On a damp drizzly Sunday afternoon, the Salamander Efts had their third outing of the fall season. This was truly salamander weather and the boys were going to have to tap into their inner amphibian to make it through this outing. As the first couple of boys showed it up at the North Galbraith Trailhead a light sprinkle slowly picked up. Thereafter it seemed like each boy that arrived brought out more and more of the rain. By the time the last Salamander Eft showed up it was a complete downpour; perfect weather to inspire a solid day of shelter building.
We began the day with a sense of urgency. It was wet, cold, and dreary and all we could do was start moving to make sure we stayed warm. The first task was to find a place to have opening meeting. The Salamander Efts have been around long enough to know what to look for. Remembering back to their first season studying the Art of Shelter we all were keeping our eyes out for nice big cedar trees, preferably a small cedar grove growing close together so their canopy of J-shaped branches could provide us cover from the rain. Unfortunately no matter where we looked it was inevitable, we were going to be getting wet. A quick hop off of the trail and we found a sufficient location for our meeting.
The opening meeting was a quick one. It was clear the priority here was shelter. Nature has a funny way of teaching, and today nature was forcing our hand. It almost felt like an exam. These boys knew enough about shelter building from past seasons, but today their skills were going to be put to the test. We continued along the trail looking for promising locations. Dry(ish) level ground, decent canopy cover, and abundant resources were all on the check list for where to set up shop. After a few minutes we came upon a promising location and got to work.
It took awhile for these boys to grasp the situation. It was cold, it was wet, it was miserable for some. These boys are reaching an age where they will begin to learn that sometimes they themselves are the only ones that can improve their situation. The mentors made it clear that it was no time to dilly dally, stand around, or complain about the elements, yet a good handful of the boys seemed to not know where to begin. The mentors split up to two locations and decided to give the boys a little help. One group dropped down to a cedar grove and the other went just up above the trail. Each boy was left to decide which group they wanted to join and soon it was clear the lower group had the majority of the boys and only three or four decided to go to the other location. Perhaps this would be an opportunity for the boys to see the motto “many hands makes light work” but alas there was still trouble finding motivation and compromise in how best to build the shelter.
As the lower group planned out a large shelter for their larger group, the upper group was still having difficulty deciding how best to approach the situation. As one of the boys from the lower group got frustrated with lack of effort and cooperation from his comrades, he decided to move to the upper group where his ideas were openly accepted and a shelter began to take form. The boys quickly realized that making a shelter in adverse conditions is no easy task. Even deciding which type of shelter to construct was rather confusing. So many great ideas just didn’t seem to work out in actuality as it did in their thoughts. After some trial and error, the lower group built a large framework that would have plentiful space for the whole group. The upper group decided to develop a cozy debris shelter.
As the shelters grew and took form, so did the boys morale. Although some boys had to take a break to warm up running along the mountain bike jumps, most of the boys finally got some good shelter building in and soon realized the work kept them warm, their minds occupied, and the time passing relatively quickly. One of the boys found taking shelter in the nearly complete debris hut kept him warm and dry. Although the couple of boys gathering the rest of the debris were only mildly amused by this notion, it provided ample evidence of the insulating properties of all the Big-Leaf Maple leaves we were piling up on the shelter.
Soon enough the rains began to let up. As the clouds lifted, so did the boys spirits. Boys were laughing and scurrying around playing various games with one another. Some of the boys found an excellent muddy hillside primed for sliding down after all the rain. Other boys were still highly motivated to finish the shelters. After a short discussion, the boys decided to spend the rest of the time putting the finishing touches on their shelters and enjoying the scattered beams of sunlight breaking through the tree cover instead of playing any games. Both mentors found a lot of maturity in this decision and were proud of the boys for wanting to finish what they started.
By the end of the day the boys had been through a lot. The elements did their best to make things miserable for them, but on the hike back to the parking lot any passerby would have had no idea. Everyone was laughing, cracking jokes with one another, and playing the whole way back. When we finally broke through to a posse of anxious parents, it was clear there was some relief to see the Salamander Efts in high spirits. It was certainly a trying day, but the boys came away with a whole new appreciation for warmth and dryness. The Art of Shelter may not be the most glamorous, but these boys further solidified their knowledge, ability, and mastery of a skill that could one day save their lives, or at least keep them a little more comfortable in inclement weather.
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