We wanted to start our 2012 kids rock collecting series off on the right foot, so our selection for this month’s Rock of The Month is one of our all time favorites:  The Gypsum Rosette.

When they see a gypsum rosette for the first time many people give it a double-take.  Gypsum Rosettes are unusual because it is difficult to believe that something so “orderly” occurs naturally.  The unusual crystal patterns in the gypsum rosette make them appealing to rock collectors but these attributes also provide some great opportunities for scientific discovery through a child’s eyes:

As a parent, here are a couple of activities you can set up using the gypsum rosette as a focal point.

Natural or Manmade?
All objects and materials start as a naturally occurring substance, but most objects have been processed or modified in some way by people.  Select some objects in your home and ask your child if they occur naturally or are manmade.  How can you tell?

What are Crystals?
Crystals occur when atoms line up in orderly patterns.  Even if your child has only been a Rock of the Month member for a short time, they have at least one other crystal in their collection (example:  frozen quartz that comes with the Welcome Kit).  Ask your child to use the rocks and minerals in their collection to compare and contrast crystal patterns.  What might make some crystals similar?  What might make other crystals different?

What is the Moh’s Scale?
Gypsum is a defining mineral on Moh’s scale of hardness (it is mineral #2).  Use the scale on the back of the large card to arrange their rocks from most soft to most hard.  Which rocks and minerals in your child’s collection are softer or harder than their gypsum rosette (for most collectors, the gypsum rosette will be the softest rock in their collection)?

Enjoy your gypsum rosettes and stay tuned for next month!  We have a very special surprise that is guaranteed to make your little collector’s day.  Until then, happy collecting.

Related posts:

1. Gypsum Rosettes
2. Howlite Experiment: October’s Rock of the Month put to the Test
3. Geodes! A Breakable Rock of the Month for December!

The Carson Pass area is an alpine wonderland and the Frog Lake Trail is a kid friendly route in.

Frog Lake | Carson Pass

Part of California’s charm is that anybody with a vehicle and a pair of trail sturdy boots can drive a well maintained highway right up to a trail-head that leads into world class backcountry adventure.  That is exactly what we did last weekend as we explored Frog and Winnemucca Lakes in the Mokelumne Wilderness Area.  What makes the trail to Frog Lake exceptional for families with kids is a fairly gentle elevation gain, clearly marked trail, accessibility, educational opportunities, and world class scenery.

The Frog Lake trail begins in the Carson Pass parking area near the visitors center (CA snow park passes required in the wintertime) right off  of California Highway 88.  Frog Lake is approximately 1.5 miles in on a gentle, packed, well marked trail suitable for kids who are confident with a three to four mile walk.

Adventurers who are capable of five or more miles can continue on after Frog Lake and work their way up the trail to Winnemucca Lake, a larger body of water set underneath a dramatic set of steep cliffs.  Along the way you will have an opportunity to jump on the Pacific Crest Trail, if you like.

Winnemucca Lake

Educational Opportunities:

We always like to blend an educational angle into our hiking adventures, here are two obvious topics for this hike.

California and US History | Kit Carson

Carson Pass is named after mountain man and explorer Kit Carson.  In addition to having one of our favorite plots of land named after him Carson has also been the subject of comic books, dime store novels, songs, a television series, disney movie,  and other theatrical projects.

A pop-culture icon of his time (mid 1800s), Carson could not read or write but rose to the rank of General.  He traversed the Sierra’s before there were roads, lived as a mountain man, was involved in numerous California and US historical events.

A monument at the trailhead marks the location of a tree that Carson carved in 1844:

NO. 315 KIT CARSON MARKER - On this spot, the summit of the Kit Carson Pass, stood the Kit Carson Tree on which the famous scout Kit Carson inscribed his name in 1844 when he guided the then Captain John C. Frémont, head of a government exploring expedition, over the Sierra Nevada. The original inscription was cut from the tree in 1888 and is now in Sutter’s Fort, Sacramento.

Sierra Nevada Geotourism Map Guide

The fact that this tree now resides in midtown Sacramento opens up all kinds of future Educational Expedition angles, but that’s a whole different post…

Geology | The Elephants Back

Who wouldn’t want to visit a giant lava dome named after an elephant?

PCT, Me and the Elephant's Back

Frog Lake happens to be located next to a prominent landmark in the Carson Pass area, the Elephant’s Back.  A dome of solidified lava, the Elephant’s Back provides a scenic backdrop and point of discussion when the novelty of skipping rocks (or skipping chunks of ice, in our case) wears off.

Those that continue on to Winnemucca lake will work their way around the Elephant’s Back.  The landmark is almost always visible, but changing gradually in perspective.  This is a great opportunity to teach children to find and identify major landmarks, and where they should be found on the horizon – an essential skill for any outdoor enthusiast.

So that’s our trip report on Frog and Winnemucca Lake.  Have you been there?  Have anything to add about the conditions, history, or geology? Please feel free to comment!

Related posts:

1. Kids Camp Recipes: Bannock Bread – Fresh Bread over an Open Fire
2. How to use Nature and Adventure to Create Learning Opportunities for Kids
3. Black Diamond Kids Headlamps | After Dark Activities in the Great Outdoors

The campground is already an exciting place for kids.  But when the sun sets, the campfire is lit, and marshmallows are roasting,  the adventure kicks into high gear.

On a trip to Tahoe this summer,  we let the kids test some headlamps for after dark fun. Here are some of the things they did with them, things we learned, and some ideas for after-dark campground fun.

Note:  we are not being compensated by Black Diamond for this post.  We used to sell these headlamps but have since shifted our focus to developing our own family adventure products.   This is on our blog because Black Diamond makes a great product that our kids love.

First up,

The Gear:

• Our youngest was using the Black Diamond Wiz Headlamp.
•  The two oldest were using the Black Diamond Moxie Headlamp.

 Kids Outdoor Activities After Dark:

Marshmallow Madness

Headlamps help with cooking.  The kids were great helpers when it came to shining the lights on the marshmallows as they were being roasted , keeping a close eye on the progress, looking for indications of the perfect golden brown, anticipating the gooey goodness. It was an added bonus that the marshmallows this time were being roasted by Andy and Ian from The Dusty Camel. Great stories and good friends are bonus to any campfire. We were treated to stories of their first half of hiking the Pacific Crest Trail.

A Outdoor Bookworm’s Dream

My oldest loves to read, the highlight of her headlamp use was being able to read her favorite books laying in the tent while her siblings slept next to her. It didn’t take long for her join them in dreaming. I found her sleeping with her light on and book still in hand. One good feature for the Black Diamond lamps we carry is that they will automatically turn off after an hour, in case of the bookworms dozing off.

Ground Cover Reconnaissance:

The little man (almost 4 yrs. old) was content to walk around surveying the land and find the tent. We got quite a few laughs at his old man style of walking in order to light the area right in front of his feet. He was hunched over taking careful steps while he explored.  The good news for those of us who don’t enjoy walking with our heads pointing to the ground is that the headlamps are adjustable, so you can move them rather than your head to light the area you need to.

How to Play Flashlight Tag

Night time tag is the same as day time tag except the person that is “it” has a flashlight or headlamp.  The kids who are “not-it” hide from the person who is “it”.  When the “Not-it” kids get found, they get sent back to the campfire circle until the last person found inherits the flashlight and becomes “it”.

How to Make Shadow Animals

There are all kinds of animals and shapes that can be made with hands and a flashlight.

Other Great Features:

Here are some of the more functional rather than fun features about the Black Diamond Wiz and Moxie lights:

The dimmer switch: Great for adjusting the amount of light you need and saving others from being the deer caught in the headlights by your bright headlamp.

The stobe light: A good safety feature to have. Stobe lights can help searchers locate you if you were to get lost. The headlamp is not as bright as our emergency strobe light that can be seen up to 3 miles away, but still very useful.

All in all, I came home from the trip thinking I need to update my headlamp and get a Moxie and the kids came home happy that they got to use their headlamps and asking when we are going to go out and use them again.

Related posts:

1. Black Onyx
2. Kids Camp Recipes: Bannock Bread – Fresh Bread over an Open Fire
3. How to use Nature and Adventure to Create Learning Opportunities for Kids

Bannock bread is an easy to make flat bread that kids can roast over an open fire.

This summer we decided to test out some camp recipes while dropping off supplies on the Pacific Crest Trail for The Dusty Camel.

We found out that WE LOVE BANNOCK BREAD!  We recommend whipping up a batch any time you think you might have a camp fire handy.

How To Make a Batch of Camp Fire Ready Bannock Bread:

Before you leave home,  you prepare the dry ingredients, minus the water, in a zip lock bag.  Store cold, label the bag, and take to the mountains. SIMPLE! A ziploc with goodness waiting to happen with 1/2 cup of water, a fire, a roasting stick and good company.

If you are car camping  and  have a way to keep it cool, such as a cooler,  store the ziploc in it. If you are backpacking, try and keep it out of the sun as to not melt the butter before you are ready to make the dough. It’s fairly light without the water, so I’m going to try it on our first backpacking trip, but for now, we put it in our cooler to take to the campsite.

Once you are at the campsite and ready for dinner, bring out your bag, add a 1/2 cup of water and then the fun begins! My oldest two were in charge of “making the dough”, while the adult (me) widdled the sticks to roast them (thanks to Ian for loaning me his knife) Another lesson in being prepared, always bring a knife.

Once the dough is made and the roasting sticks are ready, seperate the dough, roll into snakes and wrap around the stick and cook for 10-20 minutes. Here are some of the things we learned from our campsite bread making experience:

• Eight year olds have stronger hands than a six year olds and can still knead the dough when giggling.. so the dough was more dough like in the oldest’s bag.
• It doesn’t matter who made the dough, the bread tastes good when you are hungry and you know it was made with love and giggles.
• Be careful with fire and let the adults supervise the cooking.
• Don’t dip the dough in the fire, it will get ashes on it and thus only taste good  to thru-hikers who have walked for many days before arriving at your campsite. (Thanks for eating it Ian and Andy)
• If you really dip the dough into the fire and it comes out completely black, not even thru-hikers will eat it.
• Don’t forget you made the dough and eat dinner then remember, “Oh yeah, we made that dough, we should cook it.”  Oops. I might have been distracted by the bright colors of the vegetable kabobs.

 Final Notes:

• Remember bannock bread is hot and you should let it cool before biting into it.
• Enjoy your surroundings and the people that you are with while you enjoy the bread.
• Great memories can be made with some flour, butter, salt, baking powder, water and a ziploc.

Related posts:

1. How To Build a Pond Peeper – Ponds, Puddles, and Other Shallow Water Adventuring with Kids
2. How to use Nature and Adventure to Create Learning Opportunities for Kids
3. Terms and Conditions

December’s Rock of the Month was the geode. . I hope the kids had as much fun opening them! as we had wrapping them!

We asked in the parent’s notes for kids, if willing to take a chance, to crack the geode open. It didn’t take long for our kids to find a hammer, a towel and head outside to break their geodes after opening their envelopes. Here’s a little picture diary of our process and results.

Wrapped in a towel, she was ready to let the hammer get that geode:

WHACK!

Kid 1 results: Little pockets of crystals amongst some old dirt

Kid 2 results: IT Sparkles in the light!! And it was filled with water!

Kid 3 results: Little hands holding his geode with an orange band running through the crystal.

Great finds and lots of fun!

Until next month,

Happy Hounding Rock Hunters!!

-Sara

Related posts:

1. Howlite Experiment: October’s Rock of the Month put to the Test
2. Rock of the Month
3. How to use Nature and Adventure to Create Learning Opportunities for Kids

The Learning Loop – Trailmix Style…  Lifelong learning is the voluntary and continuous pursuit of knowledge that occurs over a lifetime.  At Trailmix.Net we believe that parents can teach their children to become lifelong learners at a very young age using a model that we like to call the “learning loop”.

The term “learning loop” is used frequently in business and management to describe a model of adult organizational learning.  If you are familiar with the single and double loop organizational learning model…. well…. set it aside for just a moment.

Like many of the things we do at Trailmix, we have stolen customized this term and adapted it to mean something entirely different (and much more useful) for parents.

For our purposes, the “learning loop” describes a circular process that parents can use to leverage adventure and curiosity to develop lifelong learners.

The model is simple, here is how it works:

Step number 1:  Create an Outdoor Adventure

The first step in the learning loop lies with the parent.  Your job is to set the stage by creating an opportunity for adventure.  We like to use nature and outdoor recreation as a backdrop for our adventures because of the endless opportunities that hiking, bug catching, bird watching, and geocaching can offer a family that likes a good tromp in the woods.

Step number 2:  Guide the Adventure into Curiosity

The next step involves giving your adventure a purpose.  Your job here is to guide the adventure into a topic that will fuel your child’s natural curiosity.  The easiest way to do this is to use the adventure to create a question or set a goal.  Any State and National Park interpretive display (or even a website before the adventure starts) can help you create the question or goal.

Step number 3:  Convert the Adventure and Curiosity into Learning

The third step in the process is to guide the combined adventure and curiosity into a moment of learning.  If you posed a question in step 2, than this step would be where you discover the answer, achieve the goal, etc.  For best results,  guide your child into discovering something new:  a concept, life lesson, or other knowledge.

Step number 4:  Tie it all Together, Repeat

The fourth and final step is the most important:  here you set the stage for the next adventure.  The first time we used this process, we took our kids sequoia hunting in Yosemite National Park.  Since then we have hunted these big trees as far north as Placer County and several other points in between.   The trick is to use the momentum of adventure, curiosity, and learning to repeat the cycle as often as possible.  When you use a learning adventure as a stage to another more challenging learning adventure, you have completed the loop.

As long as you keep it fun, you are on track and the results are guaranteed..

Related posts:

1. Learn About Us
2. How To Build a Pond Peeper – Ponds, Puddles, and Other Shallow Water Adventuring with Kids
3. Welcome to the new site….

Image via Wikipedia

If you have been here before, you might notice some changes…

Please bear with us as we wrap up a little bit of web construction….

This site will be fully functional and back to it’s normal self around January 1st, 2011.  Until then… happy hiking!

Related posts:

1. Howlite Experiment: October’s Rock of the Month put to the Test

Are you one of our Rock of the Month Club members? Did you try this month’s experiment that takes advantage of the fact that Howlite is porus? We thought we would share the results of our testing this month. Hope you enjoy! If you aren’t a member yet, head over to the Rock of the Month Page to sign up and join all the fun!

In October, we sent out Howlite (just in time for the spooky holiday) and asked you to try dyeing the rock. Here’s a picture log of how our experiment went…

First up, we got the rocks ready to bake, then baked them for 2 hours at 200 degrees.

Baking the rocks. What? Yes, we baked our rocks!

There they are basking in the oven light.

After they were done baking, we removed them from the oven and let them cool for about 10 minutes. While we were waiting to let them cool, we prepared our food coloring, much like we do for Easter eggs, but without the vinegar.

Setting up our colors, black, purple, orange, green, red and blue.

Dropping the rock! (Well, placing it gently in the dye.)

Day 1 of the great rock soak..

The second day we rolled them and put the green in the orange and flipped it (we were trying to make pumpkin rocks). The blue and black were submerged the whole time.

It's turning blue on Day 2..

We let them all sit for two more days…

Two more days of soaking the howlite

The soaking is done, we did it! We dyed our rocks!

One of our pumpkin rocks and a red howlite.

Brown and Green Howlite

A green howlite and the other attempt at a pumpkin rock.

And the experiment was done! We hope you had as much fun with your howlite. If you would like to share a picture of your dyed howlite, please post it to our Facebook page at Trailmix on FB.

Until next month…

Happy Rockhounding!

No related posts.

Bug catching enthusiasts are going to get a kick out of this trick.  Use the instructions below to build a contraption for kids that lets them peer into ponds, puddles, and other murky waters to learn about plants and critters that make their home in the mud. Scroll down for a list of common freshwater insects, plants, and animals that kids can identify.

This underwater science adventure comes from the book Camp Out! by Lynn Brunelle (flip to page 208-209).  If you enjoy outdoor adventuring with kids under 12, this book is a must have because it covers camping and all kinds of other outdoor activities with children…  But I digress, onto the bug peeping.

Safety First:
Don’t let kids use this device off of docks, near lakes, water deeper than a few inches, or the ocean.  Appropriate adult supervision is required for all of our outdoor adventures.

Construct Your Pond Peeper Device:
Step #1:  Place some Saran wrap or other plastic paper on a flat surface, such as a table.

Step #2:  Use a can opener to remove both ends of a can so that you are left with a tube.  Center the can onto the Saran wrap.

Step #3:  Pull the plastic wrap up around the sides of the can and secure it with a rubber bands.  Make sure that the plastic wrap is pulled tight across the bottom of the can and attached tightly.

Put on a pair of boots and find a shallow pond or puddle to begin investigating.

Submerge the pond peeper about half way into the water, look down through the top, and stay still.  Before long, if you are lucky,  you will get to see a bit of unusual wildlife:

Whirligig:

Mosquito Larvae

Backswimmer

Dragonfly Larvae

Tadpole

Water Boatman

Crayfish

Caddisfly Larvae

Diving Beetle

Water Strider

Mayfly Larvae

Related posts:

1. Catch and Release Wild Bugs: The Green Lacewing
2. Take Your Family Adventures to the Next Level with Advice from Dr. Clue

If your insect anglers have already captured roly-polies, chased ladybugs, and incarcerated daddy long-legs it’s time to tackle some more exotic game.  Look no further than the adult green lacewing.

We like to think of the green lacewing as the smallmouth bass of backyard bug catching.  They aren’t as intimidating as the wolf spider,  as fast as the dragonfly, or exotic as the preying mantis but they are no slouch and some people (like your humble authors) love them – exactly for that reason.

Where to Find a Green Lacewing
Patient bug catchers will find the lacewing in the evening near trees where aphids are present.  Why?  Because they are active night flyers and because the adults (pictured) like to lay their eggs near a reliable food supply….  Yep….  Bet you didn’t see that coming.  This cute little fellow’s children (not so cute) are predators and aphids are on the menu.

While adult lacewing eat pollen, nectar, and aphid honeydew, lacewing larvae feed on many common garden pests including aphids, leafhoppers, and the eggs and young caterpillars of many moths.

So, if  you (oh yes, we know that parents love this as much as kids) want to find a green lacewing, get yourself a bug jug and look where you might find its favorite foods:  gardens, fruit trees, meadows and forest edges where aphids and caterpillars make their home.

How to Identify a Green Lacewing
Now that you know where to look, this is what you are looking for….

Green Lacewings are small insects, about a half inch long.  They have teardrop shaped wings that are mostly transparent except for an inner weave of “lace”.  Another attribute your kids will love – many have very large golden/copper eyes.

Other cool attributes of the lacewing:  it can evade bats in flight, often escapes spider webs by cutting the silk before the spider notices, and some adult species have been known emit an offensive chemical smell from a gland in their thorax when threatened.  I have never experienced this, but it is probably worth mentioning to be gentle with these little fellows.

Between the striking eyes, beautiful lace wings, Top Gun style bat evasion, Harry Houdini spiderweb escape skills, and secret caterpillar eating life this insect makes a prize catch for any backyard safari enthusiast.

Alright, so now you caught one…. What next?  Before setting your little critter free, why not post a photo over on our facebook page or in the comments below with your “fishing story”?  In case you didn’t notice, we love that kind of stuff here…

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