the Alevin immediately scattered into a frenzy of free exploration. They’d been here before and wanted to revisit prior exploits. The mentors had planned to begin by asking the group to prioritize our planned activities, but decided instead to follow the wisdom captured in our mottos for the day - “It’s about the journey, not the destination.” and “Be here now.”
The forest was wet this day, as is not a surprise in the Chuckanuts. And, as if to eliminate any doubt about the subject, a shower passed through as the boys were transitioning to lunch and we gathered to plan the day. Unfortunate, given that our skill for the season is fire by friction.
Undaunted, we gathered our tools and our resolve and began with the purest of fire making
techniques - the bow drill and the hand drill. Thanks to mentor Conor’s skill and passion for the hand drill, that soon took center stage. Before long, a determined team of four explorers and Conor was generating smoke off their fire board. The attendant excitement proved short-lived, however, as the team actually penetrated all the way through the board a few times without generating the necessary coal to ignite their nest into a sustainable flame. No doubt, the excessive dampness was to blame.
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| Mentor Conor lead the hand drill effort |
Ah, but we have more options. Flint and steel was tried next. Again, repeated efforts went unrewarded. Our tinder seemed dry, but stubbornly refused to respond to the spark. By this time, we needed to succeed more than we needed to master backcountry skills, so we pulled out the “Strike anywhere” matches. They proved true to their name as were we quickly able to ignite the nest of twine, fat wood shavings and twigs. As if to validate the challenge the explorers faced on this very wet day, however, we had trouble building the fire into a sustainable inferno even now.
Frustrating though is was, this effort exposed tangible signs of maturation among the Alevin. They embraced the challenge of mastering a difficult skill under punishing circumstances; they were determined and focused in their work; they were flexible in their approach; they were sanguine in the face of mixed success. Important life skills all!
It was time for a change: the land offered an excellent option in the caves. When last this group
clambered over and around these behemoths, they spied porcupines, dared their peers to slither into impossibly small openings and, wait for it…..discovered the reclusive “Lizard Lake Legend”! Of course, it wouldn’t be reclusive if it showed its conglomerated form at each visit, so the legend was strengthened by its absence this visit. Next pop in?
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| No Lizard Lake Legend here |
Energy levels waned as we hiked back down the trail and out along the logging road. We held our closing meeting at one of the view points, which made giving thanks a little tough. It can be hard to decide from among the myriad blessings of this land, but the Alevin rose to the occasion before returning, wearily, to their respective rides.
