New Guinea Sculpture Garden
Our South Bay Tiny Treks class visited the New Guinea Sculpture Garden on the Stanford University Campus in Palo Alto. This amazing collection of native art and sculpture of Papua New Guinea was created on site during the summer of 1994. Ten master carvers from the South Pacific island participated in this project led by a Stanford University anthropology student. The works are in stone and wood. The stone was brought from near Mono Lake, but the wood works are carved from native tree trunks brought from New Guinea. Trekkers raced happily from one sculpture to the next to find the exotic artworks and match them to photos on a scavenger hunt page. Everyone climbed atop the crocodile slit drum and sang about monkeys teasing Mr. Crocodile.
After snack and stories, we created a Tiny Treks version of the unusual New Guinea totem poles. Ours were made of paper towel rolls and decorated with pompoms, feathers and googly eyes, but were still very exotic! Class ended with a short hike to nearby Lake Lagunita. We hiked to the water's edge and spied hundreds of tadpoles! We scooped up some tadpoles in a bucket for up-close observations and then said good-bye as we released them back to the lake.
Rancho San Antonio
The South Bay Tiny Trekkers hiked the mile-long trail to Deer Hollow Farm at Rancho San Antonio County Park. The prospect of visiting the Spring farm babies made it an exciting trek. We saw two baby calves, some fluffy white lambs and a whole litter of funny, playful piglets.
We stopped to watch the hens scratch and hear the roosters crow. There were ducks and geese swimming in the small pond in their pen and goats munching grass. We peeked into the garden to see what was growing.
But, the most fun had that day was playing a game of "King-of-the- Hill" on a big mound of dirt! Everyone had a turn at the top, then a slide down the hill and ended up with very muddy britches. Of course, it's all in a days fun at Tiny Treks!
Shoup Park
The South Bay Tiny Treks class had an exciting day at Shoup Park in Los Altos. We gathered at the playground to wait for friends to arrive. Soon, Trekkers spotted a baby Eastern Gray Squirrel who was fearlessly running up to people on the playground. Of course, this is not normal behavior for a wild creature. Lynn, a veteran Tiny Treks mom, knew just who to call for advice. We contacted the Wildlife Center of Silicon Valley, a rehabilitation and release facility. They advised that the baby was likely abandoned, hungry and desperate for help. Teacher Anne and Rocky Raccoon easily caught the squirrel who seemed to jump right into Rocky's furry paws! We turned a plastic supply bin into a temporary crate for the squirrel. What luck that our craft project for the day required little medicine droppers to mix watercolors. We had the perfect tool to feed the baby drops of water.
He was so, so thirsty and grabbed the dropper with tiny paws as he drank dropper after dropper full of water. Then he snuggled into some old T-shirts donated by a mom to keep the baby warm. Even as we had fun exploring the beautiful Adobe Creek meandering through the park, we took turns checking in on the squirrel. After class, Teacher Anne delivered our rescue to the Wildlife Center where he would join other baby squirrels until ready for release.
Squirrel Update: Squirrel #442 is doing well with a home-care volunteer and is expected to be ready for release in several weeks.
The Wildlife Center will contact us with details and we are welcome to join them that day to witness his re-introduction into the wild! We'll keep you posted.
Happy Hollow
What a beautiful and sunny day South Bay Trekkers had at the new Happy Hollow Park and Zoo! Safari Sam and Danny the Dragon were there to greet us. We entered the park, checked the map and synchronized watches so we could meet for snack and stories. Then, everyone was off to explore. Some Trekkers headed to Redwood Lookout to climb the Ranger Lookout Station, some visited Lemur Woods or Double H Ranch to feed the goats and visit the animals. Everyone shared their adventures at snack time next to the old Crooked House. We munched home-made blueberry muffins and yummy fruit salad while listening to lots of zoo stories. It was another fun Tiny Treks outing with friends.
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