A Reflection on the Semester
by Chris Knapp

Several years ago my teacher Grandfather Ray told me to look hard at what the majority of the people do, and then do the exact opposite. Today on the rivers it seems people aspire to buy the most high tech paddling gear, paddle the biggest white water, and then head home in a plush automobile to a nice house. The natural world has become a playground and a safe haven from “reality.” Thinking back on those last days of the semester program I can’t help but smile, for it was a program that accomplished just what Grandfather Ray proposed, the exact opposite.

The last twelve river miles of our journey home were upstream. On the paddle south from the Vermont Leadership Center (now called the North Woods Stewardship Center) we had often wondered if there would ever be enough water in the West River to float our big freight-carrying wood/canvas canoe. A week of steady rain answered our question, but left us wondering if we could even find bottom with a 10-foot pole. I mean literally a 10- foot pole that was made of black spruce cut from a northern bog on the Clyde River. After weeks of building the canoe and a month of paddling south there they were, a group of seven young people, headed up stream, against a rising popular current. They traveled in an outdated voyageur canoe, built with love not money; propelled by nothing more than a few dead spruce poles and some quickly learned skills. They may have looked a little wild to the average bystander, but their gear was patched with care, and their baskets neatly packed with the essentials of life. Though they were headed for home, home was a well-set tarp, with an orderly cook place stocked with dry wood and a kettle of supper over the fire. For them nature was no playground but a very real world with very real demands and gifts. From the ash tree came rugged baskets, from the cedar came a canoe. From the springs came good water and from the plants on the banks of the river came a large portion of the spring diet.

Thank you Grandfather for the advice. In following it the students and teachers of the first Vermont Semester have found much joy.

Chris Knapp