The Raccoon Kits build an Earth Shelter at N. Lake Whatcom

Picture this: You drive out to Deming and up into the mountains to the Ridley Creek trailhead, all the while nervously watching the sky for signs of a break in the storm. As you assemble and hoist your packs into place, there’s a promising brightness in the southern sky and your group decides the weather will cooperate. You gamely strike out onto the trail, across the creek and into the mountains for a long-awaited backcountry adventure. 

After several hours of exploration you return, soaked and tired, to the creek, which is now raging and cresting its banks. 3-4 inches of rain in 5 hours will do that to a creek. You quickly determine that you're unable to recross the creek to get to your faithful bus servant, Stubbs, for the ride home.  You're stranded in the Cascades and it’ll be dark in a few hours. Your adventure is now a matter of survival (Refer to the survival “Rule of 3’s – 3 minutes without oxygen, 3 hours without shelter, 3 days without water, 3 weeks without food)! Your heart rate amps up and your breathing gets shallow as panic begins to set in.

Fortunately, this is a story not of what did happen but of what could have been. The older Explorers Club group that was scheduled to hike the Ridley Creek trail that stormy August Saturday will have to wait until October for that hike. And, to be honest, I don’t know that the creek swelled as depicted in the scenario, but it made for an interesting introduction to our skills focus for the fall – shelter building. 

A well-constructed shelter will repel rain and provide a warm place to sleep, and is a difficult task, especially in inclement weather when you're in a panic. Over the course of the fall, our goal is to get to the point where the Raccoon Kits are able to build a shelter in which they could sleep.  

We began on a beautiful Sunday morning by recounting our summer adventures and welcoming a new Explorer to our group. Then up Stewart Mountain in search of a place to work on building shelters. After a few games of Hide!, we discovered a shelter that had been constructed by a different Explorers Club group and critiqued their work as a way of putting our minds in a place to launch into the task at hand. We then talked about what makes for a good shelter location (free of “widowmakers”; access to resources such as “Y” sticks, ridge poles, leaves and more; clear of water runoff) and searched for the spot for our shelter. Note that we spent 20-30 minutes doing this, time that would've put us behind the 8 ball in our Ridley Creek scenario. 

Location decided, we set about gathering materials and building. The discipline and focus that are so critical in an actual survival situation were in somewhat short supply at first, but the Raccoon Kits rallied to complete the shelter frame (our goal for this first outing). Their self-critique exposed a few issues that we’ll work to rectify on a future outing. They likely would not have spent a warm, cozy night while waiting for Ridley Creek to subside, but given the reality of their situation, they did well. 

Our work completed, we turned our attention to the serious business of play. A stimulating and fair game of Spider’s Web begins with agreement on the course layout and rules (yes, they tend to vary from group to group and even outing to outing for a given group). Our tribal elder (has the job of facilitating our group decisions) received lots of “help” as he led a lively discussion to resolve these issues. Agreement reached, the “flies” proceeded to crawl around the hillside, failing to breach the spider’s defenses, but managing to avoid capture. Final outcome- draw. 

While we were busy with that, mentor Tim worked to strengthen our shelter, setting the stage for our challenge for our next exploration outing – a shelter that can withstand the weight of one or more Raccoon Kits. 

A time check dictated we move quickly to our next activity, a Sit Spot. Work and play behind us, the mentors wanted to provide the space for connection and reflection, and some of the boys actually took advantage! Learn more about Sit Spots here. 

We end every outing be giving thanks and sharing apples, as gratefulness is a core principle (see Mottoeshere) at Wild Whatcom. On this day, our circle of thanks exhausted our time; the Raccoon Kits’ penchant for telling jokes would have to be sacrificed, as would our discussion of a possible name change for the group (kits are babies and we are no longer among the younger Explorers Club groups). We’ll have to be sure to reserve time for these important tasks when we next meet (Saturday, October 3; 10:00 - 2:00 at Connelly Creek)! 

Look here for the complete gallery of photos from our exploration, as well as a photo history of the Raccoon Kits. I suspect you'll see why a name change is in order for the group as they grow and connect.