Offered in partnership with the Maine Local Living School.Penobscot Expedition is a journey to understand the past and present of the Penobscot Nation. Our expedition is informed by these questions: What does it mean to live in the same place for 10,000 years? What can the ‘dominant culture’ learn from indigenous people? What is our role in the ongoing struggle for tribal sovereignty? We begin the journey at the Maine Local Living School where we carve poles for upstream canoe travel, paying our respect to indigenous ingenuity. While on the homestead we will harvest and preserve food, use the solar dehydrator, and process acorns into flour. Departing the homestead, we begin our expedition with rocky, shallow, technical upstream paddling and poling. We follow an ancient canoe route used by Wabanaki tribes to connect the Penobscot and Kennebec River watersheds. We face challenging navigation through the thin headwaters of two rivers, and encounter abundant wild foods, giant turtles, friction fire, and the same difficult portages that have been done for thousands of years. Our destination is the Penobscot River where we will meet Penobscot tribal members on Sugar Island. Here we will learn about tribal history and world views, contemporary issues facing the Penobscot Nation, and what it means to be Penobscot in 2025.
Between the White Mountains and Canada lies a little-traveled trail through some of New Hampshire’s most remote and scenic wilderness. Spanning 162 miles of rugged mountainous terrain, the Cohos Trail connects the northern lakes that form the headwaters of the Connecticut River with the high peaks of the White Mountains. This trail and territory is known to be mysterious and home to New Hampshire’s largest population of moose! It is here we will master the art of self-sufficient wilderness travel. Beginning at the northern end of the trail, we hike across bog bridges, past 50-foot cascading waterfalls, and to the summits of little-known and less traveled peaks. Across the many lakes of the Great North Woods we will get views of the highest peaks of the White Mountains. These rocky summits are our destinations! As the mountains grow taller, we will grow more confident navigating with map and compass, cooking delicious food over the fire, and making decisions together as a group. Our backpacks will feel like an extension of our bodies, and our group will become a tight-knit community, exploring and experiencing the feeling of accomplishment that comes with traveling on your own two feet.
New in 2026: three weeks of whitewater fun!Kroka’s Paddler’s Journey Up North returns to its old stomping ground this year with a three-week expedition into the Great North Woods. We begin with a week of intensive paddlesports training at Kroka’s basecamp where the Ashuelot, Cold, West, Connecticut, and Deerfield Rivers offer some of the best canoe and kayak progressions in the Northeast. We will pick berries, work with the farm animals, and go cliff-jumping as we build a tight-knit community. From here we depart for two weeks of expedition whitewater in the White Mountains and Western Maine. After three days of practice at fish-flow on the Kennebec and Dead rivers, we will work our way up to challenging class IV rapids during the weekend release, equipped with Kroka’s fleet of whitewater Catarafts. From here we drive north to the West Branch of the Penobscot River for a weeklong expedition across Lake Chesuncook and down the Ripogenus Gorge at the edge of Baxter State Park. The expedition concludes with an early morning ascent of Mt. Katahdin, Maine’s highest peak.Students are welcome to return for a second or third year of Paddlerʻs Journey Up North.
A rough, wild line that few sail, and fewer kayak. Dramatic cliffs and prominent tides. Paddling towards Canada, sometimes with the water, and sometimes against it. The name of the coast speaks for itself. After honing our sea kayaking and expedition skills along tamer sections of the Maine coast, we will set off for the easternmost miles of the U.S. coastline, paddling by day and carefully searching for hidden coves to spend the night. We’ll dive into the history of the region, of colonial settlers, of lonely lobstermen and shipwrecked boats, and the indigenous who came first, and take in the pristine beauty and nature of Maine's farthest reaches. Along the way we will visit farms and communities, immersing ourselves in the Downeast culture of Maine. After a brave final crossing we enter the safe waters of the harbor and return to the shore. Come along on an adventurous paddle that is a feather in the cap of any sea kayaker!