Outing #3: Belle Isle

“Nature-deficit disorder is not an official diagnosis but a way of viewing the problem, and describes the human costs of alienation from nature, among them: diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties, and higher rates of physical and emotional illnesses.  The disorder can be detected in individuals, families, and communities.” – Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods

GORP outing #3 is this Sunday at Belle Isle. We will meet at the end of Laurel Street on Oregon Hill, above Dominion Resources and Hollywood Rapids (see map), at 10 a.m., walk over the footbridge to Belle Isle and up to the First Break Rapids, where we will gather for a game of Capture the Flag and then have a picnic lunch.

While walking over to the First Break Rapids, nature-challenged families – like us!– are invited to join us in a game of Nature Around Me, a simple exercise in identifying as many examples of nature as possible during a set period of time (e.g. while walking over to First Break). Capture the Flag, which will start at First Break at about 11:15, will be organized in such a way that families will stay together during the game and operate as teams – so there will be no ganging up on the adults (and hopefully no losing of the children).

Hollywood Rapids

For those who are interested in seeing a little less of their children, tomorrow is the fourth National Day of Unplugging. Unplug your television, your computer and all your devices (and any that belong to your kids), and tell the kids they have to go play OUTSIDE. Ours will be out there, probably screaming to be let back in.  Anyone concerned about their behavior can send me a letter... 

Hope you can join us on Sunday morning. All are welcome, so please don’t hesitate to spread the word. -Ben

G.O.R.P. outing #3

Date: Sunday, March 3, 2013

Location: Belle Isle

Meeting time & location: 10:00 a.m. at the southern end of Laurel Street, in Oregon Hill, overlooking Belle Isle (at the intersection of S. Laurel St. and Oregon Hill Parkway).

Directions:  From anywhere in the Fan, take Cary Street to S. Laurel St. (a block or two past VCU’s Cary Street Gym, just past the Sweet Frog frozen yogurt shop at 815 W. Cary St.).  Take a right on Laurel and follow Laurel until it ends (see map).

Intermediate GORP...

Rough itinerary (which no one is obligated to follow):   Meet at the end of Laurel St. in Oregon Hill, overlooking Belle Isle, at 10:00 a.m.  At 10:15, we’ll drop down to the Belle Isle footbridge, cross over to Belle Isle and then walk up the north side of Belle Isle to the First Break Rapids on the western tip of Belle Isle.  (While walking to First Break, families are invited to join in a game of “Nature Around Me”.)  At 11:15 or so we will gather at the First Break picnic tables and, for those interested, play a game of Capture the Flag (which will be organized in such a way that families stay together and operate as teams).


Advanced GORP...

Following Capture the Flag, we will have a picnic lunch at First Break Rapids or wherever looks most inviting.  We will then head back to our cars above the river and, for those so inclined, indulge in a post-GORP treat at Sweet Frog (815 West Cary St.) on the way home.

What to bring:

n  Water



Expert GORP.

n  Hat and Gloves, plus layered clothes appropriate for the weather

n  Waterproof jacket/shell

n  Backpack, with snacks.

n  Notebook/clipboard (something to write on) and pen/pencil (1 per family) – for Nature Around Me

n  Picnic lunch (to have at First Break Rapids on Belle Isle)

n  Kids will probably get dirty and possibly wet, so you might also consider packing a change of clothes in your car.

SAFETY:  We ask that parents be responsible for the safety of their own children. 

Stroller friendly?  Yes.

Pets:  Pets are permitted but must be on a leash.

Weather forecast: Mostly sunny, high of 47 degrees.

PLAN “B” for Bowling:  If the weather is too wet or too cold we will instead go bowling at Sunset Lanes on West Broad (6540 West Broad Street), meeting there at 10 a.m.  Rates are $17 per person (shoes included) for two hours of bowling (2-3 games).  Sunset Lanes is kid-friendly: anyone old enough to walk is old enough to bowl.

 If Plan “B” is necessary, I will alert everyone by e-mail – and post an update on this blog – by no later than 8 a.m. on Sunday morning.

 

G.O.R.P.

GORP Unplugged

“If parents wish to preserve childhood for their own children, they must conceive of parenting as an act of rebellion against culture.” – Neil Postman, Building a Bridge to the 18^th Century

 

Parenting is a kind of rebellion of course – against common sense. Had evolution not equipped us with an excellent capacity for forgetfulness, not to mention a strong disinclination to learn from the mistakes of others, it is unlikely our species would have made it much past Mitochondrial Eve.

Postman, who elsewhere has written that, “One way of looking at the history of the human group is that it has been a continuing struggle against the veneration of "crap,” was particularly critical of television, the principal crap-dispenser of the modern age. His work has had a profound influence on the GORP leadership team, thereby ensuring, no doubt, that having children won’t be the last rebellion against common sense in which we partake.

Whether GORP itself will be added to our already impressive catalog of half-baked enterprises remains to be seen, but if you share our concern that our culture is too plugged in, perhaps you’ll consider engaging in the token act of technological disobedience that is the National Day of Unplugging, which takes place this year starting on March 1^st. This 24-hour tech detox runs from sun-up on Friday to sun-up on Saturday. Unplug your computer, unplug your television, unplug all the devices that we can’t seem to be without.

Postman would approve anyway, though I suspect he would approve of Screen-Free Week ­– April 29-May 5 – even more.

If you don’t share our concern – actually, if you don’t share our concern, you are not one of the two people who reads this blog – if “you” don’t share our concern, perhaps the following statistics will change “your” mind:

· The Kaiser Family Foundation reported in 2010 that 8-18 year-olds devote an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes (7:38) to using entertainment media across a typical day (more than 53 hours a week).

· That 7 hours and 38 minutes of daily media consumption is up from 6:21 just five years earlier, and the number is sure to be higher today.

Television remains the dominant mode of media consumption – by far. A 2012 Nielsen study found that the average American over the age of 2 spends more than 34 hours a week watching traditional television – almost five hours a day (or more than six days a month). The study also found that:

 

· Children age 2-11 watch an average of 24 hours of TV a week, or 3½ hours a day.

· That number dips to 22 hours for teens, ages 12-17 – a drop more than offset by video games – then goes back up to 25 for 18-24s.

· After that it rises steadily until people over 65 average 48 hours a week, or nearly seven hours a day. (A high percentage of whom vote – in case you were wondering why politicians and interest groups pour so much money into TV advertising.)

To state the obvious, this can’t be good.

And it’s a big part of the reason why children spend so little time outside – less than one percent of their time, on average, a figure that includes adult-led activities like youth sports. What kind of childhood is that?

“The costs of America’s “indoor childhood” run deep. They include increased child obesity, diabetes, and asthma, reduced ability to relate to other children and adults, less realistic life expectations, inability to concentrate, more aggressive behavior and a higher likelihood of personal isolation. Even a child’s eyesight and vitamin D levels are affected by too much electronic screen time and too little time spend indoors. Public health professionals are now saying that today’s children may have life spans that are three-to-five years shorter than their parents’ due to their inactive, indoor lifestyles.” – National Wildlife Federation special report

 

G.O.R.P.

Around Beaver Lake



A detour on the Beaver Lake Trail

“Most children and youth today have little direct experience in the outdoors as a part of their daily lives.  While there are always exceptions, for the most part, children today are rarely engaged in unstructured and imaginative play of their choosing in rich and diverse nature-based settings.  A growing body of research suggests that this disconnection, this nature-deficit disorder, may be associated with an epidemic of childhood obesity, childhood diabetes, behavior disorders, depression and a diminished sense of place and community.  Heightened health problems, higher stress, higher aggression, reduced cognitive and creative capacities, lower school achievement, blighted sense of efficacy, and diminished productivity are among the possible associated negative impacts.  All children need leisurely, un-scripted, genuinely playful, and exploratory hours in their own backyards, neighborhoods, and in varied natural environments for their optimal development.” 

– Children and Nature 2009



Yikes!  Reading this sort of speculation invariably sends the GORP leadership team rushing for the real estate listings in Hanover County and Goochland.  Though lately we have resigned ourselves to our urban fate, we continue to fantasize about sending our children outside to play and having them return hours, not minutes, later, covered in leaves and dirt rather than exhaust fumes and broken glass.

"Ice Fishing" on Beaver Lake

But then it’s always something.  If it’s not nature-deficit disorder that will lead to our children’s ruin it’s drugs, alcohol, advertising, automobiles, air pollution, pesticides, plastic, poor attachment, poor parenting, our parents, poor schools, falling standards, testing, homeschooling, the race to nowhere, peer influence, lack of peers, lack of exercise, youth sports, violence, video games, the internet, Fox News, the cost of higher education, sugar, artificial sweeteners, religion, secularism, rising inequality, special interests and the degradation of the democratic process, climate change, dwindling natural resources, the collapse of community, asteroids, the loss of meaning in modern life, and, most obviously, television, adolescence and the NRA.  The list goes on.  It’s a wonder we didn’t just throw the kids into Beaver Lake on Sunday and be done with it.

Unfortunately, Beaver Lake is only a few feet deep.  According to an information placard posted near the shore, it is slowly filling up with organic matter and sediment, and within 100 years, through a process called lake succession, will be transformed into a wetland, then a wet meadow, and then a forest.  Nothing is permanent, I guess, but our wish to get a good night’s sleep.  

Which is something our second GORP outing did not produce here at GORP headquarters.  Nor did it resolve our nature-deficit dilemma.  But it was a nice walk in the woods with good friends, and we did not lose anybody.  Equally important, our children have not started asking us to stop.


Winner of Mo's Nature Hunt

Up next, on March 3^rd, we’ll do some exploring closer to home and visit Belle Isle.  Our tentative plan is to meet above the river on Oregon Hill at 10 a.m., hike down and over to Belle Isle for a Kids vs. Adults game of Capture the Flag.  We'll then have a picnic lunch on the rocks next to the river and possibly finish with a trek to Sweet Frogs on Cary St. (just east of VCU’s Cary Street Gym) for frozen yogurt. 



Looking further ahead, we hope to do a GORP overnight before the spring soccer season kicks into high gear, and we are contemplating a ropes course outing as well.  Details to come once we figure them out.

Hope you can join us on March 3^rd.  Anyone is welcome.  –Ben

G.O.R.P.

Outing #2: Pocahontas State Park

GORP outing #2 is this Sunday at Pocahontas State Park.  We will meet at the playground inside the park at 10 a.m., do a 3-mile loop like, then (for those so inclined) have a picnic lunch back near the playground.  (See map.)

As an added challenge this time – as if getting everyone out the door on a Sunday morning isn’t challenging enough – we are inviting each family that shows up to participate in Mo’s Nature Hunt (see below).  The first family that can find all the items on Mo’s list gets to keep John for a week.  Really.

Beaver Lake Trail shortcut

Sunday’s itinerary and other details, including directions, follow.  Please note that there is a $5 entrance/parking fee (per car).  

G.O.R.P. outing #2

Date: Sunday, February 10, 2013

Location: Pocahontas State Park (10301 State Park Rd, Chesterfield, VA)

Meeting time & location: 10:00 a.m. at the playground just past the Heritage Center (see map).

Travel time: About 35 minutes from Lombardy Park in the Fan to the playground inside the park.

Directions:  Take the Powhite across the river to Chippenham Parkway South.  Take Chippenham about 6 miles to the Iron Bridge exit, and take the first Iron Bridge exit, East towards Chesterfield (same as if going to Ukrop Park/Poseidon).  Stay on Iron Bridge/VA-10 E for 6 miles, then take a RIGHT on Beach Rd.  Stay on Beach Rd. for 4 miles, then take a right into the park at the main entrance (State Park Rd.).  You will come to a guard station, where you must pay $5 per car to enter the park.  After passing the guard station, follow the main road about 1.5 miles.  Just after passing the turn for the Heritage Center and Civilian Conservation Corps Museum, on your left (don’t take it!), bear right at the fork in the road into the large parking lot.  The playground will be on your right, set back slightly in the woods, just after bearing right at the fork.  (See map.)     

ENTRANCE FEE:  $5.00 per car

Park website:  http://www.dcr.virginia.gov/state_parks/poc.shtml

Rough itinerary (which no one is obligated to follow):   Meet at the playground inside the park at 10:00 a.m.  At 10:15, we’ll cross over to the trailhead, next to the CCC Museum, and then into the woods for a family-friendly (though not stroller friendly) loop hike, clockwise around Beaver Lake on the Beaver Lake Trail.  Total distance is about 3 miles.  We’ll stop for a snack at the Third Branch Creek crossing, about halfway in, then have a picnic lunch back near the playground area.

What to bring:

n  Water

n  Hat and Gloves, plus layered clothes appropriate for the weather

n  Waterproof jacket/shell

n  Backpack, with snacks.

n  Notebook/clipboard (something to write on) and pen/pencil (1 per family) – for Mo’s Nature Hunt

n  Picnic lunch (to leave in the car)

n  Kids will probably get dirty and possibly wet, so you might also consider packing in your car a change of clothes.

SAFETY:  We ask that parents be responsible for the safety of their own children. 

Pets:  Pets are permitted but must be on a leash.

PLAN “B” for Bowling:  If the weather is too wet or too cold we will instead go bowling at Sunset Lanes on West Broad (6540 West Broad Street), meeting there at 10 a.m.  Rates are $17 per person (shoes included) for two hours of bowling (2-3 games).  Sunset Lanes is kid-friendly: anyone old enough to walk is old enough to bowl.

If Plan “B” is necessary, I will alert everyone by e-mail no later than 8 a.m. on Sunday morning.  If you receive no e-mail from me, you can assume that we will be at Pocahontas State Park.

Mo’s Nature Hunt

¨ holly tree (shiny green leaves with prickly points)

¨ beech tree (light gray, smooth bark – people love to carve initials in this tree)

¨ sweetgum tree (look for “gumballs”!)

¨ pine tree (look for pine cones)

¨ oak tree (look for acorns)

¨ Canadian goose (probably more than one!)

¨ woodpecker

Beaver Lake Tree Throne

¨ beaver gnawed tree

¨ beaver dam

¨ cattails

¨ lichens (there’s a fungus among us!)

¨ mushroom (another fungi!)

¨ tree stump with more than 100 rings

¨ ferns                                                      

¨ black mold on branches

¨ shells

¨ tree throne

 

The enormous knot

¨ ground pine (club moss that looks like miniature evergreen tree)

Bonus

¨ tree with enormous knot on trunk (look downhill after passing the scenic overlook)

¨ tree in shape of arch/rainbow (near the end of the loop – can you tell what happened?)

G.O.R.P.