Outdoor Activities

Marin Mommies is pleased to present another great guest article, this time by Ally Kushin, Camp Director for Coastal Camp at Headlands Institute. She discusses the increasing problem of nature deficit disorder and highlights local opportunities to connect children to the natural world. Ally has worked in the field of environmental education for the past 9 years as a naturalist, park ranger, and camp director.

In 2005 the book Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv popularized the term “nature deficit disorder.” In it, he refers to the trend of children spending less time outdoors, resulting in a wide range of behavioral, social, and medical problems. Louv claims that causes for the phenomenon include parental fears, restricted access to natural areas, and the “lure of the screen,” referring to increasing electronic media consumption.

Children who spend more time in nature are known to develop increased concentration, memory, and self discipline. The latest research has established amazing connections between the amount of time spent in nature to everything from better grades to increased immunity to germs to stronger bones. read more »

Marin's ever popular Slide Ranch once again holds its 2010 summer day camp, with sessions taking place from June through August. Slide Ranch features programs geared for all different age groups, from the Ranch Rangers (ages 5–8), Junior Farmers (ages 8–12), and Junior Camp Counselors (ages 13–18). The Ranch Rangers program will allow 9–12-year-olds to enroll the week of June 28–July 2.

Program hours are 9 am to 1:30 pm for Ranch Rangers, 9 am to 3 pm for Junior Farmers, and 8:30 am to 2 pm for Junior Camp Counselors. Fees range from $125 to $400 per week.

Slide Ranch, located in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area near Muir Beach, is extremely popular and offers limited enrollment, so it's important to register early. All there programs usually sell out! You can find out more information about their summer day camps, including full schedules, and download a registration form at www.slideranch.org.

One of the benefits of living in Northern California is that you can go on a hike or other outdoor activity pretty much any time you want to, even in the dead of winter. In fact, winter is really one of the nicest times to be outdoors, with crisp, clean air, bright green grass, fewer crowds and tourists, and even the first of the wildflowers showing up. This is all provided it's not raining, of course. One of our favorite outdoors spots, and a great place to take a hike with the family, is Jack London State Historic Park, located in the small Sonoma Valley town of Glen Ellen, about a 45-minute drive north from Marin.

As the name implies, the park is made up largely of land that was at one time the Beauty Ranch owned by renowned writer, social reformer, and rabble-rouse Jack London (1876–1916), author of classic tales like The Sea Wolf, The Call of the Wild, and White Fang. Nestled at the foot of Sonoma Mountain, the park is full of stunning scenery, historic buildings, and short easy hikes that are perfect for families. There are of course longer treks available for those who don't have two little kids in tow.

Hiking with small children is a great way to get them into the outdoors and introduce them to nature, but it can be a bit of a challenge. Small legs seem to tire out faster than larger ones, and when they outgrow both the stroller and the backpack it's best to seek out some shorter hikes that the whole family can enjoy with a minumum of whining and complaining. One of our favorite easy family hikes can be found at Rush Creek Open Space Preserve, on the northern end of Novato.

Late December always heralds the start of whale-watching season off the Northern California coast. Reports have come in of the first California Gray Whales (eschrichtius robustus) passing by Point Reyes, so it's a great time to head out to the coast and check out the whales' annual southern migration. We still continue our tradition of never actually spotting one (although everyone around us seems to be seeing them), but that won't stop us from dusting off the binoculars and giving it another shot. Every year, California Gray Whales migrate from their feeding grounds in the waters off Alaska to their breeding grounds in the warmer waters near Baja California. This southern migration takes place from late December through February, with the peak in about mid January. The return trip back up north happens from March through May, with the peak watching time in mid March; late April and early May are great times to see mother whales swimming with their calves.

Looking for something for the kids to do over the upcoming winter break? Check out some of the great day camps here in Marin!

• For young nature fans, Wildcare in San Rafael offers camps for kids from kindergarten through second grade. Their first session, Nature Detectives, runs from December 21–23 and is for children in kindergarten and first grade. Campers will have fun with animal tracks, fur, feathers, and more, and will search for clues and investigate the evidence that wildlife leaves behind.
  
  Wildcare's session two, Winter Wonderland, is for students in first and second grade. Get up close and personal with our animal friends, and learn how they survive the winter.
  
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This weekend, August 15 and 16, all National Parks that normally charge an entry fee will be free to all! This is the third in a series of fee-free summer weekends launched by the National Park Service in an effort to give everyone a chance to visit their national parks in this economically challenging time. Although many are free to begin with, more than 100 national parks normally charge an entry fee.

Around the Bay Area, the parks charging an entry fee include Marin's own Muir Woods National Monument, San Francisco Maritime National Park, and the John Muir National Historic Site in Martinez. Other popular parks within a few hours of the Bay Area include Yosemite and Pinnacles National Monument (south of the Bay Area in Monterey and San Benito counties). A full list of fee-free weekend parks across the USA can be found here.

About the end of July you start to see people stopped by the side of the road, poking around in the bushes. No, they're not doing anything strange or unseemly; they're picking wild blackberries! Late summer is definitely blackberry season in Northern California. And what's best is that these sweet little fruits can be had for free just about anywhere, if you're willing to risk stained clothing from all that blackberry juice, as well as the occasional wound from the blackberry's thorns.

There is a native variety of wild blackberry, the California or Pacific blackberry (rubus ursinus), but that's relatively hard to find these days, being supplanted by a non-native species, the domesticated Himalayan or Armenian blackberry (rubus armeniacus). This variety, fast-growing, invasive, and considered a pest by many, was introduced as a commercial cultivar in California in the late 19th century, but like so many non-native species prevalent in the state today, it got loose and spread all over the place. An easy way to tell the difference is to look on the underside of the leaves. The California variety is green, whereas the Himalayan is white.