Join our mailing list:

New Hampshire - Vermont Semester
A 600 mile journey by ski and canoe

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
The New Hampshire-Vermont Semester Program will begin at our Base Camp in Marlow, NH with students and teachers working together to prepare for the expedition. Students will sew a tent that will be their home on the trail, make mukluks, dehydrate meat and vegetables, learn and practice back country sking techniques, and study navigation, nutrition, meteorology and other expedition related topics. The journey begins: three hundred miles on the Catamount Trail from Southern Vermont to the Canadian border! The group will travel for several days, then have intervals of rest and study. During these intervals, teachers and local experts will join the group to share traditional skills, local history, culture, and natural sciences. Upon reaching the Canadian border, the students will spend a month wrapping up the winter portion of the expedition and preparing for the spring. Students will study topics related to the Northeast Kingdom and the Connecticut River Watershed. They will build a 23-foot wood/canvas canoe to carry them down the river, weave pack baskets for their food and belongings, and craft the paddles that will propel them homeward along 300 miles of the Connecticut River. Having traveled full-circle, the length of Vermont and back, students will spend the last weeks completing final coursework and putting together a theatrical presentation to share with families and the public.

“To have three teachers get to know our son at that level is immeasurably valuable for his growth as an individual and a citizen. That type of life coaching will undoubtedly help him in a thousand ways during his life. Thanks to all for helping our son to start out on a life of significance and meaning.” –Parent

“Now I see the secret of making the best persons. It is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth.” – Walt Whitman