Outdoor Ed Field Trips

So our outdoor education field trips to Fort Clatsop, Ecola State Park, and Lake Sylvia State Park are right around the corner. Early Tuesday morning each age group at camp will leave for one of these locations and all of them except for the oldest group will return Tuesday night. The older campers will stay the night and return back to camp Wednesday night. In order to ensure that all of these trips go as planned I am reviewing the fifteen pre travel steps as laid out in Chuck Browns’ PRM 150 course.

I have spent the past six weeks working on aspects of the trips such as routing and scheduling, groups, rationale, locations, participants, accommodations, communication, and budgeting. These parts of our trips have been outlined in previous posts, and have been prepared for quite some time now. Recently I have been meeting with the various unit heads and senior staff members to go over the remaining facets such as activities, staffing, equipment, food and water, transportation, as well as safety and risk management.

Activities for the younger kids who will be attending Fort Clatsop include a hike from the fort to the ocean, exploring fort exhibits, and participating in the National Park Service Junior Ranger Program. Those heading to Ecola State Park will enjoy a much more difficult seaside hike past the Sea Lion Islands, and an afternoon swimming in the Pacific Ocean. As for the oldest group who are traveling to Lake Sylvia State Park, we have planned several extensive hikes throughout the area which will lead them to lookouts amongst the Olympic Mountains. They will also be able to swim in the nearby lake, and participate in team building activities throughout the entire campout.

Due to the fact that the staff assigned to each age group will be traveling with their own campers, the main issue of staffing relates to safety and risk management. The youngest campers will be in the hands of the National Park Service Rangers, a guide that the camp has used in the past, as well as staff certified in first aid and CPR. The group traveling to Ecola State Park will be accompanied by an EMT in addition to several staff members certified by the Red Cross. The oldest campers will embark on their excursion accompanied by myself and a former Israeli Army Officer. In addition, all of the campers and staff members are covered by the camps’ insurance policy.

All of the equipment we will be using is brand new, and was covered by the grant funds that I allocated earlier in my internship. The younger groups will be sent with hiking essentials such as a base camp first aid kit, bug spray, sunscreen, compasses, binoculars, a dry bag, and tarps. However the older group will be sent with these items in addition to much more extensive gear such as a camping kitchen, tents, flint sticks, campers tools, propane, cookware and mess kits, extra stakes, stake mallets, lanterns, rope, glow sticks, biodegradable soap, toilet tissue, and coolers.

Food and transportation were fairly easy tasks to plan for thanks in part to our camp caterer and office manager. They have arranged for a charter buses to take our campers to and from our outdoor education locations. In addition our camp caterer has arranged for all of the necessary food to be available for us to take with us on our trips. All of our sites are developed campgrounds or parks and have clean running water.

The final step in the pre travel procedures is known as triple check. This will include checking the latest weather forecast before departure as well as going over these steps again with all of the staff involved. This is to ensure that the trips go as planned, and that all of the staff are on the same page.

Attached to this post is a picture of an A-frame immediate action shelter that the campers built during one of my activities in the forest.

Listed below is a link to one of the books that Chuck used in our class text called Effective Leadership in Adventure Programming. Chapter 9 of this book includes pre travel steps, responsibilities of a trip leader during the trip, and evaluation procedures.

http://nirsa.humankinetics.com/showproduct.cfm?isbn=9780736052504

Camp in Full Swing

Camp is now in full swing, and all of the programming implementation has been going great. All of the kids that have visited my program area have enjoyed every minute of our activities, and brag to the other campers about their experiences. Among their favorite activities include making plaster prints from deer tracks, one match fires, low ropes, and building a massive lean to shelter. I am so glad to finally be putting all of the equipment that I ordered with the grant funding to good use. In addition all of the supplies have really helped out the other programming areas at camp.

On Wednesday the board member that has approved our grant will be visiting camp to specifically see how I have been using the funds. This makes me a little nervous, but I am sure he will be impressed based on the reactions from the campers who have been at my activities. I plan on letting him observe and participate in a number of my programs, as well as read an article that was written by Leah on the various aspects of environmental education that I cover in my activities.

The field trips that I am planning for the campers at Fort Clatsop, Ecola State Park, and Lake Sylvia State Park are also approaching fast. The younger kids will embark on their day trips on June 30th whereas the older kids will be spending the night at their site until July 1st. I have put together packets for each of the unit heads with all of the logistics laid out in detail including food, transportation, park information, and trail maps.

On a different note, I wanted to write about an aspect of Camp Young Judaea West that I find quite interesting. In my many years of camp experience at a number of different summer camps I have never seen a camp operate whereas campers have the option of extending their stay while already at the camp. The campers here choose between staying for one, two, or three weeks and it is up to the staff to try and entice the short term campers to stay for the full three weeks. This is intriguing because of the fact that the number of campers in each unit from week to week can technically be unknown. These decisions also seem to be made at the last minute, and can make the difference between a full cabin and having empty bunks.

I have included a picture of one of the deer track plaster prints that a camper made.

Below is a link to a website that explains how to make plaster prints from wild animal tracks.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/194867/making_plaster_prints_of_wild_animals.html

Capitol State Forest

Wednesday night began the most challenging adventure my internship has yet to present me with. It was my duty to visit the Capitol State Forest outside of Elma, Washington to determine if this would be a good location for an overnight camping trip with the oldest campers. At first this did not seem like something that I would have any trouble with, and took on the responsibility with confidence.

Due to the fact that many of the staff were needed to prepare for the arrival of the campers, and others were needed to great the campers at the Seattle airport I would spend the night at the forest on my own. I arrived at Capitol State Forest around 11pm on Wednesday night and was immediately intimidated by the area. The forest was huge and very thick, and the campsites were extremely under developed. In addition there was no ranger station and no trail maps.

I was unfamiliar with the area so I set up lanterns outside my site in hopes that someone may stop by that would be able to give me a better idea of where I was in location to Capitol Peak. In addition I was unsure about the wildlife in the area, so I set up a campfire in order to get a better idea of my surroundings. Fortunately I was not visited by any large animals during the night, but I did hide my food away from my tent just in case. Only one group of visitors stopped due to the flashing lanterns I set up, and they were of no help. To make matters a little more complicated I had to use all of my drinking water to put out my fire before going to sleep.

The morning came and I was surprised to find that my entire campsite was littered with shotgun shells and ATV tracks. The recreational users in this area were obviously very irresponsible. After packing my gear and preparing to use the GPS to find a trailhead that would take me on a good tour of the forest it began to rain. This was a good thing that I had expected so I collected rainwater from a nearby runoff.

This was the perfect opportunity for me to test out a technique that I had been curious about for some time. I have been told that it is possible to boil water in a paper cup over a fire, and the paper cup would not burn. This is due to the fact that the boiling point of water is lower than the ignition point of paper products. To my surprise this technique actually worked better than I had ever hoped. I have attached a video to this post that I took while boiling the water.

Now that I had enough clean drinking water I could continue hiking around the state forest. The forest was littered with trash, gun ammunition, and overused recreational sites. While I was at the forest I decided to hike to the top of Rock Candy Mountain, but I had already made up my mind that this was not the site for our campout. Due to the fact that I was wearing a newer pair of hiking shoes I also ended up with some terrible blisters on my feet by the end of my eight mile hike.

My pick up ride came around 5pm and I begun to explain some of my concerns for the campsite to the other staff members. Although this was a very challenging overnight trip I enjoyed the test very much. We still needed to find a site for the older campers to have their overnight so on the way back to our camp in Ocean Park we visited Schafer State Park and salmon hatchery, and Lake Sylvia State Park. The hatchery did not have long enough trails or big enough campsites, but Lake Sylvia turned out to be the perfect site. We found a developed group campsite that overlooked the lake, and a nearby trail that provides a view of the Olympic Mountains.

I have also included a link below to a youtube video that better explains the paper cup camping experiment.

http://factoidz.com/how-to-boil-water-in-a-paper-cup/

Low Ropes/Bear Encounter

I believe that no camp is complete without some sort of low ropes course to work on team building activities, and to teach campers about the importance of working together. Camp Young Judaea West does have the longest zip line in the Pacific Northwest which compensates for an amazing high ropes activity, but no low ropes exists on the property. In order to enhance my nature and camping program I decided to build our own course than can be navigated with standard compasses.

My first idea was that the course should exist in a remote area of the forest that would require a moderate hike into the forest. So I began hauling the wood that I have chosen to use to build the course out to a clearing that I found near a dried up creek bed. However on my second trip to this area I encountered a huge problem.

As I rounded the corner on the trail that I was following a massive black bear ran out of the brush about ten feet in front of me. The bear stopped about twenty five feet from me, turned around to look back at me, and then proceeded to follow the creek bed. I have never seen an animal in the wild as large as this bear, and I cannot get over how fast this gigantic creature was. After speaking with the property manager and a nearby neighbor I found out that this bear and two cubs have been living in the area for quite some time. Although bear attacks are rare, most are initiated when a person comes between a female bear and its' cub.

Due to this humbling experience I decided to move our low ropes course much closer to the road that goes through our area of camp. Although this makes for a smaller and less remote location I must have the safety of our campers and staff in mind. I have built three stations in this area which are nicknamed the islands, the spider web, and the crows nest. These activities are strategically placed so that each can be navigated to in a cardinal direction using our compasses.

Each of these activities are easy to make with a little bit of wood and imagination. The crows nest is the easiest to make and only requires a single piece of wood or small piece of fabric. With the wood or fabric flat on the ground we explain to the campers that they are all on a sinking ship in the arctic, and the crows nest is the only place that will not sink into the ocean. Campers will all have to fit onto the crows nest without any of their feet hanging over the edge otherwise sharks may get to them. To create an additional challenge, have the participants flip over the wood or fabric to the opposite side without anyone stepping off into the sea.

The spider web activity is made by using two parallel trees or by planting two long wood planks into the ground. You would then tie string randomly between the two planks or tree until it looks like a spider has spun a web between them. Campers will have to find a way to get each of their team members from one side of the web to the other without touching the rope. An additional challenge includes telling them that they can only use each hole in the web one time.

Lastly, the islands activity requires one long sturdy piece of wood, and three wood platforms to be used as ports. Campers will have to get from the first island to the third island while only being able to travel when walking over the long sturdy wood piece. Only one camper is allowed on each port at a time, and the activity requires a great amount of teamwork because with only one long piece of wood campers can only travel between two of the ports at a time. An additional challenge can be created by instructing the participants that once they have reached the final island they can no longer help their teammates.

I have included pictures of the low ropes activities I constructed.

Here is a link to information on bear attacks and ways to avoid them.
http://www.arcticwebsite.com/BearSurvival.html

Sustainability

I have been very intrigued to notice how common many sustainable practices are around our camp and nearby Washington cities. Many pathway lights are equipped with solar panels even though I have yet to be able to see the sun through the clouds. However all of these lights are powered at night by the minuscule amount of light that they are able to process during the day. In addition, light timers, which automatically turn off the lights after the timer runs out, are used in rooms that don’t necessarily need to be lit all day long.

In addition we have initiated recycling practices and placed recycle bins around the camp facilities. In order to conserve food the campers will have a competition based on which age group can waste the least amount of food. We have also ordered water bottles for each camper to cut down on dish washing during meal time as well as the use of disposbale cups.

While being the nature specialist at camp I have repeatedly been asked questions about the yellow flower buds that are growing all around our camp property. This flower has not been as prevalent in past years, but this year is hard not to notice. After a little research I have found out that this flower is in fact the Oregon state flower known simply as the Oregon grape. The flower buds are edible however as the name suggests, if you wait until the fall the plant will produce a delicious fruit. Interestingly enough, this fruit is in fact a berry and not a grape. The Oregon grape is also an indicator of a healthy forest floor in northern coastal regions. In addition this plant can be used in tea, and has a medicinal purpose acting as an anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory. I have included a picture of the Oregon grape plant in this post.

Other sustainable practices and Leave No Trace ethics that we will cover with the campers include staying on the main trails, packing out your own trash, leaving what you find, being careful with fire, respecting wildlife, and being kind to the other visitors.

The website below has information on all sorts of medcinal plants:
http://www.altnature.com/gallery/

The website below has information on the state of Washington sustainable practices:
http://www.ecy.wa.gov/Sustainability/

Programming

Now that we are only five days away from the campers’ arrival it is time to put all of the finishing touches on our pre camp work. Over the next few days I will be going over ever aspect of my program area to ensure that it is all ready for implementation. In this post I will summarize all of the activities that my program area will be responsible for. I have purchased all of the necessary gear and products for these activities through the grant fund that our agency received this year. I have had experience leading and participating in each of these activities in such classes as PRM 340 Outdoor Survival and PRM 303 Program Planning.

In terms of hiking in general campers will be educated on leave no trace ethics, and will examine the effects of trail erosion while on various trail explorations. They will learn about both forest and beach ecosystems taking into account the animal and plant wildlife inhabiting our area of camp. The campers will also fill in animal tracks with plaster, and after the plaster hardens they will be able to have a replica of an actual animal footprint. In additon campers will be taught the basics of ground to air signaling based on smoke from fires, and recognizable codes that can be formed on flat surfaces.

Navigation is an essential part of camping and outdoor education. In order to teach the campers useful navigation skills, I will use a number of different methods to ensure that they are able to do so on their own. We will begin by learning how to utilize a standard compass including how to orient a map, travel a heading, and take a bearing. Once the campers get the hang of these techniques we will then use a GPS unit to seek out geocaches that I have hidden in the forest surrounding our camp.

In case such tools are not available, campers will also be taught how to use the shadow tip method to determine which direction is north. This is done by placing a stick in the ground, marking the end of its shadow, and then returning at least twenty minutes later to mark the new end of the shadow. Once this is done the campers will place their left foot on the first mark, their right foot on the second mark, and the direction they will now be facing is always north. In addition we will teach the students that in order to locate the north star they should follow the front two stars on the bowl of the big dipper, as well as which side of a tree moss typically grows on.

The next aspect of outdoor education that the campers will learn about is shelter construction. In order to prepare for their group camping trips we will first make sure that each camper is able to assemble and disassemble the Eureka Tetragon 7 tents that we have purchased for these occasions. Campers will then be educated on how to set up an A-frame, immediate action, and lean to shelters using only the forest products around them.

Campers will also be taught to start a fire in a number of different ways to be used for signaling, warmth, cooking, and light. Basic fire pit construction methods such as making a log cabin or a teepee will be used followed by lighting techniques. These will include using flint sticks, and steel wool with batteries. In addition we will challenge the older campers to begin one match fires. In addition I will demonstrate to the campers how a paper cup filled with water can be put into a hot fire without burning the cup at all.

Along with simple and fun trail games, campers will also participate in a number of team building low ropes activities. Poison peanut butter is a favorite of mine which involves teamwork to cross an imaginary canyon filled with sticky and deadly peanut butter. Another activity known simply as the spider web challenges teams to cross from one side of a tree to another while passing through gaps created by tying rope between two trees. Another game called the crows nest forces campers to all fit onto a small space on top of an object that they will then have to flip over without anyone touching the ground. Finally the disabled human knot is a well known game whereas teams must untangle themselves while holding hands, although some of them will not be allowed to speak whereas others will not be allowed to see.

I will also be collaborating with the arts and crafts director in order to form joint activities between our two program areas. Although we have yet to meet, I have come up with just a couple basic ideas that can be expanded on later. I believe that the younger kids would enjoy finding a bug in nature, and then trying to recreate that bug using arts and craft supplies and recycled materials. For the older kids I would like them to use these same arts and crafts and recycled materials to build a boat or floating object. We will then see whose boat is able to last the longest when they are actually put into the water. In addition feather painting can also be used to create very interesting patterns and designs. I would also like to have the kids cut out pictures of animals from old National Geographic magazines and put together paper food chains. If anyone has any other ideas for arts and crafts projects that are related to either nature or outdoor pursuits please let me know.

Attached to this post is a picture of my new office which consists of a trailer full of all of the gear that I have spent the past four weeks ordering for the camp, a gazebo tent which is extremely hard to set up by myself, and my personal tent.

Here is a website where you can find additional team building and low ropes activities

http://teamcraft.com/ropes_activity.html

Washington & Oregon State Parks

So now that I am on site in Ocean Park, Washington and I am finished allocating all of the grant funds it is time to put all of the gear I have ordered to good use. However before I begin to put the finishing touches on my programming ideas, I will need to determine which sites the campers will be using for day hikes and overnights in both Washington and Oregon. This will allow me to develop my programming around the specific natural and cultural resources available at the sites that I choose.

Unfortunately my search began by ruling out the three closest national parks including Olympic, Mount Rainier, and Mount Saint Helens. This was either due to transportation issues, access fees, or reservation complications. I was then reduced to looking into the local state parks in the area which actually turned out to be very interesting.

All of the sites in the area were either part of the Lewis and Clark expedition, or were old World War II and Civil War memorials. Due to the fact that last summer I spent time working along the Lewis and Clark trail at Fontenelle Forest Nature Association in Bellevue, Nebraska I decided to also rule out the military sites. In addition, I find Lewis and Clark to much more relevant to my nature and outdoor programming than military sites that were hardly even used.

So today I embarked on visitations to various state parks that were in a two hour radius of our camp. I needed to find day hike areas for the third, fourth, and fifth graders, as well as an overnight camping area for the sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. The senior staff at camp decided that we should split the younger campers into two groups so I determined that Ecola State Park and Fort Clatsop State Park in Oregon were best suited for our younger campers to visit. Camp Disappointment, where Lewis and Clark ended their amazing journey across the United States, was alos ruled out as a possible site visit due to the fact that some of the campers had visited in past years.

Ecola State Park was appealing due to the amazing views provided along the trails. I have included a picture from one of the lookouts in this post. In addition this state park allowed for swimming in the ocean which is something that is prohibited at our oceanside camp due to harsh rip tides. However Fort Clatsop State Park, Lewis and Clarks’ first permanent site along the Pacific coast, was my favorite visit of the day due to the helpfulness of the park rangers. The rangers arranged for our campers to go on a fort to sea hike, and to become junior rangers on the day that we will be attending. While I was at Fort Clatsop for lunch I was brave enough to try some of the local berries that were absolutely delicious. I have also provided a picture of these berries in this post, and if anyone knows what they are please let me know.

Finding a site for the older kids was much more difficult as I hoped to find an area that would challenge their abilities and put the outdoor survival skills that I will teach them at camp to good use. If this trip goes well it will become a permanent part of our summer programming, and could be used to entice camper retention. I determined that the best area for this would be Capitol State Forest which is located directly in between Olympic and Mount Rainier National Parks, and operates under multiple use recreation policies. On a clear day the campers will be able to see both national parks from the top of Capitol Peak.

I did however, run into a major problem. Capitol State Forest policies allow for absolutely no reservations, and are based solely on a first come first serve basis. I could not plan a trip if I was uncertain we would be able to obtain the necessary campground space for our activities. So I contacted the regional education and enforcement forester working with the department of natural resources in Washington. In exchange for our campers volunteering a little of their time for Friends of Capitol Forest doing a simple community service project in the park, he would be more than happy to help arrange for us to obtain the necessary campground.

Below I have included links to Washington State Parks, Oregon State Parks, and Lewis and Clark trail points of interest:

http://www.parks.wa.gov/

http://www.oregon.gov/OPRD/PARKS/index.shtml

http://lewisandclarktrail.com/

Trends in Outdoor Recreation

Sunday I will leave for Ocean Park, Washington where I will spend the next five weeks of my internship running outdoor education programming at Camp Young Judaea West and various Oregon state parks. The other day I spoke with my internship supervisor who informed me that the program I am developing will be used as a marketing tool for the camp in the future. In addition she hoped that the grant funds that we have received would be allocated in a manner that could work to attract future campers.

After asking the advice of my fellow parks and recreation students in this regard I have decided to allocate part of our funding towards a GPS unit to be used by the campers for Geocaching. Geocaching with a handheld GPS unit is one of the fastest growing trends in outdoor recreation. I have already located at least ten caches in the area of our camp, and with the unit we will also be able to plant more of our own geocoins. We will be ordering the Garmin eTrex Venture from a local retailer just outside of Ocean Park, WA.

By providing such a unique form of outdoor recreation programming to campers I hope that this can help to achieve the goals laid out by my supervisor. Geocaching is an activity that few camps are able to provide to their campers, and I believe it will enhance their outdoor education. In addition this will provide Camp Young Judaea West with an advantage of competitive differentiation over other camps that market to our same target population.

Listed below is the web address for more information on Geocaching. This site includes information on how to participate in Geocaching, trackable items, GPS units and other gear.

http://www.geocaching.com/

I have also attached a photo of the Garmin eTrex Venture as it is highly recommended by outdoor enthusiasts.

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After hearing from my peers that bird watching is also in fact one of the fastest growing trends in outdoor recreation I have downloaded a bird identifier application and purchased binoculars from Coleman Outdoor Gear.