Lets Go Exploring

My Trip Leader Log By Mark H

Outdoor Education

Keeping It Wild – Camping 101 Event

Organization: Grand Opening Camping Festival at Little Basin
Date: April 20, 2012
Trip Facilitator: Mark Hougardy

In the heart of the Santa Cruz Mountains is a beautiful area of redwoods that most people have never seen. Until recently the area was a retreat for employees of Hewlett-Packard. The area called, Little Basin is a new acquisition of the California state park system that has been annexed by Big Basin Redwoods State Park, yet run as a separate entity. In April of 2012 Little Basin, held a Grand Opening Camping Festival. I organized and facilitated a “Camping 101” event. Here are some photos:

       

Interpreting the Mountain Lion

mountain-lion

Interpreting the Mountian Lion:

Able to:

– Leap a height of 3 humans tall
– Heavier than 16 housecats
– Eat the equivalent of 1 deer each week

This large cat shares many names: mountain lion, puma, panther, and cougar.

Built for stealth and power these majestic creatures have large padded paws, tawny-colored fur, muscular limbs, and sharp claws. They are generally elusive and can be found in remote wooded or rocky areas where the deer populations are prevalent.

The photo was taken in Sunol, California, at the Sunol Regional Wilderness Interpretive Barn.

Playgrounds in Tirol: For Kids of All Ages

The playgrounds in Tirol, Austria, speak volumes about lifelong learning. Hint, they aren’t just for kids.

The playgrounds are nothing like the low-risk, cushioned, gently-sloped, plastic, shredded rubber turf play structures that dot the city parks and schools in the US. Many Tirolean play structures are two to three stories tall, made of solid wood, and have pulleys, rope bridges, ramps, water flumes, sand pits, lengthy slides, zip-cords, and get this… teeter-totters! I cannot remember the last time I saw a teeter-totter in an American playground. One play area even had a small rock climbing wall.

Most curious, when playing on private land, a parent does not need to sign multiple liability waivers, the kids can just play.

I have seen a variety of playgrounds in Tirol, and all have safety elements designed into the structures, but they are also architected in such a way as to foster independence, spark creativity, and provide a setting for kids to make decisions – and some decisions on these play structures have an element of risk.

Below are some photos of what lifelong learners can expect when playing in Tirol.

Environmental Conservation Outdoor Study (ECOS) Program

From 1990 to 1992 I developed and led the Environmental Conservation Outdoor Study (ECOS) program at the Sanborn Park Hostel. The hostel was located in a 2,000-acre redwood forested park. I loved sharing the story of this place. It is a land where the Ohlone people once visited (and still do). They prepared food in an area that is underneath the modern floorboard of the hostel’s kitchen. It is a place where salmon once swam in the streams and condors flew overhead. In 1907 the Great San Francisco earthquake ripped a 40-foot scarp through a nearby orchard that most would never recognize today. It is a place where a uranium miner sold his fortune and created Walden West, a place where the early minds Silicon Valley gathered to grow an industry. Hidden among the trees and beneath the duff is a compelling story. Below is an early flier for the weekly programs.