May Monthly Membership Meeting

Join us Tuesday, May 17 for the WAKE presentations by Gary Peniston and Ryan Johnson. 
It will be in person at NSEA. Masks are welcome but not mandatory.  6:30 pm doors open for the social.  7:00 pm the meeting starts. Part of the meeting will be outside NSEA if weather permits, so dress accordingly. 
We will also try Zoom, which hopefully works better this time than last month. 

1) WAKE’s own Gary Peniston, a skilled kayaker, mountaineer, and instructor, will present on leadership skills in kayaking and outdoor sports.  Gary has been a member and instructor in the Tacoma Mountaineers for over 25 years. The Tacoma Mountaineers group includes kayaking. It is associated with Bellingham Mountaineers. Gary has also attended SSTIKS (South Sound Traditional Inuit Kayaking Symposium) a dozen times. We are honored to have Gary as part of our WAKE Board. 

2) Ryan Johnson, Bellingham Naturalist and creator of Firecraft Northwest (https://www.firecraftnw.com/), will present and lead an interactive workshop.  Ryan will cover Fire Building and/or Wildlife Tracking. Weather permitting, fire building will take precedence and we will go outside at NSEA to try our hand at starting fires with Ryan’s tools and supplies.

A) Fire Building Core Strategies: 

• Core concepts for getting started
• Materials selections & what to look for (especially near the water’s edge when kayaking)
• Fire lays / essential materials arrangement
• Ignition methods – using them and what to keep in your pack)
• Additional resources (natural accelerants )
• Suggested Items to Keep in a Pack for Trips 

B) Wildlife Tracking Patterns

• Common wildlife track and sign 
• Patterns of mammal families
• Practice identifying common tracks
• Discussion on behaviors that correspond to tracks

Join Zoom Meeting:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/8414471354?pwd=M0VwbDVaNlRvNnJqZ05vMEV5UVp6Zz09
Meeting ID: 841 447 1354
Passcode: 987987