Our proposal to Live on Gordon Property

Proposal for Learning Residence

Gordon College

Nathan Josephs

Nate Mori

Advisor: Rich Obenschain

Intent and Purpose

We, Nathaniel Mori and Nathan Josephs, are proposing to spend the fall semester 2012 living together in a tent on the property of Gordon College. We will sleep, cook, and spend many of our non-academic hours at our tent site. Our hope is that we can work with the Gordon College administration to create an educational experience that is beneficial for us as individuals and for the larger college community.

The purpose for our endeavor is twofold: to learn about ourselves and our world with respect to living simply and close to nature, and to engage and educate our community to the same effect. Both of us were students of the Wilderness Immersion and Leadership Development (W.I.L.D.) Semester. During that semester we learned academically and experientially the power of solitude, reflection, engagement with nature, intentionality, and simplicity. We hope to be able to apply the ideas and concepts we learned during the W.I.L.D. semester to our living situation. The experience will help us hone our understanding of what is practical and what, for us, constitutes a meaningful lifestyle.

Learning Components

Personal

We plan to include two components in our personal learning experience. The first is learning through reading works by thinkers who espoused a similar lifestyle. The second is to try to apply some of their ideas through creative reflection, conversation, and experimentation. We hope that the process will enlighten us as to what is possible and practical in our new living situation.

Some of the authors we plan on reading are Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, Wendell Berry, and Richard Foster. There are many common themes expressed by these thinkers, including: simplicity, connection with place, thorough enjoyment of nature, reflection on experience, and spiritual awakening incited by a simple, natural lifestyle.

Since we have acquired many essential outdoor skills on the W.I.L.D. semester, we are in a place to implement new ideas that build upon the base we have already created.  Along with honing our camping skills, we will be able to expand upon, explore and implement our sustainable living skills. We will have the opportunity to examine our environmental impact since we will be removed from convenient garbage disposal and water supply. The distance and difficulty for acquisition of resources will cause us to be acutely aware of our impactful actions.

Community

In addition to personal benefits, we anticipate several benefits to the Gordon Community, both in our outdoor education community as well as in the general student body. We hope to engage Gordon’s faculty, staff, and students through several venues:

Small Group Discussion Series. We hope to engage the Gordon Community in a series of faculty and staff discussions on the benefits of sustainability, economy, and nature. Professors from a variety of departments will be invited to share on topics including, but not limited to; outdoor education, biology, economics and art. The series will be advertised to the Gordon Community, but attendance will be by reservation only (in order to keep the group size around twelve for minimal impact). The ‘lectures’ will be formatted according to what the presenter wants to share, but we would suggest a half hour of presentation time followed by a half-hour discussion.

Blog. In order to share with a larger audience at Gordon and beyond, we will keep a blog detailing our daily life and discoveries. It will consist of thoughtful reflections on our endeavor along with reports of atypical events that arise from living outside.

Discovery. We are working with Rich Obenschain of the Outdoor Education department to create a short presentation for discovery students. We will present how it is possible to live comfortably and enjoyably with fewer amenities. Our experience will allow us to provide concrete examples that will give students an idea of what is possible in regards to simple living.

W.I.L.D Semester. As alumni of the W.I.L.D. semester, we will be able to share with the current W.I.L.D. students what lessons we have been able to apply during our experience. We will work with David Starbuck, the director of the W.I.L.D. semester, to create a presentation that demonstrates the valuable lessons to be learned from direct experience with nature.

Risk, Safety and Responsibility

Risks

The risks associated with camping are minimal. We anticipate that we will receive objections based on sanitation, fire, and temperature (cold). We are both Leave No Trace (LNT) trainers. Two of the key aspects of LNT are sanitation and proper fire control. We do not plan on building wood fires except maybe in a fire pan (which we understand is legal) when hosting the lecture series. For sanitation we intend to have little to no solid waste in the woods, but if we do, we understand how to properly dispose of it with minimal environmental impact by digging cat holes in accordance with LNT guidelines. The final concern (cold conditions) is not an issue for us. Since this venture is relegated to the fall semester, we do not anticipate cold weather beyond that which we are prepared for. We both have sleeping bags rated for comfortable sleeping at temperatures down to 0°F. According to weatherbase.com, the coldest recorded temperature for November is 10°F with an average of .3 days below 0°F for the month of December. With our equipment and experience in winter backpacking the danger of suffering hypothermia due to the cold is little to none.

Safety Precautions

Personal: We believe that we will be safer during this semester than many Gordon College students. It is arguable that our venture carries far less risk than most of Gordon’s study abroad programs. Living relatively removed from highly populated areas will reduce our risk of human caused harm. In addition, we will be spending time outside, which will necessitate a certain degree of healthy activity and exercise. Moreover, being outside will likely reduce the number of diseases we contract because we will not be living in close quarters with a large group of germ-carrying individuals (as is the situation in residence halls).

Food: In order to keep our food from being eaten by animals, we will keep our food in animal proof containers. From our previous camping experience we know well how to cook and eat to reduce animal attraction and habituation. We will employ all of the techniques we have accrued to minimize or eliminate the impact our foreign food would have on the wild animals.

Belongings: Since we will not pack up camp during the day, we will leave our cloths, sleeping and cooking gear at the site. In order to prevent theft, we will store any valuable belongings in a locked chest (one that is designed for the beds of pickup trucks). We will not hold Gordon College responsible in any way for theft resulting from our inhabiting the woods.

Location: The desired site is in the woods to the north of the Brigham Athletic Field track. It is secluded, out of the way of traffic, and out of sight from any road or walkway.

Responsibility

We understand that there are two questions to be raised with regard to responsibility.

1.      1.  Who is responsible if something goes wrong?

We are responsible if something goes wrong. As demonstrated, we understand the risks involved and take full responsibility for loss or damage of personal property as well as unforeseeable accidents that may occur. If necessary we would like to work with the college to create a legally binding document to this effect.

 

2.      2.  Who is responsible to make sure things go right?

Again, we would like to take full responsibility to monitor and hold each other to a high ethical and moral standard. It is our constant endeavor to act rightly in all situations. This includes following Gordon’s standards of conduct. However, if it is seen as necessary we are willing to have a faculty or staff member regularly check in with us to make sure we are following the agreed-to standards.

Thinking Fast and Slow

Here is a journal that I wrote for my cognitive psych class. I thought the ideas were fascinating and I thought I would share. It isn't polished at all so it feels pretty convoluted, but you can probably pick up on the main theme.

In my recent reading time I have been working through Thinking Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman. Although I am only one fifth of the way through, I have already begun to understand one of the main points of the book. Kahneman argues that we have two judgment systems; the ‘fast’ system he labels System 1, and calls the ‘slow’ system System 2. System 1 uses all sorts of quick ways to make judgments, it is intuitive, uses biases, preconceptions, availability heuristics; it is easy and effortless, takes little time and works with no conscious effort. In opposition to system 1, system 2 works using logic, compilation of data, analyzation of information; it is conscious, effortful and slow. Ironically, even though system 2 often has the advantage of accuracy, we tend to be more confident in the quick, snap decisions of system 1.

When I read chapter 6 in Cognition by Reisberg, I couldn’t help but compare the implicit and explicit memory section to what I had been reading in Kahneman’s book. The way that Reisberg described implicit memory, its advantages and disadvantages played along exactly with what Kahneman had to say. They both appreciate that there are positive and negative characteristics of implicit and explicit memory.

Implicit memory from Reisberg, just like System 1 from Kahneman, uses quick, unconscious processes. It is virtually impossible to consciously control implicit memory; it is almost by definition, unconscious. Making a connection, it seems that the similarity is that the two memory systems that Reisberg described do more than just correspond with the two judgment systems outlined by Kahneman; they seem to be the same thing. Implicit memory informs System 1 judgment calls. Likewise explicit memory is used when making decisions using System 2.

Before moving on to System 2, let us explore System 1. The two huge advantages that System 1 has are its ease, and speed of use. It happens all of the time, never stops working, never shuts down, never takes a break. It does not need to stop for a break because it works without us ever trying. In the same way that our heart beats without us consciously telling it to, we make decisions about our world without consciously trying to. Our automatic brain functions pull up implicit memories which inform implicit decisions. An example is that our familiarity with a certain group, people, or situation helps us quickly decide how to act. Psychologists like to call this kind of memory a schema. We have gone through a certain type of experience enough times to know what to expect and run on autopilot, depending upon implicit memory to inform our implicit decisions. I often make implicit decisions, I am sure that I most often miss the moment when I make a decision using this implicit process, but when I do catch it, I instantly start looking for reasons for my action. This is where System 1 hands the process over to System 2.

If System 2 were a person, people would describe it as a lazy, smart, unconfident individual. It only does its work when system 1 gives it a problem like the one in the example above. When it does receive a problem, many things happen, one of which is that our physiology changes; our sweat glands activate, our heart rate and breathing speed up and our pupils dilate. The change in physiology in an indicator that inside the head, System 2 has activated, we have started thinking in logical terms, trying to come up with a solution using our extensive explicit memory, sorting through to find the most reasonable answer. However, this process often fails to find the correct solution.

Reisberg wrote that we often attribute a memory to the wrong source; labeled source confusion. There are many times during any given day when we use a piece of information even though we don’t know its origin. When we ask how we know something, our System 2 tries to come online to answer the question. Sometimes System 2 is effective. An example of it working correctly is that I will remember correctly that Emily told me that she wrote R and L on her right and left hand before taking her driving test in order to be able to follow the oral instruction of her test instructor. However, if either I had failed to store the memory that Emily told me the story, or I failed to have the right cue to retrieve the memory, I will either say that I do not remember who I heard it from, or attribute the story to someone else. In this example, I embarrassingly forgot that Emily had told me this story about herself and told her the same story as if it were someone else who was terrible with their rights and lefts and wrote R and L on the back of their hand. She then reminded me that she had told me that story about herself.

What seemed to happen here was that my System 2, explicit memory, failed and left it up to my implicit memory to recall the story. The defining characteristic of the System 1 memory system is that it tends to know information whereas System 2 memory system remembers information. The important distinction is that it rarely happens that one can consciously remember when general information was learned, hence it is simply knowledge. In my example from Emily I knew the story, but I did not remember who had told me. It was only when I had the sufficient retrieval cue, her telling me that she had told me the story, that I was able to remember.

Although this is an extremely brief and convoluted reflection on the complexity of these two systems, it is easily apparent that the depth that is needed to understand the system goes far beyond the scope of a short writing. I continue to reflect on the interaction of the systems, tease out the differences, meditate on the strengths and weaknesses, and develop an intuitive along with thoughtful understanding of both systems. 

Pictures of Home

"House Warming

The Cheery Glow of LED Headlamps 

Directions: 5 Leather Lane, Heads towards the fire-pit, follow the Zip Line
First tent on you Left

Welcome

Enter

This is Home

Living in the Woods

As many already know, I have elected to spend my spring semester living outside. After unsuccessfully trying to get the college to allow us to camp in the campus woods (we got as far as getting approval from the dean of students) I asked one of my professors if I could rent a portion of his back yard to set up a small camp. He said that I could, and I moved in earlier this week. So far I have spent three nights there, and have enjoyed every one.

One may ask why I have decided to undertake this enterprise; I will answer it lazily, using the e-mail that I sent to Ron Hilton, the head of Auxiliary Services, pleading our case to live in the woods.

Hi Ron,

There are many reasons why I wish to spend a semester living in the woods. I acknowledge that there will be a certain difficulty in this enterprise, but I also realize that there are many rewards of greater value. The rewards that I foresee include; the opportunity to practice my outdoor living skills, to live simply, intentionally and practically, along with living in a more frugal manner.

Simplicity is the main objective of this experience. Simplicity is difficult to find in our everyday life around campus, at work, and in dorm life. One thing that makes it unnecessarily complex is the things we use to make our lives easier. This paradox that easier is more complex is difficult to understand and explain. We have tons of time saving techniques and gadgets; word processors that make our homework go faster, iPods that help us organize our calendar more efficiently (among a multitude of other things), and we can shower by going twenty feet away and turning on a tap. But with each ‘timesaver’, a new level of complexity arises along with the possibility of a distraction. With word processers, we need to know how to use all of the functions and commands that we never had to worry about with typewriters or even further back, handwritten work. Our iPods work better at organizing our calendar than our old notebook, but we soon find ourselves distracted by all of the cool things that the calendar can do, not to mention all of the other distracting functions of the iPod (games, movies and the like). The list can go on interminably; washing machines, TV, computers ect. Every time we add a ‘convenience’ to make our lives simpler, we find that our lives actually become, more complex; we need to think of all the things we need to do to maintain the same level of ‘convenience’ that we currently have. Inevitably, with so many time saving tricks and gadgets, we do end up with more time on our hands. But where does that time end up? It seems that most of it is spent in front of the TV or computer, which begs the question, is it really worth saving?

Living outside of a dorm, with many of its conveniences will be a personal experiment to see if, when many of the conveniences of dorm life are taken away, life does become simpler. The environment where not many things can be possessed, (the outdoors are not conducive to owning many things beyond the essentials) very well might help to decrease one’s dependence upon this complexity that I am perceiving. Richard E. Byrd, a noted Antarctic explorer is quoted with saying, “I am learning…...that a man can live profoundly without masses of things.” This quote strikes at the heart of what I am explaining; without having space for copious amounts of belongings I will live with less.

Jesus himself seemed to propose a similar lifestyle to the one that I have been describing. According to Richard Foster, Jesus spoke on economy more than any other single social issue. It does not take long to think of some of his sayings such as, “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” Matthew 19:24 and a little before that “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” The list could go on. What better reason to live simply than to follow Jesus’ calling?

In his well acclaimed book, Celebration of Discipline, Foster devotes an entire chapter to the idea of simplicity. He writes about how in our society, we are taught that it is shameful to wear our clothes until they are threadbare, that we are often thought of as crazy if we do not follow the trends of pop-culture. He sees Jesus telling us to live one way, and us as a culture, living another. I want to practice living in an ascetically fulfilling way, not as abstaining from all pleasure as asceticism is sometimes understood, but partaking in what is necessary for pleasure and the good life, but abstaining from indulgence.

Gordon College’s Christian Life and Conduct guidelines echo what has already been said.

Important to an understanding of all behavioral standards is the obligation of Christians to separate themselves from worldliness (Romans 12:2, I John 2:15). Worldliness is a subtle issue involving uncritical conformity to the prevailing spirit of the age. One’s disposition concerning such matters as materialism, secularism, isolationism, security, success, injustice, hedonism and moral relativism must stand in perpetual review.

This time spent not living in a dorm, or in an off campus apartment, will help me in the discovery of where I stand of these issues. Living apart from the distractions that come with living in a dorm and instead living in an austere environment with fewer distractions, I will be more able to discover what I value, at least as far as materialism, security, success and hedonism are concerned. The environment would be most conducive to self-discovery on those issues.

Up until this point, I have made it seem as if I am embarking on this endeavor by myself. This is not the case. A fellow W.I.L.D. semester student, Nate Mori is equally interested in exploring the possibility of living outdoors. We have spent some time conversing on the topic, simplicity, I have outlined above. If we are able to do this together, we would be able to build each other up, encourage each other, and build a type of community from which we can go and have a positive impact on the way others live their lives.

The benefits of living outdoors do not end with living simply. Nate Mori is especially interested in the biophilia hypothesis, that says that humans develop and function better when in close contact with nature (this makes sense as one can get closer to the creator through the creation). I have been influenced by people like Thoreau who make an example of living in such a way that is economical, completely free of external constraints yet fulfilling in their own way. We appreciate the intentionality it would take to live outdoors as we always do when we go backpacking. It creates a type of awareness that is not generally attainable when living in the ‘safety’ of comfortable dorms. This brings me to another benefit, that living outdoors would help us hone our skills and dispositions that we began learning this W.I.L.D. semester. I could expound and expand upon our reasons, making this e-mail take me several days to write, but will refrain as it is going to be quite long as it is.

It must be understood that we realize the difficulty in camping outdoors. However, we are well experience campers and would have no trouble with finding qualified outdoors people to vouch for our skill and experience. We have camped enough that it would be foolish to think that this is simply a grab at noteworthiness, a way to get ourselves attention from the Gordon Community; it is not something that we desire. It is also not an attempt to withdraw from the Gordon Community or circumvent its rules and regulation. It should be evident from the fact that you received this e-mail that it is not our goal to break any rules. If it is deemed prudent, we are willing to live within any conditions that are normal for on campus students such as visitation hours and having an RD. We realize that Gordon puts a heavy emphasis on community, and rightly so. Community is important for the development and wellbeing of human individuals. We do not wish to emasculate ourselves from Gordon’s community. Community and fellowship are what help make life worth living and we would be truly destitute if we denied ourselves their pleasure.

When considering whether we would be allowed to pursue our goal of living in the woods, we came up with what might be a few objections to our proposition. We decided that it would be prudent to respond to as many as we could foresee in order to forestall a lengthy discussion and debate.

First objection that we thought of is utility use. Would it be fair for students not paying for on campus housing to have equal access to utilities as those who are paying for housing? In reply I can point out that all off campus students would have equal access as we would living in the woods. An off campus student can come to campus early in the morning, use the shower before swimming in the pool, and use the toilets all day long, just as we would. There seems no unfairness when one understands that we would have equal access to the facilities that off campus students do.

Second objection would be for hygiene. How will we be able to camp in a small area and keep ourselves and our gear properly clean and free of disease? As campers who have experienced extended camping trips, both Nate Mori and I have practiced proper hygiene techniques on trial. It would only be easier than on the trail because of there being facilities nearby from which to easily procure clean water.

Third is environmental impact. How will we be able to spend so much time in a small area without seriously impacting the environment around us? There are two responses to this. The first is that this area is so well urbanized that there would be little impact to the overall ecosystem. The second response is that we are both Leave No Trace (LNT) trainers from our Wilderness Education Association (WEA) trip this last fall. We know skills and techniques on how to leave as little impact on the environment as possible, even over an extended period of time.

Fourth, will we be able to persevere? This is a difficult question to answer outright with a yes because I do not know the future. However, looking at our experience, our training, and our abilities, it seems likely that we know what we are getting into, and know what it will take to push through the entire semester.

Fifth, will it affect our grades? I doubt that it will negatively affect our grades as it will not take an extravagant amount of time to function in the woods.

Sixth, how will we eat? As camp savvy people, we are deft at handling camp stove and cooking delicious meals. I will have a vehicle that we can use to travel to the store to purchase food.

Seventh, laundry? Reply, we will use laundromats unless we get the permission to use the washing machines in the dorms.

Eight, who will keep us accountable/check in with us? As adults, we hope that we will be able to keep ourselves and each other doing what is right, but we are willing to have an RD check in with us to make sure we are doing alright.

Nine, will not more people want to do this? I highly doubt it. Even though it is a lot cheaper than living in a dorm, it is not very comfortable unless one possesses the skills and equipment needed. Only those who are highly motivated to procure their education and gain experience will do so.

Finally, is it safe? Will Gordon College be liable if anything happens to us or our camp? In response I can say with some confidence that it is safer than the soccer games that are played on the quad, or rec IM activities (I can find the research article with findings from which I draw my conclusions if you wish). If we could enhance the probability that we would get approval for our enterprise by signing a waiver of liability for Gordon College, we will happily do so.

In conclusion, there are many reasons why we wish to spend the semester living in the woods. We desire to discover a new way of life, one that we may choose to never live again, but one that will influence how we live for the rest of our lives. If I have made any statements that you would like for me to clarify or any points to which you think I should respond more fully, please point them out and I will do my best.

Thank you,

Nathan

Whew that was long, it answers fully any questions that one may have concerning this endeavor.

Nathan

PS. Pictures coming shortly

Spring Vacation, part 5, Trip #2

We woke up fresh and energetic. Our first trip was over, but our break was not. Although Juliana, a friend from school, texted me and invited us over to her place in Vermont for a couple days, we decided to stick with the original plan of hiking has many high peaks as we could. We had a completely different plan this time. Learning from our previous trip, we decided that instead of moving camp every day, we would set up a sort of basecamp. We would then issue forth and conquer the mountain tops. With this new strategy, we planned to stay out for four nights, scaling seven peaks in all. All we had to do to prepare was pack some more dinners, replace the stolen peanut butter log, repack our now dry gear and then we could head out.

At the first break

We knew that today was going to be a fairly easy day. The goal was hike about four miles in, but it would be much easier than the first day because the terrain was relatively flat and the trail was definitely broken out. It was a little after three in the afternoon by the time we got to the trailhead. Our destination was a lean-to near John’s Brook Lodge. We hefted our packs, (that weighed on average 50lbs) and started to tramp up the trail. Since we were used to the exertion required to break trail, we put out with the same amount of energy. This caused us to cover the first mile in record breaking speed. When we paused for some water, we realized we were putting ourselves through unnecessary pain. We  slowed down and enjoyed the hike.

This snow face was right near John's Brook Lodge

When we got to the junction to the trail that led to the lean-to we were planning on staying at, we felt good and strong, so we thought it would be best if we pushed on to the next lean-to. This would lessen the distance that we would need to hike tomorrow. After hiking about half of the distance that remained between us and the new destination, we ran into the two guys who had offered us a lift the day before. We joked about how it is impossible for us to stay out of the woods for long. When we moved on the terrain quickly got steeper. Soon we were climbing some steep pitches that required the use of the heel lifters on our snowshoes. At the top of each rise we would crane our necks, looking for the destination lean-to. After more disappointments that I would like to mention, we finally saw the lean-to.

It turned out that there was a couple at this lean-to. As we walked up they greeted us and moved their gear over to one side. They introduced themselves to us as Jackson and Dana. Their dog, a malamute, was named Inga. It turned out that they had just gotten to the shelter a little before us, so we all got our respective stoves out and cooked dinner. After supping on curried rice and lentils, we prepared for bed. This time, in order to prevent the small animals from gorging themselves during the night, we hung our food from a hook in the rafters. Jackson assured us that this was sufficient food protection in the winter.

We quickly bedded down Raf against the wall, me in the middle, and Nate on the outside. This was strategic because the weather forecast was that it was going to get down into the low single digits, and I only had a bag rated for twenty degrees. We figured that if I were sandwiched between the other two guys, it might keep me a little warmer. We also made sure to fill up our water bottles with warm water. We put those at our feet to keep them warm throughout the night. After saying good night all around, we turned off the lights and went to sleep excited for tomorrow. 

Not many pictures from today.

Spring Vacation Part 4, Trip, Day 2

Our Camp

The next morning we woke up to lightly falling snow. About half an inch had fallen over night and temperatures were in the mid twenties. We had gone to bed at around 6:30PM and got up at 7:30 this morning. Needless to say, we were well rested.

Charlotte being guarded by the snow shoes

After telling the story from last night to Raf, we looked through our food, and found that the banana chips were missing. I, being serious, suggested we go scouting for them. Nate immediately started laughing, joking and putting his hand over his eyes, stared mock-seriously around. I quickly put him to shame however, when I found them ten feet from the tarp, lightly covered by snow. They were un-tampered with, so we put them with the rest of the food. We slowly ate breakfast and broke camp. Among the preparations to break camp, we noticed that our half eaten block of Monterey Jack cheese was missing. Again I suggested we go look for it. This time, although they did not make fun of me, the other two still did not join me in my decision to search. Undeterred, I set off in the direction that I had found the wheat thins the night before. I had gone about thirty feet before I spotted them about fifteen feet away under a tree. The animal had dragged it that far, and nibbled at one corner. Elated at having found our cheese, I retrieved it and returned to camp. Nate Mori-0, Nate Josephs-2.

Cheese Nibbled by something

Planning the day, Raf is actually 8 feet tall,
 I forgot to mention that

Overall, we were well recovered from the trek the day before. I, for one, was surprised that I was not sore at all. However, we did have one problem, though minor, it had the potential to grow into a bigger one. The day before, when we had gotten into camp, Nate had mentioned that his feet were cold. We had put water bottles, filled with boiling water at our feet to keep them warm during the night. This failed to fully warm his toes up. When we were breaking camp, he kept mentioning how cold his toes were. Raf’s toes were also cold, but not to the degree that Nate was experiencing. Nate had gotten some water in his boots from rain and snow getting inside his gaiters and running into his boots. This caused his feet to get colder than they should have.

However, at the moment, there was not much we could do, so we decided when we got to the road, we would check them. We slowly finished packing up and headed out. Today travel was slightly easier than yesterday. The snow was not quite so sloppy and wet; it having frozen some over the night. Even though we were breaking trail, we were soon headed on a slight downhill that helped immensely. We easily covered the two miles to Ausable Rd by noon.

Natural Snoballs

When we got there, Raf pulled lunch out of his pack, I pulled out my Leatherman, and Nate pulled out his feet. I ended up pulling out the only thing that was without fault. We realized the reason why the animal had seemed content with a couple wheat thins and a nibble of the cheese was because it had taken both of our peanut butter/honey/oatmeal roll. Now we were angry at the little bugger. We though up horrible deaths for it. Among some of the better ideas were that its mouth would get stuck by the peanut butter, causing it to starve with a full mouth. Another was that it would eat so much and become so fat, that it would not be able to fit in its hole and freeze to death.

Looking at options and feet

Besides hypothesizing different ways for the rodent to die, over lunch we discussed our options. One was to continue our trip as planned, while the other one boiled down to us bailing on this trip in order to make sure we would be able to look back on it with fond memories. Frostbite is not a cheery companion, so we decided to head out. My pick-up was parked about five miles away by road, so we decided to drop our packs behind a snow bank, grab a couple layers of clothing and, along with Charlotte, quickly cover the distance.

We set off the car speedometer

This part of the walk was smooth, flat and easy. It contrasted dramatically with the kind of terrain that we had encountered the day before. We pounded pavement at about four miles an hour and arrived at the parking lot excited to head out. However, when we got there I suddenly realized that I had put my keys in my rain jacket, and we had left our gear five miles back at the trail head. Two guys who had just arrived at the parking lot kindly offered to give us a ride to our gear. We accepted right before I realized how stupid I was. The keys were in my rain jacket, but my rain jacket was the warm layer that I had packed to bring along. Feeling foolish and apologizing to the nice guys, we found my keys, unlocked the truck and tumbled in. Quickly arriving back at our gear, we picked it up, and said goodbye to the Adirondacks.

You had better be careful

Me and Charlotte Hanging out.

We made it back home in time for Dad’s wonderful pizza and to start planning for the morrow. 

Spring Vacation Part 3, Trip, Day 1

We were soaked after a tough day of hiking. Disappointment hung over us as we crouched miserably under our tarp. The day had beaten us like a housewife beats her rugs. Our legs were tired and our moral was low. We had covered a fraction of our goal and were pooped.

We woke up to our alarms at 4:14 AM. Although still tired, we were excited to go. We were about to set off in winter to backpack in the Adirondacks! We got dressed, ate breakfast, grabbed the cheese from the fridge, pooped in a toilet one last time and hit the road. The plan was to leave my pickup at one trailhead and have Mom drop us off several miles down the road. This would eliminate the need to backtrack and give us a sense of direction and movement.

After dropping off my pickup, we arrived at the trailhead at about 8:00AM. Surprisingly, unlike most of the other pull off points along this road, the trailhead parking spot was not plowed. This was not too bad though, as Mom was only dropping us off, but it did suggest that we would be breaking trail.

Register at the trail head, Usually we can stand and use these

The temperature was warm, but it was drizzling slightly. We said goodbye to Mom and started donning our snowshoes. This was the first time that Nate or Raf had used snowshoes so they were just learning how they felt on their feet. They were about to get crash course in the toughest snowshoe conditions I have ever experienced.

Charlotte, being carried by Nate

After locating the trail, we confirmed that it would be unbroken. On Monday, it had snowed several feet of fresh powder. Now however, the snow was a mushy, icy slush. Breaking an untracked trail is mentally and physically tormenting. Since the leader of the pack has to do most of the work, we decided to switch off every 200 paces or so (although someone took it super literally at first, Raf). Breaking trail is tough for a number of reasons. The first is that it is sometimes hard to tell where the trail goes. Once we lost the trail for about 15 minutes as we were skirting around Round Pond. The major reason why it is so tough, though, is the dead drag on the snowshoes. Whenever we put our snowshoes down; heavy, wet, sticky snow would fall on top of the snowshoe deck. When we picked our feet up we would also lift the several pounds weight. Needless to say, our hip flexors were having the workout of their lives. The third and final reason why it was tough was the time and effort it took to transfer weight from one shoe to the other. When walking down a sidewalk, we put our feet down and they stay there as we put our weight on it. When snowshoeing in these conditions, after putting our feet down, we would have to push it through the snow another six inches to a foot to get a solid grip. This added a leg press to each step that we wouldn’t normally have to deal with.

In spite of the trail breaking and slow time, we were in high spirits. Even though it was drizzling and barely 40 degrees, I was soon in a t-shirt, although after an hour, when we had settled into a slower pace, I put on a long sleeve shirt again. The trail was grueling. Our legs were aching. We had gone two miles and it was time for lunch, so we ate.

This is the Trail marker

We are pressing on, not thinking, but listening. Listening to what? The wind? Yes, it must be the wind. But why has it been getting louder? It sounds more like water… it is water. There is a stream in the path. No, not a stream, but flowing slush, or rather water flowing through slush. Not only is it over 20 feet wide, but the slush is four feet deep. No way are we going to get across this here.

This is the Trail

The rain and warm temperatures had conspired against us, causing this stream to grow to its gargantuan size. We dropped packs and went scouting up stream. Fortunately, there was a deadfall across a skinnier section of the stream. We retrieved our packs and set up a bucket brigade for the packs, the person on one bank handed them to the person on the deadfall, who then passed it to the person on the other bank. We were passed the stream!!!

Bucket/Pack Brigade

After another little while we crossed another stream. This one had a solid snow bridge that the water went under for about forty feet. However, the next brook we need to cross was what defeated us. Scouting up stream only revealed ever steepening banks with only two possible and very precarious cross over points, and downstream a spreading swamp. We joked about using our p-cord and ice axes as grappling hooks to make swings from the trees. Instead, we turned around.

Crossing back over second time

This decision was actually quite fortunate. The snow bridge that we had crossed over less than an hour before, had shrunk from its previous size, to a mere 10 feet or so across. Quite relieved at getting back in time, we quickly crossed over and continued backtracking. If we hadn’t been able to cross over safely, on either that snow bridge, or a deadfall, we would have had to camp there and wait for it to refreeze over night or bushwhack up high enough to where it was small enough to cross. Fortunately, we didn’t have to do either of those options.

We crossed back over our first stream and made decent time back to where we had eaten lunch. The itinerary was for us to have continued on the track we had started down, set up camp in the lean-to there, and climb Dix Mt. Tomorrow, we would have backtracked to where we were now and hike through the pass between Noonmark and Round Mountain. However, we were here today. It was 3:00PM, we had gone five miles and we were tired. We decided to walk up the path about as far as we could and make camp. We made it pretty far. It was probably about 150 yds before we found the first promising camp sight.

Packing our camping area

We dropped packs, and stomped around, packing down the snow. We set up the tarp to cook under and erected our tents. As soon as we were ready we made our dinner of spaghetti and zucchini. It was quite delicious and boosted our spirits as we crouched under the tarp, slurping away. After we finished dinner, we crawled into our sleeping bags and waited for Raf.

Waiting for dinner and hot water

One of the many ongoing jokes at are always the fruits of such trips was the amount of time Raf takes to get ready. He is the one to look to when one wants to gage how prepared the group is to; move, eat, or sleep. If he is ready, the rest of us are ready. He isn’t lazy or careless, but just the opposite; he is precise and careful. It also didn’t help that he had two sleeping bags to line up. The reason we had to wait for him, was that we were reading Life of Pi out loud to each other. We decided it would be a cool idea to use our camp time to read a good and interesting book.

After reading one chapter though, we decided that it we were too tired, turned out the lights and fell into a delighted sleep. It was 6:30PM.

I woke up again sometime around 11:00PM. I thought I heard something walking around but I knew that couldn’t be. A little while later I was almost sure I heard sometime like a crinkling plastic bag. I whistled a loud clear pitch. Nothing. I put my boots and gaiters on and went to investigate. Sure enough, there was something out there that scampered away. It was too light to leave footprints in the now frozen surface of the snow. However, I found our bag of wheat thins on the other side of the tarp. I knew this was not the wind since it had been moved ten feet and a couple of the wheat thins were scattered about on the snow.

We had known that bears would still be hibernating, but we had not figured in the smaller varmints who were active all winter long. I picked up the wheat thins and put the one that were on the snow in the garbage. I collected the rest of the food and put it in my pack, hoping that I had scared the animal away for the night. I relieved myself and stuck a stake from Nate and Raf’s tent that had come out of the snow back in. I guess I scared Nate, but after telling him what was up, I returned to my sleeping bag, and snuggled in, warm and cozy for a good night sleep. 

Again, all photos courtesy of Nate Mori