November 15, 2008

Field Trip to Central Washington!

The Alderleaf Wilderness Certification Program just got back from the central Washington trip and I've never been more thankful for hot showers before in my life. It's not that I was particularly dirty, or particularly cold (even when it dropped below freezing) but the combination of the two and wearing the exact same set of clothes, thermals and all, for three full days that did it. We spent the first night at Umtanum Creek and collected materials for hand drill making including mullein, elderberry, willow and cottonwood. The next morning we worked on tracking at Potholes State Park and collected dogbane for fabric making. Luckily our apprentice T'Jen had a spare camera battery so I could document the trip:
A view of the Columbia River from Potholes Campground at night.

Everyone huddled around the fire carving materials for hand drills.
Steve making a coal with his new kit; note his excellent form.
Fritz and Jason taking a break from hand drilling to admire the moon.
The skull of a young buck we found at the site of a cougar kill.

All in all it was an incredible trip, with lots of awareness games around the fire, many gifts from mother nature, and more bonding and friendship amongst the Alderleaf students.
d

2 comments:

Filip T. said...

Looks like you all had a blast! Love the light scribbles in the photos. Very cool.

In case you have not seen them yet, I posted some photos from some of our past class days and also from my own recent short outings:

http://picasaweb.google.com/Alwaystracking

Missing all of you,

Fil

Unknown said...

Hey Jase--neat presentation--great pics. I've enjoyed surfing the Alderleaf website. Enjoy your family this w/e. Uncle Tom Huber