This morning we begin week four (of nine) on the Wilderness Bushcraft Semester. Thanks to a bunch of recent rain, the rivers are near spring high water levels and we’ve taking advantage of it. Last week we covered basic poling in moving water, and this afternoon we’ll be pushing the envelope with some class 1 and 2 local rapids. The ideal learning curve for canoeing is to get your initial experience when the boat isn’t loaded heavy, you are not in a remote location and the water isn’t cold. Thanks to the rain, we’re able to check all of these boxes before going out on remote trips.

We’ve also been busy in camp, with students building shelters, spinning bow drills and getting used to swinging an axe every day. The red maples are just starting to turn color, but the red color of the fruit of hundreds of wild apple and cherry trees have been visible for a few weeks now. Every year I’m amazed at the sheer volume of calories that are available on the land this time of year. We’ve been seeing a lot of wildlife as a result, including the otter in the picture above, who was swimming in the pond a few days ago when Christopher got a bunch of photos of him.

Lastly, we recently published a few videos to the vlog. I foresee a change coming to how we publish media soon, but more on that later. Enjoy the day.