Posts

Blog #10: The End

Image
Arriving back to Kroka Base Camp felt like coming back from Mars. We left four months ago and we were stunned by its new springtime beauty; the cows were grazing, baby chicks had arrived, and the pond was no longer frozen. We got right back into the swing of Base Camp life with our final service projects in small groups: Expedition, Farm, Logging, Woodworking, and Trails/Camps. Grace, Emma, and Andrus were on the Expedition crew and they set off early Monday morning with a truckload of canoes and our group stories. For the week of service they would take a school group on a journey down the Battenkill River. On the second day they split into two groups, boys and girls, and the boys met their first rapid with 5 of the 8 canoes capsizing, sending a plethora of gear into the fast-moving water. Luckily for them, the girls group had come down the rapids the previous day and were able to help retrieve floating items at the bottom of the rapid. By the end of the voyage Grace, Emma a
Post a Comment
Read more

Blog #9: New York City

Image
New York City.  NYC.  The Big Apple... o ver the next week we would not only take a bite, but devour the whole thing, core and all. We finished our river journey at the Gowanus Canal, one of the most polluted waterways of our country. We were shocked to see the shimmering veil of oil dance away from the disturbance of our paddles as we skimmed across the murky surface. The smell that hung in the air was no longer the crisp salt spray lifting from the bay, but rather the pungent odor of a mixture of chemical and rot. We would learn that the eutrophication in the canal is so dense that fish regularly die from de-oxygenation. We carefully navigated around the shopping carts and circuit boards that had been discarded in the dark waters.  At the dock we had a moment of silence, to reflect on the distance we had travelled. We had journeyed from the cold snowy reaches of northern Quebec, and then by canoe from the Richelieu River in Quebec to Manhattan (though we were technically stay
Post a Comment
Read more

Blog #8: Hudson River

Image
As far as we were concerned, it was an adventure. We’d only been in the lock system for 2 days, completing 4 of the 11 locks, before we learned we could go no further. The northern end of the Hudson was flooding and the NY State Canal Corporation thought it would be better if we took out and put in again in Waterford right before Lock #1. We would need to travel 40 miles over land. Thankfully, instead of spending the rest of our expedition portaging our boats, the abundant hospitality of the canal system allowed us to travel that distance in a day. Though we would have loved to complete the canal on our own, this created a chance for spontaneity and divergence from the plan, an important part of every adventure.  We now had time to live into our Hudson River life and learn the ways of the river, transitioning away from lake life. Unfortunately, the first real difference we saw was an increase in pollution and trash. Little plastic bottles and cans floated mindlessly down
Post a Comment
Read more

Blog #7: Lake Champlain

Image
Spring has come in fast forward for us semester students as we stepped out of the depths of winter and into the waters of Lake Champlain. After our Quebec City layover we exchanged our faithful skis for two lofty 20-foot long wood canvas voyager canoes, crafted by the 2004 and 2006 Vermont Semesters and re-varnished and re-painted by our semester. These new vessels would be our main mode of transportation on our venture to New York City. On the water we met our new instructor, Owen Cunnane, who will be with us for the remainder of our expedition, and reconnected with Miron who would be joining us for a short while in order to mentor us in living on the water. When we were starting out we were apprehensive of what we might encounter. We learned our new camp set-up, which consists of a summer stove, a tarp for group gatherings, and three tents for sleeping. The first night was bitterly cold. I remember that my toes were colder than they'd been in Uapishka, and many f
1 comment
Read more

Blog #6 Uapishka

Image
We made it through Uapishka! Uapishka… the journey we excitedly planned for since the beginning of the semester. After our short stay at Heartbeet we drove through Quebec City and continued north until we reached the home of Jacques, a long time friend of Kroka who has been living in the mountains since the 1980’s. We set up our camp near his beautiful log cabin, and we were off early the next morning for our 26-day journey into the mountains. Revenge of the Frozen Anorak Our journey began as we climbed up a steep frozen creek bed. The amount of food needed for 15 people for such a long expedition required two sleds, pulled most stoically by Bobby and Grace Jessiman. These first few days physically taxed us more than any other time. When we finally made it to Lac Magique, where we had our first live-over, many of us were beat beyond belief. We had made an elevation gain of 1,700ft in just two days. On our live-over we had time to learn about this land reigned by spruce, who
2 comments
Read more