Birdsong and sunshine greeted the Vespula Veterans and their mentors as they gathered for their exploration of Squires Lake Park. The mentors facilitated a brief round of introductions to help our group get to know some of the newer faces. After some brief reminders about traveling on our faithful bus Stubbs, we loaded up for the short trip to Squires Lake.
After parking and unloading, we made the short hike up the switchbacks to Squires Lake and stopped at a beautiful sunny spot to enjoy our lunch. After our bellies were full, we began our opening meeting. The mentoring team is excited for the Vespula Veterans to begin learning about leadership this season so we are providing them with lots of different kinds of experiences to get their minds thinking about working with the younger boys. In this spirit, the mentors asked the boys to form the circle, dropped the jobs bag in the middle, and asked the boys to decide upon jobs for this outing. For the benefit of those who are new, we made a brief introduction to the jobs and their responsibilities before stepping back and watching the process unfold. In about five minutes the jobs were all distributed and the mentors returned to the circle. This process revealed that some explorers were not totally satisfied by how all the jobs were distributed. We took a moment for the boys to share their critiques of the process. It is so much more powerful for them to hear each others remarks rather than to hear the mentors offer their feedback.
The group decided that rather than trying to reach the summit of Alger Alp they would like to explore the Beaver Pond area of the park and look for a place to play Spiders Web. On the way, we encounter many signs of spring and a playful spirit infuses the group. We find lots of Beaver sign and the first flowers of the season hang from the Indian Plums and the Salmon berries. A round of Hide revealed a deep stump that Dave became stuck in. Dave embraced the motto “The only way out is through” and with the aid of the boys extricated himself through a crack in the bottom near the roots.
Since our skills journey this season is the Art of Fire, the mentors make time to explore our fire making skills. Our focus is on gathering tinder and kindling. Many boys take this time to use their knives and working their carving skills, while others brush up on their plant ID skills to look for hemlock branches and decaying Douglas fir stumps which contain the resin-saturated fatwood valuable to making fires in our damp forests. We also find a medium Red alder that has been blown down last year and in some of the splintered parts we find suitable wood for the components of a bow drill kit for those interested.
The call to play finally wins and the mentors step back and task the boys with finding a location to play Spiders Web. The game unfolds with the spider quickly winning two games. There are some tensions revolving around game play, rules, winning, and honesty. After the game, Dave facilitated a conversation about what it means to be honest and how as the boys get older they will encounter more situations where they will be confronted by people choosing to avoid honesty. These simple games provide strong opportunities to strengthen our community by the disagreements they occasionally spawn.
We conclude our day by sharing what we are grateful for. Many are thankful for chance to work on skills, others for the land and how it provides this excellent space for exploration and play, still others for the warm weather and spring. We end by looking forward to our next outing at Connelly Creek where we will be working with younger boys. It will be a great chance to work on our leadership skills and lend a hand to those with less experience. A quick time check revels that we must head back to Stubbs quickly or we will be late. The boys shoulder packs and in no time at all we are loaded onto Stubbs ready to go. Unfortunately, Stubbs has a minor mechanical problem with the side door that Dave quickly sorts out with his multi tool, so despite our excellent efficiency we are coyoted by our bus and pull into Samish Woods a few minutes late.
Thank you Vespula Veterans for your hard work this outing. The softer skills of working in a group and learning about mentoring and leadership are difficult, but you are working hard to gain a better understanding with them. Another thank you to your families for reading this. We certainly couldn’t do this work with your boys without your support and are grateful for the opportunity spend time with these outstanding young fellows.
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