Welcome the Newest Member of the LNT Training Force: Me

This past weekend I got to spend learning more than I ever could have in books about Leave No Trace outdoor ethics. It was a truly wonderful, but COLD, experience and one I'm so glad I decided to be a part of.

The instructors, both LNT Master Educators, were incredibly well versed and experienced at both teaching and spreading LNT principals and, even better, at practicing them when out in the backcountry across the country. As for the participants, I was so pleased to be surrounded by people with such similar values and experiences as I have. I almost felt out of place surrounded by such people as a woman who had thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail and part of the Pacific Coast Trail, a man who had been a seasonal Ranger and Forest Fireman at Crater Lake, and another young woman who had hiked signifigant trails and parks in almost every state in the US and many other countries, including Hawaii, Alaska, Jamaica, and various South American countries. Suddenly my trip to Yellowstone and the meager day hikes I do locally with my kids didn't seem like the proud accomplishments I had thought they were. But, there was also a woman who hiked and camped with her son's Boy Scout troop but had never backpacked, and none of the more worldly experienced hikers looked down on us less active ones at all, so the varied company and experiences really was excellent.

Student led session to start off the class, covering pricipal #1: Plan Ahead (pretty much like the Boy scout motto "Be Prepared")

As for the 'train the trainer' part, I learned so many new ways to approach not only teaching people and kids in a formal setting like a camp station, but also how to gently spread the ideas and ethics to strangers we might find on the trail doing somthing less than acceptable. Since each portion of the class was student-led, we got to experience many different teaching styles and audience types, which I found especially useful to take back to the diverse world of Scouting. The books and resources we recieved to take with us were very well written and something I feel I will actually use, not file away to never be read or brought out again. Seeing many of the activities played out in real life was also invaluable, especially for some activities where we weren't always sure what the lesson was really supposed to be. And to think, I was leery of going since I'm not currently an avid back-country camper and wasn't sure I'd learn anything I could take back to my Cub Scouts. My only regret was not bringing long underwear - it was quite a bit colder than any of us really anticipated!

The weekend was incredible for other reasons too. I arrived in Shenandoah National Park early on Friday to go for a hike on my own. I decided on the Lewis Falls Trail, but I got a little frightened before I started the hike and ended up leaving this note in my car (I blurred out the numbers here, but of course they were there for my hike!). I guess the stories about missing and sometimes dying hikers, especially the recent one about Ed Rosenthal in Joshua Tree (which thankfully had a happy ending) got me really worried about the fact that no one would find me if something went wrong. Perhaps it was a little silly, but without cell service I'd rather be accused of being silly than being found dead 10 days later, or maybe never, becuase no one knew where to look for me when I went missing. With that piece of mind, I had a wonderful hike with peace and quiet like I hadn't experienced in a very long time. The cool air and recent rain and leaves just starting to turn their various shades of yellow and red made for a perfect start to my weekend of nature appreciation and conservation.

I'm almost ashamed to admit how many years it has been since I'd been to Shenandoah national Park, even though it just over 2 hours away. Going back was almost like experiencing the beauty of our gentel rolling mountains for the first time, except that I had an incredible sence of coming home again. I'm already planning my next trip up there, which unfortunately will have to wait until next year. Perhaps I'll get lucky and be able to get into the Master Educator class that will probably be held there next spring. Because I certainly will be continuing on my LNT education and taking the next step in spreading the message to more people, Scouts and general public, here in the Richmond, VA area. Even though we were told we're not actually "certified" because the word certification implies some amount of backing from the LNT center, I was still proud to get the pin stating that I am an official un-official LNT trainer and look forward to getting the non-certified certificate in the mail.

But even so, if anyone has need of someone to teach how to tell a durable surface for walking and camping, how to best hang a bear bag, how to 'take care of business' in the backcountry, how much weight a backpacker should carry, why your dog should be kept on a leash, what colors to wear when hiking, how to dispose of wash water and anything else that might be ethically questionable in the wilderness, just give me a shout. I'm available for Scout camps, den meetings, weddings, birthday parties, Pow-Wows, training seminars and bat mitzvahs. Looking forward to spreading the word of using natural places responsibly and LNT at your next meeting or marriage celebration! ;)

Hansel and Gretel Need LNT Training

This weekend I'm headed to the majestic Shenandoah National Park to spend a few days in the beautiful mountains learning about Leave No Trace and getting certified as a LNT Trainer. I could not be more excited. Spending my days in 'class' surrounded by newly changing autumn leaves and crisp mountian air with others who share my passion for the outdoors will be a tough challenge, but its one I'm ready and willing to face.

As a kid I always knew the old phrase "Take only pictures, leave only footprints." What good hiker doesn't? Later I heard about Leave No Trace but figured it was just a way to make that old basic concept more well known to new outdoor explorers. In a way, it is, but it wasn't until I actually started working on the Leave No Trace Cub Scout Award with my Den that I found out just how big and involved their mission was. The more I read up on the foundation of the program, the more I was hooked and knew I wanted to be a part of it. Though I have been informally teaching Leave No Trace principals to kids for almost a year now, its high time I get properly educated and certified to lead real sessions with adults and children in our community.

As part of the training, I have been tasked with leading a session for the group on LNT principal #6: Respect Wildlife. I can instruct as if for any age and experience level I wish, so you can be sure my peers will be told they are a group of 6 to 10 year old boys. After my teaching session I will be critiqued on my material, presentation, teaching style, and the knowledge I was able to pass on. That part I'm honestly not so excited about, but I will try to take their constructive critisism to heart and use it to better my presentations in the future. Yes, I will.

I have some ideas up my sleeve to teach about respecting wildlife that I think will be fun, but my plan is to first start off with a little story. Here is the gist of what I've come up with to open my session, I hope you like it. It could actually be slightly expanded and used as a campfire story for young children as well, with bonus points to the story teller for having a good lesson embedded in it. Constructive critisism is welcome. Really. But, well, try to be gentle, it is my first time sharing a made up story like this. Just remember, it for young kids and meant to be told orally, the feeling of which I have tried to capture in the writing style. Feel free to use the story or idea if you wish, just do me the favor of giving me credit please.

"Hansel and Gretel, Version 1.5"

Has anyone here ever heard the old fairy tale about Hansel and Gretel? Well, if you haven't heard of it, it is a story about a young boy and his sister who walk through the woods and mark their trail by leaving breadcrumbs behind them. Eventually, they find a witch living in the woods, whose home is made up entirely of gingerbread! BUT, what happened to Hansel and Gretel and the witch is not the part of the story I want to tell you about today, you can find that in any fairy tale book. Today I'm going to tell you about what happened to that trail of breadcrumbs that they left behind.

The animals of the forest could smell those delicious bread crumbs from miles away, because animals have much keener noses than we people do. So the animals came sniffing around to see what the yummy smell was. When the squirrels and racoons and foxes and even bears found the bread crumbs, they couldn't help but eat them up since they smelled so good. The bread crumbs tasted good too, so the animals went looking for more crumbs left on the trail. Soon there were no bread crumbs left. Hansel and Gretel weren't going to be very happy about that when they found out, but the animals weren't very happy either. They really liked those bread crumbs and had never had anything like them before. So the animals of the forest went looking for more places to find breadcrumbs like those.

The squirrels decided to follow other people that hiked along the paths, hopeing they would drop more tasty bread and food items. Sometimes the hikers just ignored them, but sometimes there were mean kids that would throw rocks or chase the squirrels and make the poor things very scared.

The racoons liked to roam around at night, and there weren't many hikers out in the dark, so they decided to go to where the people live and see what they could find around the houses. Those racoons found wonderful stashes of food in big plastic bins that the people seemed to call 'trash cans.' The racoons had fun tipping over the cans and eating all the yummy trash treats they found inside. But the people didn't seem to like this at all, and soon began poisoning the trash so the racoons got sick. Some people even tried to shoot the racoons to make them go away. But the racoons loved all the new people food so much and it was so much easier to get than the food in the forest that they kept coming back to the trash cans, even if it meant some might die.

The foxes also prefered to come out at night, but they were a crafty bunch of animals and thought they could do better than the racoons. So the foxes would sneak onto farmers lands and steal all sorts of good things to eat. They didn't find many breadcrumbs to steal, but they did find yummy eggs in the chicken coops and lots of corn and vegetables. Of course, being stolen from made the farmers VERY angry, so the farmers set traps to catch the crafty foxes and get rid of them and thier stealing for good.

But the bears, being the biggest animal in the forest, didn't feel like being sneaky or following hikers patiently to find tasty human food. Instead, they helped themselves to all the treats left in people's campsites right there in the bears own woods. Of course, the campers were very afraid of the huge bears that came to their tents and were worried that the bears would hurt one of them, so the Park Rangers were called in to remove the bears from the forest. The bears were caught and sent very far away from their homes, some even to zoos and other countries where they never got to see their home forest again.

The animals that had tasted the bread crumbs had other problems, too. Sometimes they would eat something that smelled and tasted good, but made the poor animal very, very sick. This was bad, but not bad enough for the not sick animals to stop eating the people food. Eventually, they loved the human food so much, and for a while had such an easier time getting it, that they forgot how to hunt and gather their own regular forest foods. Then a time came that the people stopped coming into that part of the forest, or stopped putting their trash where the animals could find it, and all the animals that had come to rely on the new human food suddenly didn't have it anymore. And they didn't have their own animal food anymore becuase they'd forgotten how to find it. Many of the animals either died or left the forest in search of new sources of easy food.

So now, when you walk the path that Hansel and Gretel walked through the woods, you may not see any animals at all. The forest is silent and sad for the animals that went away. And that is why we teach people now about Leave No Trace and respecting wildlife by not feeding them our own people food. Perhaps is Hansel and Gretel had learned Leave No Trace, we would still be able to enjoy the sound of the squirrels in the trees, the glimpse of a fox at dusk, or the tracks of a bear in the mud by a stream on that trail that the children took. So remember, when you are out exploring your neck of the woods, be sure you Leave No Trace, not even a crumb small enough for a mouse. Taking your food and trash with you will help keep the wildlife wild and a part of the nature we love.

Hiking Skills for Cubs: Day Camp Day 1

Well, day camp is over. I would have loved to have had the time and energy to write these posts last week as each day ended, but who'd of thought teaching 100 kids all day in swealtering temperatures and humidity would be so exhausting? Plus I was up til midnight most nights working on last minute preparations and ideas. So, instead I'm going to make a post for each day, recalling the activities we did and how well the boys recieved them. It was an incredible experience and I learned a lot from it too, not just the boys!

Cub Camp Day 1:

I was pretty much given free rein on what to cover and do at my station, which was mystifyingly named "Cub Skills." At first I really struggled with ideas, becuase it seemed that tying knots and first aid were the only real skills I could think of, and those might end up quite boring for most of the kids. Luckily I asked a lot of questions and found some good ideas, and eventually decided to focus on hiking and Leave No Trace. They were things I know well and also would be simple and cost effective.

So on day one I had to cover some pretty dull material with the boys to start off the Hiking belt loop requirement. I had done this belt loop with some of the boys in our Pack already, so I wanted to make it a little different this time. Two of the three requirements are to learn the rules and guidelines of hiking and to learn what to bring and how to be properly prepared for a hike. Me standing in front of them and telling them those items would be a sure way to loose their interest FAST.

For the rules and guidelines, I asked THEM what they thought. I made sure to plant some ideas when they seemed to draw a blank. I also had a poster with the Leave No Trace front country guidelines, and I had them explain to me WHY we follow them. Still a little dry, but necessary and I could think of no other fast way to get that part over with.

The preparedness portion of the belt loop was more fun. I over packed two backpacks with items that they may or may not want to take on a hike. I had the group split into two teams around each pack. On my mark, they had to empty the packs and decide as a group what they would take with them on a theoretical hike. The tricky part was, they were all supposed to unnimously agree, which I hoped would reinforce one of the Scouting core values that the camp was focusing on that day: co operation. There were obvious things, like a bottle of water and a first aid kit, and less obvious things, like a bandana and a flashlight (we used a day hike example). I was happy that most groups picked the not-so-obvious things out, and very few groups took the filler-junk that I had placed in the packs. Even though it wasn't really a race or a true competition, they still seemed to enjoy the fun of the 'game.' After they were finished, I took items out of the packs one by one and we talked about why they were chosen.

The last part of the session was an activity aimed at reinforcing why we stay on the trail and practice Leave No Trace. I spread several large hul-hoops on the ground and had two boys per hoop. They were instructed to look closely and write down everything they could find within that hoop. I actually recall doing this activity when I was at camp as a Girl Scout many years ago, but it was not a Leave No Trace activity at the time. After they'd written down every little thing (they were given magnifying glasses to help look), we made a list of everything that was found in the hoops. An average of about 20 things came up on the group list. I then asked the boys how many steps across they thought the hoop was. One? Two? So all these things on this list are things you'd step on if you went one or two steps off the trail. There was everything from rocks and dead leaves to ants and moths and mushrooms. I think it really helped the boys realize that even on a seemly un-special patch of ground, important things still exist that must be protected. I encouraged them all to try and "be like Bigfoot" and leave no trace of their hiking.

I knew that day one would be the least interesting day to them, and I had hoped it wouldn't set the tone for the rest of the week as "Cub Skills is a BORING station." Luckily, all the groups seemed to at least be interested in what I had to teach them, if not super enthusiastic at least attentive. It was a good start and I was happy to have gotten through the 'boring' stuff in the least painful manner possible. The fun only got better the rest of the week!

Did you know you could fill four days with hiking activities, with only one of them being an actual hike? I could have even done more! Stay tuned for details on day two!

Tiger Cub Spring Leave No Trace Hike

In an effort to help those that may not have gotten all the requirements done for the Cub Scout Leave No Trace patch, I organized a hike at Robious Landing Park for today. Interestingly, the kids who showed up were all ones that I don't think actually needed the hike for the patch. I don't want some of the boys feeling left out about not earning things that the other boys are, but I'm not sure what else I can do to help them get into the activities. It breaks my heart to pass a boy by with an award just because he couldn't make a hike or a camping trip or some other event.

But anyway, we still had a lovely day hiking at the park, which runs along the James River. First we reviewed the Leave No Trace principals. I asked them to name some from memory, and they all seemed to want to keep nameing the one pertaining to not littering, Trash Your Trash. At least we know that idea is firmly implanted in their heads! I then gave the kids a printout from the Virginia Department of Forestry website that listed common trees of virginia with drawings of their leaves. They really did seem to get into trying to find all the trees on the list, and we think we got pretty close.

We did the 1.5 mile circut trail, which was just the right length for this rather hot day. I had the two boys with me, but DH stayed home. Turned out his knee was a bit sore from the bike hike yesterday. See what the ripe old age of 33 does to you? YS was his usual talkative self on the trail, talking to anyone that would listen and to himself when someone wasn't there to hear. He bounded along with the big kids and had a grand old time. OS hiked way up at the front, as usual. He always wants to be the trail leader. He chatted with all his friends about all the inane things kids talk about while looking for leaves that were not yet checked off his list. We always have a great time with the Tigers, and hikes are much more fun with a group!

After the hike we took out our picnic lunches and took a well deserved rest under a shady tree. The boys were back up and playing on the playground after only a few moments to eat, though. I swear I don't remember having that much energy when I was a kid.

A thouroughly enjoyable hike with great company. If only I could have gotten the kids who really needed the experience to come, I'd be even happier with the hike's success.