We started our day milling about in the snowy field. Piling up snow and snowball fights kept us busy until we had our morning circle and a big game of Weasels and Voles. This game gives us an inside look on the life of voles in the winter time and weasels their ravenous and hungry predator. Most of the weasel and vole action happens under the snows surface and most often in their tunnels, so we made our own tunnels and hunted away!
We went up to camp and sat down for a snack and prepared for a fire challenge. Two fires, two groups, and eventually one giant fire for lunch and forest tea. Some foresters got to use flint and steel for the first time today and some of our more experienced members got a flame and lit the teepee structures made by both fire crews. The result was abundant warmth and comfort during lunch, tasty evergreen tea, and dry masks and clothing!
After lunch, we split into three groups and went out on the landscape tracking different animals and learning to recognize animal movements through the snow. Each group followed a different animal for almost an hour and found new trails to follow along the way. Coyote tracks, deer tracks, mouse prints, and animal resting sites were all ours to find.
—River Otter, Bobcat, and Barred Owl, January 27, 2021