Campfire Ban

The current heat wave and the unusually dry spring/summer have left the whole province vulnerable to forest fires. People travelling in our area are asked to use extraordinary precautions to prevent fires and a complete ban on open fires has been implemented throughout the Coastal Fire Centre (except a short stretch of beach near Cape Scott). Well, it's been too hot to eat any food cooked over a fire anyway. Pass the watermelon, or better yet, locally grown blueberries (not to be flippant about something that's affecting many people very personally).

For the latest up-to-date information on wildfires, fire bans and restrictions, go to www.bcwildfire.ca.

There currently is a forest fire burning at Wolf River in Strathcona Park. While it has been fought using air tankers and helicopters, the terrain is nearly vertical posing difficulties for land crews and helicopters alike. Here at Strathcona we can see and smell some smoke in the mornings, which dissipates over the early hours.

Christine (Tina) Clarke

Explore Magazine - Kids Gone Wild

check here for more pundits weighing in on the benefits of taking it outside.

http://explore-mag.com/article/people/kids-gone-wild/

Hawkeye July 19, 2009

More views of Strathcona Park and area. This peak was named by the locals here, so won't be found (yet) on the map. The age range of the hikers was 61 years from youngest to oldest, and it was a great day of off trail exploring for the 9 year old Rosie, Brian and everyone in between.

Christine (Tina) Clarke

Crest Mountain July 3, 2009

Officially the trail is closed but if your family doesn't weigh more than mine (300 kg) the bridge that crosses between Drum lakes, (about 1.5 metres above the water) seems perfectly safe. Eight boards need replacing so avoid those ones - the timbers below will last forever, according to a couple of local loggers.

The Elk River Trail had plenty of cars at the trail head, but we had Crest all to ourselves. The M & Ms kept the kids moving uphill, the tarn at the top was wonderfully refreshing and the panorama spectacular. A great day.

Elk Mountain July 9, 2009 Clarke Boulding Family

Lightening Frightening

what a night. what a storm. The lightening struck our zipline platform last night. None of us slept much, with the strikes all around us. Thankfully the rain came down hard and doused 3 fires spotted in the park which we watched, and called in to the forest service. I'm also thankful that our COLT group in Nootka Sound, clients and staff are all safe and sound.

I'm hoping it is what I told the kids - a once in a lifetime kind of storm.

Christine (Tina) Clarke

Thank-you Poetry

Vancouver Waldorf student Keegan sent this poetry to SPL as a thank-you to Ryan Green, his instructor, who inspired him. Keegan agreed to let us post his wonderful poetry here.

Most birds teach their young to fly
and humans teach their children how to eat
And grow through life
But when you have no children
You can always teach those who will listenLife might be a song
you can hear it when you are deaf,
But you can hear the swallow
Live life with a smile
And become a happy warrior
That we should all be
and live on the edge
upon the douglas firs roots
and hug and climb him every day
but you dont have to climb to the top do your chalenges by choice
Ryan,
you taught me a lot
you're my inspiration for life
i will not live it like you
but i will have your words to help me
you passed down a mental and physical gift
And when i go on ling hikes
that may take months
I'll have the pack i brought to strathcona
And when i'm in a chilling field of snow
2000 metres off the oceans surface
i'll have the wool sweater you gave me
you taught me how to survive.

-keegan

this poem was inspired by the saying on your red backpack:

You can always believe in something that has no religion
To look at a tree as an idol
And feel the sun and earth as your god
to explore the untamed wilderness
and call it your pilgrimage
for your footsteps to end at the top of a moutain
and not pray to a god
but listen to the raven and watch the eagle.
you can always live your life as a happy warrior
who carries no sword but devotes itself to a cause
and feels no hate to those who are against it.
you can always laugh with tears and cry with a smile
you can always believe in something that feels right to you
to carry a backpack and discover something
that no one else has every seen b
open your mind to knowledge
you can believe in the circle
that holds us and nature
the earth; be kind to it.

-keegan

Like a flowing river the human mind can imagine and create landscapes of the imagination
like a swift river polishes ruff stones as they are flown to the sea
untamed masses of water rushing down the slopes of mountains and running of steep cliffs
in a rainbow of beauty smighting the dry earth bellow and funneling down the narrow corridors
of large old growth forests turning from river to stream
in small rapids that hit the under belly of small stones and calmly;
flowing in and out of coniferous forests,
flowing throught fields and creating valleys the stream moves on
into a canopy of cedars and fields of skunk cabbage and ferns
tunneling throught the roots of dead trees and cliffs of dry dirt
covered in long vines that droop over the edge and tough the granit bedrock and banks
a field of rocks racked in the middle and split in two by a flowing river surrounded by decomposing forests and ferns
the stream passes through with riples of heart beats carrying off the sotton balls of spring
and the fallen green leaves and the lost pieces of wood all to the ocean its resting place
and it birth?
the top of the mountain, the melting snow.

-keegan