Backpacking With Babies

I'm sure that many of you outdoor enthusiasts and backpackers can remember the moment you knew you were having a child, or were snuggling with your sweet little baby and had the thought, " What about backpacking?" Personally, I was snuggling with two sweet little babies, so that question was a big one. How will we go backpacking with babies? How will we go with TWO of them? Are my backpacking days over for now? Fortunately, we met a family who gave us a ray of hope. Matt and Jen were both graduate students studying chemistry, with a little boy only a few months younger than our kids. We met at a mom and baby group formed mostly by parents in our childbirth education class. Somehow, and I'm still not sure how they did it, these folks did their graduate work, took care of a baby, made their food from scratch, grew a great garden, canned and put up huge amounts of food, spun wool and knitted, remodelled their house, and went backpacking frequently. We decided they must not have slept. They invited us along backpacking with them at Loon Lake outside of McCall, Idaho when our kids were about one and a half. We had tried taking our kids on their first backpacking trip the summer before, when they were 6 months old, and it was an epic feat. My husband loaded up a VERY heavy pack, diapers included, I carried one baby on my back and one on my front, and off we went. Wow. Heading off into the wilderness never felt quite so wild. I can't say that was the most enjoyable trip, but it sure gave us a sense of accomplishment!

The Loon Lake trip was much better because we had some young, kid-less undergraduates along to share the load. Not to mention other parents with kids to help us figure out all the new territory. Hence, we discovered the benefits of community backpacking with babies. The secret, is to bring friends without kids. Once we learned this secret, we had some great backpacking adventures in our early parenting days.

After Loon Lake, we felt empowered to hit the trails again. We invited four college student friends who had no kids and hadn't been backpacking to come along with us to Ingalls Lake in central Washington. By this time, we had some snazzy Kelty Kid packs to carry the kids in, so two people carried babies and the rest of us shared the load in our packs. It was a five mile, up hill hike into some breathtaking alpine lakes country. It was a more difficult hike, but a good time was had by all. Community was the key.

The kids loved all the attention from all our friends, and chatting away at whoever was carrying them. No two kids ever had such a grand time!

So, I say to you hardcore backpacking parents with babies, don't give up hope! I'm sure you know some folks who are young, strong, and enthusiastic about backpacking who would be more than happy to come along with you and hang out with your adorable offspring. A lot of people want to go backpacking and just want someone experienced and knowledgeable to go along with. It's a beneficial situation for everyone involved. Just as it takes a village to raise a child, so does it take a village to backpack a child into the wilderness.

The Fields of My Youth

Do you ever go back sometimes to visit the house where you grew up? I love the house, forests and fields where I spent my childhood. Our house was originally part of a historical settlement in the foothills of the Olympic Mountains, built by families from Oklahoma displaced by the dust bowl. It's still labeled on maps as "Little Oklahoma". On a trip back to my home ground with my children, we stopped by the old house. My parents don't live there anymore, but the owners are family friends, and welcomed us for a tour. I was delighted and amazed at all of their homesteading endeavors! Gardens, orchards, berries, bees, new split rail cedar fences, and a hidden throne carved out of an old cedar stump in the forest were just a few of the wonderful goings-on around there. They were happy to show us their beehives and even let the kids hold a honeycombed tray buzzing with bees. Here's a little photographic tour.

 My brother and I spent many a rainy day in this old barn, playing in the piles of hay bales and climbing up into the hayloft full of golden straw.

 

The stained glass window in our old chicken coop, made by my mother. That was one fancy chicken coop. I played in there a lot too.

 

The field always bloomed in daisies all summer long.

 

Ox-eye daisy up close

 

 

Mr. Waltenburg's bees

 

 

Making honey from the neighbor's lavender field

 

 

The Olympic Mountains

As I watched the moon rise over the mountains I know so well, I felt a deep gratitude for having grown up in such a magical place. From what I hear, the place was rough when my parents bought it, but with plenty of hard work and sweat, they created a wonderful home in the foothills. We had cows, chickens and a garden, and my brother and I spent countless hours running about and playing in the woods and the creek bottom. There were trees to climb and a barn to play in on rainy days. I always aspire to give my own children such a childhood. From time to time I go back and visit that place in my mind, and imagine what it would be like to live there still, so it brought me a lot of joy to see the land being put to such good use!

Strawberry Fields Forever

Strawberry Fields Forever

"No one I think is in my tree, I mean it must be high or low.

That is you can't you know tune in but it's all right.

That is I think it's not too bad.

Let me take you down, 'cause I'm going to Strawberry Fields.

Nothing is real and nothing to get hung about.

Strawberry Fields forever.

Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see.

It's getting hard to be someone but it all works out.

It doesn't matter much to me.

Let me take you down, 'cause I'm going to Strawberry Fields.

Nothing is real and nothing to get hung about.

Strawberry Fields forever.

Always know sometimes think it's me, but you know I know and it's a dream.

I think I know of thee, ah yes, but it's all wrong.

That is I think I disagree.

Let me take you down, 'cause I'm going to Strawberry Fields.

Nothing is real and nothing to get hung about.

Strawberry Fields forever.

Strawberry Fields forever.

Strawberry Fields forever."

-John Lennon

Pomona's Pectin No-Cook Strawberry Freezer Jam

4 cups mashed strawberries

1/4 cups fresh squeezed lemon juice

1 cup raw honey

3/4 cups water

3 tsp Pomona's Pectin

4-12 tsp Pomona's Calcium Water

1. Wash and rinse air-tight 8 oz. containers

2. Prepare fruit and mix with lemon juice in a large bowl

3. Measure honey, add in and stir well

4. Boil water and place in food processor with pectin powder for 2 minutes

5. Add hot liquid pectin to fruit, stir well

6. Add 4 tsp calcium water and stir well. Keep adding until jell appears.

7. Fill containers within 1/2 inch of top and store in freezer

My Father the Hero!

In honor of Father's Day, I want to let you all know that my dad is a hero. Really! He backpacks, he hunts elk, he builds things, and in all his spare time, he lends a hand to conserving land. When I was growing up he helped form the North Olympic Land Trust, a non-profit organization dedicated to land conservation. Last year, he won the Cox Conserves Heroes award from the Trust for Public Land recognizing all his years and hours of hard work.

From the Cox Conserves Heroes website:  "Permanent protection of a 38-acre farm is Gary’s most recent environmental contribution. Gary’s donated legal work has been a key element in protecting more than 1,500 acres of land since he and other local citizens established North Olympic Land Trust in 1990. The land in Clallam County protects salmon and other wildlife habitat, sustainable commercial timberland, clean water and air, scenic vistas, open space and cultural heritage areas in addition to farmland."

I'm proud of my dad!

By clicking on this link, you can watch the YouTube video about his conservation volunteer work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwbWILVtYCg

And, read the article from KIRO here: http://www.kirotv.com/station/19861510/detail.html

Honey Bee

Handmade honey bee necklaces on my Mountain Hearth Handcrafts blog! Click the link to check out the sweet little honeys, and pay a visit to my crafting blog.

Greenhouse Turned Hothouse

Backpacking Trips: Threemile Lake

Last year we were looking for a good backpacking trip to do with some friends of ours, with all our kids ranging in age from 3-7. In my experience, three miles is generally a good rule of thumb for backpacking in a day with young children. This can certainly vary depending on the trail, how old they are and how accustomed they are to backpacking. In very good keeping with this rule, our friends suggested the loop hike to Threemile Lake in the coastal sand dunes of the Siuslaw National Forest. It was an excellent choice. We loved it so much that we went again this year for our first backpacking trip of the season.  

The Threemile Lake Trail is a moderate 3.3 mile trail through coastal forest, ending at the edge of the sand dunes with a stunning view of the ocean and a beautiful sand lake tucked in amongst the dunes out of the wind, with a nice beach and a shallow shoreline perfect for splashing and swimming on a hot day. This trail also makes a loop by hiking one mile along the beach to the 2 mile Tahkenitch Dunes Trail. All in all, it makes for about a 6.5 mile trip spread out over two days. After doing the hike both ways, we discovered that it is by far the best idea to take the Tahkenitch Dunes Trail in, going downhill over the steep, soft sand dunes to the beach, hiking along the beach with the strong coastal winds blowing southward against your backs, and then hiking up the much less steep dunes to the lake. From there, the hike out on the Threemile Lake Trail through the woods consists of much more gentle ups and downs. Both trails start and end at the same trailhead, so it makes transportation very simple.

 

One of my favorite parts of this hike is the diversity of areas you pass through. It holds the children's interest, and they move forward with the excitement of constantly seeing new things. Coming out of the woods onto the Tahkenitch Sand Dunes at the beginning of the hike is pretty amazing. All of a sudden, through the trees, this expanse of sand stretches out below you and the ocean sparkles off in the distance. Sand dune hiking is an altogether different experience from the trails I'm used to up in the mountains, so it holds an air of novelty. Hiking in sand is slower, as it is a soft surface, and climbing uphill is challenging, which is why you want to go downhill on these big dunes rather than an epic uphill climb with hot, tired kids at the end of a hike (we tried this last year and we know!)

One of the many unique aspects of the dunes is the vegetation. As we hiked through the hills of sand, the girls discovered a patch of wild coastal strawberries, all red and juicy and shining like jewels. It was a wonderful June backpacking treat!

The next section of the trail along the beach was a welcome change after hiking through the hot dunes in the sun. We all took off our shoes and hiked barefoot at the edge of the waves. I can't even describe how refreshing that was in the middle of our hike. There were tiny fish and shrimp-like creatures in the surf rolling in and out. We saw a dried sea star and a large dead sea lion. This gave the kids a lot to talk about for the final treck up through the dunes to the lake.

Fortunately, the dunes in this area are lower without any major climbs, so in what seemed like very little time, we were looking down at Threemile lake. We set up our tents on the small, sandy beach and jumped in for a swim. With the winds blowing all around and above the lake, there were no mosquitoes down by the water, which was a welcome discovery. It was a lovely place to spend the rest of the day, and enjoy a campfire at night.

 

The next day we hiked out on the Threemile Lake Trail through the woods, and aside from some mosquitoes, it was a mellow hike. By the time we climbed up to the tops of the ridges, some cool, misty weather blew in off the ocean, and we stayed invigorated and bug-free the rest of the way out.  

For more information, aside from the USFS links above, here is a link to the Threemile Lake Hike at Travel Oregon.

Enjoying our Wild America: The Amazing Wildlife Documentaries of Marty Stouffer

Recently, I discovered a love for nature documentaries. There's something really amazing about seeing footage of places you wouldn't normally get to see, or things that are rare or impossible to observe on your every day walk in the woods. While I am really not a fan of television in general (we don't have TV and never will), I do have a hearty appreciation for the art of good film. One day, my husband brought home a couple seasons of Marty Stouffer's Wild America series from the local library for family movie night. He explained that it was a favorite show from his childhood, and declared Stouffer his hero. I had not seen Wild America nor heard of it, because I grew up with 12 Canadian stations and poor reception from our antenna(which was actually fine because I ended up playing outside most of the time). I am thinking now, however, that I really missed out on Wild America. After watching those episodes, we loved it so much that we got the complete 12-season set for a family Winter Solstice gift. On long rainy days, or when the kids are home sick, we like to curl up now and then, and enjoy peeks into the lives of the scarcely-seen animals around us.

I decided quickly that Marty Stouffer is a hero of mine as well. A father of two young children, he frequently brought them along to observe the critters he was filming. They even got to help their father raise and rehabilitate injured and motherless birds and a grizzly bear cub! In a society where there are very few jobs that make allowances for one's children to participate, I was impressed that Marty Stouffer just brought his family along with him. The series covers nearly every animal, reptile, bird and fish in North America in depth, and some excellent messages of wildlife protection and habitat preservation are woven throughout. The other thing I really appreciate about the series is the background music. A lot of outdoor documentaries seem to have this heavy metal, extreme-edge, overly dramatic background music. It makes you feel like you're at a monster truck rally, rather than watching animals out in nature. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm sure monster truck rally music has it's place of belonging in the world. However, in this setting, it's all wrong. Wild America always has well-suited music. Rollicking fiddle music for wild turkeys, serene piano and flute music for meadowlands and birds, and some great banjo tunes for swamp animals are just a few examples.

Marty's own story is pretty inspiring as well. He started out filming animals with his brothers and rehabilitating animals at home, and decided to make the leap and pursue his passions rather than stay with the family business. Here's what Wikipidia turned up: "At age 18, Marty traveled to Alaska on his own with an 8mm movie camera. He became trapped by snowfall in a remote valley, but survived by hunting and trapping local wildlife. He returned home and with the warm reception of his unsophisticated movie of his adventure in the north, decided to pursue a career in wildlife documentary making. In 1970, Marty graduated from the University of Arkansas with a degree in English. From there he traveled to Africa to film a new documentary. While in Africa, he was confronted with massive and wasteful killing of animals and returned to America with the intent to produce films that argued for nature conservation."

With some patience and awareness, there are many opportunities to observe wildlife on your outdoor adventures. Even though my children tend to get very excited and sometimes loud out in the woods, we have still been fortunate to make some good critter sightings from time to time. Here are a few I've managed to photograph over the last few years. My kids still talk about the time we saw a black bear cub in Idaho to anyone who will listen!

I've never known a youngster who wasn't interested in animals. They're fascinating. I believe that educating children about wildlife is a sure way to foster understanding and respect. I also think it's important to know a little bit about the creatures we share our habitat with. Going out in nature and observing is really the way to do this, but it can also be fun sometimes to have your interest sparked first and gather some information before you head out there. Wild America has a lot to offer in the way of sharing observation of animal behavior and habitats, and highlighting some critters we might have otherwise overlooked or just not known were there.

For more information you can check out this link, What is Wild America? There is also an official Wild America interactive website with lots of facts, footage and educational ideas.

So, for your next family movie night, or rainy day snuggle-up time, look for "Wild America" at your local library, video store, or Netflix. A delightful experience awaits.

And to further pique your interest, here's a season guide and listing of all the episodes:

Season 1: Watching Wildlife, Swamp Critters, Wild Dogs, Mountain Monarchs, Time of the Grizzly, At the Crossroads, Bighorn!, The Wolf and the Whitetail, Living With Wildlife,Wild Babies

Season 2: Animal Oddities, Born to Run, Owls-Lords of Darkness, Hog Wild!, Antlered Kingdom, Wild Wings, Wild Cats, The Man Who Love Bears Part I, The Man Who Loved Bears Part II, Backyard Wildlife

Season 3: All-American Animals, Feathered Jewels, Ringtailed Rascals, Canyon Creatures, Wolverine Country, Fascinating Fishes, Wild Refuge, Fishers in the Family 1, Fishers in the Family 2, Photographing Wildlife

Season 4: North Woods Lynx, Woodpeckers-Nature's Hammerheads, Designs for Defense, Cutthroat-Yellowstone Lake Cutthroat and Yellowstone River, Cutthroat-Grizzly Creek, Killer Mice, Controversial Coyote, Remarkable Reptiles, Tracking Wildlife

Season 5: Pennsylvania Whitetail, Woodies and Hoodies, King of Snakes, Family Feud, River of the Bears, Wild Texas, A Prairie Park?, The Grouse and the Goshawk, Otters of the Adirondacks, Growing up Wild

Season 6: Swamp Bear Part 1, Swamp Bear Part 2, Beautiful Blues, Timberdoodles of Moosehorn, Minnesota Mink, Season of the Seals, Wild Turkey Part 1, Wild Turkey Part 2, Snakedance, Managing Wildlife

Season 7: Cliffhangers, White on White, Family of Foxes, Peculiar Plants, A Multitude of Mollusks, Marmot Mountain, Old Man Muskrat, Chipmunks of Yosemite, Bobcat, Evergreen

Season 8: Bushytails, Cottontails and Kin, Birds of Peace, Birds of Prey, Weasels: Sleek and Savage Part 1, Weasels: Sleek and Savage Part 2, Olympic Odyssey, Badlands, Shenandoah Springtime, Attracting Wildlife

Season 9: Valley of the Elk, Dancers of the Dawn, The Incredible Shrew, Pretty as a Quail, Meet the Marten, Beneficial Bats, Birds of a Feather, Call to Courtship, A Nest is Best, Shades of Gray

Season 10: The First Ten Years, Magnificent as a Moose, The Truth About Turtles, Prince of the Pond, The Prickly Porcupine, Those Smelly Skunks, The Amazing Armadillo, In the Forest, Whitebark, Kids and Critters

Season 11: Billion Dollar Bass, The Beauty of Butterflies, Belligerent as a Badger, Headgear, A Tale about Tails, Some Feet Have Noses, The Eyes Have It, Colors in Nature, Wild Wyoming, Home is Where There's Habitat

Season 12: Zoom in on Wildflowers, Year of the Mustang Part 1, Year of the Mustang Part 2, Queen of the Ice, X-Rated Imports, Wings Over the Marsh, People of the Bison, Cute as a Cub, Just Little Varmints, The Bill Makes the Bird

Hooray, Hooray for CSA's!

It's that time of year again that I look forward to in eager anticipation all Spring. When fruit and veggie prices start to go on the rise, and things get a little lean, our Groundworks Organics CSA comes in and saves the day! What, might you ask, is a CSA? This stands for Community Supported Agriculture, which means that folks buy a farm share early in the year from a local farm, and the farm provides each shareholder with a box of vegetables every week during the growing season, which is their share from the harvest. There are also meat and egg CSA's out there (like our favorite, Deck Family Farm), fruit and berry CSA's, and I recently learned of a wildcrafted mushroom CSA in our area.

If you're intrigued, and wondering what CSA's are all about, check out this great video of folk singer, Seth Bernard's "Talkin' CSA Blues" from Youtube. Sometimes a song says it best!


Even with our giant garden this year, we didn't want to give up the CSA because of the variety of things a farm is able to grow, and the extended season with greenhouses. I figure if we end up with extras of anything, I'll do some canning and freezing for the coming winter. Last year I made vegan pesto out of our basil bunch every time we got one, and ended up with 15 baby food jars of frozen pesto. My kids love it. They are some of those strange children who do not like pasta with tomato sauce, so pesto is important. To make vegan pesto, simply substitute nutritional yeast flakes for parmesan cheese. I honestly can't tell the difference.

Last week we got our first wonderful box, and this week's box contents are: Salad Mix, Bunched Arugula, Carrots, Sugar Snap Peas, Red Ace Beets, New Potatoes, Broccoli, Garlic Whistles, Green Cabbage, and Italian Parsley. I'm already salivating over all the good things I am going to make. These veggies are often so fresh that they're darn good just steamed with butter, salt and pepper. Last week I cooked up some baby turnips that were delicious, and I'm usually not a huge turnip fan. Still, I eat them because I know they're good for me.

The thing I like best about getting a farmshare CSA each year, is that I can count on getting a very local, very fresh box of vegetables every week for six months out of the year, and it's like a surprise every week with new things to try. I'm pretty serious about not wasting food, so we eat every veggie that comes our way, and end up eating a variety of things we might not normally think of trying. I also tend to get stuck in a grocery shopping rut, and the weekly menu can get monotonous by the Spring. Not during CSA season! I also like knowing that I'm supporting local farmers. They can plan for the year and not have to get so tight in the spring, because they have folks committed to eating what they'll grow. Herein lies the one downside to CSA's, which is having to come up with the lump sum up front. I know all too well that this is not easy when you don't make a lot of money. Some farms let you pay in installments, and I have even heard of some that let you pay monthly. There are local programs in many communities now that offer assistance to low income families for CSA's. Our local program, That's My Farmer, is a partnership between several church communities and farms, which holds fundraisers to provide a number of free CSA shares to families who need it.

One very happy CSA customer took on the project of photographing his weekly box from Groundworks on his blog. Check out the link here, CSA 2008, and prepare to drool over some luscious photos of veggie abundance!

A Waldorf Education

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire."

-William Butler Yeats

This past week we joyously enrolled our children in the local Waldorf school for the coming school year. It has been an arduous path, wrought with twists and turns, and we are so very happy to have arrived where we set out to be, and at the beginning of a new journey.

My discovery of Waldorf education has it's roots way back in my own public school education. As far as the public education system goes, I consider myself one dissatisfied customer. I learned, I advanced, I did really well academically, but it many ways it was just plain awful. I still feel surly just thinking about it.  And this was all before "No child left behind" came into play. In my humble opinion, our education system is not getting the support it needs, and it shows. While I was pregnant, my husband and I agreed that our children would not go to public school. We talked about homeschooling, but as they got to be preschoolers, I realized it wasn't going to be a good fit for us. Our various preschool experiences ranged from really bad to just frustrating. For a while the kids attended a Montessori preschool that we really liked, but it worked out well for my daughter and not my son, and we only lived there long enough for her to go a few months. Then, one day, we attended the Winter Light Faire at our local Waldorf school. I felt like I had stepped into a magical kingdom of childhood. Every where I looked, beauty and inspiration were plentiful. Even the walls were painted in soft, cloud-like hues. Amazing art hung on the walls outside the classrooms. There was great intention behind everything, and great love that shone. I knew, right then, with certainty that this was where I wanted my children to learn. But how? We were a young family with one income, and this was private school. It seemed impossible, and I shelved the dream away.

After this, life took some complicated routes. My son was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder by the school district, and we decided to send the kids to a neighborhood public Kindergarten where he could receive some services we were unable to attain for him privately. They really worked through a lot with him, and helped him tremendously, but I was always feeling disappointed in the greater institution and the education they had to offer. It never really felt like the right place for our family.  Then, Winter Light Faire came around again. We dipped fragrant beeswax candles in a warm room, we walked quietly through the hushed, sparkling realm of the crystal cookie cave, we listened to music played by the skillful hands of the students and alumni, we watched incredible puppet shows with storytelling, drank in the laughter, smiles and sense of community all around us, and we felt deeply nourished. We knew that this was an education delivered with reverence. We decided to  make a leap of faith and apply. One parent I met initially, now a dear friend, told me that as a single mother, she didn't really know how it always worked out to pay the tuition to send her children there, but somehow it always did. She said it took a lot of faith. 

The rest of the story is the complicated, winding turns of our journey. That first year, our daughter got in to the school, but not our son. They said his needs were too great for them to serve. We made a really difficult decision at that point, and split our twins up, placing one in the Waldorf school, and one in the Waldorf-inspired public charter school. Both children ended up with amazing teachers and really thrived where they were at. Our family folded into the Waldorf school community and felt at home. The strong rhythm of the school day carried over into our home. Nature and the seasons took on an even more prominent focus in our life with these rhythms. Our children learned form drawing, handwork skills, pentatonic flute, storytelling, theater arts, artistic movement and a deeper appreciation of beauty. At the same time, everyone worked hard to help our son. A social skills specialist worked with him one on one at school. His teacher and class taught him how to be in a group and community. We kept him on the recommended gluten-free and dairy-free diet, and took him out in nature whenever we could, which was ultimately the best thing for him. As the year progressed, he grew and changed, and his challenges lessened.  However, there were greater life challenges brewing for our family. As their first grade year drew to a close, I was stretched thin from running them around to two schools, my twins were not as close anymore, the economy was in the pits, my husband was laid off from work, and we regretfully left the Waldorf school to have both children in the public charter school.

It was just not the same. It was wonderful in many ways, and they both had the wonderful teacher our son had in first grade, but we missed the Waldorf school. Our daughter missed her teacher (in Waldorf they keep the same teacher through eighth grade), we missed the community, and we just had this feeling that the Waldorf school was where our family was supposed to be, but we weren't there. So, we decided to take a huge leap of faith and apply again. This time, both children got in! And, with the help of  tuition assistance and scholarship programs, sending them there would be possible!

And this is where we are now. My dreams for my children are coming true with a lot of work and persistence, and some leaps of faith. We are all excited for the coming school year, and the years to come. My kids are excited to continue their educational journey together.  I'm not kidding myself, making private education happen for the next six years is going to be hard. It's going to take some sacrifices and some doing without. But, we're good at living simply, and I know with certainty that it will be worth it. So you see, it is very important to follow the path of your dreams when it beckons. Even when it seems too challenging, or altogether impossible, working and hoping towards your dreams is not in vain.

"Leaps of faith put us in astounding new places."  -SARK

Arriving by Canoe

Sometimes, it's really nice to go somewhere you can't get to with a car. Whether you walk, climb, or paddle, there is a certain satisfaction in going somewhere no vehicle has gone before. One of my favorite ways to do this is canoe camping. You can have your pick of campsites, often creating your own on a sandy lake shore. You can pack much more cushy than when you go backpacking. You can find peace and quiet. You can also get way out there and see some wildlife you might not see near campsites frequented by motor vehicles. I have fond childhood memories of  boat camping at Upper Priest Lake in Idaho with my family. We would row through a channel from Lower Priest Lake, often seeing beaver, muskrat, osprey and waterfowl along the way, and camp out on pristine sandy beaches under the pines. Sometimes we would go to Lake Ozette, and row out to islands and hidden coves. There's something magical for children about traveling over the water and discovering places we can't find from the land.

We spent the long Memorial Day weekend  canoe camping on Wickiup Reservoir on the Eastern slopes of the Oregon Cascades with some good friends and fellow outdoorspeople. Last year we found a little island paradise with sandy beaches and pine trees, and vowed to return. This year's spot was a large, flat, sandy beach on a peninsula with a stand of pines to shelter us from the wind. While these areas were accessible by road at one time, they were blocked off by the Forest Service a few years ago to provide more protected bird habitat. Bald eagles, osprey, and nighthawks soared over our camp. Frogs serenaded us with their chorus at night. The weather held out for us, mostly. We had some showers on the last night, but things dried out in the morning.

We had a whole group of children out there fishing, watching birds, collecting frogs and getting muddy. It gave me a very contented feeling to know that my children were able to spend some time someplace wild and share in it with their friends. It was wonderful to see them get so excited about all the nature discoveries. We found a beaver lodge near our camp with freshly chewed willow twigs all around and some beaver scat. A hidden grouse nest was discovered under a bush. While canoeing through a marshy area with willow shrubs, a few children saw a redwing blackbird nest with baby birds peeking out. I discovered a camouflaged killdeer nest in the sand. Some of the kids happened upon it later as well, and I was pleased by how respectfully they observed it. Of course, there were many frogs and toads, providing hours of delight, and inspiration for many habitat building construction projects by the water.

The froggie friend for whom all the children built an elaborate frog habitat on the shore

A killdeer nest camouflaged in the sand and pine needles

A grouse nest the boys found under a shrubby pine

Life is always good when watching the sunset over a lake, sitting around a crackling campfire, and cooking dinner with friends.