Townsend's Chipmunks Traverse the Arboretum

The Townsend’s Chipmunks gathered at the base of the Sehome Arboretum for their last outing of the Spring, although the weather could have fooled us into thinking it was midsummer outing. The Sehome Arboretum is a hidden gem in bellingham; offering sandstone cliffs, deep ravines, steep hillsides, and a variety of plant and animal life.

Having all gathered in the parking lot we made our way to the base of the trail and the map displayed there. Since the Townsend’s Chipmunks have been together for a full year now their decision making and ability to work as a group is progressing to the point where they need less help from mentors as they plan their day. We all looked at the map and tried to decide where to go. With guidance from Brian and I the townsend’s Chipmunks were able to effectively make a group decision that everyone felt good about.

 After hiking for only a few minutes we found a steep sandstone formation. Unable to resist the unique rock we all made our way over for further exploration. As we drew close to the edge the Mentors made it clear to the boys that if they wanted to explore close to the edge they needed to have three points of contact (two feet and a hand or two hands and a foot) on the ground at all times. The boys responded well to this, cautiously crawling to the edge to peer down and giving each other plenty of spice as we climbed down the steep hillside adjacent to the sandstone.  

Finished exploring the sandstone cliffs, we headed back to the main trail and all decided to keep moving up. We soon passed a shrub with dark purple berries which some of the boys called edible while others were not sure. As alway with eating wild edibles it is important that you are sure that you have correctly identified the plant, not just that someone told you what it was. This was the perfect opportunity for the Townsend’s Chipmunks to pull out our field guide. A handful of the boys showed a lot of focus and dedication to figuring out what plant we were looking at. We spent some time identifying the major characteristics of the plant and then started looking through the field guid. After many options and some very keen observations from the Explorers we finally identified the plant as Indian Plum (Oemleria cerasiformis). Reading about this plant we found that it was in fact edible (though not eaten in large quantities by the native people here). We all tried the a berry and immediately knew why the native people here did not eat them in large quantities. The indian plum had a bitter and astringent flavor with large pits in the middle.

After all of our focused time with a field guide it was time to move again. Our trip to the towers went quickly and we soon reached the sunny observation tower. With views out over the San Juan Islands and out over Baker and the Twin Sisters range to our East we were quite happy spending some time here. After spending time exploring the tower we decided it was time to head back into the woods. We climbed, slid, hiked and crawled our way down a steep ridge flanked by sandstone cliffs and giant sword ferns seeking as pot forSpiders Web. We were rewarded by our search when we stumbled upon a deep ravine with patches of sword fern that reached 4 - 5 feet in the air. Quickly we set up the game and played with our remaining time. The game was short, but the location and quality of play were phenomenal.  

With our day ending we navigated back toward the upper parking lot feeling tired and happy after completing our traverse of the Sehome Arboretum. Thank you Townsend’s Chipmunks for a truly amazing first year. It has been great to see you grow and strengthen as a group through the course of your adventures together. and thank you parents for your support and dedication to the program! Be sure to look at our photo gallery for more pictures!  

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.