Sacramento Inner City Outings

A combination of acorns, Miwok traditions, the fall outdoors and a challenging crafts project were the highlights of this trip to the foothills park near Jackson.

First up was a visit to the fascinating Chaw'se Regional Indian Museum, where a ranger explained the lives of the Indians who lived in this area. The children were fascinated.

After lunch, the group hiked through the oak woods past a roundhouse replica and the grinding rocks themselves. They stopped many times to study bugs and listen for birds, but kept up a lively pace.

Back at the museum, the pace changed. Each child was given a packet of beads (including one made of abalone shell) and worked hard to make a bracelet or necklace.

Oct. 18

Indian Grinding Rock State Historic Park

Sept. 20

REI Work Project at Lake Natoma

ICO Volunteers took 13 children from St. John's Shelter to the REI Clean-Up day at the CSUS Aquatic Center.
The group cleaned up trash from the Aquatic Center to the shores of Lake Natoma at Natoma Flat. The children and adults had a picnic lunch in the park
accompanied by some curious (and hungry) geese. They then walked along the shore of the lake to a scenic spot where the leaders stopped to let the children show their creative side with some watercolor pencil artwork. Most of the children chose to draw the beautiful blues of the lake and the sky and the green of the trees and plants.

July 18-20

Lassen Volcanic National Park

The boys and girls had noticed the small patch of snow off to the left on their way up the Bumpass Hell trail. They gleefully detoured there on the way back for some snowball throwing and a new skill that came with its own vocabulary word.

“It was my first time in snow. I was glissading,” recalls Dejah, 9. The new word replaced her first description: “bootie-sliding.”

Almost all of the seven girls and three boys from the St. John’s Shelter for Women and Children in Sacramento had never before seen snow, much less in July. It was one of the many enriching experiences of their July 18-20 trip to Lassen Volcanic National Park .

Thanks to a grant from the Lassen Park Foundation, Sacramento Sierra Club Inner City Outings was able to introduce the children to the park’s beetles, birds, bats, rocks, sulphur and mudpots,

Almost everything was a new experience, from putting up their own tents at Crags Campground to releasing tiny, brightly colored warblers at a bird banding demonstration at Manzanita Lake .

The first views of looming Lassen Peak , the first volcano the kids had seen up close, were spectacular from the Manzanita Lake parking lot. But some of the tiny things at the Discovery Center across the street were also fascinating, as the children bounced from room to room. They saw a small bat in a jar, then the ranger took them outside to see where the bats sleep under the roof shingles during the day.

She asked the children who owns the park. They looked blank; one said the ranger herself must be the owner. She explained that all of the boys and girls and adults are the park’s owners and that’s why it’s so important for everyone to take good care of it. That means visitors can’t take home souvenirs, even intriguing little rocks or feathers, she added. The kids were a bit crestfallen, but accepted the importance of keeping the park as wonderful as it is today.

The group took the Lily Pond Nature Trail, racing to find the numbered posts and taking turns to read the descriptions. The Lily Pond itself they found beautiful and wondered where the frogs were.

Heading to Crags Campground, the children first put up their tents, unpacked the cars and quickly discovered the rich bug-hunting possibilities in the many rotting logs surrounding the spacious campsites. LPF Vice-Chair Susan Watson visited during the setting-up chaos, taking pictures and talking to the excited children.

Soon all the bug collection boxes the group had brought were filled with beetles and ants (later released without harm) and it was time for dinner and bedtime.

On Saturday, after pancakes, the caravan drove to the Bumpass Hell trailhead. The children learned to use binoculars lent by the Sacramento Audubon Society chapter, but unfortunately, the haze and smoke from recent fires returned, affecting the views.

Some of the children looked at the trail fearfully, saying they were scared of heights. The prospect of having to pee behind a rock or tree also appalled them. But soon they were entranced by the views, particularly at the Bumpass Hell overlook, and overcame their fears.

“I love it here. I want to live here,” exclaimed Megan, 10.

At the overlook, a deer was spotted off the trail. Walter, 8, discovered he was not only good at finding beetles at the campsite, but also good at discovering deer tracks.

Because of the smoke, the group turned back at the overlook, but the kids found the two-mile hike (and the snow detour) more fun than they had thought it would be.

“I liked going hiking,” says Dejah. “I was brave enough to go all the way up and all the way down.”

“Many of the kids were impressed by how far they could go during the hike. When asked to look back at the parking lot, they were very surprised by how far they had gone,” says ICO volunteer Victor Yip.

Everyone headed down to the Sulphur Works to see and smell what Taja’Nae, 8, called “the yellow stuff” and watch the oozy gray mudpot bubbling over.

“One of the things I noticed was the children’s faces at the Sulphur Works,” says Lindsay Miranda, program director for the Shelter. “It was really awesome to see them realize that this phenomenon was the result of the earth doing what it does. It wasn’t done by us.”

After a refreshing swim at Summit Lake , the children learned more about the volcano at the Devastated Area Nature Trail, where they could clearly see Lassen Peak and the huge, varied rocks that had been carried for miles by the 1915 eruption. Miranda says when the children returned to the shelter she heard them explaining to their peers “what volcanoes were and what it looked like after one has erupted.”

Then it was back to Crags for dinner, s’mores and plenty more campground play, including a short introduction to compasses and some survival and team games.

On Sunday, everyone was up early for a bird banding demonstration at Manzanita Lake put on by park wildlife biologist Michael Magnuson, interpretive ranger Steve Zachary and Ryan Burnett of PRBO Conservation Science. It was difficult at first for the exuberant kids to honor Zachary’s admonition to be quiet as they walked along the lake’s shore. He pointed out a dead tree where he explained that buffleheads nest and force their tiny chicks out and into the water to swim.

However, their eyes grew big when they reached the site and Burnett started showing them a tiny young orange-crowned warbler and other birds that had been caught by the group in nets strung behind them in the trees. After Burnett and Magnuson checked the birds, weighed them (by putting them gently head-first into a film canister, toilet paper roll or juice can, depending on size) and recorded other data, they allowed the children one by one to release the birds. They were shown how to cup their hands around the birds then lift the top hand, allowing the birds to fly away.

“The birds were soft,” says Dejah.

Megan, exclaiming that she loved birds, asked many questions. Burnett explained that the tiny bird he was holding would soon be heading all the way to Mexico for the winter. Megan said if she were the bird, she would rather stay in Lassen. Burnett replied that in the winter, the place where everyone was standing would be under eight feet of snow.

“Then I’d be off to Mexico ,” said Megan.

Burnett told the children about some biology and park careers for those interested in birds and other animals. He also talked about the manzanita trees surrounding the lake, giving the birds shelter and the lake its name.

Megan and Amanda, 9, learned about another career when the group returned to the campground to begin packing up for the trip home. A park employee arrived to clean out the vault toilets, which the children had found both revolting and intriguing. She patiently explained to the two girls what her job entails and they were fascinated.

“I think anyone who has to clean that should be paid a lot of money!” proclaimed Megan.

Packing up was difficult, as it meant the end of the trip. Omari, 9, said he liked “everything but when we had to leave.” And Taja’Nae added, “I’d like to go back to the campground.”

Read Victor's blog on the trip at:
http://yip.webhop.net/pixpage/20080718-LassenNP

June 7

American River Parkway Service Project

The section of the American River Parkway Equestrian Trail was overgrown with all manner of tough and tall weeds, but that didn't daunt the eight boys and girls from Sacramento Food Bank Services. The National Trails Day work project was sponsored by REI and the ARP Equestrian Patrol. After they met one of the horses that will benefit from their hard work, the kids yanked, cut, dragged and tugged the weeds. The results of their work were clearly visible from the Northgate bridge. They were rewarded with a picnic lunch at Discovery Park and a walk to the Sacramento Water Intake Facility on the Sacramento River with its river views, artwork and--especially--its fantastic fun-filled fountain.

May 17-18

Yosemite National Park Campout

Twenty middle-school students and four high school mentors from the Breakthrough program got to spend a weekend in the Yosemite Valley. The kids hiked to Vernal Falls via the Mist Trail on Saturday afternoon. They returned to camp to hear that a bear was spotted not too far away. After dinner, the kids gathered around the camp fire for s'mores and ghost stories. A service project was planned for Sunday morning with the park, but it was canceled, so the kids got to see the great Yosemite Falls before leaving the park. Of the 24 kids, it was the first time visiting Yosemite for 21 of them.

April 12

Nature Hike at Deer Creek Hills

On a beautiful spring day, eight boys and girls from Sacramento Food Bank and eight from St. John's Shelter hiked amid the rolling hills and blue oaks. Armed with binoculars and bug boxes, they searched out wildlife in the skies and under the rocks and logs. They also got to feed carrots to some not-so-wild horses and watched the cows and their calves. Lunch was in the shade along a beautiful little pond, where red-winged blackbirds called and insects crawled. Highlights included seeing two skinks -- one the characteristic bright blue and the other an orange male.

March 19

An American River Parkway Bike Ride

This Spring Vacation outing took 12 boys and girls from St. John's on a biking trek along the American River Parkway. The ride began at Glen Hall Park, along the south bank to Watt Avenue. Everyone walked out to the river to look at the ducks and geese, skip rocks and build a rock walkway. Then the group biked back to the Sacramento State campus to have lunch in the Union among the college students.

March 8

Snowshoe/Snow Play at Yuba Gap

Many of the eight boys and two girls from St. John's Shelter had never before played in or even been in the snow. On a bright sunny day, they got to try a short snowshoe hike, followed by a lot of sledding and snowball and snowman making. It was a tired group of kids who returned to the spring-like valley weather that day!

Feb. 8-10 and 16-17, April 11-12 and 18-19

Teen Snow Hut Snowshoe

Last month several dozen teen boys and teen girls joined the ranks of the relatively few Americans who have hiked three miles at 7,000 feet to a backcountry ski hut. ICO Sacramento partnered with Today’s Youth Matter, which serves high-risk, battered and abused children and teens.

The hut consists of three small rooms, one for cooking and hanging out and the other two for sleeping. Sledding, digging snow caves, and learning card tricks were but a few of the highlights for the teens. Spending a weekend away from a group home or foster home certainly makes the last mile of hiking to the hut with a 15-pound pack more doable.

Once the kids were warm and dry back in terra firma Sacramento, they all reported enjoying the trip and wanted to know when the next trip would be!

Jan. 26

Effie Yeaw Nature Center

It was supposed to be a snow trip for 11 boys from St. John's Shelter, but the mountain weather was too stormy. A museum alternative was planned, but the weather brightened, so we took the energetic group to Effie Yeaw Nature Center. They tromped along the paths to the river, spotting deer and turkeys, and enjoyed the snakes and other animals inside and the endangered species exhibit featuring condor wings. Declared one boy, "This is what I call having fun."