Join our mailing list:

May 28, 2008
Dear Friends and Families of the Vermont Semester,

We have arrived! After four long and beautiful months away from base camp, many miles of white snow and a glorious three weeks on the river we are back at base camp in Marlow. Spring is now fully upon the land and as we paddled southwards, we saw new signs of her coming every day. The trees are a bright, vibrant green, reaching their new leaves up to the hot sun. Each morning, more and more songbirds arrive to perch in the branches, singing sweet songs of spring. Only a month has passed since the last update and our departure from the NorthWoods Stewardship Center and yet it feels a lifetime ago. We have been totally immersed in life, paddling, walking and wading our way by river and stream, completing our journey, completing a circle of learning, growing and living.


On the fire tower of Mount Ascutney

Having just arrived at base camp, we are now settling into new routines and developing a new rhythm for our stationary life that will carry us through the next few weeks. This coming weekend we are going to the Youth Environmental Summit in Fairlee, VT to attend workshops, share our experiences from the semester and teach some of the wilderness living skills we have learned. In the meantime at base camp, we have been very busy cleaning and repairing gear, giving our beloved canoes a new coat of paint and varnish and building an outdoor kitchen for ourselves. Kroka is now buzzing with life and activity and compared to our time here in the winter, there are many people around and lots of exciting things going on. The new kitchen space will allow us to have a quiet area to be in while other groups use the main areas in the ever-growing Kroka village.


River camp

As I reflect on the past weeks on the river, many stories come to mind, many memories of happy smiles, sunlit days and starry nights. On May second we began our journey on the Clyde River, paddling upstream, eastwards. We spent our first days learning the river life, cooking and sleeping under a tarp and getting up each morning to pack the boats and paddle away into the rising sun. On our last day at NorthWoods, we christened our newly built tandem canoe “Lepine” after the Lepine sisters who we met in the winter. We learned later that the name also means “rabbit” in French. Along with learning to paddle and steer the two big boats Kasha and Chaga, we took turns in the Lepine, marveling at her graceful maneuverability and speed in the water compared to the much larger, seven person boats. Soon we changed watersheds, portaging our gear and boats to the Nulheagan River and it was downstream from then on. The Nulheagan River is small and shallow at first, winding its way through Alder bogs and growing larger by the minute, it seemed, until it reaches the Connecticut River.

The great Connecticut has been a wonderful teacher, carrying us southwards as we learned about river living in spring. We learned about all of the delicious wild edibles that we could eat and make tea out of. Andy, Hannah and Tom shared their knowledge of local history, geology, and river ecology and continuously helped us to observe and appreciate the land around us, and all that it has to offer. The weather spirits blessed us with day after day of sunshine and apart from a few gray, rainy days at the very beginning, we had the most amazing weather all month long.


Another beautiful day on the Connecticut

The last few days were filled with excitement and adventure as we headed up the Cold River, pulling the boats through shallow water and carrying the gear on the road for the eighteen-mile trek to Marlow. Hard as the carrying was, (especially after the river became too shallow and we had to carry the boats as well) it was a joyful few days spent working together. We did not work completely alone however and we would all like to give a very big appreciation to Jed, Joey, and John’s families who came to visit us part way up the Cold in Alstead, bringing smiles, encouragements and wonderful snacks of fresh fruit, veggies and orange juice. It was wonderful to see you all along the road, selflessly giving your time, energy and food to support us on our journey. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

I am guessing that some of you, in reading this are still thinking, “Well… what was it like? What actually happened out there on the river?” Don’t worry friends, after the bustle of the next few days and our trip to the YES conference, the next update will be out with our story in full, pictures and all. Thank you ahead of time for being patient and allowing us to settle back into this new phase of our journey.

Until next time, this is Jesse the Scribe.

Back to top