A memorable weekend in the woods
Taking a group of Orange County Conservation Corps members camping at
Caspers Wilderness Park this past weekend turned out to be well worth
the time and energy.
I’m not sure whether Vic and I have ever had a better time on a
weekend camp outing -- or been more worn out afterward.
Caspers Park Rangers John Bovee and Donna Krucki are dealing with
washed-out and overgrown trails and don’t have enough money in the
budget to fix them. They were happy to offer free camping in exchange
for trail work by an experienced crew.
I made contact with the people who run the REI gear bank in
Arcadia. Thanks to their generous loan of sleeping bags, pads and
tents, we were able to get our group equipped to sleep in the woods
with the owls, raccoons and coyotes.
Max Martinez of the Corps Leadership Council and staff members
Veronica Bravo and Daniel Ramirez bought a mountain of food with
corps funds. Vic and I picked up some little extras like Abuelita
Mexican chocolate drink mix, guacamole, chips, bags of fresh fruit
and more. No one goes hungry on one of our camping trips.
In addition to staff members Daniel and Veronica, we had corps
members Angel, Angie, Leticia, Maria and Olivia, along with Cruz,
Josh, Max, Rob and Sergio -- all in their late teens or early
twenties. To the sound of much giggling and laughter, we got six
tents and a new REI screen shelter erected. Dinner of grilled
hamburgers, refried beans and romaine lettuce topped with creamy
cilantro dressing and pumpkin seeds was a group effort.
After brownies for dessert, Vic took some people for an owl prowl.
The rest of us sat around the campfire. Vic’s group saw a bobcat and
caught a tarantula. Vic put the spider on his arm to demonstrate how
harmless they are.
Later, the boys caught another tarantula to show the girls, who
expressed their lack of delight with loud shrieks. Of course, the
tarantulas were released unharmed.
Late in the evening, Vic told the group about the legendary
Chupacabra, a horrible reptilian beast with huge red eyes that walks
upright like a man. Chupacabras suck the blood from goats, chickens,
and hapless campers, throwing away their dry corpses.
Vic told them the last Chupacabra to be seen was a pregnant female
who escaped somewhere near San Juan Creek, where we were camped. The
kids weren’t scared nearly enough by that story, so I lied that there
would be a test on Monday about the things they learned over the
weekend. That horrified them.
Morning arrived with the chattering of birds and howls of coyotes.
After a filling breakfast of huevos rancheros and bean burritos, the
crew attacked the Juaneno Trail with weed-whackers and fire-fighting
tools on a blistering hot day. After more work on the trails after
lunch, they headed for a well deserved cool-down in the showers. They
rebuilt about 700 feet of trail.
The payback for their volunteer labor was credit toward Americorps
scholarships for college or trade school, which they can attend after
they earn their high school diplomas with the corps.
The girls found a frog in the women’s showers, so we caught it to
show to everyone. Vic determined that it was a red-legged frog, a
species that is in decline. Since the creeks were dry, the showers
seemed a good place for it. We put it back after we had all had a
chance to study it.
Renewed by an afternoon snack, some of the kids hiked up into the
hills, where they saw a horned lizard. Vic took another group to the
beach, where they found jellyfish.
Corps head supervisor Cory Bartholomew and his son Kyle joined us
for a dinner of bacon cheeseburgers, hot dogs and three types of
salad: potato, four-bean and carrot-raisin. We sat by the campfire
late into the evening, telling more lies and tall tales as we drank
hot chocolate and made s’mores.
Two girls snuggled up to big Max to keep warm by the campfire. We
teased Max that the girls wouldn’t respect him in the morning. Max
grinned, squeezed the girls tighter, and said he was OK with that.
There were poignant moments, like one corps member commenting that
she wasn’t used to eating three meals every day, and an early riser
waking up the other corps members by joking loudly that their
probation officer was there.
Corps Executive Director Rick Stroup showed up with two boxes of
Krispy Kreme doughnuts on Sunday morning. The doughnuts disappeared
quickly, along with bacon, scrambled eggs and cheese quesadillas.
Later, Rob led us on a nature hike across Bell Creek to show the
group a favorite spot he had discovered the day before. A deer
bounded through the forest of huge coast live oaks, hawks screamed
overhead, and woodpeckers pounded on trees.
After lunch on Sunday, we broke camp and headed home with
delightful memories of laughter and gentle friendships. The corps
leadership was so happy with the experience that they’ll be looking
for other county parks where they can swap volunteer labor for
camping. We’d go again in a minute if we weren’t so gosh darned
tired. Give us a few weeks.
* VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and
environmentalists. They can be reached at o7vicleipzig@aol.com.
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