Kroka Vermont Semester 2015: Blog 4: Leg One of Expedition

Dear Family & Friends,

Our first weeks of travel were full of learning, laughter and movement. Each day that we make and break camp, we become just a little bit more efficient. With a little bit of help and a lot of willpower, we have learned all of the skills required to live outdoors during the winter months.

Our travel days consist mainly of eating, skiing and sleeping. First comes breakfast, a study block, and breaking camp. About three hours after we rise, we are ready to pull on our packs and move onwards. We strap on skis and say farewell to our temporary home. From there, it is all movement. We spend the majority of our day talking, trekking up hills, breaking trail, falling down hills, eating, and reflecting as we constantly glide towards our next destination. At the end of the day we choose a good place to camp, and split up into groups: some head out again to collect boughs, others find our firewood, and the rest are left to set up the tent. This whole process may take us hours, but we are kept working by our excitement for dinner and the warmth that awaits. When firewood is cut and split, boughs are laid inside the tent, and dinner is cooking, we pull on our slippers and clamber into our candle lit sanctuary at last.

Due to our studies, Misha has nicknamed us all as characters from The Odyssey. We have fun trying to use Homeric language as we go about our daily tasks, and come up with creative epithets for one another as we ski along. In addition to English, we enjoyed a short wilderness medicine course where we learned about the risks that come with outdoor living, and how to prevent and deal with different situations that could arise while on trail.

As students begin to do long shares, (fifteen minutes of time for an individual to share about themselves with the group), the community is starting to shape itself in new and beautiful ways. With every task we accomplish and every meal we share we become more interdependent. At the same time we are seeing one another and ourselves more clearly with every bend in the trail. As individuals are pushed beyond their comfort zone by the long days and chilly nights, we are day by day discovering parts of our beings that we never knew existed. This is the beauty of carrying all that you need upon your back… This is the beauty of life on trail.

Creative writing from the trail:

The Language of the Heart

Rachel

There is a language that we are developing here, within the canvas walls of our tent and the boundless freedom of the wilderness. Is it there in Ezra’s ever moving hands, in Hazel’s joyous laughter, in the small sudden smile of Cat. Whenever I see Andrew, lost in thought while leaning against a centuries old maple or Mayah curled up in a corner with pen flying across the pages of her journal or Emma bent over her maps, it feels like the world is all contained within that moment. The stove with sides glowing red under Chase’s care warms our small world and allows us to venture out into the wider and wilder one. We few who brave this winter with naught but the packs on our backs, we are learning to speak without words; we are finding the language of heart.

Welcome To Vermont

Sam

There is always traffic roaring

Over roads

And under bridges pouring

Dull metal in luxury

Light Filled Beings

Mayah

As ice and grit envelope our bones,

We are constantly embraced by a deep desire for light.

Our cells soak up what little they find;

Great puddles of warmth being stored

Just below our freezing skin.

We must not forget what it is we hold out for-

That on the darkest of nights we may still find home.

That we may notice it all inside of ourselves,

Tucked away in corners we have yet to explore.

This is but the beginning…

Keep searching.

Cold Hands

Sammy

My hands are coldest

Returning from morning poops

After using snow

I asked a few people to describe first leg in one word… Here’s what they said.

Ezra: “Immersing”

Nathanael “New-but-yet-familiar”

Noa “Challenging”

Jamie “Growing”

Izzy “Hungry Mongrels!”

Emma “Mountains”

Cat “Orientation”

Some quotes from students:

Andrew

“We are surrounded by grandparents of the forest”

Hazel

“I remember on the first day getting on skis after the road walk and skiing down to Lake Warren… my backpack was so heavy and I was thinking, ‘how on earth am I going to do this?’ It’s just an incredible feeling to be at the end of leg one. I feel so accomplished.”

Chase

“I remember when I first started skiing, I fell constantly. Now I fly down hills all the time and it feels so easy.”