We’re in the home stretch of our 2026 field school season. Students on the Wilderness Bushcraft Semester are out on solos, we’re enjoying a stretch of beautiful weather, and we’ve started picking up and putting away stuff for the long winter ahead.
This time of year I always get restless. When the geese and the leaves fly, I also want to fly. I’ve had this since I was kid and I’m pretty sure I’ll never grown out of it. Immediate busy work includes boats to be put away, a new canoe rack to build, and vehicles to winterize. Then there are websites to update, schedules to create, courses to plan. And lastly there are bigger-picture plans to ruminate on, directions to choose, and ideas to consider about the future. During the rush of the season there is no time to consider these big ideas. But now, as the rest of the season is measured in hours not weeks, it hits all at once.
The nature of life at the field school is putting other life things on hold while we run the long courses. Then, when the season ends, all of those things that have been put off demand attention all at once. An alumnus spent a week with us earlier in the fall, before he started his Appalachain Trail hike traveling north to south. For the next 5-7 months, he’ll be immersed in the hike, with the finish line somewhere over the horizon. But eventually, he’ll get there and have to decide what’s next. When the big goal has been achieved, what then? If you finished a seven-month hike on a Friday in late October, what would you do on Saturday?
We started this field school season about seven months ago. This course ends Friday. And I’m still unsure how to spend Saturday.
