NHVSP 2010 Update 12

        

Congratulations NHVSP 2010! Back at base camp after the three and a half month long journey by ski and canoe.

Hello,

          It is May 18^th and we arrived back at Kroka base camp two days ago, having left it on the second of February.  Life is good here.  Everything is beautiful and well taken care of, and as we came in a smiling Lisl greeted us.  But before all of that, I will go back to the beginning of our spring expedition.  It was different from the winter expedition, naturally, but also shorter and easier—a good demonstration of why people would always choose to transport things on the waterways before they had cars and trains.  At any rate we enjoyed it immensely. 

            On April 24^th we left Northwoods.  Down at the river we met Kevin Slater, who runs Mahoosuc Guide Service in Newry, Maine.  It was sunny and warm all day.  We readied our canoes and started up the Clyde River, poling and paddling and occasionally taking the wrong route and going back.  Our first camp was mossy and green, with cedar trees all around.  It was surprising how quickly camp could be set up when we were using only the tarps and “spunhungan” for cooking.  We also dug a group latrine at every camp and they got more and more elaborate and creative as the days went by, thanks to Martin, our Hygiene Manager.  He made a rating system based on comfort, privacy, view, and environmental responsibility and we had a lot of fun with it.  Every day Melody would unpack the wanagan (a wooden box for carrying gear) containing our kitchen gear and repack it the next morning as we left.  Camp set up was finished before the sun was down most days, so we had time to learn from Nate and time to sit around the campfire.  Kevin, it turned out, has a great sense of humor and a number of stories to tell, so we were well entertained in the evenings. 

We ran into a little trouble portaging from the Clyde to the Nullhegan, which is part of a different watershed and on which we traveled downstream.  We ended up taking a long time because we were looking for a road that had long since become overgrown—we eventually bushwhacked through.  On the Nullhegan we encountered a large number of beaver dams, shallow muddy patches, oxbow lakes, and LWSs, a term  Ari discovered in his research as water manager. It stands for Large Wooden Debris and is the term hydrologists use to describe floating logs.  Ari cheerfully said that it seemed like everything that is healthy for a river is bad for canoeists, because the debris, swampy areas and sharp bends create protection from the elements, habitats for the wildlife, and keep the river cleaner, but they make it a lot more difficult for boats to get through.  The Clyde and the Nullhegan are both very healthy rivers, which was the good and the bad news.

            As we moved down toward the Connecticut a few rocks here and there, along with some shallow areas necessitated that we line the canoes down instead of paddling.  This we did, but due to the rain and the fact that we were inexperienced we all were wet by the end of the day.  It started to turn cold and just as we got out of the water to start our portage around a gorge and to camp for the afternoon it began to snow.  This continued as we carried the gear and set up camp.  Scott and Erica started a fire and everyone helped each other find and put on dry clothes. That evening Kevin left us, wishing us luck and leaving us his tarp, lining ropes, and an extra layer or two.  Lisl and Lily came with food, milk and mail, and Lily stayed on as our guest teacher.  After an intense day it was a wonderful treat.  Yarrow left us to go back to base camp and reflect on the struggles he had been having within the group, and later, after being at base camp for a week or so he decided it was time for him to go home.  We were sorry to see him go but were glad he was able to do what he felt was right.  He came to visit and say goodbye to us later on the Connecticut.

            The next day it was still snowing when we woke up so we decided to portage the gear to the Connecticut, which was a few kilometers downstream. It went past a shallow, quick moving part of the Nullhegan and we were afraid we might have to line down if we attempted it with fully loaded boats.  The long portage took us most of the day. At the end of the day we got our food resupply at the Bloomfield general store, where the owners had kindly stored our food for a week.  We warmed up while eating pizza at the store before continuing a little way down the Connecticut.  The snow continued the day after that but with sporadic gusts of strong wind and odd patches of sunshine as well.  Eventually it cleared up a bit and we had a liveover (a day during which we do not move camp) on May Day.  We worked more on the hides we had begun tanning for moccasins and learned some basic botany from Nate. With Anne’s help we drew a lot of the plants we learned about.  On the river, collecting wild edibles was a daily job: some of the plants we ate were wild oats, fiddleheads, trout lilies, sedum, Driad’s saddle mushrooms, Japanese knotweed, young beech and basswood leaves, groundnuts, dandelions, and stinging nettles.

             Once the more clement weather moved in we had a couple of days of paddling on the slow, flat Connecticut, with a few short portages here and there.  We could relax a little and dry out our wet clothing.  Sometimes Mistral read to us from the Connecticut River guidebook some of the odder passages, mostly meant for tourists, that were amusing because of the flowery descriptions of our surroundings.  Our next challenge was a small group solo, followed by a full group solo, during which we paddled past and visited farms along the way; we could not pass up the opportunity for fresh and local dairy, jam, and honey.  We had breakfast on the floor of the farm store at Robie Farm when we went to visit and get milk because they generously offered us a place to eat out of the rain.  Thanks to Melody, who kept track of the group money and Eliot, our Farm Food Guy, these visits went off without a hitch.  Eventually we joined up with the teachers again and floated on downstream, and sadly after that Lily had to leave us.  Lisl came to stay with us, and the next day we met Ken Alton at the Wilder Dam.  He explained to us a little about the dams along the Connecticut, how they worked and what legislation is affecting their output and their construction at the moment.  He said that he thought renewable energy sources would be great to have in the future but that more innovation is needed because none of them (solar, wind, or hydro) are entirely reliable or controllable all of the time.  He thought that we could either find some sort of base line power to back them up, or we could get used to not having power some of the time—fascinating, coming from a man who works for a power company.

            We moved along until we came to Sumner Falls, around which we portaged our gear.  Sumner Falls is a substantial rapid, and we waited for Misha to come with white water gear to paddle it.  He arrived the next morning, bringing wet suits (lucky, as it had gotten cold and rainy again), helmets, flotations and white water canoes.  Though it was a gray day we had a great time in the water, learning more about paddling and some of us even ran the rapids twice—we ended the day in high spirits.  Thank you Misha for taking your Saturday to teach us on the river. Onward we went, now with Polly Mahoney, Kevin’s partner as our guide.  We stopped by the Garden of Life, a large outdoor garden with the different stages of life each represented by an artistic exhibit.  Around this time we realized that in the confusion of all of our portaging and breaking down of camps we had lost some of our buckets containing food (one of them was half full of sauerkraut) as well as some other pieces of gear.  This posed a problem, as we realized we did not have many vegetables anymore and there was no way to go back for the stuff we had left, though we were pretty sure we knew where it was (we did go back for it once we had returned to base camp and managed to recover it).  Kendra dealt with the constant shifts in her planned menu very gracefully.  So we resolved to be much more careful when we left from a camp or a portage and to pick more wild edibles to make up for the lack of greens.

            Polly helped us deal with the miniature grain overload crisis by teaching whoever was inspired to learn how to bake properly in the Dutch oven we had brought with us.  Until she came we had been burning all of our baked goods, but with her many years of experience we were able to turn out some really excellent apple and Japanese knotwood pies and crumbles.  She also brought with her animal tarot cards that we all picked from and then read about; a lot of them fit quite well.  One morning while she was with us we woke up early while it was still dark, broke down camp and floated down a few kilometers.  We ate breakfast in a field and walked up to meet Roger Haydock, from Brattleboro Vermont, at the trailhead of Mt. Ascutney.  Roger turned out to be a charismatic geologist with a young spirit. As we hiked up to Cascade Falls, Roger taught us about the rocks and the history of Mt. Ascutney and how that affected the plant life and forest on the mountain.  Apparently it was formed when a volcanic eruption happened under some bedrock, formed originally out of slabs of mud where Brazil is now, which had previously had several micro-continental collisions. Today it is standing alone not far from another mountain formed the same way, Mt. Monadnock.  While we hiked, the changes in the forest became apparent and Roger told about the species of trees that indicate rich or poor soil, which is in turn an indication of the type of rock underneath it.  He was engaging and dramatic and our group really took a liking to him—it was a great day.

            Further on down the river we had another liveover and Nate showed us how to put together and use bowdrills to make fires without using matches; some of us made our first bowdrill fires, including Erica and Oliver.  

We also sewed hides together in preparation for smoking them.  On a sunny morning we began our portage around Bellows Falls.  This was the longest portage we had done, so it was a practice run for the end of the trip.  Polly helped us organize and it worked pretty well.  At this point we had been discussing for a while whether we should carry our own canoes or send them back on a trailer, and after that portage we were mostly in agreement that we should carry them.  We were not sure how long we would be able to line them up the Cold River, with the water being so low this year, but we started up it anyway.  Thankfully it stayed sunny and warm for the most part during the couple of days we were lining the boats.  After saying goodbye to Polly we were on our own for the first time on the trip, with just Nate and Anne with us for the last push to Kroka. 

We were able to line up the Cold all the way to Alstead.  Sometimes it was slow, but some enjoyed it—Paul especially; he lined a canoe by himself most of the time.  From there we had to portage about seven kilometers to Lake Warren, where we stayed that night.  We did it in two trips; the gear went first and one canoe, then the rest of the canoes went, with people leading them, two to a boat for the most part.  Iyla carried the kitchen wanagan almost by herself the whole way. It was a difficult day, but everyone was in high spirits.  A lot of people stopped to check on us on this day:  Misha, Lisl, Tom (a Vermont semester alumnus), Ari’s sister Leah, and Paul’s family.  People stopped along the road to ask us if we needed help and everyone was very friendly.  We got to camp as the sun was going down, paddling to the island we were staying at in semi-darkness.  It was quiet and very, very pretty with only a few lights from the houses and the stars shining above.  It was warm.  We made camp and talked for a while about the trip and our goals, and then collapsed into our sleeping bags. 

            The next day we made it to base camp!  Our last day on the trail was a beautiful spring day (the weather finally was cooperating with us) and the portage was a relatively short one.  When we got up the last hill and were able to see the farmhouse we realized we were actually almost done.  Lisl greeted us with chocolate and as we circled up after the second trip, which brought our canoes back to base camp, there seemed to be a tired but contented feeling in the group, and a little bit of surprise that we had actually made it back to where we had started.  We are happy and are relishing these last weeks together as we start to clean up and get ready to build our lodge.  Thank you to everyone who helped us on our way. We have met some amazing people along the way, on and off the trail.  It’s great to be here.

-Anna Soltys Morse

                                              

            

NHVSP 2010 Update 11

Dear Friends and Family,

I write to you briefly today, the 23rd of April, to tell you that tomorrow will be the day of our departure from Northwoods Stewardship Center. We will meet Kevin Slater, Maine Guide and co-owner of Mahoosuc Guide Service, down by the Clyde River, where we will get into our canoes for the first time on our expedition. Bill Manning, the founder of Northwoods, has watched every semester so far enter the river from his property and we expect him to do the same tomorrow. Camp is almost completely dismantled in preparation for the river. But I am getting ahead of myself - this past week has been full.

On April 17th Lisl came back to us. We had not seen her since our stay at Heartbeet on the winter trail, and it was wonderful that she was able to visit. She had recently come back from Austria after being there for a few weeks while her father passed away. There were hugs all around and mail for us from home. We had a great dinner with Lisl and Jayson Benoit, the director of Northwoods, who later showed us around the nearby area and told us about the foundations of several old round barns and showed us where to pick wild leeks. The next day we rested and took a second nutrition class from Eva Cahill. We spent the morning in the kitchen learning about fermentation. We made mozzarella and ricotta cheese, fermented apples and other things in a salt mixture, and made a gingerbug (a fermented ginger/water/sugar mixture which if put in tea or water creates a sweet gingery drink). We all got to taste some fermented food - sausage, bean sprouts, miso soup, blue cheese, sauerkraut and sourdough bread. We learned about Weston Price’s research as well as the history of fermentation in different parts of the world. Anne remarked that it was one of the best classes she had ever taken, and it really was. The milk samples we had put away twenty days ago were, by the way, fairly universally unappetizing. Especially colorful was the organic soymilk, and the raw goats’ and cows’ milk had turned into cheese. They were all quite pungent. I know when I get home I plan on trying to ferment some of my own food - it’s fascinating.

Well, we liked the gingerbug brew so much, we decided to name our canoe after it! The Gingerbug is going to carry us down the river as one of our fleet. To complete the gear we will need on the river, we began to make paddles on the 19th. For this project we had a very special teacher, Ray Rietze. Ray has lived most of his life very close to the land and was taught by a Native American man he calls Grandfather. He talked to us in the evenings about what he learned from his teacher, his lifetime of experience in the bush, and about his outlook on life. Ray took us all out on a walk during which he taught us basic medicinal uses of some of the plants around our campsite. He talked about cayenne pepper and powdered dandelion root, gave us the recipe for a healing pine pitch solution, and showed us yarrow and Balm of Gilead (he calls it “sticky willow”), among other things. For the two days he was with us we worked on paddles in shifts, and right now they are sitting in the workshop, their last coats of shellac and varnish drying.




We began taking down camp a few days ago. First a few tents came down and then a few more, and finally the big cook tent and stove disappeared. Some of us cleaned up the woods and the field, some gathered green wood for next year’s students, and some have been scraping, soaking, and wringing out the deer hides that will be material for moccasins, which we will sew on the river once we have finished tanning the hides. These last days have been magnificent; when the sun comes out it is warm, the paddles are turning out well, and we have been eating some of the best meals we have had yet on this semester—good food goes a long way towards a good group attitude. A somewhat unexpected visitor, a friend of Anne’s named Mike DeLoose, came to visit and brought with him a large amount of mushrooms he had gathered and dried. He cooked us a delicious meal with them and stayed a few days with us, working on paddles. Ever since then, it seems there has been a feast for every meal, and at the rate this is going we will all be waddling down to the canoes tomorrow morning.


In the tradition of past semesters, part of our group climbed Bald Mountain this morning to see the sun rise. We did not see it rise because the sky was not clear, but we did get a beautiful view from the top before the mist obscured our vision. This last day has been a long one, and tomorrow is the highly anticipated river…. Goodbye for now.






Anna Soltys Morse

NHVSP 2010 Update 10

V

I cannot see what flowers are at my feet,

Nor what soft incense hangs upon the boughs,

But, in embalmed darkness, guess each sweet

Wherewith the seasonable month endows

The grass, the thicket, and the fruit-tree wild;

White hawthorn, and the pastoral eglantine;

Fast fading violets cover’d up in leaves;

And mid-May’s eldest child,

The coming musk-rose, full of dewy wine,

The murmurous haunts of flies on summer eves.

-Ode to a Nightingale, by John Keats

Greetings,

            It has been quite a week since I wrote you last.  We have been working on the canoe every day, clinching the 2,800 nails that hold it together, and oiling and varnishing it.  The nails glint, looking like little stars in the hull of our boat, as Melody remarked.  The workshop door is kept open now to let the air in and the smell of varnish out.  The canoe is coming along well, all in all.  To prepare for the journey ahead we have also been making sauerkraut, butchering several quarters of venison, and scraping hides for our moccasins.

            Snow fell one morning and melted away during the day—we were mistaken if we thought we were finished completely with the winter weather.  On Friday, April 9th Miron Golfman and Lily Fry came with a truckload of supplies and gear for us.  Both of them are semester alumni and we passed an enjoyable evening sharing stories about our winter route to the North and about our solo adventures in getting to Northwoods   Lily is staying with us until we depart.  She is a fermenting foods specialist, having grown up on a vineyard, and a wonderful mandolin player.  We had another visitor:  Ray Rietze, who was teaching a paddle-making workshop at Northwoods and came to our tent for dinner.  He talked a little about how he grew up and the philosophy behind how he lives.  We are all very much looking forward to spending more time with him when we make our own paddles in a few days.

            As we continued canoe building the fair weather persisted, with only a smattering of rain and some wind.  We varnished it and let it dry for a day and then finally put the canvas on; Rollin showed us how to stretch the canvas over the frame with an instrument called a bear claw and then tack it to the planking under the outside gunwale.  The next step was to treat the canvas with filler to make it waterproof.  While the canoe was taking shape we took turns practicing canoeing.  Lily has given us a basic understanding of the strokes, how to portage (carry) a canoe, and how to take care of the boats.  For some people this has been a review and they have been able to help those who are not as experienced learn about canoeing.  Martin, who is a prolific white water canoeist, has shared his knowledge and entertained us with stories about paddling.  In our spare time (which is not available in great quantities) everyone worked on tasks for their Big Jobs.  Ari has been reading dense articles about hydrology and consulting Melissa Dyer, an expert who works here at Northwoods about the watershed around where we will be in the next few weeks.  He is hoping to do a reach assessment either on the Nulheegan or the on the Connecticut.  Oliver has been steadily sewing the liners for our pack baskets.  Paul has been preparing the tools we will need for our remaining projects.  And of course the navigators, Yarrow and Mistral, have been working non-stop on an expedition plan.

            April 13th came, the last day Rollin was with us for canoe making.  Wishing he could stay a little longer, we said goodbye.  That day we bolted the thwarts, handles, and seats to the inside of the boat and varnished everything.  It is wonderful to look at the boat we built so close to completion.  That same day our group took turns helping out in the kitchen with a food processing event which Kendra orchestrated.  Lily, Anne, and Eliot all really pitched in and by the end we had made a substantial amount of granola bars, fresh cheese, sauerkraut, sourdough crackers, ten gallons of granola, and a couple of baked goods.  It was satisfying to be so involved in the food we will be taking on the rivers, and fun to cook together.  Just as Iyla will continue to keep track of the coats of varnish and paint the canoe needs, Kendra will be planning more food to take with us in the next week.

            In the midst of our work we have had opportunities to visit other people and do a service project here and there.  We visited Butterworks Farm on the 14th, a nearby farm that sells various dairy products as well as some corn and beans and grain.  Jack Lazor talked to us and gave us a tour.  They built their house and original barn in the 1970’s and kept adding on land and buildings as they grew from a small homestead to what is now a one hundred-fifty acre farm with many cows and a good business with the local co-ops and stores.  We were shown the grain silo, the bean sorting room, the windmill that helps power the farm, the yogurt making rooms, and a number of fascinating old-fashioned machines Jack hopes to fix up and use (like a 1950’s oat roller).  The group helped pick rocks out of one of the fields and was rewarded with several containers of maple yogurt—it was delicious.  We spent another day at Northwoods doing a service project.  We hauled brush so that it could be put through a wood chipper, pruned trees that years later will be used for lumber (to keep them from having so many knots), and removed rocks from a driveway.  We were glad to be able to do something for the people who have hosted us so graciously for a month.  The next trip we took was to Sterling College on the 16th.  We sat in on a Fiber Arts class and a Nature Writing class and toured the campus.  They have quite a few resources for their students.  We also ate two very good (and local) meals in the cafeteria and gave a presentation, complete with a lovely slideshow Erica made.

            Despite our busy schedule, and the unseasonable weather, which caused some damage to our camp set up, people seem to be in a good mood.  I appreciate Nate spending five months with us and teaching us what he knows, which is a good deal.  We witnessed him quickly skin and gut a woodchuck he found and learned from him about the cedar tree and goldthread, a medicinal plant.  Lily has taught us to put dandelions in our salads as they have many nutrients, and we have found them to be very tasty.  Eva Cahill, Scott and Erica’s mom, came back for a second time to teach us more about nutrition. We made wonderful fresh cheese with her and sampled all sorts of yummy local foods she brought along. Thank you Eva!!! Scott gave us a lesson in first aid, continuing on with our education where we left off:  the three major systems--respiratory, circulatory, and nervous.  Now we look forward to the river.  Our canoe is named “The Gingerbug”, for reasons that will become clear the next time I write to you….

            All the best,

                        Anna Soltys Morse

NHVSP 2010 Update 9

    Our new canoe

Homes

A little Swallow

has a home:

small holes in steep river banks.

The ant has a home:

little hills deep in the earth.

An owl flew by,

taking himself home to the woods.

A seal is in water for

it’s his home.

My home, earth, sky, water,

a humble home.

Like the ant, owl,

the swallow, and the seal.

(1996)

--Margaret Sam-Cromarty

Hello Everyone,

            I (Anna) have taken on the position of Scribe for the spring portion of our trip.  Some days ago I had the privilege of meeting many of the families of the people in our group, and, as I assume those families are readers of these updates, I ask you to forgive me if I backtrack over events you may have already heard about or been a part of.  I hope to be writing to you once every week until we leave Northwoods – our own little home in the Northeast Kingdom - for our river expedition on the 24^th of April.

            March 27^th was an important day, as it marked the end of our winter Big Jobs.  We all hurried to finish our to-do lists before Big Job presentations began.  Some of us drew pictures, others of us performed skits or songs, and a few of us gave lists of all the things we had used on the trail, like the amount of butter (80 lbs.) and tape (31 rolls).  We also had an unexpected visit by two VT-NH Semester students from last year, Nelly and Daniella, who came and stayed with us for a few days.

            The next day we spent in a communications workshop with Nathan Lyczak, Kroka’s Managing Director, which was a welcome chance for us to sit down with everyone in the group and voice appreciations and concerns.  It was a valuable opportunity to gain insights into our relationships and how to improve and deepen them.  Misha also left us at this time - we will see him next when we paddle Sumner Falls, the white-water section of the Connecticut River.  For the next few days we worked on the remaining camp set-up jobs—there is now a cleverly constructed outdoor kitchen in our camp, courtesy of Scott and Erica—and on our new Big Jobs. Mistral and Yarrow are our new Navigators, as well as our new Fire and Camp Managers, respectively.  Melody has passed off her old job as Medic to Scott and is now Kitchen and Logistics Manager and Wanigan master.  Eliot is the Base Camp Food Manager and will coordinate with Kendra, the new Trail Food Manager, to organize a few stops to farms along the river.  Iyla is the Canoe Manager and Paul is the Tools Manager.  Ari will be teaching us about hydrology, hydration, and tea as the Water Manager (or as he calls himself, “Aquaman,” or “Tea Master”).  Erica is our Photographer.  The noble position of Hygiene and Bathroom Manager has been given to Martin, and the newly created job of Cultural Navigator (someone to tell us about the history of the places we paddle through and to dispense general knowledge about our surroundings), together with that of Sewing Manager, has been entrusted to Oliver. Lastly, I am the Scribe.

            Chris and Ashira Knapp with their son Owen and their daughter Bonnie Bee arrived late in the evening on the 30^th.  The next day we all began pounding brown ash logs, the first step in pack basket making.  When you pound a log with a hand sledgehammer (or a wooden mallet, the traditional method), the layers between growth rings separate, and each year’s growth loosens and peels off the log in long, strong, flexible strips – a slow, miraculous process.  Pack baskets were a highly anticipated craft on the semester, and since we were all very glad to see Chris and his family again, this was a time of rejoicing.  There was also time dedicated to group meetings about working through interpersonal conflicts.  Having lived together for several months now, there are certain inevitable differences of opinion that arise, and so we are working through them with the help of our lesson in communication.  This delicate process is an essential part of living with and caring for each other, and therefore an important and positive experience, strengthening our group and our relationships.  In the meantime, we threw ourselves into pounding and stripping ash into material for our baskets.  Owen frolicked around us, taking a special liking to Iyla, who seemed entranced by him as well. 

            

Around this time we had an unconventional nutrition class by Eva Cahill, Scott and Erica’s mother.  We listened to her talk about Paracelsus, Plato, the different ways we take in nutrients, and the digestive system, and then we started an ongoing experiment with over ten different kinds of milk.  There are now jars of pasteurized, ultra-pasteurized, homogenized, biodynamic, raw, soy, goat, and cow (and varying combinations of the above) milk sitting here on a shelf, just waiting.  I will be sure to let you know which ones rot and which ones sour after they have been sitting for 20 days….  The rest of the parents arrived on April 2^nd for parent weekend.  We had fun before they arrived, decorating camp with a balsam fir bough table, an archway, and humorous signs lining the pathways, made by Yarrow.  Up until that day we had been having gray, rainy weather, but it cleared up and we had a beautiful, sunny couple of days.  Parent weekend was a whirlwind of activity.  Students and their families and friends were treated to a slideshow and presentation by Alexandra Conover, a Maine Guide who has been taking trips and guiding in these areas for many years, and who is a paddle maker as well as a great canoeist.  We were busy with ash pounding, potlucks and a contra dance with a French-Canadian twist.  We would like to again thank the parents for bringing up so much good food for everyone’s enjoyment.

            The parents left and so did the fair weather, making way for the first thunder and lightening storm of the year.  Big job work continued; Eliot has made use of an old root cellar that was found for his fresh order of vegetables (200 lbs of mixed roots, 70 lbs of cabbage, and more), Oliver has been seen watching the stars at night, preparing to tell us what he has observed, and Paul has taken on the job of sharpening and organizing the many tools we have for all our projects.  We kept working on our pack baskets, nailing the uprights and the bottoms to the skids, and weaving the sides in an upwards spiral.  Ashira was a wonderful teacher, telling us to send good thoughts into the baskets as we shaped them, and sharing with us her experiences making baskets in the past.  As she said, it was like we were each making a friend.  The baskets took shape slowly, some people finishing before Chris and Ashira departed and some still weaving and lashing their rims on when we bid them a sad farewell.  On the afternoon of April 6^th the Knapp family left and Rollin Thurlow, a master canoe builder from Maine and owner of Northwoods Canoe, joined us to start canoe building.

            We are finally making our canoe!  It is to be a 15 foot white cedar and canvas tandem canoe.  Rollin has been patiently helping us along as we bend the cedar ribs over the canoe form, wetting and steaming them in a box Noah built back at base camp to make them flexible, and then nailing them into place.  Rollin has built around 850 canoes in his lifetime, plus about a hundred more for various classes and groups, and is the co-author of the book “The Wood Canvas Canoe” – not your ordinary teacher.  He has been on numerous expeditions in the North and listening to his stories has been lovely at mealtimes. After the ribs we shaped the decks, thwarts, and other detailed pieces, and nailed down the planks that go on top of the ribs to give the canoe a solid shell.  The whole group went down this morning to lift it off of the form, as it can now miraculously keep its own shape—we were amazed that it already looked like a boat.  In the next few days we will be smoothing out the nails on the inside and outside of the planking, using a hammer and clinch iron, putting the thwarts inside, and stretching the canvas over the boat. 

            It feels like a storm is coming, so we have been trying to keep things tied down and in tents while it rains outside.  People walk the paths with their pack baskets, proud of their creations, making excuses to carry things around camp so that they can use them.  We go in small groups down to the workshop during the day to work on the canoe, and people are always stopping by to see what progress has been made, curious about how it will end up looking.  We are settling into a rhythm at Northwoods, getting up at the same time and running and stretching in the mornings.  It is wonderful to be able to bathe and wash our clothes in the streams and the pond.  The trout lilies we use to spice our salads are sprouting through the blanket of dead leaves on the ground.  In the evenings we gather as a group and talk and play music, with the occasional oddball song thrown in by Ari.  Melody and Erica showed us their slideshow from last fall’s Ecuador Semester, and Martin, who we are all very glad to see re-enter our group, delighted us with his reflections on his old job as Photographer, which were in the form of limericks.  Meanwhile, Yarrow and Mistral have been steadily working on navigation and Kendra has been planning lots of delicious meals for us for the springtime--parts of which we will gather as we paddle down the rivers.  Every day brings us closer to our second expedition.

                        Well wishes,

                                    Anna Soltys Morse

Skiing along through icy snow,

High above the wind does blow,

Sudden elation

But documentation--

I’ve got to take pictures, oh no!

            - by Martin Summer, reflecting on his job as Photographer

Chai Tea (for sixteen people), as made by Mistral Louw:

1gallon milk

4 cinnamon sticks

½ cup cardamom pods

1 medium ginger root—finely sliced

1cup loose leaf Assam tea

3 tbsp. peppercorns

2 tbsp. ground cinnamon

1-2 cups sugar (measured by taste)

Boil it all until it becomes strong, dark and spicy; it should simmer for around 30 minutes.

Contradance at NorthWoods

NHVSP 2010 Update 8

To the Distant Readers of my Expedition Log,

The white pines reach high into the sky here, their needles covering the forest in a thick coat. The frosted grass crackles under my rubber boats as I make my way across the meadow. The wind howls through the cedars, and the cold bites into the flesh each morning and night…yet everyday the sun warms the earth with the palm of its rays, the frost slowly thins, the ice starts to drip, and the day begins. The Northeast Kingdom is warming in the breath of spring.

We arrived at NorthWoods Stewardship Center, just outside of East Charleston, VT, from our solos on the 23rd and 24th. Ari, Eliot, and Yarrow arrived first and began the setup of camp, our home for the coming month. By the time Erica and I arrived, the main cook tent was set and warm. We all continued the setup of base camp until dark when Paul, Scott, and Oliver tumbled into the tent in time for a late dinner. We spent the night exchanging stories of our adventures, and laughed into the late hours until we fell heavily into the cocoon of our sleeping bags. When we awoke the next morning we continued in the preparation of our camp. We had to set five large, canvas wall tents – a combination kitchen and dining tent, boys tent, girls tent, staff tent, and guest tent - build up a month’s worth of firewood, collect boughs for all the floors, and organize all of our gear and personal equipment. By midday we heard Anna, Kendra, Melody, and Mistral coming up the path and soon our group was whole again. They jumped right into the work and we continued on until dinner. The meal was filled with and everyone told tales of their journey to Northwoods. It was a five-day solo which some of us turned into four days. Each group arrived safe, sound and pleased with their adventure.

When we set out from Heartbeet, we spaced the time between each solo group so as to avoid bumping into each other. We traveled along the V.A.S.T. (Vermont Association of Snow Travelers) snowmobile trails the whole way. It was a total of 56 kilometers with very little elevation change. The trail wound through beautiful farmland, thick forests, and rolling fields. The weather was warm and rained most of the time. We waded through mud the whole way, leaving our skis packed in the trailer. We passed through many small towns and had a chance to talk with the people living there. Yarrow, Eliot, and Ari found themselves on an adventure when they hiked all through the night during the pouring rain, and arrived at Northwoods at 1:30 in the morning, two days early.

Melody, Anna, Mistral, and Kendra spent one night in a barn full of rare, miniature Scottish sheep, sleeping in the hay next to the animals. The barn was warm and the hay was soft and
thick. Paul, Scott, and Oliver’s adventure brought them work hauling firewood for a man on the mountain. Erica and I witnessed the wildlife first-hand as we traveled along, standing right next to a pair of fighting mink and tons of birds. When we left, Misha gave each of the groups the assignment of meeting someone new and telling them our story, and volunteering for a service project for someone in need. When you came across someone who needed a hand, your group would help out without anything in return, just for the pleasure of it. All of the groups got to meet new a wonderful people this way and we all had a wonderful time doing a kind act for a stranger. Solos were an amazing experience for us all, and learning to survive and make decisions in a small group is a skill that will serve us for the rest of our lives.

Now as I write, our camp has been officially set and we can begin to focus on our projects for the spring and the rhythm of our day-to-day life. We wake up and jump into chores like we did in January, back at Kroka base camp. There is still firewood to be split each morning, two people start cooking, water has to be hauled from the stream, and someone needs to take care of our bathroom waste and dump it in the compost pile. During the day we have been organizing all of our winter expedition gear. It has to be separated into what needs to stay for the canoe trip and what needs to be sent home. All of our skis have been waxed and our poles and boots put away; our spring boxes have been pulled out and combined with our winter boxes in this unusual weather, one day hot and one day freezing cold. We are washing all of our clothes in the stream. We also have to finish up our individual Big Job work as we prepare to switch into new roles for the spring. Then we will be presenting our Big Job overview from the winter trail to each other.


We are writing thank-you cards to the many wonderful people who have helped us along the way, and writing main lesson pages on the myriad things we have learned on trail. For example, we have been studying trees since the beginning of our trip and now each tree we have met will get a page in which it is drawn in detail, along with natural history information. We are also doing pages on our experience of making shelters, all the first aid training we’ve learned. All of these will be bound together at the end of the semester into a main lesson book that people can read for years to come and each of us will get a copy. This way all the great things we’ve learned can stay with us for the rest of our lives.

As soon as our workload has settled down some, we will begin with our spring projects. We will be pounding ash for pack-basket making when Chris and Ashira Knapp arrive, then we will make our pack-baskets in two days. We will be building a canoe with Rollin Thurlow of Northwoods Canoe in a weeklong period of time. We will then begin paddle making with Ray Reitze, mentor and Grandfather to Kroka. Our time here is filled to the brim and there is lots to do. Every minute is filled with joy.

As I mentioned before, we will be switching Big Jobs soon. The spring awakens, as does a fresh new voice of our journey. I’ve told all there is for me to tell, and now I pass the pen on. I wish I could put to words how being the semester scribe has affected me. I wish I could write some elaborate ending that flourishes and leaves you thinking hard, but I’m not sure that’s my style and I’m not sure that’s how I want to end. I’d rather tell you it’s merely the beginning and the good part has yet to come. So thanks, thank you for listening to our tale. The river awaits and so begins the second chapter.

Truly yours,

Iyla Therese

NHVSP 2010 Update 7

To the Far Away Readers of My Traveler’s Log,

I write from rolling hills and spring breezes, from the far side of a tumbling stream, my toes tucked into the sun-warmed mud, from the tall back of a cedar’s trunk, from the sun-kissed fields of farmland, from a thriving community of the heart.

We arrived here, just outside of Hardwick, VT, on Tuesday the 16th with our ski boots caked in mud and our skin glowing red from the spring sun. The dust from the road clung to our skin, and salty beads dropped from our brows as we climbed along the winding dirt road. Soon the trees parted and we found ourselves in open fields. We had arrived at our final layover.

We are staying at Heartbeet, a “Lifesharing” community in the style of Camphill Villages, where workers, volunteers from around the world, and adults with special needs and mental disabilities live side-by-side in large community houses. Life revolves around community living – every day we witness the care and devotion of this thriving heart. Having come from such a tight-knit community, we can look closer into the well-oiled joints of this larger group. There is much to learn from them and we have a great deal of respect for all the members who contribute.

Heartbeet is 160 acres of farmland. All dairy is fresh from their hand-milked cows and sustains the entire community. Much of their produce comes from their extensive gardens and root cellar. In our short time here, we have already jumped into community projects. Each morning and afternoon two of us help with barn and farm chores, with Anna, Anne, and others milking cows by hand. On Wednesday our group split in half, one half learning wet felting, the rest of us learning needle felting. Thursday we did a few hours of service work for the farm – Oliver, Yarrow, Erica and Scott repaired tools and replaced handles; Paul, Mistral, Melody, Kendra, and Anne raked the driveway and filled in the potholes; and Ari, Anna, Eliot, and I mucked out the chicken coop, which had been building up manure since last spring. It felt good to work, and we enjoyed returning a favor to Heartbeet for their extreme generosity toward us.

Wednesday we also had the great pleasure of meeting and listening to Keith Morris as he gave a presentation at Heartbeet. He talked about Permaculture – a holistic concept of ecological design and food growing – and looked closely at human impact on this planet and how we can transform it in positive, constructive ways. He had a wonderful and unique view of things, and we all left the discussion with a new perspective.

Along with the projects, we have had to squeeze in time to prepare for the last stretch of our winter journey. We will spend the last leg of this trip traveling in small groups, without our teachers for guides. Kendra, Anna, Melody and Mistral will be traveling together. Oliver, Paul, and Scott will be traveling as a group. Ari, Eliot, and Yarrow will go together, and Erica and I will be travel companions. Martin, who has had to go home sick, will not be with us and will be greatly missed – we look forward to his recovery and return to our group. This last leg is only five days, but it will be a true test of all of our knowledge and learning so far on the trip. We will be camping under tarps, and using outside fire for all of our cooking. The largest group (four) will be carrying a small tent and a stove. We will all be traveling the same route, though going at different paces, taking care of our own food packing, navigation, expedition planning, and safety. Our instructors Nate and Anne will travel behind us, staying out of range but checking on our campsites and collecting weather-proofed notes we will leave every morning along the trail. When we arrive at NorthWoods, we will rejoin as a group and spend the days preparing our winter base camp.

This past leg has been the most challenging and most fun so far. We were blessed with the joy that Hans and Lisl brought with them as we dared the challenging terrain of the Bolton-Trapp Traverse. We reached our highest elevation of the trip at the summit of the Bolton-Trapp Mountains. We ascended them in one day, and then camped in the thick of the trees, away from the trails of the mountain. The next day we continued to ascend until we reached a summit, then we traversed between the two peaks and arrived at the second peak. From there we could see for miles, looking at all the mountains we had crossed. It was an incredible view, and the wind was strong. We bundled up and were careful not to take off our skis, so as not to fall into the deep snow. We spent the rest of the day descending into Nebraska Valley. Lisl and Hans showed us the joys of extreme cliff skiing while tumbling all over the place. I stood by and watched as they took turns skiing off a huge snow cliff and falling into the thick snow below.

After we bid adieu to Lisl and Hans and thanked them for their wonderful teachings and joyful presence on the trail, Misha returned. Also joining him was Violet, his border collie. When Misha arrived he came in the thick of our illness, a 24-hour virus of unknown origin. I was the first one down. It hit fast. You start by feeling nauseous, and half an hour later, up comes your snack mix. The sickness struck every one of us and it was a difficult experience for us all. Some of us got it early on, while the rest didn’t get it for several days. White rice, lemon tea, and rest nursed us back to health, one by one. It was hard to travel while some of the group was sick to their stomachs, but after a day of rest and recovery we had to continue on. It took a lot of strength and will power to make it through the days.

Once things settled down, we began testing skills we had learned throughout the semester. We had to quickly and efficiently set up the tent, distinguish wet wood from dry wood and softwood from hardwood, sharpen our knives enough to shave hair, orient a map with a compass, identify all the trees we’d learned, and correctly tie the knots we’d been shown. Everyone hurriedly prepared for the testing and spent time reviewing. Everyone passed all the tests and it was a great joy to see how much we have learned.

As the days counted down to Heartbeet, Misha and Nate came to the conclusion that our group should continue on to Heartbeet on our own. We traveled through lush farmland, walking most of the way due to no snow, and met up with Misha and Nate again after we climbed over Mt. Elmore. When we arrived at our rendezvous, Misha treated us to a wide range of locally-made foods from the tiny general store. Four pints of thick ice cream, jugs of apple cider and milk, fruit and pickles, fresh jam, and tons of locally-produced bacon. After we had royally stuffed ourselves and were giddy with laughter, we waddled to our skis and prepared for a long day of travel. The sun was beating down and we pulled out our cotton t-shirts. Traveling together, making our decisions together, learning how to facilitate daily tasks, camp preparations, meals, and group well-being – this has been our greatest test, our test of community.

The days are warming up here and it seems as though spring is right around the corner. The grass is warm and the soil is cool to the touch of my bare feet. The icy brooks are breaking up, and the birds are singing louder than ever. We’ve been watching the geese coming home, making their way north and I hope to see them when we reach our northerly destination. The northwest wind has blown in clear skies and the blue stretches forever across these rolling mountains. I watch the warming sun touch each crest with its fingertips and travel so lightly the trail we ourselves are traveling, the trail of the mountains, the trail of the land, the trail to the wilderness.

Your scribe, Iyla

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.