Our Valentine adventure was inspired by Debi over at Go Explore Nature.  She has an incredible blog if you haven’t had a chance to check it out and shared a great post about heart rocks and random acts of kindness.  We took a slightly different approach and went hunting for hearts in nature.

You never know what you might find if you explore  the world outside your doors.  My son and I decided to explore Mather Regional Park  for our Valentine’s Day adventure.

We were hunting  for hearts in nature.  We had several free hours, empty fields filled with dried grasses, small paths and big imaginations. What we found was beyond either of our expectations.

We found several great places to stop and take nature notes

While walking along the creek, we saw several pairs of mallard ducks, a few hawks, and an egret.

And then we stumbled across this peculiar looking tree.

Following the creek we soon found a dam, wait… a dam?? We had no idea there was a beaver oasis just around the corner.  How cool!

The beaver’s oasis, a beautiful pond he’s created for himself along the creek.

And much to our surprise, we found another dam and his lodge.

It was a great day of discoveries! We started out looking for hearts and enjoying the birds we knew frequent the regional park and then learned so much more by finding the works of a local beaver.

If you would like to know more about beavers check out what National Geographic has to say about these large rodents.

As we finished our day of exploring, we took time to look at the tiny inhabitants of the park, bugs!

For a better understanding of the Mather Regional Park area, check out Sacramento Splash, a non-profit organization facilitating exploration of more than 1,000 acres of high-quality vernal pool grasslands that surround it.

Wherever your adventure takes you, have fun exploring, you never know what you might find! -Sara

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1. Catch and Release Wild Bugs: The Green Lacewing
2. How to use Nature and Adventure to Create Learning Opportunities for Kids
3. Adventure on Carson Pass: Hiking with Kids at Frog and Winnemucca Lake

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!

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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

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.

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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