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Beloved audience
I shall commence to tell
Of an expedition, half ended.
We have reached, the holy land
Though our clothes must all be mended.

Many befriended our merry band.
We are at the NorthWood’s Stewardship Center
And with a new mentor,
To lead us down river, a new beginning is, at hand.

WE ARE HERE! We have made it! Nearly 300 miles of skiing, from the Somerset Reservoir to the NorthWoods Stewardship Center! NorthWoods is a lovely facility. We are camped in a field near the main building. We have set up four tents: a big tent for cooking and where Tom, Andy and Hannah sleep, a boys’ tent, a girls’ tent, and the fourth for Chris, Ashirah and Owen.

To set these tents, we had to dig out three feet of snow to get down to the ground. Now we have a solid floor to last through the snow melt. We eat all of our meals in the cook tent. We are all healthy with one exception. Nick needed to leave us again on the second-to-last day of the leg to seek medical advice for his recurring symptoms. We hope he is able to rejoin our community soon. We are adjusting to life in one place and we miss him. Also, we have a new leader, Andy Paonessa. Andy is relieving Chris and will mentor us for the remainder of the expedition. We are excited and happy that he is part of our community. We look back on the ski trail with reverence and remembrance, and we look forward to our southbound trip with eagerness.

We left Sterling College feeling a little sad because it was such a nice environment to be in and we were so warmly welcomed there. There is always good ahead though, and our final leg was blessed with beautiful weather. Throughout the leg the skiing was easy and the days were bright and sunny, reverberating spring. After we left the Catamount Trail we were skiing on wide flat snowmobile tracks towards East Charleston, VT (home of the NorthWoods Stewardship Center.) Snowmobile trails are nice because we can ski in pairs and small groups rather than a line. Luckily, there weren’t too many snowmobiles. Chris’ wife Ashirah and their baby, Owen, joined us on this leg!

Owen has grown since we saw him last at the end of January. He is not afraid of people anymore, and he climbs all over us and sticks his fingers in our noses and ears. He can stand and say “mama” and “dada”. It is fun to have a baby in our presence and having Ashirah with us feels great.

This leg we told stories of the animals we had individually chosen and tracked. I was Red Squirrel Man, Solina: Coyote Woman, Eric: Beaver Man, Jed: Moose Man, Nick: Fisher Cat Man, Celeste: Fox Woman, John: Porcupine Man, Jesse: Grouse Man, Taylor: Weasel Woman, and William: Snowshoe Hare Man. We have taken our lessons on storytelling to heart. The stories were the bomb – funny and illuminating sketches of our animals! In addition, we memorized poems that we picked at Sterling out of a large array of books by Robert Frost, Wendell Berry, Mary Oliver and others. The poems that have been recited so far were spoken with graceful expressiveness.

Those of you who were with us in Green River remember that Chris suggested changing the way we complete the skiing leg of the expedition to include more time together as a group. With Chris leaving us for awhile and Andy joining us for the canoeing part of our time together, we all agreed that continuing to strengthen the group was the best way to spend our last days with Chris. So, this leg we did something new – “Appreciations.” Appreciations are when one of us sits in the middle of the circle and everyone says things they appreciate about that person. This is a very special time. It is a time to focus and articulate what you love about the honored person in the circle. We appreciated three people each day (one at a time.) After supper was done and cleaned up, we gathered in the meal tent. The tent was cozy and warm, and the love kind of floated around and filled the space. We all felt really happy about being loving and receiving love. “Appreciations” are a really nice experience.

For two days on the leg, Chris asked us to ponder some questions as we skied. The first day our minds swirled and wrapped around questions relating to community. What is community, and why is it important? We stopped on the side of the trail and made a fire.

As we sat by the fire we ate our day food and discussed community. Many thoughts came up and were set down, and the conversation digressed and diverged. We decided that humans were meant to share things with each other, and share how good life can be. We thought that community forms best amongst individuals who share a common goal, and who can see and understand how their actions affect others. This relates well to our life.

The second day, we thought about how we had grown in the past two months. We discussed it after supper. I can’t exactly explain the conversation to you because it was complex and personal. Suffice it to say, we all came to this expedition carrying opportunities to grow, some things we knew about, some things we hadn’t thought about. We are all struck by the learning and growth we are experiencing in ourselves and witnessing in each other. Some of us have grown physically too!

The day before we got here to NorthWoods, we had a barbeque lunch on the side of the trail. We roasted venison and bread dough on sticks. It was a welcome change from our usual mid-day fare of day food! It was a fun outing.

Being as we didn’t have too far to travel, this leg was fun and relaxed with a focus on community, reflection and celebration. Just what we had hoped for! We celebrated with good food, and by spending a lot of time being with each other.

Currently we are organizing and setting up a month-long stationary life here at NorthWoods. We are finishing academic work and an essay on our relationship with nature. After these studious days, we will relax to the fullest with three days of actual free time before delving into another 2.5 months of learning – trading our snowy classroom for a watery one.

This is my last update. We are about to switch big jobs for the spring section. There will be new scribes, a new gear manager, a new hygiene queen etc.

Thank you for reading. For the Vermont Semester, this is Joey Becker

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