NHVSP 2010 Update 6

To the Followers of our Wind-Traveling Group,

I write to you all scrubbed raw, wearing slippers, and sitting on the bed in a condominium. The blanket replicates that of hotels, the ones with nineteen-fifties floral patterns. Looking out the window, past the matching floral curtains, I can just see the tops of red maples poking their heads over the back of the condominium development. Red maples’ fingers reach high into the sky, palms embracing the blue. Shifting back and forth with the breeze, they dance side-by-side, unaware of anything else but each other.

We arrived here yesterday afternoon and have been oh-so-busy ever since. We have all of today and half of tomorrow before we set out again. For our last layover, at Farm and Wilderness, we had the same amount of time, but we did community work and had a guest teacher come in. We helped Farm and Wilderness by spending several hours on a mountainside in a sugar grove helping re-line the taps. We worked with an old-time sugarer, Silas. He explained the mechanics of how sap is harvested and the process of making maple syrup. When finished, we returned to our house and continued with gear repairs and our Big Job work. Later that day we were privileged to listen to tales brought by Marry Stewart, an accomplished local storyteller. She came to tell us stories from far away lands and distant cultures. We made our offerings to father fire, and then cuddled up to listen to her captivating tales. Marry brought the gift of stories, an ancient art, to our group, and since then we have been telling each other tales every day.

When I last wrote, we were in Plymouth, and now after only two weeks of travel we’re currently in Warren. Here at the condo, we do not have any guest teachers coming or volunteer work to do, giving us a little time to relax.

These past two weeks have been wonderful with Chris -- we have learned so much from him. Not only has he taught many outdoor skills, he has taught us of the land and its life, of a deep breath in the morning wake of dawn, and the joy of simplicity. We have spent these last two weeks cherishing the wilderness with Chris. It has been such a privilege for all of us to spend this time with him. From the bottom of out hearts Chris, thank you. Your wisdom will stay with each of us for the rest of our lives.

One of the many skills Chris taught us was how to build a lean-to shelter. One morning, we learned how to make a two-person shelter. We each spent the rest of the day building a shelter with a partner. We spent that night in our shelters, without sleeping bags if we chose.

Eliot and Ari built a shelter together. They crossed the beaver flowage we were staying on and made camp along the opposite shore. They built their fire up and spent the night inching away from the roaring flames. Yarrow and Scott built their shelter nestled in a thick grove of evergreens. They spent the night out and returned the next morning covered in soot from head to toe. It took quite a good deal of persuasion by Chris to convince them not to stay out a second night. Melody and Kendra built their shelter close to a running stream. They spent the evening stoking the fire high and returned the next morning completely exhausted and overjoyed by the night. Mistral and Anna, with Anne helping for a little while, built their shelter in the thick of the trees. It was nearly impossible to weave your way through the thicket, but when you finally did, you came across their shelter huddled up against the roots of a great tree overhanging them. They spent their night very warm and returned the next day very content. When it came time to take down the lean-to the next day, they were sad to part with the shelter they’d grown to love so much over the course of the night.

Oliver and Paul built their shelter
close to the shore of the beaver flowage – it featured a very well designed wind protector wall in front. They returned the next day eager to improve and try out new ideas. Erica and I built our shelter in the midst of a thick hemlock forest. We came across a fallen hemlock and built our shelter in the protection of its wide branches. We spent the night huddled around the fire, soaking up any heat it would give, and returned the next morning eager to tell and listen to others’ stories.

When building a shelter, there are many different things to take into account. Choosing the spot is essential. You want to find a spot that’s well sheltered from all directions, especially the direction of the wind. Finding trees to support your shelter is very important – ones that are close together are optimal. If you are building a two-person shelter you’ll need two ridgepoles with rafters coming off one side of each pole, laid at a steep angle. After your rafters are laid, you proceed to cover them with evergreen boughs for wind and snow protection. You start at the bottom and lay them up to the very top, like shingles on a roof. When available, using slabs of bark and rocks are very useful tools. We all learned great techniques and learned just as much from our mistakes.

When you sleep in a shelter without a sleeping bag, fire is the most important part. Having enough firewood is essential, and having different sizes is nice. Your fire should be 1-½ feet away from your body and there should always be a green log between you and the fire for protection. Firewood is not cut to length. You place the well-limbed poles over the fire and keep pulling them in throughout the night as they burn. Building our shelters was absolutely amazing and it was an incredible night we spent out. Together with a partner, we journeyed though the night with nothing but the clothes on our backs, and the shelter we had made ourselves with simple tools.

Along the trail we stopped to meet Larry the Logger, also known as Tweeter. He told us many tales of his logging days and explained his job thoroughly. He told us how he’d maintained the forests all over Vermont. He loves the trees and he has devoted his life to the care of them. Though logging often gets a bad reputation, Larry explained to us how he spent his days thinning the forest and providing proper growth room for the other trees. He talked to us about how technology has changed logging. He started out with an axe and horses and now uses chainsaws and skidders. He was a wonderful person and we learned a great deal about the process of logging. I gained a great deal of respect for loggers after talking to him.

We have been blessed with beautiful weather on our trip. Light flurries have been occasional and only once did we get stuck in a snowstorm. That morning, we awoke to the tent sagging from layers of accumulated snow. The temperature was at that difficult point where it was warm enough to melt the snow into a cold drizzle, but cold enough that you become chilled without layers. We packed our gear in plastic bags to keep out as much moisture as possible, but still our stuff got wet. We quickly threw on our raincoats and pulled our drawstrings tight. The snow had been coming down all night and there was a thick new layer on the trails – well over a foot of heavy snow. We set off with a leader vigorously breaking the trail for us. We had a constantly rotating line. One person would break trail with all their might for a minute, then stop and let the rest of us pass, going to the end of the line. This made it possible to travel quickly and efficiently without anyone getting overly exhausted from breaking trail for too long. As the day proceeded, we became saturated to the bone, and had to keep moving at all times to stay warm. When we arrived at camp that day, our hair was soaking wet, and we looked like we had just crawled out of the river. We hustled to set up the tent quickly, and spent the rest of that night drying out our clothes as much as we could.

Reading the weather has been a daily routine for us. As the clouds change in the sky, we take notice and try to determine the weather of the day. Chris taught us about the wind directions and what the wind brings. For example, when the wind is blowing strong from the northeast, you know you’re in for a storm. Looking at the different cloud types has also given us a better idea about the weather to come. This has helped us predict what our weather will be. On the trail, it’s important to always take notice of the sky and its warnings.

As Chris bid us adieu, Lisl returned to our group. Lisl and Hans Mayer, a semester alum and experienced Kroka guide, will be traveling with us for the next week.  Our next leg is 16 days long, and the leg after that is only a week. Soon we will be arriving at Northwoods, the camp where we will prepare for our spring trip home. Time on the trail wraps us up like the silk of a caterpillar’s cocoon. When we skied out of the woods with our soggy boots, it was hard to imagine it’s been two weeks since our last layover. These woods are timeless, these mountains ageless, and the sky is ever changing.

More and more we have been learning to function as a group without constant support from our teachers. Often we are left to make decisions and travel without the full support of them. We have learned to cooperate well with each other. Often, someone will volunteer to be a leader for the day, taking responsibility for keeping us motivated and moving. This position has helped a great deal with the flow, and has given us the opportunity to make decisions among ourselves without teachers stepping in for everything.

So the sun has set, and I’ll say goodnight. The people around me have drifted into a peaceful slumber. We’ve come so far since the beginning of our journey. So much in us has grown. I feel as though we are only just beginning to feel the wakening inside ourselves. Like the Red Maples, we dance side-by-side with one another reaching our palms to the blue, and receiving the gifts of the earth.