This morning marks the beginning of week 5 of the ESSP. This week we’re focusing on advanced navigation and foraging, so we’ll take a trip to the seacoast and spend an afternoon in a nearby swamp digging cattails. While we were on the Allagash our sauna stove arrived, made by my good friend Don Kevilus at the Four Dog Stove Company. We’ll be building a home for it and I’ll post photos of the construction. Since we arrived home it’s been raining, so we’ve got a lot of gear to dry out and put away today.

Now that the students have been able to use their skills in the bush for an extended period of time, the introductory phase of the program is over. Everyone knows the routines and we’ll be able to move much faster. This is good news because we’ve got so much more material to cover.