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Chapter One - Your Secret Place
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Coyote Howl Story as experienced and told by Chrism (7:07 min)
Tale of the Wolf Song written and performed by Chrism (3:26 min)
Spirit of the Eagle music by Craig Olson to be uploaded ASAP.
To listen to these audio files, you may need the free RealOne Player if it's not already installed in your system. Inspirational Artwork by Nikki.
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Introduction & Contents:
• Field Exercise 1A - Exploring Potential Study Sites
• Field Exercise 1B - Drawing Your Secret Place
• Field Exercise 1C - Mapping Your Study Site
• Field Exercise 1D - Appreciating Your Secret Place
• Chapter 1 Celebration
Your study site is more than a study site. If you read books like Ishi, The Education of Little Tree, Chased by the Light, or The Tracker, you will find that the people who intimately know their natural environments have a "secret place." They return to the same place again and again, year upon year, where they can be alone, to reflect and to observe their favorite surroundings.
The idea of a secret place is common throughout societies that live close to the earth, according to Jon Young of the Wilderness Awareness School. His curriculum was the first I know of to center nature studies on visits to a secret place. Jon told me that through his anthropological studies, he realized that most children growing up in societies or families which "live close to the earth" find their secret places just as you will in this course.
Your secret place is where you feel most at home inside the study site boundaries you choose for this course. It is a place to be alone, although you may share it with special people when you choose. It is at your secret place that you will find your individual wisdom, learned in relation to nature.
Depending on your goals, you will return to your study site over the course of one season, or for many years to come. By consistently studying and observing your chosen area, you will gain perspective of how wildlife interacts around you, and how nature's patterns change with the seasons. If you visit your study site for two consecutive years, your knowledge will multiply multi-fold, as you see patterns repeat themselves.
Learn the rhythms of the natural world at your secret place, and you will develop skills to understand how animals, plants, and the elements co-exist. You will see that once you discover the patterns of your study site, you will be able to know other sites more quickly. Often the patterns will be the same elsewhere, but with different individuals playing the roles. Approach any new study areas with humility, and nature will teach you readily.
Many naturalists are renown for an expertise in the study of a particular species, or for general knowledge of a bioregion. However, the best naturalists are often the non-famous caretakers of certain small preserves, such as Jim Edwards at Tenant Lake Interpretive Center in Ferndale, WA or Debbie Hall at Ginkgo State Park in Vantage. These people have a real "sense of place." They really know their environments, because they are outside observing and studying a small site on a regular basis.
Never expect to have the attitude of an expert, because often when we go into nature with feelings of superiority, we are humbled by its mystery. Think of your primary teacher in this process as your secret place – not the author, nor your instructor. Learn directly from nature instead of memorizing second-hand information. Confirm through your own experience any "facts" you learn from others. Then, by all means, speak with "expertise" on the real knowledge you have come to possess.
By spending time at your study site regularly, you will also find that you gain a profound appreciation for it. Yet you will likely also experience fears and grief being alone, despite a growing sense of safety and comfort in nature. Walk through those feelings. Feel the fear and do it anyway.
Trust that your senses will tell you all you need to know, keeping you safe. Also, screen your expectations. Leave behind any that might set you up for disappointment. It's okay if you don't see any "exciting" wildlife. It may be the smallest creatures that teach you the most. Any other expectations may keep you from seeing the gifts that await you.
When you return from your secret place, it is best that you journal about it right away. Journaling will help you realize a number of objectives. First, your learning and memory will be enhanced by repeating the experience through writing. Second, you will have wonderful stories that will be part of written history for your family and community to treasure.
Third, you will have documentation about how people, weather, and other factors effect the area you are studying. By journaling the patterns, the plants, the animals, and the landscape intimately, you will be able to speak with wisdom when the time comes to help your community make land-use decisions.
Finally, journaling your study site experiences will help you integrate into your life the wisdom you gain there. Many feelings that flow through you when in nature are difficult to describe with words. But with a few minutes and some space between you and your secret place, journaling will probably open a flood gate of words that seek to describe your experience.
Let the place draw forth your deepest emotions. Your secret place itself has a craving that you feel intensely alive when you visit because you are what brings the animals, plants, and elements to consciousness. I'm looking forward to hearing your experiences.
- ChrismWolf Journey – Part One Trail of the Naturalist
Field Exercise 1A – Exploring Potential Study Sites
Based on the first field exercise in the Kamana Naturalist Training Program, written by Jon Young, founder of the Wilderness Awareness School.
After reading the introductory story in this chapter, consider your options for a study site. You will need to choose an easily accessible area, preferably near your home. If possible, discuss potential sites with a knowledgeable friend or local naturalist. Ideally, the site would be at the edges of a wildlife transition area, which is a place where animals and birds tend to pass or congregate.
An example of a transition area is the corner of a field, bordering woods, with a pond or stream at hand. Very few people have the luxury of such a location, so simply find a place that is somewhat private where there are several kinds of plants, birds, and perhaps an animal trail. Maybe a tree in your backyard is all you need. This is your secret place, and the most important thing is that you feel good there.
Remember, choose a study site that is nearby so that distance won't deter you from visiting it. Also, find a place with a bit of a view in order to see what's happening around you. Your backyard might be the perfect place, and it will certainly offer you many surprises. Don't worry if you can't have a place that offers an astounding expanse of wilderness.
Be sure to avoid hazardous places (for example, polluted waterways, highways, and areas that appear to have frequent visitors who come to party or disrupt the environment). Ask around to discover if the area gets too wet during the winter or spring, or to find out whether people loiter there. Be sure to get permission from the property owner of potential sites before trespassing.
On Your Way
If you feel you may need to investigate multiple study site choices, simply repeat this field exercise at each location. If possible, always let someone know where you are going and when you expect to return. Before you leave for your study site, always use the bathroom, get a drink of water, and look at the "day outings" checklist included in the appendix to decide which items you will need.
You can either bring these instructions, or better yet, read them beforehand and go to your study site with as little as possible. Bringing a camera, pencil and notebook is optional, but remember that taking notes and photos in the field may distract you from the experience. Do bring a compass if you can't tell direction very well. You will need to determine the east, south, west and north boundaries near the end of today's field exercise.
As you are walking (or biking, or driving if you just can't stay near your neighborhood) to your potential study site, be aware of any possible dangers in the area you are considering. Look for rocks or branches that could fall on you at a potential site, and be sure to stay clear of those areas. If you want a list of potential hazards to consider, look at Field Exercises 2B and 2C. Think of another site if the dangers are too great.
Allow your heart to guide you to your secret place. Think as if your secret place knows you are coming. Open your heart and hear it calling you. Look for the bird flying toward it, or the beautiful rock perched there, or some other natural phenomenon that you find attractive. These are signs that you should consider in order to develop a personal relationship with your secret place.
Plan to make your site small, under 150 feet/50 meters in diameter (less than half the size of a football field) at the very greatest. However, it is best to look for natural formations, such as rock outcroppings, trees, or ledges to use as boundary markers. Estimate the boundaries of your study site just a few feet beyond those landmarks in order to include them.
At Your Site
Find what you might consider the center of your study site, and make sure the boundaries you create are 20 to 50 paces in any direction. It is also fine that your study site include part of a pond or tidal area. Just estimate the distance in that direction.
Find the place inside your potential study site boundaries that most attracted you. Is this your secret place? Take a few moments to feel it out. Then walk from your secret place east, to the easternmost boundary of your study site. Remember which landmark indicates your approximate "east boundary." Walking back to your secret place, see if recognizing your secret place is easy or difficult from that direction.
Next, walk from your secret place to the southernmost boundary of your study site. Remember which landmark indicates your approximate "south boundary." Walking back to your secret place again, see if it's easy to recognize your secret place from that direction. Do the same for your "west boundary," and for your "north boundary." Finally, relax for a while at your likely secret place.
Journaling At Home
Return home and make your first journal entry. Fill out a COPY of the Journaling Cover Page, or a cover page of your own design. Be sure to include the name of today's field exercise, the date, the weather, and your observations of fauna and flora.
On the back of your cover page, write the principal things you did from the time you left home to when you returned. Try as best you can to remember a description of your east, south, west, and north boundaries. Also write briefly how you felt about your secret place and your study site in general.
Cite sources and references for any material or concepts that you included in this journal entry. If you didn't include the sources where you used their material, go back and make an asterisk (*) in those places, and number them. Put corresponding asterisks and numbers at the end of your journal entry, and mention your sources there.
If you feel that you might remain with the study site you found today, go on to Field Exercise 1B, where you will have more time to consider whether it is the right place. If you don't think the site you found today is good for you, repeat this field exercise again at a new location.
As you progress, remember that journaling takes a lot of time if you don't watch out. So keep every journal entry simple. Even if you have the time and desire to write more, it is prudent to consider yourself finished after one or two pages so you don't get overwhelmed. If you need to write more, consider using a private diary for that purpose.
Field Exercise 1B – Drawing Your Secret Place
 
You might have a regular time of day that you visit your study site, but mix it up once in a while. Choose different times in the day to visit – early morning, midday, evening, or nighttime. That way, you will learn much more about the area, since patterns of activity fluctuate dramatically over the course of a day.
Try entering your area from as many directions as possible so that you do not create new paths, damage plants in one area, or disturb the same animals all the time. One good rule of thumb is to rarely exit the same way you enter. This also helps you discover more areas of your study site that you might otherwise neglect.
Take along your set of (sharpened) colored pencils and some blank pieces of paper today. Prepare to clip the paper on top of your journal, which you will be taking with you to your study site, and upon which you will be drawing a scene at your secret place.
Take a look at your "day outings" checklist and review which items you will need. Use the bathroom, get a drink of water, gather up your materials, and before you go, grab a shovel to bring along. You will need the shovel if your study site is any distance from a bathroom. Today, you may be digging your own latrine – just in case.
Also, every time you go to your study site, bring along a "poop pack" – a zip-lock plastic baggie with toilet paper and a handi-wipe inside. If you ever need to use the hole you may dig today, either burn your used toilet paper and handi-wipes, or put them back into the baggie. Put used baggies directly in your outside garbage pail when you get home.
At Your Site
When you reach your study site boundaries today, assess the hazards – people, weather, falling limbs – just like you should do every time you visit. Enter your site as silently and gently as possible, trying not to disturb the hidden activity of animals. Keep looking around, viewing plants and birds, and take care not to cause unnecessary damage to the flora or cause erosion, especially along stream banks and steep areas. Flow into the study site and find your likely secret place.
Relax at your secret place. Breathe the smells, and exhale your stress and worry. Stay warm by breathing deeply – try it – it works. Get up and move around if breathing doesn't work by itself. Also, be sure to drink enough water – that will keep you warmer, too. "Store your water in your stomach," as Tom Brown, Jr. would say. Drinking cold water will warm you better than staying dehydrated. Again, relax, dream, and let go, but remember to breathe in order to consciously regulate your temperature.
After it seems like your study site has settled down after you disrupted it by walking there, enjoy the serenity for a moment. When you are ready, get up and find a comfortable sitting arrangement several feet from your secret place, but where you can look back and see it clearly . Remember to stay aware of all the activity that may happen nearby as you begin to draw your secret place.
If you want your drawing to reflect the living nature of your secret place, use colored pencils, and refrain from "outlining," which indicates that a plant or animal may be dead and cannot grow beyond the lines. Instead, think of your drawing as a painting, and use pencil strokes that originate from the center of the subject you are drawing. Drawing a plant, for example, from the place where its seed originally sprouted, to the ends of its leaves and roots, indicates that the tree is alive and vibrant in your drawing.
Your drawing is not a drawing of your whole study site, just your secret place. Draw the scene, and try to capture its general beauty rather than getting detailed about specific attributes. Of course, it may be a lovely tree or a giant rock that creates a powerful center scene at your secret place, so you may want to detail those items. For the most part, draw the scene not to create a perfect work of art, but to help you decide whether this is where you want your secret place as you walk through the rest of the field exercises.
On Your Way Out
Once you are finished with the first draft of your drawing, put it inside your journal and relax again. Put away your colored pencils and take a few deep breaths. Go back to your secret place and give some sort of thanks for its beauty. Take a break before gathering up your supplies and looking for a place to dig your latrine if you think you might need one.
Don’t put a latrine too close to your secret place, since animals may avoid your scent if it lingers too strongly. However, having a latrine nearby is handy, since bowel movements seem to progress quickly when in nature.
The hole should be at least one foot deep, far enough from water that your excrement has time to filter before reaching any stream, pond, lake, river, or oceanside tidal area. Keep the hole a safe distance from plants you don’t recognize. Poison ivy or stinging nettles on the derriere is never fun. Watch out for animal holes and tunnels, too, and try not to damage plants unnecessarily.
Make sure that the dirt you dig stays in a nice pile next to your hole so that you can cover up your excrement with a bit of earth every time you use the latrine. After you are done digging, put some big rocks in the hole so no one falls in. Then cover it with some old sticks and brown foliage for camouflage.
Journaling At Home
Acknowledge the disturbance you caused today at your study site with thoughts of thanksgiving for the land. Then return home and make a journal entry. Make it a habit to mention any changes you noticed at your site, new plants you discovered, animals (including birds, etc.) you saw, plus a mention of any noticeable signs that the animals might have left of their presence.
Write the important things you did from the time you left home to the time you returned, and place your drawing with your journal entry. Site sources and references for any material or concepts that you borrowed. As another rule, try to journal less than half as long as you spend doing any exercise so that you are in the field much more than behind a desk.
If you are confident that the place you visited today will remain your study site, continue with Field Exercise 1C. If you want to re-draw your secret place, or if you are not sure that you want to keep it as your study site, repeat today’s field exercise after you’ve slept on the question. If you just don’t feel right about the site, go back to Field Exercise 1A and start the process over.
Field Exercise 1C – Mapping Your Study Site
Now is the time to decide for sure whether to keep your study site where it is. Continue with this field exercise if you are confident that you will not need to change locations. If you are doubtful, return to Field Exercise 1A and explore alternate locations. Then closely assess whether the benefits of a change outweigh the potential losses.
You are free to change your study site whenever you want, even if you are as far as Chapter Twenty-Four. If you do change the location in the future, just complete the field exercises in Chapter One again along with any other chapters you wish to repeat in order to get to know your new site. Then return to the chapter where you left off and continue from there.
Whenever you feel moved to change your study site location, consider the benefits of staying put. Learning the patterns of nature is best done staying in one place. By moving your study site, it is a given that you will miss the recognition of some patterns which may have already begun to unfold. Nevertheless, the benefits of a change may outweigh the potential losses.
When you’ve decided to continue with your chosen site, prepare to complete this field exercise. You will be making a map today, so take along a heavy pencil, a piece of your journal paper, and something hard to draw on. Again, take a look at your “day outings” checklist and decide which items you will need. Then visit the bathroom, get a drink of water, and head out.
As always, when you reach your study site boundaries, assess the hazards. Walk around the perimeter of your area as silently and gently as possible, noticing the principal boundary markers. Again, take special care not to cause unnecessary damage to the flora, or cause erosion, since today it may be difficult to focus where you step while you make your map.
Flow into your secret place from a totally new direction. Spend some time there to relax, then picture in your mind the landmarks forming the boundaries of your study site. Turn around in place and notice in which directions east, south, west, and north lie. Go to the highest point in your study site area. Rotate in a circle again, remembering the directions and landmarks defining your study site. When you feel ready, take out your pencil, paper, and solid surface to write on. Draw a very faint line to define the boundaries of your study site. Then face your secret place, and make an “X” to indicate where it is located within the boundaries.
Next, draw a directional arrow pointing north on the map. Most people point upward for north on their maps, but try to orient your map to best capture the landscape on paper. With north always in mind, begin to move around your study site if necessary, and draw the principal markers which define the boundaries of the site. Finally, add features to your map, such as water, brush, tree groves or the most outstanding trees, rock outcroppings, trails, buildings, gardens, fields, roads. If you need to make extra notes explaining your marks on the map, create a “key,” with symbols to describe what your drawn features refer to.
Keep the map simple, and restrain yourself from erasing anything. If it’s messy, that’s okay, as long as you can figure it out. This is not a masterpiece you are drawing today. You’ll be making better maps of your study site later. For today, simply draw and label just the secret place, the boundaries around the study site, and a few other landmarks that describe it.
Before you go home, choose anywhere within the boundaries of your study site to relax, dream, and let go again. Breathe; drink water. Stay long enough to feel some enjoyment. Sit with it for a while, then head home after you’ve found a way to say thanks for all you experienced there. At home, make a journal entry, noting the weather and any plants or animal sign you witnessed. Remember to label and date the entry as always, then describe what happened to you, and around you, during this field exercise. As always, cite sources and references for any material or concepts that you included in this journal entry.
Field Exercise 1D – Appreciating Your Secret Place
Recommended Listening: The Peacemaker's Journey with Jake Swamp
Reflecting upon creation with an attitude of appreciation is an exercise similar to the order of an Iroquois prayer called Thanksgiving Address. The Iroquois Confederacy of Native American nations occupies eastern portions of the United States. The confederacy was the primary model that the founding fathers of the U.S. used to create the modern form of democracy.
The founding fathers met regularly with the Iroquois leaders of the time, and they most certainly began each meeting with a Thanksgiving Address, which is the traditional start of Iroquois gatherings to this day. The Iroquois knew that the simple act of appreciating others keeps conflicts from arising. Let us remember this, and give thanks as we walk this journey.
The attitude of appreciation is paramount for every naturalist. Let's honor the gifts of the Iroquois and become peacemakers. The way you journal in this field exercise does not follow the exact order of the Thanksgiving Address, but it does similarly categorize all elements and creatures of the world.
The Iroquois Thanksgiving Address begins with an appreciation for the people, just as it will be important for you to appreciate all those who affect your life. After the people, it is easiest to remember all the elements and creatures of the world if you begin at the bottom, with the earth, and work your way higher in elevation and taxometric classification.
•People (family, friends, teachers, people who preserved or worked your land)
•Earth & Water (elements, bacteria, viruses)
•Plants (fungi, mosses, wildflowers and other low lying plants, shrubs, trees)
•Animals (insects, spiders, reptiles, amphibians, fishes, mammals, birds)
•Atmosphere (air, clouds, winds, weather)
•Heavens (moon, sun, planets, stars, ancestors, future generations, creator)
Now get ready to go to your secret place. Prepare your journal materials for your return, get a drink of water, use the bathroom, gather what you need, and go. Enter your study site as silently and gently as possible, and as always, assess the hazards. Keep your senses heightened, and flow into the area from a new direction, ending up at your secret place.
Appreciating The People
Breathe, take a drink. Close your eyes for a moment, and don't open them until your breathing and heart rate have settled into a restful state. Think of the people who have helped bring you to this place, including family, friends, teachers, mentors, and other influential people in your world. Also remember the people who helped to preserve your study site as a natural area. Think of all these people in a good way, and send them a good wish.
Appreciating The Earth And Its Waters
Open your eyes. Focus on the ground, the soils, the rocks, stumps, debris, and moisture around you. Where did these things come from? What is happening to the earth now? How old are the rocks compared to you? What is in the soil that nourishes the plants, and in turn, you? Don't worry if you don't know the answers to these questions. Just consider the earth with appreciation.
For some, there will be much water flowing nearby, and for those in dry areas, the water will be under the surface of the ground, feeding the plants. For everyone, moisture will be in every breath. Consider the earth and its waters until you feel at least a tinge of appreciation for these natural gifts.
Appreciating The Plants
Close your eyes for a moment, take some deep breaths, and open them again. Focus on the plants, including the mosses, mushrooms, shrubs and trees. Are they lying dormant, flowering, fruiting, seeding, dying, sprouting, or being eaten? Notice if they are growing together or separately. Think of their roots, and where the seeds might have come from.
Do you see tall, green, broad-leaf trees with big, wide canopies overhead, or do you see a dark green, needle-like tree, full of brown, seed-laden cones? Are there smaller shrubs sporting flowers or fruit? Do their branches grow opposite from the trunk or do they grow in an alternate pattern? Do they seem to like growing in and around water? Are they growing in the full sunlight or are some in the shade of taller evergreens?
Look at the bark. Is it smooth, coarse, thick, or peeling off in thin pieces? Remember to pay attention to old trees that may be dead or dying in your area, since they may be home to birds, bats, insects, small rodents, or even bears, who are known in some areas to den inside the tops of large, old snags. Consider all these things, and appreciate them fully before closing your eyes again.
Appreciating The Animals
Breathe, open your eyes, and focus on the eight, six, four, two, and no-legged creatures. Who are you seeing now, or hearing, or smelling, or otherwise sensing? Insects? Slugs? Spiders? Frogs and salamanders? Turtles or snakes? Fish or crustaceans? Tracks, scat, feathers, bones, scratches, tufts of hair, nests, burrows, dens, dams? Look for as many clues that show where and how the animals live in your study site.
Close your eyes and take a deep breath. Listen to the birds. As you focus on the winged ones, close and open your eyes intermittently. What are the birds in your area doing? Are they flying, sitting, bathing, or scratching on the ground for food? Can you tell what they are eating?
You may be able to see some larger birds circling above you. What are they doing? Look for the trees, shrubs, riverbanks and grass thickets that these birds might live in. If you have the opportunity, listen to birds making peculiar calls, and notice how they respond to other birds coming into their territory.
Notice how the colors lay on the birds' bodies if you can see them closely, and what kind of flight pattern they may show you. The birds that you see and hear at your secret place most likely live within the boundaries of your study site. Close your eyes again and listen to these uplifting creatures.
Appreciating The Air
Again, breathe. Without air you generally get some brain damage within 3 minutes. You are so dependent on the atmosphere. With eyes open or closed, consider the weather today. What are the humidity, the temperature, and wind direction? How does the air feel on your face? What is the weather causing the plants and animals to do? Clouds, lightning and thunder are also incredible miracles that you can consider when appreciating the atmosphere.
Appreciating The Sky
Which heavenly bodies are foremost in the sky today and tonight? The moon is our closest neighbor, while the sun gives us nearly all our strength. The planets revolve in fascinating patterns through the many constellations of the stars, which some say describe all the stories of the world, including our history and our future. Consider the heavens, and with a final deep breath, close your eyes and reflect upon what lies beyond.
In your own way, take a moment to feel the mysterious force which forms this physical reality in which we live. Some call it God, with hosts of guiding angels above and helpful faeries below. Others feel directions emanating from the east, south, north, west, above, below, and within. Whatever your spiritual persuasion, consider creation. Remember also the ancestors of your area, the ancestors in your family, and the related generations yet to come to the earth.
Journaling At Home
Turn and appreciate your study site after exiting, then return home and journal your reflections of creation. Describe each point with no more than two or three sentences, or you'll become overwhelmed with too much writing. Take a look at the next page for a step by step guide to journaling in this way.
If you want to journal more extensively, I recommend using a separate journal. This way, you'll notice how long it really takes you to journal as instructed, and how long you are journaling for the sake of journaling, which is beneficial in itself for other reasons, but which is not part of this field exercise.
•Fill out your Journaling Cover Page. Then on the back:
•Label the first paragraph "PEOPLE" and write an appreciation for them.
•Label your second paragraph "EARTH & WATER" then journal what is
fresh in your memory about the earth and water at your secret place.
•Label the third paragraph "PLANTS BIG & SMALL" and journal about them.
•The fourth paragraph is "ANIMALS OF THE EARTH, SKY, AND WATERS"
•The fifth, "ATMOSPHERE & WEATHER"
•Sixth, "HEAVENS & BEYOND"
Make notes about important things that happened which may not fit into these categories. Also, note any feelings or thoughts that you haven't expressed yet which you need to write down, such as resistance to studying, anger at the world, loneliness and other issues, but limit the time you spend dwelling on such thoughts. Then try to retain an attitude of appreciation. Cite sources and references for any material or concepts you borrowed.
Chapter One Celebration
At the end of each chapter, visit your study site with no agenda besides having an attitude of wandering, meaning that you just go and follow your heart to the place or places which call you. Perhaps you will find a bird's nest, or a weathered bone, see a lovely plant, or a beautiful stone. Enjoy yourself, and come to discover what you think it means to "wander." Write about that after returning home. Use "Chapter One Celebration" as the title of your journaling cover page. As always, note the weather, the plants which caught your eye, or any animal signs you witnessed.
Buy a 2" x 3" poster-size piece of paper, and take some time planning how to begin mapping your study site on a larger scale. I wish I could show you Melva's colorful and detailed map of her study site, but I think her secret to success was that she did not do the map all at once. Sure, her artistic talent helped, but what you simply need to focus on is an effort to slowly, periodically add aspects to the map that you are fairly sure are accurate.
Find a large table to work on your map. Start out with light pencil marks to draw the most prominent land and water features, particularly the ones that designate your study site boundaries. When you get to a point where you are not fairly certain any more whether you are depicting your study site accurately, then stop. Put the map up on your naturalist wall, and leave it until after the next time you visit your study site. Patience is so important to this curriculum. Allow these skills to soak into you. Don't stuff them in.
From now on, very time you come back from your secret place, take a look at the map on your wall (or stored elsewhere if you don't want it on your wall), and if you notice anything that needs change, or if you can think of any trail, tree, rock, den, nest, plant community or other aspect that you can include (as you study these things over the course of this journey), add them carefully. Use colored pencils whenever you are sure that the aspect you are adding is accurate.
Write a short reflection about Ishi, and how it was reading about Ishi while working on Chapter One. You may want to describe what feelings came up for you, fears, happiness, sadness, wonder, and more. Also, what was it like doing a journal entry by going through all the elements of creation with an attitude of thanksgiving? You will be doing a Thanksgiving Address journal entry at the end of each chapter, and it is very important to this course of study so that your attitude and awareness remain heightened.
If necessary, set new goals for yourself regarding your study site visits which you are confident you can achieve. For example, you may have found that you need to visit your study site more or less often than you originally planned. Or maybe your motivation for doing this work changed after your experiences in the field. Whatever the changes, reflect on the goals you wrote on the first pages of your journal, and amend them now if necessary.
 
Index to Wolf Journey (chapters currently uploaded)
• Introduction to Part One - Skills of the Naturalist
• Chapter 1 - Your Secret Place.
• Chapter 2 - Fears & Hazards.
• Chapter 3 - Sensory Awareness.
• Chapter 4 - Sketching & Journaling.
• Introduction to Part Two - Skills of the Tracker
• Chapter 5 - Humans and the Hidden Wilderness.
• Chapter 6 - Shape Shifting.
• Chapter 7 - Mammal Mysteries.
• Chapter 8 - Bird Vocalizations.
• Introduction to Book 3 - Skills of the Herbalist
• Chapter 9 - Caretaking Nature.
• Wolf Journey Handbook for Students & Teachers.
• Chapter 30: Glossary of Terms.
• Chapter 31: Outings Checklists.
• Chapter 32: Understanding Taxonomy.
• Remaining chapters to be uploaded asap.
Wolf Journey is available free online, although donations to the WOLF Foundation - Max Davis Scholarships for earth skills education are requested with the suggested amount of $1.00 per chapter or set of recordings you utilize, with checks payable to the WOLF Foundation, c/o Scott A. Davis, CPA, 103 E Holly #401, Bellingham, WA 98225, or by calling us at 360-799-1997 with your visa or mastercard. An alternative way to contribute is to become a WOLF Booster which gives you the additional benefits of board membership and complimentary access to the Wolf Camp property on Woods Lake. The latter alternative requires completing a property use form. Books and other resources which you will need for successful completion of field exercises throughout Wolf Journey can be purchased through our camp store once it is up and running. In the meantime, we recommend purchasing through Tom & Renee Elpel's wonderful online Granny's Country Store or simply email them at orders@grannysstore.com or call 406-287-3605 to order. We offer this book series as a correspondence course for Wolf Camp alumni and as part of our Summer Camps & School Year Classes and Residential Intensives & Training Camps curricula, but if you would like an instructor to guide you while studying these skills in your own area, we recommend clicking on PrimitiveSkillsLinks.Com to find an earth skills specialist near you who can personally review your field exercises and journaling work. Other schools and outdoor instructors who would like to use this curriculum for their own classes, mentoring, etc, are free to do so. We would appreciate donations, or having your students donate, to the WOLF Foundation as described above. As a supplement to (or instead of) completing the Wolf Journey book series, we also recommend signing up for the Kamana Naturalist Training Program through the Wilderness Awareness School which inspired many of our own field exercises. They can offer academic credit, and they specialize in correspondence mentoring no matter where a student is located.
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