This Capstone Expedition is open to students who have completed Climber’s Journey Up North or another intermediate climbing expedition, and by invitation. Students will be expected to complete advance preparation including food dehydration, route planning, and participate in group fundraising activities. Join Kroka’s infamous climbing team David “Davicho” Silva and Marga Cardoso in a trip to the Red River Gorge: the Climber’s Mecca of the Eastern USA. We begin our journey at Kroka’s basecamp where we will refresh our climbing skills on local granite. We will work on the farm and prepare food to take with us on our journey. Up early we will drive down to Eastern Kentucky, stopping along the way to explore the hills and hollows of the Appalachian Mountains. Here we will establish a wilderness basecamp where we set out each day to climb progressively more challenging routes featuring overhung jugs, hollows, pockets, slopers, horns, and crimps! Home to more than 3,000 established routes across more than 100 sandstone cliffs, the Red River Gorge is as alluring as it is expansive. In addition to boasting some of the best sport climbing anywhere, the region is filled with deep, clear swimming holes, ancient caves, and breathtaking views of the surrounding hills. When not on the wall we will study the folk history of the region, learn about the impact of coal mining on the landscape, work on wilderness crafts, and spend time giving back through community service.
Come along in a journey that retraces ancient wisdom and ways from the river out to sea. We begin our journey at Kroka preparing food and equipment for our long journey. Next we head up to Maine to the homestead of a local artisan who will teach us to carve our own wooden paddles! We will meet master canoe builder, Rollin Thurlow, and learn how he builds handmade cedar canoes. We will also enjoy Maine life in the summertime: swimming, paddling, and exploring the northern forests. After a week of preparation we are ready to set off down the Penobscot River, the ancestral home of the Penobscot Nation, which we will follow all the way out into the ocean for our boat’s maiden voyage. Learning the indigenous story of relationship between people and place, we will spend a day with Penobscot guides on Sugar Island focused on native plants and crafts, visit the Penobscot reservation on Indian Island, eat a traditional meal, and learn basketry and other crafts. An exciting day of white water below Indian Island will bring us to where the river becomes tidal and our rhythms shift to paddle with the tides, sail with the wind, and navigate between islands and through fog. We will learn practical leadership skills, become expert ocean navigators, and learn to set camp on the rocky shores and inlets of the spectacular Deer Isle Archipelago. Through it all, we share in the hard work and simple joys of our salty, nomadic life.
Kroka’s annual Canadian Expedition is a capstone experience for students ready for the adventure of a lifetime. Each year we take a team of dedicated paddlers to one of the great rivers of the North: the Ashuapmushuan, Coulonge, Moisie, Broadback, and others. Pristine and breathtakingly beautiful, these rivers drain the vast northern forests of Quebec and Ontario, accessible only by remote logging routes seldom driven. Traveling self-sufficiently downriver, we experience the awe-inspiring beauty of the north country and some of the best whitewater paddling in the East. In the afternoons we make camp along the gravel bars and rocky beaches, gather mushrooms, fish and berries to eat, and sleep under an endless starry sky. Canadian Expedition takes us deep into remote wilderness where the joys and challenges of expedition life bring out our best selves. As we travel to and from the river we experience the cultural lifeways of northern people, visiting with local indigenous communities, post-industrial villages, and the old cities of Quebec and Montreal. Students are expected to dehydrate expedition food and take on advance preparation tasks before the start of the expedition.
