Digging Camas, a Bear Print, and Flips into Sand-June 2018
Many many years ago, local tribes used to travel up to the meadow where we live to dig camas root. It is a whole lot of hard work, but they would mix the camas root with fat and service berries for a high calorie winter food. Since we live right at Camas Meadows Bible Camp, where the camas flower if plentiful in early June, my sons and I always dig a few of the flowers and eat them. Just don’t get a “death camas” by mistake. Those are white, but the blue ones are safe.
So, on our family hike, we dug some camas. The boys eschewed shovels and simply dove into the soil with bare hands, claiming it was faster. It was certainly messier and provided the opportunity for some skin-friendly face paint!
Sweet Boy#1 used his hiking stick as well, he was plenty messy by the end, but not quite as grubby as his brothers.
Then off on our hike to the Stone Face!
Wait! What is that in the mud?
A rare find. A fresh bear print in the squishy mud. Here is Sweet Boy#1’s hand next to it. Nice sized bear!
Yes, Sweet Boy#2 enjoys both mud and charcoal as a face paint.
Sweet Boy#3, hiking with Dad.
The Stone Face
Princess Leia Freyja, keeping The Hunky Hubby company.
Resting and checking out the fine dirt near The Stone Face.
Our Camas Root Harvest!
Time for a rest in the volley ball court.
Ooooh, new sand!
Princess Leia Freyja steals their volcano.
But that’s all right. The boys amused themselves by doing flips off the sand pile while they waited for her to move!
