New England Expedition: Introducing Boats & Bikes!

Welcome to Leg 2 of our Legends of the Southwest 2024 semester. As we continue becoming closer as a group, we also continue to face daily challenges in which we must overcome.

We departed from Kroka base camp on Monday, September 9th, after organizing our paddling gear and loading up the trailer. And we’re off! All of us loaded into the previously-not-stinky van and we made our way to the Connecticut River.

While logistics manager, Hazel, was constantly being questioned which way we were going, the whole van was obnoxiously singing. Although we had no radio, the car ride was filled with music. After the final, “Left or right?” from Dave, we were finally at our put-in. Hazel was incredibly relieved. We unloaded our trailer and plopped six canoes in the river.

Into the wilderness we paddled! We paddled 6 miles on flat, slow moving water until we approached our campsite on Burnaps Island. We set up camp super fast, ate a yummy dinner of Mac and Cheese and tucked into our tents, happy to finally be out on expedition. We woke up the next morning ready to conquer the day ahead of us. As the cooks began making breakfast, the rest of the group worked on taking down camp and doing some fitness.

After breakfast was in our bellies, we had a class with Zoé on the history of the Connecticut River and all of the peoples who have lived in harmony with it. Shortly after a compelling discussion about the Abenaki people, the native people who lived/live around the Connecticut, we began our paddling lessons.

We practiced some moving water swimming, paddle strokes, and started learning about different river features.

It was then time to face our first set of real rapids: Sumner Falls, a class 2+ set of rapids. While some of us are very well versed in the sport of whitewater, others were shaking in their paddling shoes. Partly from being a little chilly. We first scouted the rapids to see what we were in for and then we ran them! With the help of paddle signals telling us when it’s appropriate to go, all boats made it down the rapids safely with no swims. The day ended by paddling about ten more miles and camping on Hart Island. After a successful first day of whitewater, spirits were high!

The following day, we woke up all under one tarp with the most amazing song Zoé sang to us the night before, stuck in our heads. For the next few days we just couldn’t stop singing the Texas farewell song. Again, we had a yummy breakfast, took down camp and paddled to meet Nathan and Gabe (who was still healing and couldn’t join expedition yet) at our takeout. Once we met up with Nathan and packed up the trailer, we drove to an old artists colony in Cornish, VT: Saint-Gaudens.

We had a history lesson about the community as well as lessons of the different sculptures spread throughout the property. Our final challenge, which wasn’t so much a challenge for some as it was for others, was to draw a sculpture or landscape at this outdoor museum. As we finalized our art pieces, it was time to load back into the van, say goodbye to Nathan and Gabe and head to the Deerfield River in Massachusetts.

Another song-filled car ride and we arrived at the Dunbar Brooke Trailhead. We threw all of our camp gear onto our backs and hiked a mile into the woods to find our beautiful campsite.

We took our sweet time setting up camp, bathing and making our campsite a home for the next two nights. This night we were assigned to write a poem with the intention of it being a love letter to the river.

Dear River,
Teach me, teach me how to love. Show me your bed, well worn from years of visitors. Show me your gentle side, ribbons of silk spill through my fingers, a silent orchestra played in perfect harmony. Run over, show me your wild, your strength, strong enough to move literal mountains. A not so silent orchestra, played with power and passion. Show me your soul, your never ending journey, as you rapidly descend, before continuing on, night and day, a solemn march so joyful, so delicate, so strong. Centuries of trials, paths worn deep into the earth, take me down, show me how you change, day after day, year after year. And yet, always stays the same. Show me your acceptance, show me your perseverance, and when you’re done, eddy me out, bring me back to the shallows. And let me watch in awe your dance again. Over, under, through, around, a song never ending, yet always beginning.” – by Savi

We ate some dinner, had a lovely evening meeting and continued reading our book, Brothers on the Bashkus, a book about four American paddlers who travel to Russia and decide to run a river with complete Latvian strangers, separated by ideology and language. We then headed to bed, dreaming of whitewater.

In the morning we first had a lesson in hydrology using the rushing creek right next to our campsite as our river. We learned about eddy’s, a circular current of water that flows in the opposite direction of the main current in a river; holes, which is when water cascades over the boulder (or ledge) forcefully downstream and water from downstream flows back upstream to fill in the depression; wave trains, and other important whitewater features.

It was now time for the water! We arrived to our put-in at Fife Brooke and watched as the dam released and water rose. As Dave said, “If you can’t swim it, you shouldn’t paddle it,” so we started with some intense whitewater swimming practice.

We all successfully swam the rapid and were ready to paddle. Day 1 was spent learning and practicing important whitewater maneuvers, such as eddying out, ferrying, and S-turns. By the end of the day we were all super tired and headed back to our Dunbar Brooke camp.

On day 2 of the Deerfield River, our instructors introduced a new challenge for us: “Leaders of the Day” or LOD’s as they call it. The LOD’s job is to keep the group on schedule, safe, and one happy family. On this day, the instructors asked Savi and I (Kaia), to be the group’s first LOD’s.

We woke the group up, took down camp, and set off to the van. As we had to wait for the Deerfield River dam to release, we decided to go on an adventure to an abandoned rail tunnel, which is now filled with running water. We walked and sang our way through the pitch black tunnel and made our way over to the river. We sped down the river, anticipating the most righteous rapid on the river: Zoar Gap, a class 3+ rapid.

Once we got to the portage, we scouted to make sure our line was perfect. It was finally time to show off all of the new skills we had been learning and send it! With the exception of Zoé, Dave and myself, showing everyone what not to do, everyone made it through the rapid safely with no swims.

Next, it was time to take off the river, pack up, and head to Green Mountain Orchard for our first layover where we picked apples, and swapped our boats for our bikes. After a beautifully restful layover, we prepared for our Vermont biking leg, packed our bikes and headed off in three groups of five. One instructor with four students in biking pods, because keeping 15 people together is way harder than five.

We then met back up as a full group at camp each night. Our plan was to bike for six days with differing difficulty levels each day. We camped at Trollhaugen (Kroka’s original farm), Jamaica State Forest, a camp near Green Mountain Forest, Ten Kiln Campsite, and finally Someday Farm.

Unfortunately, due to two ankle injuries, I, your scribe, only biked on day one so this portion of the leg will be partially told through the words of others. For most, bikepacking had many challenges, both physical and emotional…and navigational. Lots of stopping, looking at the maps, continuing on, stopping, realizing they were going the wrong way, backtracking, continuing the right way, terribly miserable uphills, terribly wonderful downhills, realizing they went down the wrong hill, going back uphill, and finally finding their way to camp.

Along with a few crashes here and there, the group made it to camp each day, even if it meant eating dinner in the dark.

I asked a couple of my peers for the most eventful part of their trip and here’s what they said:

Sol’s favorite day of biking was day one. Almost right off the bat his pod got lost and had to backtrack until they found the Pinnacle Trail. This trail is pretty steep and super rocky and not necessarily made for mountain biking.

There was a lot of uphill and at one point they had to ask some hikers for directions after they got lost, again. Their group finally found Brookline Trail and headed down to camp. Although the navigation was a little tricky, Sol was incredibly excited to be bikepacking again.

He’s familiar with Pinnacle and the area considering it’s basically his backyard! He had a blast on all the single tracks, down hills and switchbacks too. His favorite quote on day one was from Cecily who said, “Move aside, I’ll show you how it’s done!” to a very cautious Oscar. She then proceeded to bike about five feet and crashed straight into a log. Now that’s how you send it. For all you concerned parents, she was just fine.

On day two of biking, many of the pods chose their own route and so did Uli’s. Her pod was looking for an ATV trail. They rode down a lovely hill and came to a charming clearing and log yard. They dropped their bikes and started scouting and searching for a trail.

After about an hour of searching, there was absolutely no trail to be found, so unfortunately enough, they had to go back up that lovely downhill which was now a terrible, terrible uphill. They then tried to take another road which was also wrong and decided to just go all the way back to where they started.

They figured it out but still had to bike 16 miles to camp. For Uli, this was definitely the most eventful biking day with more twists and turns and ups and downs then she could’ve ever expected. (Actually and metaphorically) Uli’s favorite quote was from Oscar who said as they were biking some gorgeous downhill, “This is so much better than school!” I wonder if he was still thinking that during the treacherous, rocky uphills.

We had a blast paddling and biking over the 12 days. The group came back to Kroka basecamp on Friday, and for some it really felt like coming home.

We will now begin preparing our bodies, minds, and most importantly, gear for heading out on our own pinnacle. After returning from a taste of expedition, we couldn’t be more excited to start our journey to the Southwest.

Until next time, your scribe,

Kaia