Epic+Journey

Science Camp Have you ever been on an epic journey? I have, it’s a lot of fun. Falcon led us through long shadowy trails in the middle of a forest. First, we made yummy sandwiches to take on the awesome hike. I packed a lot of food because I knew that the journey would be very long. We set out on our hike and I ran out of pictures! I saw at least 20 newts along the trail, that’s what I used up all of my pictures on! AT the top of the mountain there was a giant pond! But the bad thing was that there was a lot of poison oak. Finally, we had reached the end of the epic journey! It was so tiring! This experience taught me to never give up, even when you’re hiking for 4 hours! -Kyra

Walden West Epic Journey
==You get to go into the wild and see things that you thought you might never see. Spider, our instructor, took us on a hike called the Epic Journey, it lasted for 6 hours. We hiked half way seeing beautiful landscapes and blue skies. All of us stopped for lunch, and played beside the creek if we were done. After that we waited for our names to get called, so we could go up to the pond by ourselves following cards that gave us directions to go. Then we went to the Vista, the highest view and played camouflage. When we were finished with our Epic Journey, Spider led us back to camp. I learned more and more about nature than ever before.==

Hannah
Science Camp

Rush! The roaring stream water filled up the all of the noise in my ears. It was a cloudy and misty day. The trees were green and the flowers were sprouting. I was walking through the woods carrying a jug at 11:00 in the morning. We were hiking up the mountain. I looked around and there were shelf mushroom on a dead log. I could hear birds chirping and a little drip drip of drops coming off trees.

We were hiking up when I spotted a big red flower that had a green stem and it was growing straight up. The interesting thing about it, was that the flower had not completely opened and it was rather large. On the way up, our guide showed us some Witches Butter. Witches Butter is a type of jellowy mushroom and it is generally slimy and bright orange. Our guide Sol also showed us some minors lettuce, an edible wild lettuce. Sol was leading us up the mountain on a steep and narrow trail. It was almost single file, but I could talk to Sol about all of the plants I was seeing. We were going on the Epic Journey, an all day hike, to the top of a mountain ridge. On the way up, we got to a really muddy spot. Our guide, Sol, pointed out some tracks that were either bobcat or mountain lion. There were two sets of tracks and one was smaller than the other. One set of tracks was a mother and the other was her baby.

After about two hours of hiking, we finally reached the top. Everyone sat down and had lunch. Everybody had made their own peanut butter and jelly sandwich and had brought an apple as well.Sol brought trail mix and carrots for everyone to share. After I finished my lunch, I walked down to a grassy area. I noticed some toad stools in the grass. I examined them to see if they were Amanita Phalliodes, a very poisonous mushroom commonly know as “Death Cap”. I noticed that they hada concave cap, so they could not be Amanita Phalliodes. Amanita Phalliodes always have convex or flat caps. Then Sol told us that she had a surprise for us. She wanted us to pack up all our things into our day pack.

Sol took us to a clearing that we had passed on the way up. Then Sol told us we were going to play a game. She said that all of the instructors had come down with a case of a no talking sickness. They took out a rope and started swinging it. I though we were going to jump rope, so I jumped in and started to jump rope. I apparently did not do it correctly, so Sol told me to back with all of the other kids. Next, I tried to run through, without getting hit by the jump rope. It worked. Sol did not tell me to go back. Soon, all of the other kids were on my side. In the end we ran through the jump rope in twos, threes and fours, up to sevens. Afterwards, we all got our packs back on and headed down the mountain. On the way back down, it started hailing. We ran down the mountain and got back to camp.This experience taught me that being away from home can be really fun. You can do things that your mom and dad won't let you do, like running down a mountain in the middle of a hail storm.

Aaron S.

The Epic Journey Rain! Rain! Rain! I waked up the path as my shoes sunk into the soil of the earth. My field class and I were taking a big hike on the epic journey. When I was walking I was watching the birds fly over my head. There was fresh grass that smelled like fresh plants. It had just rained so the soil was soft and muddy. The path we were walking on was thin so we had to stay in a millipede (a single file line). We were almost to the top of the mountain until I saw a sign that said “mountain lion habitat if attacked fight back.” That right there got me frightened from my head to my toes. When our class reached the top of the mountain panting for breath we ate a delicious lunch of pb and j, and ham and cheese sandwiches. We had a solo hike for about a half of a mile. Then when everyone got to the place we were meeting (which was at the sign that had the warning for mountain lions) it started hailing so hard that it hurt when the frozen peaces of water sunk into your skin. Our field group was almost sprinting down the mountain. Like we were playing tag trying to run away from the hail. We rushed down the mountain trying not to get hit by lightning, which was my nature name. When our class got back to Camp Costanoan I figured out I had earned a 4c award (YEEHAH!!) for keeping up with the leader of our class and asking many reasonable questions. This trip taught me NEVER__ to go on the top of a mountain in bad weather.

-Tianna M.

Epic Journey Have you gone on a hike that rained and hailed? Well I have. We started our hike when it was raining. First Falcon, my field class, and I hiked up to a river in the rain. Even though it was raining when we hiked up there we still saw banana slugs and nutes. We also put on rock face paint there as well. Next we hiked to a pond. It didn’t rain much there but it was very peaceful. Lastly we hiked back. On our way back it was mostly raining but it hailed at one point. The Epic Journey was one of the best hikes I went on at camp because it was so much fun. By Antonio R.

At science camp something really funny happened. Me and my friend, Camille, were walking on our and we heard some girls behind us squealing about how the mud was “so gross”. So, we decided to gross them out by dragging our feet in the mud. Then, we dug our feet down as deep as we could and said, “This mud is so squishy!” One of the girls said,” I know, it’s so gross.” Me and Camille looked at each other in fake confusion. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Camille said. “It’s so cool!” all the girls exclaimed, “ ewwwwwwww, your gross!!!!” we just laughed and continued.

--Kelley M.