Dancing Hawk: Back to the San Juans
Posted on July 17, 2008, by admin.
Filed Under Pacific Coast, Community, Washington, Adventures |
Well, the end of the year expedition for the Dancing Hawk Apprentices has completed, and we are back healthy and happy, after having paddled many miles and gathered a ridiculous amount of food from the bounty of ocean’s denizens.
I am writing this now because Ancestralways.net has been on hiatus for nearly a year, and that is because major changes have happened. As one of two major organizers of this community experiment, I found that our tremendous energy input into free classes and opportunities wasn’t sustainable– few people participated in our free courses and not a person helped in organizing except Thaddeus and myself. SO! In the last year I have redirected my efforts back into Dancing Hawk, my Native Lifeways and Hunter-Gathering School.
Most of my time has been spent with my yearlong apprentices, who have done amazing things in this last year– they have grown through major personal challenges, built bows and kayaks, paddled throughout the waterways of our region, hunted and gathered food from nettles and snails to deer and rockfish. We’ve grown a garden, learned to live in community together, and even pushed the edge of our own mortalities on the mighty Columbia River.
Now the energy of Dancing Hawk is back in full force, and with the addition of three new wilderness guides, we are taking on both introductory courses in plant identification to advanced courses in long-distance kayak-based foraging. Dancing Hawk courses are not free, but we have discovered much greater sustainability in our efforts and much greater participation.
Ancestral Lifeways is closing down and all our efforts are returned to offering Dancing Hawk’s very unique blend of kayak-based naturalist and primitive skills. Pay us a visit and check out our Photo Gallery! Our new website is coming soon as well.
Well now, back in the San Juans, we spotted all sorts of amazing wildlife. Eagles, of course, but then also Harbor Porpoises (who surfaced and blew our of their blowholes at sunset on Doughty Point), seals, river otters, and lots more.
We also did some on the spot learning of plants and their uses. Jack kindly stripped some cedar bark from a dying cedar tree for us, and we then corded it and attached the strong cord to a dead gull for crab bait.
Of course, we ate tons of crabs, but also lots of delicious shellfish– oysters and great huge Washington surf clams for dinner every night.
That’s it for now. I hope that you all are getting outside and participating in nature, and becoming one with it! Good luck on your adventures, and perhaps we will see you at our log cabin on Oregon Coast if you decide to come and take a Dancing Hawk course.
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