Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Gray Wolves keep dry, make tea at Lookout Mtn. 11/12/17

This year for the Gray Wolves is marked by a strong skills focus. We’ve been working on wilderness travel (erecting shelters, finding and purifying water…) and the spring will see us working on building fires. It’s fun to see the boys pick up these skills. Just as important, however, is to observe their burgeoning self-reliance. 
At Lookout Mountain on Sunday, the mentors laid out the objectives during opening circle — set up tarp shelter/s and make tea. We then selected a Leader of the Day and tasked him with organizing the group to accomplish those goals. The group figured they needed to find a workable location first and, after consulting the trailhead map, decided to search along a creek so they’d have access to water for the tea (nice).
After a short hike, they found a spot creekside, but were unsure whether it satisfied their other needs such as sufficient space and a way to string up tarps. They circled up and decided to send scouting parties to check out a few locations and report back. After some spirited discussion and not a little compromise (motto) about the better site, we headed off to the selected location and began stringing tarp shelters. Their knot skills need some work, but after a bit they got two shelters erected. (We were fortunate in that the rain held off.)



As the second shelter was being constructed, mentor Glen coached a few Gray Wolves in the use of backcountry stoves and they started heating the water, which had been filtered from the creek and carried (> 5 minute walk) to the site.


The boys, and men, had tea with their lunch and we were ready for some games. Ironically, this is where their focus broke down. Spider’s Web lasted about 10 minutes and was simply abandoned; King of the Hill, with two teams of two, lasted longer and was marked by repeated exclamations of joy (and a broken pair of eyeglasses and a torn pair of rain pants).

With focus lost, we experienced a few minutes of loitering. Then one of the Explorers suggested a Sit Spot, with which mentors Glen and Brian eagerly agreed (wish I had thought of that).

A closing circle of thanks and a few games of Hide on the short hike out and we were finished. The mentors stretched the boys' edges (motto) with a few simple tasks and left it to their collective capabilities to make it happen. It went exceedingly well, from that perspective. Their skills still need work, but they rose to the challenge. It was gratifying to see.


We next meet at Larrabee State Park on Sunday, January 14, 10:00AM-3:00PM. Check out the rest of the photos from Lookout Mountain here.




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