Expedition to Twin Lakes with the Firestalkers

The Firestalkers heroically started their outing at 830 in the morning on Saturday; the crisp fall air promising a good day ahead; the smell of black tea and coffee wafting from thermoses; the fog just beginning to think about lifting. We gathered up around Stubbs, threw our bags inside, and got ready for a long drive out to the mountains. The skill for this season is navigation, and we wanted to start working on this immediately. Firestalkers were given cut up pieces of the driving directions to Winchester Lookout and were challenged to arrange them in the appropriate order without talking. This started with a lot of staring and looking at each other, waiting for someone to take the lead. Soon enough, someone did and one by one the directions are arranged. Good tracking!

Once this was done, Matt was given the directions and he vowed to drive wherever they told him to. Thankfully, they were right on track. We drove out Mt. Baker Highway, and as we did, Greg pulled out some maps of Winchester Peak. Everyone looked at the maps for little bit, but it was soon apparent that everyone was suffering from overactive cognition. Sleepy eyes and blank looks told the story of the perpetual demands of a cognitively based learning system. Greg and Matt soon realized that what was needed the most was some simple Nature connection, getting into the body, reading the landscape, and checking in with the senses. We stopped at the ranger station, stretched, and decidedthat this outing was simply a chance to get up in some higher territory and check out the snow.

The road was rugged, but Stubbs chugged on. When we reached the trailhead to Yellow Aster Butte, a few hours had already gone by.  We recognize that we needed to move in order to get to the peak or at least the lakes. We did stop to take a look at the maps and translate them to the landscape. We oriented the map to the cardinal directions, pointed to where the lakes would be on the landscape, looked at some of the elevation lines and the use of coloration in the maps, and established approximately where are trail would be. We put our backpacks on and started hiking. It wasn't long before we stopped to check out a stream, then a plant, then a wasp’s nest… it is very apparent the art of exploration from Explorers Club is deep in our bones.  That said, we did manage to motivate so that we could at least hit the snow line.  Near our first switchback, we did discover a cave that might have been worth exploring, and it was up to the group (not Matt and Greg) to do a full assessment.  They decided to charge on.

The way up was filled with track and sign all kinds of curious plants. Many rodent tracks led to theories about the story of the landscape, and canine tracks were a constant curiosity. As we gained elevation, snow became more and more prevalent. Soon we were trudging, and soon enough we rounded a corner and found ourselves facing a vast ake in a completely snow-covered landscape. The first order of business was to just explode and check out the land. People scattered and spent some time following their curiosity. Soon enough a snowball flew. Not much more needs to be said, does it?  About 45 minutes later we were huffing and puffing and it was time to change things up and gather for a sit spot.

We checked in about our intentions from the rite of passage and took about 20 minutes to go out and find a spot on the land where each person could be alone.  Each one found a great spot. We returned and shared some stories, looked at the time, and realized we had to take a jog back down. It was homecoming night for at least one member, and we had to be back on time. So jog we did, and we managed to make it back to Stubbs in perfect time.

Thanks Firestalkers for fantastic outing.  We're looking forward to our next outing in the Chuckanuts. We'll post an update on this outing next week.  It should be a great one. Thanks so much parents for all your enduring support.

Don't forget to check out pics from the outing in our photo gallery.