I led my daughter’s Brownie troop on the short hike through the Oak Grove Trail in Mission Trails Regional Park. We had scouted out this hike a few days previous (see hike report here). The hike was a great success, and both the kids and the few parents who helped me heard the Brownies had a very good time.

We started the hike, at the visitors center, with a snack, and a glow in the dark rubber snake for each Brownie (key to winning a 6-year old attention), and we talked about what kind of animals lived in the park. We then began to hike. This was one of the few times I had trouble keeping up with the little ones, and they did laps around the parents and I up and down the trail. We stopped in the first grove of oak trees, and we talked about acorns, and the importance of them to the Kumeyaay Indians who had inhabited the park in the past. We then moved along, enjoying the cooling weather, and the scenic light as it played off the hills from the waning sun. We moved up the trail away and had a break on a memorial bench where I gave my “hug-a-tree” speech, and the Brownies eye me suspiciously when I told them a tree could be their friend. There were many questions regarding the potential for bugs on the tree, and what to do if their was a fire ect. ect… In general, they got the concept. We then moved onwards and upwards to the apex of the trail, which is a beautiful oak grove with a little clearing, a micro stream and a replica hut which I described in the previous post (here). We took a long break and the kids played in the hut and through the oak grov, During our respite we talked about the “take only photos, and leave only footprints” concept and what that means. With this in mind I set up the challenge, and each Brownie was tasked with finding at least one piece of litter during the final leg of the trip. The hunt was on, and the Brownies were focused and determined to rid that trail of every bit of detritus that man or domesticated beast had cast off. The Brownies were coming up with the most amazing things. My daughter managed to scrounge up a #2 pencil and a pink pearl eraser with a half legible name on it (???) while another brownie proudly dragged back a half-degraded burlap sack (we later noticed was part of a part of a temporary retaining wall that nature had mostly reclaimed).

For the remainder of the trip, the Brownies happily hiked and scoped out potential trash, while the parents dragged a little more, with thoughts of the domestic duties that waited for us all at the end of the trail. It was hard to hurry to much as the weather was perfect, and the sun was lowering itself behind the Fortuna mountains, saturating the landscape with greener greens, and browner browns. It was during this final leg of the hike, my daughter declared herself and expert “tracker”, and a fledgling “scatologist”, dragging a little knot of brownies to every bit of poop deposited on or near the trail, and expertly determining its source. She next would explain the how her Grandpa showed her the difference between “dog poop”, and “coyote poop”, pointing out how the coyote poop had bits of hair in it, while the dog poop tended to be hair free. She then explained that it was due to the difference in diet. A heady concept for a 6-year old

The hike ended as the sun set, with the passing out of merit patches, and the Brownies and parents bidding their fond farewells until the morning, and school begins again.