On Saturday you and your family are invited to go on an outdoor adventure -- discovering coffeeberry leaves, smelling wild sage, and seeing geological wonders like chert, a sedimentary rock formed by lots of tiny sea creatures settling on the bottom of the ocean floor. Where, you ask? Why, right here in San Francisco.
Damian Raffa, an environmental educator at the Presidio, and Barbara Corff, an interpretive docent there, have developed the Urbia Adventure League, self-guided outdoor treasure hunts in San Francisco. The second one, Wayfinding on Rocky Mountain, is an exploration of Corona Heights. Raffa and Corff have made up booklets for families to use, which are stuffed with tips, activities and facts like how to figure out how many thousands of years old the piece of chert you hold in your hand is, how coyote bush got its name and what slickenside is. Raffa and Corff will be at the Randall Museum on September 26th between 10 am and 1pm, and families are welcome to pick up a booklet and explore.
Corff says she and Raffa used the training they took in questing, a sort of outdoor treasure hunt, their knowledge of the outdoors and and all of the local natural resources experts who contribute their knowledge to plan and put together the adventures. (Barbara having a geologist for a husband doesn’t hurt either.)
Corff, who, like Raffa, is doing this as a labor of love, says this is the type of thing she was born to do.
“I love the idea of not just tossing information at people,” she said. “Doing this you use your senses to experience things. Growing up in Oregon I was sort of a pro dawdler. I got really good at dawdling and looking at things up close.”
Raffa and Corff go on the adventures themselves many times alone and with experts to write the booklets and create the activities. Corff says they decided to pour the massive amounts of time and energy they do into the adventures because both of them believe it’s important that people get outside and get to know San Francisco.
“I think that a lot of people have not experienced the amazing views from tops of hills in San Franciso, and that is what San Francisco is all about-- its hills,” Corff said. “We want families to go on their own schedule to explore these places. Exploring gives you confidence and skills like navigation, and people are able to identify what’s around them and connect on a deeper level to the place they live.”
So you don’t need to get out of the city to get out into nature. Become an urban adventurer.
Learn more about how Urbia got started
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