An Adventurous Weekend in the North Cascades

Last weekend, most of the IslandWood grads drove up to the North Cascades Institute (NCI) to spend three days with the grads from their program along with the apprentices of the Wilderness Awareness School (WAS). It was the first trip in a three part exchange series between the environmental education schools that aims to foster the sharing of ideas and facilitate making connections with others in our field. From the trip preparations, I knew I'd be meeting new people and seeing a different program, but I could not begin to foresee the great adventures I'd go on or the incredible experiences I'd have with new friends.

The IslandWood grads all carpooled across Puget Sound on the ferry then cruised up I-5 to the North Cascades Highway 20 where we drove east a couple hours along the Skagit river, which just so happens to be where bald eagles like to spend their time in January because of the heavy salmon runs. We saw so many eagles during our drive that we lost count! Their majestic figures perched on branches next to the rushing water and their wings spread wide soaring over us as we craned our necks to catch final glimpses of them through the sun roof. Finally we drove over Diablo Dam, onto NCI's road and into their campus. The sites that greeted us were breathtaking. Snowy white peaks peered at us over conifer-covered foothills, contrasting sharply with the uncharacteristic bright blue sky.
That afternoon we explored our new surroundings, met the students from NCI and WAS, learned about NCI's climate change summer leadership program, and played a few raucous rounds of environmental education-themed trivia, with team challenges like making up the best campfire song, matching famous environmentalists with their quotes, and putting all the mountains in the Pacific Northwest in order from north to south. It was a great way to get to know the people from NCI and WAS and break the ice for the rest of the weekend.

The next morning, I awoke to Sarah (my IslandWood cabinmate and NCI roommate) saying, "It snowed last night" as she peeked out the blinds of our room. Excited, I leapt out of my bed and opened the shades only to find out that in her quick glance she had mistaken the white bark of a few fallen birch trees for snow. Although slightly disappointing, it was a humorous way to start the day. We had breakfast, then did more activities to learn about NCI's environmental education program, including a hike around some of their forest trails and a walk to Diablo Dam to learn more about its history and uses (it produces 25% of Seattle's power!). Although we didn't get to see NCI's program in action with kids since they only teach in the Fall and Spring, it sounds very similar to IslandWood's. 5th graders come overnight for a few days and learn about the natural environment through experiential, inquiry-based activities, except the whole program is based in the Cascades so deals a lot with mountain ecosystems, glaciers, and the dam.

Sarah and I on Diablo Dam                     The ravine below the dam

In the afternoon, we got to choose from a few hikes led by NCI grads. I chose one up to Pyramid Lake, which was supposed to have quite the altitude climb but be of medium length. Boy were we wrong!
We ended up climbing 1,500 ft. in 3 miles for a 6-mile roundtrip, which was somewhat higher and farther than predicted, but the big surprise was that it took almost double the amount of time we had thought it would because there was snow covering more than half the trail that had been packed down into ice! This made for a slippery, yet thrilling hike, especially on the way back down.
The whole trip was definitely worth it, though, because the forests were beautiful and at the top was Pyramid Lake, thoroughly frozen over with views of Pyramid Peak right behind it. After resting up from our tricky hike and "skating" all over the ice, a few of us decided that we wanted to explore further, so we climbed a rock slide that led up one side of the lake. It was steep and covered in snow, so we had to do most of it on our hands and knees, but I loved every second of it! It had been far too long since I had gotten to explore new terrain in such an intrepid way. When we reached the top, we were rewarded with a fantastic view of the lake and Pyramid Peak spreading out like a royal flush before our eyes.

After just barely making it back to the trailhead before the last streaks of daylight faded, we returned to NCI for dinner and a campfire with everyone else. Campfires are one of my favorite things in the world (going hand-in-hand with roasted marshmallows and stargazing) and we all had a wonderful time sharing our favorite stories, songs, and skits from IslandWood, NCI, and WAS. We sang and laughed long into the night, and one-by-one, people drifted back to their lodges until only four of us were left: Sarah, Gerolf (a German guy from WAS), Erin (an NCI grad), and myself. We put out the last few pulsing embers of the fire, then wandered campus for awhile, pausing every once in awhile to appreciate the blanket of stars that was being revealed by the parting clouds. We hung out with the WAS apprentices for awhile in their lodge and walked with them down to the lake shore, but then decided to strike out on our own to walk along the road to Diablo Dam. The way was mostly pitch black, but instead of being nervous, I trusted in my nighttime abilities. I've been leading plenty of night hikes with kids at IslandWood this year without any source of light and my night vision has improved drastically. It did feel slightly disconcerting at first to be walking at night along a route that I hadn't memorized by heart like the trails of IslandWood, but although I felt blind, I trusted in my senses and soon I felt right at home in the darkness. When we got to the dam, we gazed down the steep wall and listened to our shouts echo through the ravine far below. Then we hung out for a long time and just talked. About a lot. About life. Then we walked back, picking out constellations in the sky above us, and hilariously skipping for a spell to warm up. We even saw a gloriously orange shooting star streak over our heads! Sarah and I crawled into our beds around 2am, exhausted but sublimely content from the evening spent out in the night with new friends.

(I didn't bring my camera so credit for this photo of the dam goes to photographer: 'seawallrunner')

Our alarm rang bright and early the next morning because it was Kelly's birthday, and at NCI, there's a tradition of jumping into the lake on your birthday. Even if it's the middle of January. Even if it's freezing. A bunch of us had agreed to do it with her, but when our alarm went off at 7:30, Sarah and I groggily agreed that after only 5.5 hours of sleep, our warm beds were more appealing than a freezing lake so we reset our alarm for later and attempted to return to dreamland. Our third roommate, Minna, however, rolled out of bed and convinced us to go, so we pulled on our sweatpants and fleeces and ran down through chilly drizzle to the rocky shore with a small troop of IslandWood grads and WAS instructors.
There was no reason to delay, so we stripped down to our underwear and ran in, shrieking bloody murder as we submerged our heads in water that was so cold we couldn't breathe. We ran back out as quickly as we had run in, still yelling obscenities at the cold, but with huge grins on our faces as we toweled off and pulled our clothes back on. Mountain lake jumping is something else that's right near the top of my list of favorite things to do, but I hadn't done it in years, mostly because I've spent the majority of the past four years in Ohio where mountain lakes are as prevalent as Egyptian pyramids (read: non-existent), so being back in the beautiful Cascade mountains and starting my day by bolting into a freezing mountain lake was exhilarating and a refreshing renewal of who I am now that I'm back in the Pacific Northwest. Not to mention, the most startling and invigorating way to wake up ever.

Awhile later, we cleaned out our rooms, packed up our cars, and waved goodbye to our new NCI and WAS friends, but the weekend didn't end there. A few of us made a detour into Rockport State Park, home of some of the biggest old growth in the Skagit Valley. The sun shown down in misty streaks into the mossy eden and many of the trees were wider than I am tall. We took a lovely hike through the ancient forest and marveled at what those trees must have witnessed in their lifetime.

Then we piled back into the cars and drove back towards Seattle, making a pit-stop at an authentic Mexican food trailer where we ate spicy chicken tacos and the cook asked me for my number. Once in Seattle we celebrated Kelly's birthday at a German pub for awhile before heading back on the ferry to Bainbridge where we collapsed from exhaustion.

The weekend was an incredible mountain retreat into which I poured heaps of physical and social energy. It was an extraordinary feeling to be exploring the magnificence of my own Pacific Northwest backyard while seizing every possible moment and a reminder to do it more often.

Home for the Holidays!

This is a quick post about winter break since I jumped right from the beginning of December to the beginning of January in my last two posts.

For the first time in four years, I didn't have to navigate any airports to get home for the holidays. No flight cancellations due to inclement weather. No stale airplane air. No lugging my suitcases from one terminal to another. Instead, I bought a train ticket from Seattle to Portland and rode down in style on the tracks alongside Puget Sound while reading Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible and sipping root beer from the dining car. My whole life I had wanted to travel by train and while not as romantic as I had dreamt it to be, the experience was much more pleasant than air travel.

I arrived home just in time to fry up some latkes and celebrate the final night of Chanukkah with my dad, complete with candles, Chanukkah stories, and dreidel spinning. A significant portion of the next day was spent with my mom traversing our favorite Christmas tree farm seeking out the perfect tree to brighten up our living room for the holiday season. We nicknamed the one we decided on 'Spring Green' because of its cheery bright green hue. The next morning, we drove north to my gramma's house in Sequim, which just so happens to be only a couple hours from IslandWood, so I practically returned to where I had come from only two days prior. We celebrated an early Christmas with my gramma, saw my cousins perform in their church's rendition of A Christmas Carol, and generally enjoyed the feeling of the season with family.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day both brought delicious food (think: roasted lamb, baked apples, pumpkin coconut chicken soup, rosemary asparagus, pan de yuca, apple sausage, and pumpkin ice cream sundaes), a leisurely morning of presents, walks through the neighborhood, sunshiny runs through Grant Park, and countless games of chickenfoot dominoes. It was a very relaxing Christmas spent with my family and I'm very grateful to be able to enjoy a Christmas of plenty while others aren't so fortunate.

The rest of break in Portland was a whirlwind of city outings, catching up with good friends, and a trip up to the mountain for some cross-country skiing at Teacup Lake. I went out to tea with Katya at Tea Chai Té on NW 23rd, continued the tradition of spending a few hours at Pied Cow hashing out life with Audrey, strolled the waterfront and esplanade with Erin discussing the concept of home, wished Adrienne a buen viaje on her way to Ecuador for the semester, shopped in sweet little boutiques for a new winter coat with my mom, and had ginger buckwheat pancakes with my dad at Cup & Saucer. The trip up to Mt. Hood was lovely too, and although the snow conditions weren't optimal, it was still fabulous to be back on my skis after such a long time and return to my favorite ski trails around Teacup Lake. It also snowed in Portland for a day, which is a rare and wonderful occurrence! I took many walks through the neighborhood and caught many a snowflake on my tongue that afternoon and evening. It was beautiful to see Portland transformed into a Winter Wonderland and all of its residents turn into children again as they run outside with wonder and joy on their faces.

After another train trip back up north spent chatting with my enjoyable seatmate and gazing at the water and small towns zipping by my window, I lugged my suitcase, backpack, computer bag, and ski bag into a taxi, through the ferry terminal, and across the sound and was more than happy to finally deposit them all in the trunk of Leora's borrowed car when she picked me up from the ferry dock in Winslow. Off and away we went to celebrate New Year's. Our last few hours in 2009 consisted of catching up over Mexican food, casually celebrating East coast New Year's with Greta, Matt, and Kelsey since they were getting up early to go snowboarding the next day, and playing Scrabble in front of the fire with Minna, Ilya, and Minna's friend Lisa. It was all a very relaxing way to spend the evening, but a half hour before midnight Leora and I politely excused ourselves from Minna's house, drove back to IslandWood, and hiked through the forest to the canopy tower. There, we climbed the 179 steps 120' up to the top deck above the treetops as the thick curtain of clouds parted and revealed the Blue Moon (2nd full moon in one month) and millions of bright stars. A few minutes before twelve, fireworks started going off across the water in neighboring towns further south along the sound, and at midnight we howled at the silvery moon to welcome in 2010. We spent the next two hours listening to other people around the island yip and holler when their own clocks struck midnight, star-gazing, picking out constellations, making New Year's resolutions, reflecting on life, calling back to the sea lions barking down at the harbor, watching giant bats flit across the sky, and marveling at the magic of it all. It was the perfect way to ring in the New Year.

The next few days were spent showing Leora IslandWood in the daylight, and celebrating the New Year in the Japanese tradition at the Mochi festival (see previous entry + the video I just uploaded in that entry of me pounding the mochi!).

I also saw a total of four movies in theaters over break: Up in the Air, Invictus, The Blind Side, and Avatar. I was very impressed with all of them. In different ways, granted, but I would highly recommend each one of them, which hasn't happened much in the last few years of movie releases. So do yourself a favor and find time to watch all of them at some point, most importantly Avatar because the message Avatar has for the human race is one that is still not heard loudly enough.

Needless to say, winter break was a time of much merriment and love. Winter quarter has now begun and it couldn't be busier. Lots of teaching, work, and life to figure out. I'll do another update soon about it all, plus the weekend retreat I just spent at North Cascades Institute high up in the mountains!

Hope 2010 is treating everyone well!

Mochi Celebration, Adventure Races, New Classes

(This is my most recent entry for the official EEC blog. I'll post a separate one on here soon summing up the last weeks of teaching, finals, and winter break.)

2010 is off to a great start with a week full of great new ways for us to push ourselves to become the best environmental educators we can be!

On Sunday, the annual Mochi Tsuki Celebration was once again held at IslandWood. Every year the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community puts on the Mochi Tsuki Celebration as a homage to the age-old Japanese New Year's tradition where the delicious Japanese rice treat of mochi is made by hand.  The event is famous on the island and people from Seattle even make the ferry trip over to experience the festivities.  With a reputation like that, there was no way I was going to miss it!

Much of the mochi-making took place outdoors where sweet rice was steamed over wood fires until it was sticky. It was then transferred to a large stone mortar where members of the audience volunteered to help pound it repeatedly with heavy wooden mallets. The mochi pounding looked like so much fun that I decided to try it, and it was a blast! Between each rapid blow of my mallet, one of the event workers stretched and flipped the mochi, making me nervous that I was going to break his fingers, but he knew what he was doing and he got the whole audience laughing and cheering.

After about 15 minutes, the mochi had a soft doughy consistency and, still warm, it was taken to a table inside where kids and adults alike waited eagerly to roll it into balls with sweet bean paste in the center. What resulted were delectable balls of soft stretchy mochi that were gobbled up by the crowds of participants!

The rest of the event was fascinating as well, with historic displays about the deportation of the Japanese Americans from Bainbridge Island during WWII and multiple taiko drumming performances that left everyone's hearts racing and faces smiling. I got to see my mentor, Greg, and his baby daughter, Josephine at the celebration too! (See BIJAC's website for further information about their organization and the Mochi Tsuki Celebration.)

The quarter officially started for the grads on Tuesday and after sharing stories about our winter breaks over breakfast in the Great Hall, we split into groups for an adventure race around IslandWood! From the garden to the suspension bridge to the pond to the treehouse we ran, completing various IslandWood-themed tasks at each venue to earn points for our team.

At one place, we had to work as a team to help one of our teammates scurry sideways along a rope to get a rubber chicken tied midway up a tree. At the suspension bridge, we had to lead our teammates blindfolded across the bridge without them touching the railings. At the pond, we had to fill a container of water using only our hands. The race was a lot of fun and it was a great way to reconnect with our fellow grads and get reacquainted with all the trails.

The rest of the week held many workshops, classes and trainings to enhance our teaching.

We had a tracking outing with our Natural History & Ecology course, learned how to use IslandWood's collection of Native American baskets to teach our students about the cultural history of the region, met with our mentors to prepare to start teaching again, fine-tuned some of the watershed curriculum activities, improved our liaison skills, and learned about the sustainable features of IslandWood's buildings. Three of our four winter quarter classes began as well. I'm particularly looking forward to learning how to use visual, musical, movement, and theatre arts to teach environmental science lessons in the Arts Integration course and the 'visionary schools' project that spans both the Foundations of Education course and the Curriculum & Instruction Methods course. For this project, we get to develop plans for founding our ideal school. My mind is already racing with visions of school gardens, service-learning components, outdoor adventure trips, mixed-age classrooms, and lots of experiential learning opportunities in my ideal school!

Sunset from Ferry, photo by Emily Jane Schankerman (EEC grad)

Tomorrow we start our first team-teaching week of the quarter. I can't wait to see the kids' grinning faces as they get off the buses!