Townsend's Chipmunks build shelters

The day greeted the Townsend’s Chipmunks with sunny warm weather for their second outing of the season. The day felt like summer as we gathered next to the glassy surface of lake padden and lush green foliage of the mountains above the lake. The recent warm weather had brought out new foliage from the cottonwoods and big leaf maples making a tapestry of different greens. As we gathered in the grassy field adjacent to the dog park the boys ran and clammered around by the baseball diamond, rejoicing in the warm sunshine.

In the forest we started the day as we always do with an opening circle to set our intention for the day and catch up since our last outing. The earth skills focus for the Townsend Chipmunks this Spring is building earth shelters. We talked about what makes for a good shelter spot and what hazards you might want to watch out for when choosing a location. The discussion soon turned toward what resources we would need to gather to build an effective debris hut. All the boys held the circle really well throughout this discussion and had really insightful observations on what made for a good shelter.

 The circle soon broke apart and it was clear the time had come to move our bodies and explore the land. We moved upward across the steep sandstone folds of Lake Padden legs moving us up the hill toward the further reaches of the park. While hiking we played a few rounds of Hide! to engage with the land and kindle our spirit for play. A beautiful patch of Trillium flowers caught out attention to the side of the trail where we all got down on our hands and knees to investigate the beautiful clusters of flowers and leaves.

At the top of the steep hill we rested for a moment before grouping up to decide which direction we wanted to explore. The consensus was to head off the main trail onto a small deer trail that led down into a valley via a steep hillside. As we walked down the steep hillside the excitement for shelter building grew until the boys were continually talking about wanting to have a shelter building competition. We reached the floor of the valley and hashed out the details of our shelter building competition. The Townsend's Chipmunks decided that it would be all the explorers racing the mentors in a shelter building competition. The boys decided the judging parameters would be; comfort, strength, and weather resistance.  

The timer started counting down for 30 minutes of shelter building work. The mentors got to work throwing debris and laying ridge poles and supporting beams. After 30 minutes we had built a fairly good shelter. We called everyone in to group up for a walking tour of the shelters. We walked over to the Explorers’ shelter to take a look. Their shelter was really impressive especially for such a short time to work on it. After the explorers had toured our shelter and talked about their shelter they were excited to continue working on shelters. We decided to dedicate another 30 minutes to shelter building before ending the day.

The day ended with a great closing circle in the sun and reflections on all the hard work we had done. I was really impressed by the skill and hardwork the Townsend’s Chipmunks displayed while working on their shelters as well as their ability to work as a group. Thanks you Explorers for a great outing and parents for your continual support! check out our photo gallery for more photos from our outing.