Dear Outdoor Afro Friends,

2011 has been a terrific year! Through the power of social media, we have seen our community steadily grow, and help people make culturally-relevant connections to nature and outdoor recreation.

In our second year, Outdoor Afro has a lot to be proud of, and we are so grateful for the organizations and individuals who continue to make a difference to connect African Americans, and everyone to the outdoors.

The following is a selection of some of the fun, people, and inspiration we have enjoyed this year.

Trips

We were proud to partner with California Camp Association to produce our first two trips designed to share the experience of RVing with more Americans. Through a focused media campaign, we were able to tell our story in the mainstream RV industry, and other media, to inspire others by showcasing an alternate and bug-free “base-camp” approach to camping!

In the spring, we were invited to cover beautiful Barbados, and Outdoor Afro correspondent  Danielle Lee, with passport in hand, took on the island and shared with us a wonderful tribute.

This year was also the launch of our first Meet-Up group in Northern California to inform the creation of forthcoming MeetUp groups in other parts of the country. We hosted three test trips this year, each one progressively more successful and fun than the last! We rode bikes through urban centers, discovered new birds right in our backyard, and hiked to the rocky coast line after tasting local cheeses.

Partnerships and Collaborations

From the very beginning, it has been critical for Outdoor Afro to build relationships and partner with local and national organizations that genuinely care about diverse participation in the outdoors. I am especially grateful in 2011 for the work we have been able to do with the East Bay Regional Park’s naturalist Bethany Facedini, the Children in Nature Collaborative,  Urban Tilth, Richmond Spokes, Children and Nature Network, the National Park Service, National Wildlife Federation, and the American Camp Association, to name a few.

Keynote Speaking

In January, I had the pleasure of speaking at the American Camp Association National Conference in San Diego to discuss how camps can recognize and cultivate diversity. For black history month, I was humbled to share a podium in Oakland with National Park ranger, and longtime Bay Area activist Betty Soskin.  In the summer, I shared the importance of relevancy with the National Association for Interpretation in California and in the Delmarva region on the East Coast, I shared with black college students how they might turn their passion into an environmental-related career. Finally in the fall, I headed to Seattle, Washington to have an exciting conversation with the good folks at Groundwire to discuss how we can imagine the role of technology in nature.

Media

This was a terrific media year for Outdoor Afro! We were featured in national and local media outlets such as KQED, NPR; magazines and shows such as Heart and Soul Magazine, Childhood Matters with Nurse Rona Renner, Audubon Magazine, Grist, the LA Times,  and more! We were also glad to be a regular guest blogger for Jack and Jill Politics, whose African American politically saavy readers welcomed us and were inspired to think of vacation in a different way. And in an especially proud moment, we were honored to be distiguished as Best Green/Nature Blog by the Black Weblog Awards:

A Birthday Tribute

In October of this year, I turned 40 – and boy was it fabulous! Thanks to my dear sister, Delane Sims, and friends, a surprise Outdoor Afro fundraiser was thrown at the African American Museum and Library to help send more families to my beloved Feather River Camp, where I camped as a child and still take my family today. That night, I felt surrounded by so much love, and we raised over $1500 to help more urban families experience camp. Check out our photos!

Onward…

As you can see, Outdoor Afro is experiencing a time of growth and it will remain a part of the important conversations and actions to connect more diverse audiences to nature and the outdoors.

And as a fortunate mother of three active children, Seth, Arwen, and Billy — and manager of the grantmaking program at the Foundation for Youth Investment, this work is my life, yet there is no way I could do it alone. I have been blessed to have so many more supporters and allies besides those mentioned here, and whose names would require a separate blog to adequately express my appreciation.

In 2012, expect Outdoor Afro to continue to grow as an organization, while also expanding the conversations, possibilities, and actions to better reflect what America looks like in nature.

Won’t you join me?

Yours in Nature,

Rue Mapp

Founder

At the start of the week, I had the pleasure of leading twenty-four Outdoor Afros on a day trip to Point Reyes National Seashore in California via the local MeetUp group. Many in the group had never visited Point Reyes, in spite of the short drive from where many of the participants live, and our Point Reyes veterans took delight in spending time in the outdoors with a group of people who look like them for the first time.

To prepare for the trip, I tapped into the expertise of Point Reyes visitor guide’s Facebook and Twitter pages, and with their help, mapped out a plan to take advantage of a variety of local offerings to suit our group’s interests and abilities.

Our group began our outing in the center of town at Cowgirl Creamery with a round of warm introductions. There, we were greeted by friendly welcoming staff who offered a variety of artisan cheeses to taste. We learned about the unique techniques of the creamery and the local bacteria in the air that makes Point Reyes cheese special and delicious. After choosing from a variety of tasty lunch options at the creamery, our group headed 15 miles north by car to the Pierce Point Ranch Trail to begin our hike.

The car ride to the trail was bucolic, with rolling hills and dozens of cows scattered over the landscape – a couple of calves had even broke free from their fencing and had claimed the road, allowing our caravan some up close photos.

Further along the road we ran into National Park Ranger John Elby, an African American gentleman who joined our group at the trail head and provided additional insights about the area, and answered our questions. Many were surprised and delighted to see a black ranger (another first for many), and asked him about his chosen career working for the Park Service.

We found the Pierce Point Ranch hike adaptable – the mostly flat turnaround route allowed people in the group to adjust their stroll to their level of comfort and ability. The paved trail was framed by the Pacific Ocean on one side, and Tomales Bay and its hillside farms on the other. We saw some incredible wildlife as well, such as a reserve of Tule Elk, a whale, a weasel, and several raptors circling overhead. The group captured many stunning views in photos. Here are some great pictures captured by social media maven Adria Richards – check them out.

After a brisk hike for many, several group members headed 10-miles down the road by car for an optional visit to Drakes Bay Oyster Farm, the last cannery in California. There we were greeted warmly, sampled small, medium, and large oyster varieties, and received a lesson in oyster shucking. Several Outdoor Afros purchased oysters to enjoy at home.

As the sun began to set to chill the air, our caravan split up to head in the direction of home, inspired by nature, great company, and delicious food.

Outdoor Afro thanks Cowgirl Creamery, Drakes Bay Oyster Farm, National Park Service Ranger John Elby, Adria Richards for all these amazing photos, and the enthusiastic participants who each reported back the wonderful and fulfilling time they had in nature. Outdoor Afro Sunnie said, “It was a beautiful hike. Everyone in the group was so friendly and warm. I had a great time.”

I could not agree more.

Of course, being me, I thought of nature – the outdoors, and found it almost ironic how Occupy protesters in my hometown of Oakland, and in every urban hub, were also making themselves sustainably visible in protest by camping outdoors in public plazas all over the country. An ironic twist on the Great American Campout!

As I sat at home with my children following on Twitter the frightening turn of events happening in Oakland recently, I also contemplated what alternatives we might find to affirm (Occupy) peace in our everyday lives. How might we balance the economic pain that has touched us all in some way?

With African American participation clocked as low as 1% in the National Park System, I thought of the 99% of people who look like you and me; those who do not benefit from this public and important resource that holds the possibility of personal enrichment and sustainability in ways hard to quantify in dollars.

Therefore, though Outdoor Afro, it is my goal to help generate a future where people of every hue know that not only public plazas, but also parks and wild spaces are their inheritance, and theirs to benefit from and support.

What might that look like?

Here is the follow-up from Balanced Rock Foundation’s  Women of Color Backpacking Trip we wrote about last summer – check out all the fun they had!

The 2011 Women of Color Backpacking Trip participants knocked my socks off, and they went straight into the washing machine!  We had a professional videographer and photographer who is also the mother of the two cutest twins I know; an esteemed aerialist; a nearly 50-year-old “Bike Diva” takin’ some just-shipped-her-daughter-off-to-college time; and a smart and practical sister who has become a mother by taking charge of her two young nephews. Plus, there were two instructors with enigmatic pasts…

The  trip for 2011 was incredibly fun and engaging.  The conversations were often so compelling that I had to remind myself that we were on a backpacking trip.  We often discussed how things run back in the default world, and offered reinterpretations of how things could be.  I felt honored to be among these women of color in nature.

As usual, we all worked together to prepare the meals and perform other camp duties.  What was funny was that three of the participants were mothers, and the fourth was self-described as having OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder).  So things got done! We joked that Balanced Rock should start a screening process, so that future trips would run as smoothly!

Our destination was Ostrander Lake in Yosemite National Park.  We spent one night in the Bridalveil Creek campground, which is near our trailhead.  It was a surprise that there was a lightning-started fire nearby, which was controlled, but allowed to burn.  That’s how they do things these days in Yosemite, after years of snuffing out all fires.  It was smoky on the road, and we constantly debated the wisdom of sticking to our itinerary in the days leading up to the trip.  We stuck to it, and it turned out alright.  We did end up wearing bandannas like rogue desperados, but that was just for one day.

We took two days to get to Ostrander Lake, and found a deluxe campsite along the way to set up shop for the night.  There was a lot of laughter and camaraderie along the way, and we found a fine balance between getting to our destination and enjoying the journey.

Once we got to the lake, it was refreshing to dip in, as well as a plentiful source of water to sustain us.  There is a busy campground at the lake, but we opted for a more primitive spot where we could be more secluded.  We were lucky enough to encounter the Ostrander Ski Hut occupied by NPS rangers on a break.  We introduced ourselves and got a tour of the facility.  It is such a great place to ski to during the winter months.

• National Parks are free to enter!

Click to find a location near you!

 What is National Public Lands Day?

National Public Lands Day (NPLD) is the nation’s largest, single-day volunteer event for public lands in the United States. In 2011, NPLD will be held on September 24, 2011. Register a site for NPLD or volunteer.

NPLD began in 1994 with three sites and 700 volunteers. It proved to be a huge success and NPLD became a yearly tradition, typically held on the last Saturday in September.  Since the first NPLD, the event has grown by leaps and bounds.

Last year, 170,000 volunteers worked at over 2,080 sites in every state, the District of Columbia and in many U.S. territories. NPLD volunteers:

• Removed an estimated 450 tons of trash
• Collected an estimated 20,000 pounds of invasive plants
• Built and maintained an estimated 1,320 miles of trails
• Planted an estimated 100,000 trees, shrubs and other native plants
• Contributed an estimated $15 million to improve public lands across the country

Eight federal agencies, nonprofits and state, regional and local governments participate in the annual day of caring for shared lands.

National Public Lands Day keeps the promise of the Civilian Conservation Corps, the “tree army” that worked from 1933-1942 to preserve and protect America’s natural heritage.

This summer my family took the opportunity to reconnect with nature.  In planning the obligatory summer vacation, my husband and I realized we were short on time and funds. We decided that a trip to an in-state National Park would maximize our summer vacation experience and be cost effective. We visited both Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks in California, and it was one of the best experiences we could have had.

Our initial plan was to rent a recreational vehicle to take to the parks. But there were some maintenance issues with the RV we were  going to borrow, so we ended up staying at a hotel just a few miles outside of Sequoia National Park. While it seems like it would be ideal to stay inside a National Park (and we will likely do that next time), I enjoyed staying outside of the park.  There was a lot to see and do in the little town outside of the National Park. The hotel seemed to be much less congested than the campgrounds within the park. Also, there was a pool at the hotel that my daughter had to visit each evening after coming off the mountain.

Our first night we had dinner just outside of the park, at a restaurant that was built adjacent to a river. The restaurant was completely open, only floors and ceilings and one could see and hear the water rushing by. It was romantic and the experience of having dinner outside, in the mountains, with the sound of the water washing over the rocks was exhilarating.

The next day we set out for Sequoia National Park. We first visited the Giant Forest Museum. There they provided detailed information about the history of the Park and of the Sequoia trees. There were numerous displays detailing how large the Sequoia Trees were as compared with other common man-made structures such as a football field, etc.

Next we took a self-guided hike on a nature trail. We saw many trees and plants that were native to the area, and a variety of birds. And a passing park ranger pointed out some relatively fresh bear paw prints, but we did not see any bears, although I was interested in seeing a bear…from a safe distance!

Sequoia National Park is divided into several villages. We drove to another area where there is an upscale hotel, the Wuksachi Hotel in Wuksachi Village.  It looked very nice, somewhat isolated and very expensive. We drove to Lodgepole Village to have a late lunch. This was a major campground area, with RV’s and tents everywhere. There was an eatery, a wonderful gift shop/general store, laundromat and another visitor’s center – lots of activity. In the middle of it all, we enjoyed a wonderful lunch and followed by the Visitors Center.

Check out the rest of our photos:

On Wednesday, we made our way back to Sequoia National Park. We listened to an informative lecture by a ranger that inspired us to return to the Visitor’s Center at Lodgepole Village. There, we watched a video on the importance of not feeding bears and securing one’s food from bears. My husband brought to my attention an exhibit on Colonel Charles Young, an African-American man who had been the Sequoia Park Superintendent in 1903. I was floored!  While I consider myself a Black history buff, I had never heard of Colonel Charles Young,  and his story is remarkable.  Also on Tuesday, my daughter performed the requirements to become a Junior Ranger. She had to take an oath and she received a certificate and a pin. I think this was the highlight of her trip!

Later in the day, we hiked to the highlight of Sequoia National Park:  General Sherman Tree, the largest single stem tree in the world. It is not necessarily the tallest tree but it has more wood than any other tree. It is a sight to behold, and we attended a fascinating lecture on the history of this tree.  In the evening we attended an outdoor dinner theater performance in the Park, in an area called Wolverton Meadow. The play was a one-woman act describing an early community of socialists who inhabited Sequoia National Park before the government took over the park. A very enlightening experience.

On Thursday, we planned to visit Kings Canyon National Park, but when we arrived at Sequoia, we were told that there had been an accident on the road between the two parks and that the road would be closed for the next 1-2 hours, so we decided to further explore Sequoia.  We visited the Beetle Rock Education Center. It was an educational center designed for children to teach them about the great outdoors. My daughter loved it.

We finally were able to get on the road again and made our way to Kings Canyon. First, we visited the Visitors Center in Grant Grove Village to get an overall history of the National Park. We then took a hike to the General Grant Tree—the largest tree in Kings Canyon National Park. After that experience it was time to make our way home. We had a great time and learned a lot about our National Parks. We cannot wait to visit more of the many National Parks!

Where were YOU spotted on Sunday in the outdoors?

After our visit to the wildlife refuge, we leisurely moved along the scenic road toward the coastal fishing town of Seward that edges Resurrection Bay along the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska. We landed at the Seward Military Resort, a popular yet understated destination for US active duty or retired military personnel and their guests.

The manicured grounds were beautiful, yet sensible. And they have a selection of  yurts, guest rooms, or townhouses from which to choose. Since Mark is a US Army officer, it was an easy selection – and a perfect location for our planned activities. They also had an impressive Fish House I now realize was a key amenity to stage our activities for the next day.

But first, we took a tour by car around Seward then stopped for a bite to eat at Marina Café for some crispy halibut fish and chips. With calories to burn, we headed down the road for a hike to Kenjai Fjords National Park to visit Exit Glacier. It is one of the few places in the area where you can safely witness up close an ancient glacier with Ice Age origins that still re-shapes the landscape, and observe how plant life adapts to the barren rocky land exposed by a glacier’s retreat.

At the park, I appreciated that there were several trails from which to choose, from flat and easy to challenging. We decided on a self-led one-mile gradual climb though a cottonwood forest to a scenic edge of the glacier. On our way back, we chose a different route, where we carefully traversed rocks over a gentle river to access the terminus of the melting ice.

Once we arrived, we stood in front of the vast blue to take it all in and capture the scene in photos. We had already noted interpretive signage that warned visitors not to stand under an overhang of ice, as it can fall without warning, so we were careful!

Up Next: Adventures in Fishing Alaska Waters

The Maryland Coastal Bays Program exists to protect and conserve the waters and surrounding watershed of Maryland’s coastal bays to enhance their ecological values and sustainable use for both present and future generations. Participants in the symposium included students enrolled in the Upward Bound program at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore and those involved in conservation-related job programs including Coastal Stewards, the Maryland Conservation Corps, Maryland Conservation Job Corps, Youth Conservation Corps and the Chesapeake Conservation Corps.

While my colleagues and I began our weekend with presentations at the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore about our inspiration to embark on careers within the environmental field, what followed were two days filled with amazing local outdoor activities, such as fishing, kayaking, hay rides, air rifling, pontooning, exploring the coastal bays, swimming on the beach at Assateague, and best of all, great conversations and relationship building.

Carrie Samis, the Education Coordinator for Coastal Bays, really gets it, and designed a summit that was not just about talking the talk, but walking the walk. Unlike other experiences where I have come to present to a group only to leave the same day, time was planned over the weekend for my colleagues and I to get to know the program youth individually, and learn what mattered in their day-to-day lives in Delmarva, as called by locals (Delaware, Maryland, Virginia).

One Coastal Bays Steward, Tashonna Grant fast became my partner in fun, and in our time together doing recreational activities, I got a chance to observe and learn from her about pushing through obstacles. “I hate snakes,” she told me, but as we talked about the importance of wildlife in our daily lives, something clicked. And later when we had a chance to visit a nature preserve with a display of wildlife, Tashonna was among the first to handle one of the native snake species — and giggled through the experience.

But as I got to know more Coastal Stewards, I learned Tashonna’s courage to engage with nature is typical for this group, but not without careful intention and effort. Even though many of the program youth come from underserved communities, the program goes the extra mile to engage families and trusted institutions over time, such as local churches, to help foster a pathway of trust that help program youth feel supported. Importantly, these youth gain valuable work experience, participate in professional and personal development opportunities, and receive a paycheck. I also learned that many of these students later secure positions with state and federal agencies, local parks and nonprofits.

Maryland Coastal Bay’s Program has also earned the deep respect of numerous local business, and community partners through its ongoing collaboration and critical bay and wildlife stewardship. And as a result, wherever our group went, we were treated like royalty!

My deep thanks go out to the Maryland Coastal Bays Program for such a moving program. Most especially for Carrie Samis and Nick Clemons for all their tireless coordination and enthusiasm, Dave Wilson (Executive Director) for great beaching and birding;  the exceedingly hospitable folks at Fager’s Island, The University of Maryland, Eastern Shore, Hazel Outdoor Discovery Center, Assateague Island National Seashore staff, ALL the amazing youth, my awesome colleagues, and each person along the journey who contributed in big and small ways to make my trip to Delmarva a lasting and inspired memory.

Click below to see photos from the event!

Get out and discover something new about your 394 national parks! This year’s focus, Healthy Parks, Healthy People,highlights the connection between human and environmental health and the vital role America’s national parks play in both. You might be surprised by how close the national parks are to where you live, and there are many in urban areas: Find National Parks near you!

Whether your prefer a 20-mile backcountry hike in Yosemite or a leisurely stroll around Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, moving outside is good for you and offers a chance to explore these places you own. Search the events calendar to find your National Park Week “must-dos,” and share your national park experience on Facebook or Twitter.