Salamander Efts Find Their Namesake at Lake Padden

With the rain pouring down the Salamander Efts arrived at Lake Padden knowing they were in for a wet one. Luckily, being comfortable with a cold, wet forest is part of being a salamander and today this group lived up to their name. We were at Lake Padden because of some unfinished business that we left from a spring outing where we got a start on a group shelter but never finished it! Trekking through the downpour, and up a fresh flowing stream that was at one time the trail, we clambered off trail up a steep hillside and at the top found our old shelter right where we left it!

Taking shelter under the tarp for lunch

Getting to work on the roof of our shelter. Giant slabs of Douglas Fir bark made for nice shingles.

Gathering together we decided to set up a tarp shelter to keep us and our gear dry during the outing. This was a great practical pop quiz for the Salamander Efts who managed to get a somewhat passable tarp shelter up before they hunkered under and ate lunch while the mentors and a few of the more determined Explorers put the finishing touches on the shelter utilizing a few specific knots like a Trucker’s Hitch and similar adjustable knots to get the desired tautness of a quality tarp shelter. With our tarp set up we set out to put a roof on our shelter. Gathering more sticks and proper latticing material the structure of the roof was finished. Next onto covering the roof. With some puzzlement one Explorer discovered an old Doug Fir log allowed us to break planks of bark off that we shingled on the roof. Next for debris we scrounged around scooping up armfuls of duff to add insulation to the roof. While doing this we discovered our group’s namesake… twice! Not one, but two separate species of salamander were discovered. What a fitting way to wrap up our outing.

We found or first salamander while gathering debris for our shelter.

Out second discovery of a different species of salamander.

 See if you can figure out which species we discovered on our outing using this guide!

With the roof on, we reflected on what we had accomplished, and what we could improve upon. Again, work ethic and feeling a sense of urgency to complete the shelter was missing this outing. Of course our time on outings is often valued for the fun that can be had goofing off with friends in the forest, but it is important to get into the right headspace when you’re practicing survival skills. We practice so that when we are faced with a real situation we have the confidence in our abilities to stay cool and calm under pressure and execute the skills necessary to stay safe and sound. Luckily, we have plenty more outings to continue to grow and learn how to practice with a purpose. In the end, the Salamander Efts survived, if not thrived, during the rainstorm finishing the roof to their shelter while discovering two species of native salamander along the way. Despite some moments of getting lost in goofing off, when called upon to get it together this group rallied and finally finished what they started in the spring.

With the roof on we reflected on our work and took a moment to review important keys to a survival shelter

Make sure to check out the rest of our photos from this outing here!

Salamander Efts Build A Shelter While Building Work Ethic

On a gorgeous spring day the Salamander Efts met up for their final outing of the spring season. After gathering together and catching up we hit the trail and trekked up into the horse trails behind Lake Padden. Stepping off the trail in a clearing we had our opening meeting and discussed our skills focus, where we’ve gone so far this season, and what we wanted to spend our time doing on our outing. With some time spent this season on Tracking and Bird Language, we began shifting to our skills focus for the fall; The Art of Surviving. 

Reviewing “The Rule of Threes” we discussed how someone can live three minutes without air, three hours in inclement weather, three days without water, and three weeks without food. The first pertinent skill we felt like focusing on was building a shelter. Although our clothes are our first line of defense against bad weather, our ability to construct a shelter to keep ourselves warm and dry could be the difference between life and death.

Trekking straight up the hill we got far enough off trail to find a location that could handle the impact of constructing a shelter. First we spent some time scouting the area to see where would be best for building a shelter. Taking into account hazards, resources, and convenience we picked a spot and got to work. Well, we tried to get to work. Tossing a few big sticks up on a couple of logs, the boys thought they could just stack up a shelter and be done. Not so. The Salamander Efts seemed to really struggle with coming up with a legitimate structural plan for their shelter beyond building a “fort” in the woods. After letting the boys struggle for a while, and seeing a pretty low level of motivation to get things rolling, the mentors stepped in. 

Re-assessing our situation we started from square one. First we got a structural plan in place, next we took inventory of our resources and began sawing out Y-Sticks and ribs out of fallen branches and downed trees. Despite more structure and planning, the work ethic and motivation was just not there. It became clear that these Salamander Efts will need a more realistic survival scenario to spark a sense of urgency to fuel them to exercise a quality work ethic. This was unfortunate after a strong service outing of quality work ethic and leadership with the younger group.

With the mentors stepping in, things started coming together. Utilizing cedar roots as cordage, the shelter grew into a solid structure that could support a strong roof with sufficient debris for waterproofing and insulation. Running out of time it was clear if this was a survival situation we would be in trouble. The shelter did not get completed and the boys didn’t seem to really care. As they grow older they will begin to understand that practice is what will make or break application of these skills in a real situation. 

Finishing up we debriefed our shelter building, ate some food, and hiked back down the hill away from the swarming mosquitoes and down to the lake. Along the way we found a variety of edible berries that we munched on. Red Huckleberry, Salmonberry, and Indian Plum were all on the menu. Finally we got to the water for a quick swim before returning to the dog park for pick up. All in all this was an outing that was challenging for the mentors and a wake-up call for the boys that we have a ways to go before they could comfortably survive an emergency in the woods. This will be a great outing for us to revisit in the fall as we begin our true journey into the Art of Survival. 

Not only will these Salamander Efts be trying to learn the primal skill of survival, but the Salamander Efts will be one of the eldest groups in Boys Explorers Club this fall. They will be embarking on the journey of becoming Explorer Mentor Apprentices where they will have the opportunity to come out and volunteer with younger groups, learn from the mentors, and get a chance to practice what they learned about mentoring with the younger group. This opportunity will further emphasize the importance of the Salamander Efts growing, maturing, and not only having a strong work ethic for themselves, but to lead by example and demonstrate to the younger groups what a work ethic looks like and why it is important. Perhaps this incentive will help provide the push to get the Salamander Efts focused on what it means to buckle down and learn a skill, do some service, or just take advantage of the five hours, once a month, four times a season, where they get together and explore the land and learn from the mentors. Only time will tell, but the future holds a bounty of opportunity for these boys and we all hope the Salamander Efts take full advantage.

Make sure to check out the rest of the photos from our outing here!

Salamander Efts ford Deming Homestead Eagle Park to track along the banks of the Nooksack's North Fork

Our exploration began in the belly of Explorers Club’s new bus Moose, which saw us safely to Eagle Rock Park in Deming. There we circled up in the grass beside an eddy of the North Fork which, swelled by rain had submerged our crossing on the alluvial flood plain which stretched before us to the banks of the Nooksack’s North Fork, the sight of which was occluded by young alders scattered amidst tall bracken and shrubbery.

After catching up with each other’s different winter season’s goings on, the boys set to dividing jobs, discussing logistics and this season’s skill focus – Tracking and bird language – with alacrity. We were all excited at the prospect of tracking on the alluvium of the flood plain, and seeing what animals had been about since the rain from the night before had washed a fresh layer of sediment over the ground – perfect for tracking!

The winds were calm, and we waded across onto the flood plain, where we set off through the slightly stirring scrub in search of tracks and a path to the river. We found the substrate remarkably undisturbed by the passing of other animals, yet how much do we miss the tracks of robins and mice?

Once we broke through the underbrush to the sand and stones of the riverbed, we broke for snacks and water. Heading south along the riverbank, the boys broke up into bands, always within eyesight and crow-call, to explore for tracks, dig into the sand, build forts, and establish a base camp for fire and shelter along the breach. Tracks of deer and dog from before the rains could still be made out, though mostly obscured from weathering, and a few deer and what may have been a fox or young coyote could be seen by their trail signs left behind that morning.

The weather was generous to us, with the clouds staying light gray and refusing to drop more than the occasional sprinkle of precipitation, and the winds stayed bedded down, offering us only soft breezes as gusts. The boys wanted to start a fire, and along with the mentors used their camping and art of fire-making skills to start a fire with a spark starter and a nest of damp grass, dried with friction, while others built a windbreak to shield the ember while it caught. We were working with the driest of damp materials available, and all felt pretty proud of the group’s accomplishment once we were fanning the flame of our fire!

After lunch eaten around the fire on in a wooden fort, the winds and rain began to pick up just enough that we were worried for our fire. The boys then conceived a tarp shelter over the fire, and cut four dead limbs for posts, digging holes deep in the ground to anchor them; securing these finally with rocks and sand before securing the tarp to the posts. The Salamander Efts had a vision for this outing, and executed it with passion and confidence! It was a shelter entirely isolated from natural windbreaks of driftwood stacks, yet it was a warm place to weather the brunt of wind and rain that came our way towards the end of the outing, and a source of gratitude during our closing circle around the embers left to die from our fire.

The weather once again blessed us with calm and dry as we broke camp and scattered all sign it was ever there, packed our bags and headed back to the park – the richer for the experience and for a few plaster castings of tracks. Crossing back to the bus, the water that has been so painfully cold at our journey’s beginning now was a joy that our explorers splashed back into with abandon. An auspicious end to our first out of spring.