Come build a whale of a boat with cedar ribs and canvas skin: a 24-foot wood canvas canoe in the style of the Voyageurs. After a day of preparation at Kroka, we will travel to Northwoods Canoe Company in Atkinson, Maine. The next ten days are spent building a boat under the skilled eye of master canoe builder, Rollin Thurlow. We learn to plane gunwhales, clink nails, steam-bend ribs, stretch canvas, and fit the transom. There will also be time for swimming, paddling, and exploring the northern forests, mountains, lakes, and rivers. When our canoe is complete we travel to the ancient waterway of the Penobscot River, the ancestral home of the Penobscot Nation, which we will follow all the way out into the ocean for our boat’s maiden voyage. Our first days on the river traveling through tribal waters we will be accompanied by accomplished guides Polly Mahoney and/or Kevin Slater of Mahoosuc Guide Service, and members of the Penobscot Nation. Learning the indigenous story of relationship between people and place we will spend a day on Sugar Island focused on native plants and crafts, visit the Penobscot reservation on Indian Island, eat a traditional meal, and learn basketry and other crafts. An exciting day of white water below Indian Island will bring us to where the river become tidal and our rhythms shift to paddle with the tides, sail with the wind, and navigate between islands and through fog. We will learn practical leadership skills, become expert ocean navigators, and learn to set camp on the rocky shores and inlets of the spectacular Deer Isle Archipelago. Through it all, we share in the hard work and simple joys of our salty, nomadic life.