KROKA EXPEDITIONS

Earth Crafts

Sun Jun 29 - Sat Jul 5, 2025
(7 days)
Ages 11 - 13

An introduction to Earth Skills

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live in a time when all the necessities of life were made by hand from the raw materials of the earth? During this exciting week we will settle into traditional dwellings made from poles and sod. Venturing into the forest we will set up a wilderness campsite and learn a variety of primitive crafts. Days will be filled with playing forest games, lighting fires, learning to cook wholesome feasts, and working with our hands as well as swimming and climbing trees. Come celebrate the wonder of Earth Crafts and return home with your own creations.

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Penobscot Expedition

Sun Jun 29 - Sat Jul 19, 2025
(21 days)
Ages 15 - 18

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 by traveling to the Maine Local Living School where we will harvest and carve our own poles for upstream canoe travel. While on the homestead we will harvest and preserve food, use the solar dehydrator, and process acorns into flour for our expedition to the cultural heart of the Penobscot Nation. Departing the homestead, we begin our travel with rocky, shallow, technical upstream paddling and poling. Our journey follows 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. As one river meets another, we find our way to the Penobscot River where we will join Penobscot tribal members on Sugar Island. The next several days are filled with learning about tribal history and world views, contemporary issues facing the Penobscot Nation, and what it means to be Penobscot in 2025. With deeper understanding and even more questions, we depart once more: downstream this time, following the largest river in Maine to the salty sea.

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Get Lost!

Sun Jul 6 - Sat Jul 12, 2025
(7 days)
Ages 13 - 15

“Not all who wander are lost” - Tolkien

Get ready to find your way through the woods with only a paper map and a compass as your guides. After a day and a half of training on Kroka’s orienteering course, learning to read contour lines and follow an azimuth, we will load what we need into our backpacks and travel to a place where the forest is thick and wild. Here, following our intuition, the sun, and the stars, we will begin the journey of finding our way home. This program is not only about getting lost: it is adventurous days of bushwhacking, refreshing dips in a mountain stream, cooking bread-on-a-stick over the fire, and experiencing teamwork and companionship as we find our place in the circle of community.

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for info & registration...

Fishing Adventure

Sun Jul 13 - Sat Jul 19, 2025
(7 days)
Ages 11 - 13

Join us on an adventure in fishing, crafting, and exploring the hidden secrets of the streams, lakes, and rivers that surround us. We begin the week at Kroka Village where we will carve our own fishing poles, learn to tie flies, and rig our lines. In the afternoons we will try our luck from shore, testing our patience and our wit while exploring the magical forests that surround us. Then with barrels packed and lines reeled tight, we will head out on a three-day expedition by canoe through one of Vermont’s most famous fisheries. Each day we’ll paddle further downstream, learning about currents, eddies, and fish habitats. In the heat of the day we’ll stop to swim and to test the many rope swings and jumping rocks along the shore! We will camp in the forest and cook delicious dinners over the fire. We eat what we catch: eager fisherfolk should be excited to gut, clean, and cook their fish. If you’ve fallen hook line and sinker for the adventure of fishing, this expedition is not to be missed!

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for info & registration...

Wild Earth Wanderers

Sun Jul 13 - Sat Jul 26, 2025
(14 days)
Ages 13 - 15

A two-week immersion program in Earth living skills and nature connection.

Come enjoy two weeks out in the woods, where together we will deepen the experience and skills that our ancestors knew. We will build shelters and tend the flames of fires kindled in the old ways with friction, creating a village home out in and of the forest. Gifts of woods and waters nourish us as we forage, fish and gather what the land has to offer. We will gather and process berries, mushrooms, acorns, and animals for food. We will carve, weave and create some of the tools we need to live well. The animals around us will be our teachers too, in their tracks and movements. Using traditional methods we will tan hides: scraping, softening, and working to change an animal skin into a soft, supple material to stitch something useful and beautiful. Through it all we will live with the question, how can we can give back to the land that offers us so much? By listening, observing and being still in the landscape, as well as by playing games, crafting and singing, we will deepen our connection to the land around us, each other, and ourselves.

This program builds on the experience in Earth Crafts and Forest, Forage and Flame, and is a deeper, more immersive experience exploration earth living skills. Students who have prior experience in these skills (carving, fire-making, foraging etc,) will get the most out of this more in-depth two-week experience. This expedition program includes some wilderness travel but also involves staying in one place more than many expeditions in order to make a life in and from the natural world!

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for info & registration...

Boys Rite of Passage

Sun Aug 3 - Sat Aug 16, 2025
(14 days)
Ages 13 - 15

Boys Rite of Passage is open to male-identified and non-binary participants.

A call to all boys who wish to become the best that they can be! Join us in meeting a challenge that could change how you grow into a man. During this two-week expedition we will challenge our minds, bodies, and spirits while immersing ourselves in the beauty of the Vermont wilderness. Like the ancient school of the Samurai, we will wake early in the morning with exercises that build our concentration and dexterity, our strength, and our will. The coming expedition will test us. We will carry everything we need on our backs. The mountains and river valleys will be our guides, the wind and the rain our teachers. We will not follow trails but blaze our own way, relying on maps, compasses, and our intuition. At night, we’ll gather around the fire to share wisdom and tell stories. As boys crossing the threshold into manhood, we will experience ceremony, build a joyful community, speak from our hearts, and have an opportunity to be alone in the wilderness. Will you join us?

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Take to the Woods

Sun Aug 10 - Sat Aug 16, 2025
(7 days)
Ages 11 - 13

Come Take to the Woods and become the wild children of the forest! Experience the pure fun and magic of living in and from the wilderness. The forest will fuel our projects, providing saplings for branch bows, dry wood for friction fire, pine for bowl carving, and wild plants for food. Camping on the banks of the Ashuelot River we will swim, fish, and learn stealth while observing the life of the woodland animals that abound. We will form new friendships with nature and each other. We will become a true community, relying on each other and celebrating the joys of summertime. Yes, let’s take to the woods: we are the wild ones, adventuring and learning the secrets of the earth!

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for info & registration...