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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