It started off cloudy this morning but the weather reports still claimed it would clear off, so it was with much hope for a sunny day that we left the lodge area at just after 9 AM.

I tagged along with the trappers, a Discovery Group supervised by Mr. Espenlaub. By about 10 AM the skies were a brilliant blue and the sun shone down.

The young trappers named some of the new trees and landmarks, which had never before been seen by western eyes. The needle tree, black eye tree and skinny tree were some of the names they came up with. I pointed at a short stump and yelled “I hereby proclaim that peak to be  Mount Green Bay Packers!” Then if was off to cross a frozen river.

Two teams struggled with massive logs that were over seven feet long and nearly seven inches in diameter to construct bridges were successful and the river was crossed safely by both parties with no fatalities.

Next is was time to build a shelter in the woods. It isn’t easy staying out in the wilderness during the cold months trapping the noble beaver. if those city slickers knew what we have to go through they’d pay double the already outrageous prices for their beaver hats! According to Mr. Espenlaub, the shelters constructed by this group were among the best he had seen.

After a lunch at Heisler Hall (bagels, cream cheese, ham, peanut butter, corn chips, granola bars and apples) the kids participated in an in-depth learning activity about beavers, followed by a fun game where one person played a bat and another was a moth. The bat had to catch the moth using only echo-location (blindfolded).

It’s almost dinner time and the campers are coming in from their afternoon of recreational games. Better get back to meet them as they return to the cabin.