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Friday June 6, 2008

Dear Friends and Families of the Vermont Semester,

I would like to welcome you into our circle for a time, to come on a journey with us, and experience life on the rivers of Vermont. Before we take this journey I would like you to close your eyes and imagine a deep silence, a place where you can sit and listen to your breath, your heartbeat, a place of calmness and peace. In this space, let an awareness of your senses develop. Soon you will hear the far off rushing and bubbling of a stream flowing down to meet the river, and nearby the birds begin chirping, calling early morning greetings to each other through the thick mist that envelopes the silent, flowing water. Slowly, as you open your eyes and stretch your arms towards the sky, light begins to shine through the trees and the mist starts to float away in wisps, leaving the sunlit banks of the river to glow with golden light. On the still water, along the far shore, a lone beaver is gliding silently along, patrolling his stretch of river, and high in a silver maple tree that is arching out over the water, a bald eagle sits still as stone, a guardian of the land and the river. Now, close at hand a fire crackles into life and a curl of smoke reaches up towards the brightening sky. The paddlers are awake too, listening to and seeing the morning, feeling the rays of sunshine, tasting the air for rain. This is life for the students and teachers of the Vermont Semester in the spring.

Our journey began from the NorthWoods Stewardship Center in East Charleston, VT and it took us first upriver on the Clyde, then downriver, heading east on the Nullhegan and then south on the great Connecticut River. We christened our newly built tandem canoe “LePine” and paddled away from NorthWoods on May second, spending a day getting used to steering the big seven passenger canoes and practicing paddling in sync with each other. The first evening on the river, we learned the “ropes” of camp setup which consists of setting a few tarps for ourselves and our gear, washing out the boats and collecting firewood, water, and as a new addition to our chores, gathering dandelion greens for a wild salad. On the second day we had a very abrupt introduction to heavy whitewater as we continued up the Clyde towards Island Pond. Around the first bend we came upon a torrent of waist deep rushing water and sharp rocks. One by one we leapt, only a little reluctantly, from the boats to wade upriver through the cold water, pulling the three canoes carefully through the maze of rocks. Despite the drenched and cold state of our clothing and sneakers, morale stayed high and after getting through the rapids, we navigated the tight winding path of the river to Island Pond with many laughs and splashes. With the day not even half over, we paddled across the small pond in wind and cold rain to a campground on the far side where we began our first portage. With pack baskets on our shoulders and boxes and bags of food and gear in our hands, we set out walking towards the Nullhegan River watershed. Along the road and beside train tracks we walked to a place where the land started, very gradually, to slope the other way and where we would begin our downriver paddle. We ate a lunch of sourdough crackers that Jed baked in April, along with apples, peanut butter and tahini, then walked back to get our boats. Carrying the boats was by far our biggest physical challenge in the beginning. It takes four people to carry one of the big canoes and the people must be evenly matched for height side to side or else one person ends up with all or none of the weight. We had to set the boats down often to rest and switch out carrying teams to find the best fit.

The next part of our journey began on a small creek that wound its way through a tight alder swamp, between sandy banks. This is the very beginning of the Nullhegan River, which flows a short distance to the east, into the Connecticut. We spent a fun and slightly competitive afternoon paddling through the narrow channel, passing each other on the inside curves and taking in the beautiful landscape and the many species of birds living in the alders. Andy, our resident bird guy, has been keeping a close eye on all of the different birds along the trip, sharing his knowledge with us and explaining how the different birds each have their own specific place along the rivers. From NorthWoods to Marlow we saw almost ninety different species as the migratory birds flew back to our area. Although our time on the Nullhegan was short, we enjoyed it immensely. During the first night, on Nullhegan Pond we spent the evening gathering wild bog cranberries from last fall that had frozen into the ice over the winter. We ate cranberry sauce with maple syrup and yogurt that we brought with us, for dessert while Hannah read our spring story to us, a book about the Northeast Kingdom of VT called Northern Borders.

Our last two days before reaching the Connecticut River were long, tedious and exciting. On both days we had long portages around rocky sections of the river, alongside the train tracks. After a fun, time consuming and exhausting experiment of sliding the canoes along on saplings, we decided it was just better to carry and we made a long last trip to a grassy bank beside the confluence of the two rivers. We walked back to our boats and paddled them empty down the very shallow mouth of the Nullhegan and into the Connecticut. We collected our food for the next few weeks that was stashed at a nearby general store and ate a feast of pizza from the store and dandelion salad from the field we sat in. As the sun sank low after this long day, we put in and paddled southwards, making sixteen kilometers in a hour on the fast moving water and reaching our camp with time to spare before dark.

We had our first layover the next day and spent time creating main lesson pages on the pack baskets, paddles and canoe that we worked on at NorthWoods in April. Layovers on the river consist of time to fix gear, wash clothes, bathe in the river and do academic work. We also go running and spend time learning about the land around us with Andy, Hannah and Tom. Lisl, our fairy godmother, came to visit us at our first layover and spent a couple of days on the river with us as we made our way past farm fields which were separated from the river by huge silver maple trees arched over the river, spreading their newly unfurled leaves over us in a green canopy.

The Connecticut River valley is an amazing place and we saw, smelled, tasted, felt, and heard so much as we paddled southwards, born by the water for the next two weeks. It would be impossible for me to share everything we experienced on the river, so I will try my best to share a feeling of the experience as a whole and leave the many details for a later date when they can be shared in person. For now let us step aboard the Chaga, find a seat, and begin paddling downriver along side the Kasha and the LePine. There are many dams on the river, most of them are hydroelectric and a few are still used to power mills. On many of the river days we had one or two short portages around dams which we got better and better at until portaging became the excitement of the day in some cases.

As we paddled, we constantly marveled at the speed we traveled, a very different speed than in the winter where eighteen kilometers was a very long day. On the river we traveled from fifteen to thirty five kilometers in a day and usually still arrived in the mid to late afternoon, giving us time to read or write, go exploring or swimming or just sit and talk together. The spring paddle is most definitely more relaxed than the winter trail although equally fun and beautiful! Spring met us with a blast of color and life as we paddled southwards and we witnessed the change of season at an expedited rate because we were moving each day into warmer weather. The leaves became fully unfurled, all but the white ash, which comes later, and every day we saw new birds coming back from a winter spent elsewhere. After the first few days of rainy weather we had next to no rain on our whole trip and we were graced by day after beautiful day of sunshine, blue skies and heat. Some nights we didn’t even set our tarps and just slept under the stars, and most days were spent in short sleeves as we accustomed ourselves to life in warm weather.

One of our activities on the river was the tanning and smoking of the hides we scraped back at NorthWoods. We were happy to finally use the hides and enjoyed two layovers, first soaking the hides, and rubbing them dry to tan them and at the next stop, smoking them to make soft and supple buckskin that won’t stiffen when it gets wet. It was an amazing process to learn and even more so when we finally made patterns from our own feet and sewed moccasins from the hide. One of the most important things to us on this journey has been doing projects from start to finish, learning all of the steps, learning to create what we need from scratch, and the moccasins, along with our pack baskets are shining examples of that. Another exciting activity, which is unique to a few short weeks in spring, was the gathering and preparing of the many wild foods that grow along the river. Apart from eating dandelion salads at least once a day, we soon discovered delicious fiddleheads, which we stir-fried in butter. We found more and more to eat from the wild as we moved south and by the end of our time on the river we had made wild leak and groundnut stir-fries, knotweed pies, crumbles and sauce for pancakes, garlic mustard pesto, steamed nettles and elderberry blossom fritters. It was incredible to find out how much there is to eat in the wild in springtime. We even ate a few meals that were comprised solely of wild foods!

Days on the river seemed to just float by and we had time to just sit and talk together as we paddled. I feel that we all were able to communicate on a deeper level during our time on the river. This kind of living really holds us together and gives a good interdependent base to work off of. On our final week, we spent three days having a celebration of the genders where the girls went off ahead in Kasha and all of the guys followed a day later, giving us a chance to talk and look deeper together, into what it really means to be a man or a woman in this time and place. One night, the girls came and snuck up on us and left a gift of bacon and eggs from a nearby town. We “thanked” them in the middle of that night by paddling to their camp and moving their canoe to the far side of the river. Fearing retaliation, we steered clear of their camps for the rest of the celebration. Luckily for the guys, nothing more happened and we decided to make dream catchers for the girls and gave them to them when we were all reunited. It was very special to be together once again and that first night, we had a potluck at the Path of Life gardens in Hartland with Hannah’s family and friends. We also spent some time with guest teachers along the way, first learning about wild edible and medicinal plants and plant spirit communication from Brian Lapier. Two days later, we camped on Jarvis Island and walked eight miles to Mt. Ascutney where we met with a geologist and learned the condensed version of what has been going on with the earth in this area in the last four billion years.

Without each of us playing a special part in this journey, it would not have been at all possible and I will now take a moment to appreciate everyone for the part they played. Andy was a fun and inspiring leader for us and kept us on our toes when it came to observing the world around us. Hannah taught the whole hide tanning process and has been a wonderful friend and teacher to us. Tom, the peaceful one, was always ready for the next thing and seemed to have any given situation under control even when the rest of us were beginning to pull our hair out. Solina, as master navigator, found our way down the river with skill, and more importantly she found some really good campsites. Joey kept track of all our gear and always had the repair kit ready when anyone needed it. (Joey also had the best of luck on the first river day after he broke his paddle on a rock and, only a minute later he found a paddle lying on shore which turned out to be about the right height.) Jed kept us supplied with yogurt whenever we could find local milk and he also made delicious fresh sourdough bread every few days. Eric was an outstanding Medic, and every time anyone came running with a bleeding hand or a blistered foot, he was right there to help, calm and without hesitation. Nick was our Greek river god and apart from rising early to get a warm fire going, he took black and white photos of the land around us. Taylor did (and is still doing) an amazing job as food manager. She planned well for the trip and we had a good mix of foods to eat along the way. John made sure we had clean hands and made sure we washed our clothes, and ourselves regularly. Celeste became the digital photographer and took her time capturing the different parts of our life, choosing things of importance to bring home to the world. William, our excited wild greens guru was always finding some new plant for tea or eating, looking it up and telling us all about what it was good for. My work as scribe was keeping the group journal up to date and organizing our academic supplies for layover main lesson page work.

We would have liked to stay on the river forever, paddling on the soft water, learning about the land and living in such close harmony with it. Somehow, the month just slipped past and before we knew it we were at the base of the Cold River. Then began a challenge, the last miles, and like the beginning of our time on the rivers, they were some long miles. The Cold is a fairly small river and, at this point in the year the water level was very low. We decided to carry all of our gear along side the river for the last eighteen miles to base camp and we pulled (“lined”) the canoes empty, up through the shallow, rocky water. The journey had come full circle and we were once again wading and walking as we did in the beginning. The day went well and we made about five miles, almost reaching the town of Alstead by nightfall. Along the way, a friendly neighbor gave us watermelon and of all things, a moving dolly which was a priceless gift and helped us need to make only one trip up the road instead of leapfrogging our gear the whole way. Reaching Alstead village the following morning, we were happily surprised to meet John, Jed and Joey’s families, who had come to wish us luck on the home stretch. They brought with them many smiles and encouragements and some fruit and juice, which gave us almost as much of a boost as the smiles! After a rest we started walking with gear and canoes, up the road to Marlow. With an escort from the parents who wanted to try the portaging for a while, we made good time and set camp in the evening for our very last trail night together.

Our friends the black flies were very friendly at the last camp and we sat huddled around a smoky fire to keep them at bay, listening to the evening peepers and thinking back on all our time in the bush together. This journey has been an amazing gift and every day has had something to teach us, about listening to the land and each other more deeply, about working together and about the timeless connection that we share with nature. Although it will be a change to be back at base camp and then back to the world we left six months ago, we are thankful for the time we have be given and are looking towards the future. We are thinking of how these past months we have been living in such a healthy way -- alongside each other and with the earth.

Our last day was sunny and warm and we set off with high spirits, walking and for a short while, running with the canoes on our shoulders. We reached Warren Lake in the mid-morning and once again were graced by the company of Coleen and Tom, who arrived to bring us watermelon and pineapple and wish us a good last paddle. The lake only took fifteen minutes to paddle across but we stopped to clean our boats and gear and eat lunch before walking the last mile to Kroka. It is hard to put into words how it felt to be back at base camp after four months away but it was certainly amazing to see all of the friendly faces again and to realize that we had been on quite a journey, making our way by ski and canoe, up the length of the state and back down again on our own steam.

As this story comes to a close for a time, I would like to take a moment to go back to that early morning sunrise on the river, and listen to the birds chirping, the fire crackling and take another moment to appreciate all of the people who helped to make this incredible journey possible. All of the parents, families and friends who have supported us, all of the people we have met along the way who have helped us in so many ways and last but not least, the staff at Kroka who have given everything to this program from the beginning. If I started to mention names, I know that I would forget too many people so from all of us in the Semester we thank you all from the bottom of our hearts, you have given us a gift greater than we ever imagined. Our graduation will be held in Keene, NH on June 14th and we invite any and all to attend. We will have a slideshow, presentation and a potluck dinner afterwards to celebrate. Call Kroka for details and logistics at 603-835-9087

Until next time, this is Jesse the Scribe.

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