Salish Seals Explore Clark's Point 5/7/17

Clark's Point is a unique, quiet, and exciting place. From our opening circle to our closing web of life, this protected point offered us native plants, challenging terrain, tricky trails and beautiful views. We gathered right off the west side trailhead. During our opening circle we discussed the importance of protecting land, and thought about how the Clark family fit our motto: Connect and Protect. Because Clark's point is so tranquil and feels untouched in many ways, we imagined what it would have been like to be a young girl living off of this land.

We acknowledged our missing Seals with a heartfelt moment of love and had a discussion of what empathy means. We shared many thoughts about honoring people who have gone on before us, and eventually our topic of conversation turned towards edible plants in their role as helping aspects of nature's nurturance. We then became captivated by the magic we found in the hanging "earrings" of Big Leaf Maple blossoms and the fun of cleavers as we tossed them at each other.

All this before we even left our meeting spot! Turning back to the trail, we were immediately faced with a decision: go west to the majestic bluffs, or east to explore the beaches, flats, and sandstone shoreline of Mud Bay? To add to our day of exploration, we had dandelion fritters to fry! To help us decide, we consulted the tide chart and learned that if we headed east we would be at Mud Bay during the lowest tide of the day, which meant a high likelihood of flat terrain.... and HQM (High Quality Mud)! The deal was sealed, and the Salish Seals headed east on the trail past poison hemlock (we spent a fair amount of time talking about this very deadly plant -see photo gallery!), and a majestic decomposing snag with evidence of insects and woodpecker activity, until we reached the top of a gnarly and steep section of train descending to the train tracks and beach below. This descent plan evolved from a very thorough S.T.O.P. conducted by the girls when we noticed the difficult trail section ahead. The Salish Seals Stretched Their Edges and descended this technical section of trail with delicately placed feet and lots of assistance and encouragement from friends.

Once we hit the beach we enjoyed lunch and welcomed the sunshine as we lounged in the nooks and caves of Chuckanut sandstone, and chased the tide out of the bay until all that was left was good old fashioned mud and muck. While some girls chose to Get Dirty! there were some who stuck to the shoreline and became nature detectives or quietly explored with a pal or two until it was time to gather for a dandelion fritter. These were heartily enjoyed until we realized that clock time had escaped us and we needed to head back up the trail to the other side of the Point.

We made quick time traversing to the west side, as the Salish Seals are always motivated by exploring adventures! Since our time was short and the view so expansive from atop the bluffs, we actually just sat down to quietly see what we could see. We watched the waves sparkling in the sunshine, the kelp beds undulate underwater, and the clouds transform from alligators to snowpeople and all the shapes in between. We watched a pirate ship (we were quite sure!) for a while and all of a sudden, noticed dorsal fins flashing in the sea below us. So quickly the fins rise up and slip below the surface, you'll miss them in the moment you saw them. The sighting was so exciting we shouted all the possibilities, "A shark! An orca! A whale!". We observed for several minutes, taking it all in, and eventually concluded that we were watching Dall's Porpoises. It was such a lovely moment of discovery!

Finally, as we do on the last outing of every season, The Salish Seals reflected upon the connections we made together throughout the season with a Web of Life Activity that reminded us of our motto All Things Are Connected. Each girl became something from nature we connected to this spring: rain, sandstone, mud, sunshine, the Salish Sea, sword fern, licorice root, cedar, nettle, fir. In creating our web with string, we clearly saw how all things are connected, and how every single action - human caused or nature made - affects the entire web. We can strengthen or weaken the web through our choices: in GEC we aim to be strengtheners!

Enjoy the rest of our photo album from the day here.