Blog #4 Gaspesie
We began our second leg of semester around 6am on February 26th.
We all piled into a van with a trailer behind it holding all of our gear and food for our Canadian expedition. Our first stop was at Fort #4, very close to Kroka in New Hampshire, where the Roger’s Rangers plotted the massacre of Abenaki women and children of the St. Francis tribe (Quebec) in 1759. To our disappointment it was locked up, so Luke and Liam tried to find an entry way by climbing to the roof! This was a perfect introduction into our topic of learning on our van ride up, we read The Old American. This book follows the capture of an English settler from Keene, NH, Nathan Blake, by a native American, Caucus-Meteor. Not so coincidentally, their route heading north is almost identical to the route we will take, heading south in the spring.
As the sun was setting that night and we were just arriving in the town of our hostel, Manor de Sapins, we stopped and ran down onto the beach of the St. Lawrence. This beach was unlike any beach many of us had seen before.
It was made of fairly flat sheets of rock, covered in giant pieces of iceberg. This provided a beautiful place to stand at the edge of the water and jump for joy to shake off the stiffness of having spent an entire day inside the van.
The next morning we headed out to the trailhead on the northeastern side of Gaspesie National Park. That day was spent climbing in elevation to try to make it to our first cabin. About half way up we stopped and unloaded ten or so bags of food for later in the expedition which made the second half of our journey much quicker. That night when we arrived at La Paruline, our first cabin, we discovered that there were only eight beds and fourteen people. So, we learned how to dig a snow shelter big enough for four people to sleep in!
The next morning we had our first group solo day. This meant that Misha and Nora skied a shorter way to our next cabin, La Pluvier, while we took the 14.6 km route. For the first half of the day we had a steady climb such that in the afternoon, the down hills felt oh so nice. Unfortunately, as it got later and we were all starting to feel tired, Luize took a hard spill. The response to her injury required an incredible amount of teamwork, and she was evacuated with Nora the following morning.
That day there were two other groups of people who had special tasks. Dylan, Havah, Liam and Edie took twenty of our food bags ahead about 16 kilometers which made for a 32 kilometer day going there and back. The third group was made up of Ma’or, Lillian and Emily and our job was to go five kilometers back to the place we had hung our food on the first day to retrieve it. Seeing Luize and Nora speed by us in a skidoo on their way out gave us relief that everyone was safe.
Though it was a sadness to lose such a dynamic member of our community, we also learned a lot from this high stress situation. We learned how to act quickly as a group, to make quick and vital decisions, and ultimately we learned how to trust each other. Given the circumstances, the outcome of the situation could not have been better. The next step we had to take was to attempt to heal from the loss in our group as well as from the shock of holding responsibility in such a delicate scenario.
Though this incident was fairly impactful, life carries on and so did our expedition.
The following day, we split into two groups: one group took the trail less traveled which was 17 km and more challenging. The other group took the snowmobile road which was about 20 kilometers. That night we stayed at Le Huard, a two story cabin which was more of a house. The following day was very challenging, as we were traveling to the farthest cabin in the park, La Nyctale. The distance was about 18 km, and the last three were a very steep uphill giving us quite an incredible view.
White snow coats the ground
from peaks we see the ocean
a land of beauty.
~Georgie Bittenbender
The next morning was very clear, so we took the opportunity to ski to the summit of Mont Logan, one of the two highest peaks in Gaspesie. From the top we were able to look over the St. Lawrence Bay as well as the beautiful Chic-Chocs. As we descended, we got to practice tele turning and got to play in the powder! It was so fun in fact, that while the rest of the group began to head down, Luke, Georgie, Dylan and Emily hiked up the slope two more times just to ski down! Another excitement of that day was the great reveal of Luke and Dylan’s red capes that had made back at base camp. They read “Bonzo” and “Ducas.”
In the afternoon Misha taught us how to build an igloo. Unfortunately, the process of building requires that someone stay on the inside and get closed in for a few minutes before being dug out when the doorway is made. Our two volunteers were Liam and Martina. When we were getting close to the end Martina got too cold and began to feel hypothermic, so we passed her water and chocolate and warm layers while Liam took care of her until we finished. Since then, we’ve been hearing that many people staying at La Nyctale since our departure have enjoyed staying inside our igloo!
We ended up leaving La Nyctale a day early due to some scheduling confusions and made our way, about 12 kilometers, over to La Carouge. At this cabin we had a one day lay-over which we spent learning how to build a sled out of skis and doing short navigation assignments with a partner. We were all given a map and with our compass, we were able to follow the route showed to us by Misha beforehand.
The next day’s travels brought us to La Messange. Most of us chose to follow a flowage for the beginning of the trip, but we traveled in small groups so we were all there at different times. Because of this, when Rachel fell in, she was with just her small group members Havah and Liam. They quickly pulled her out, backpack, skis and all, and she seemed a little wet, but unharmed. As they continued on she admitted that her shoulder was hurting and a couple minutes later she fell again, but this time was unable to lift her arm when she got up. Our trip that day lead us by Le Huard before arriving at La Messange, so Havah and Liam dropped her off with a couple staying there, one of whom was a surgeon, while they ran the rest of the way back to La Messange to get Misha who would know how to reset her shoulder. Unfortunately, one of the women staying in the cabin got nervous and unnecessarily called an evacuation team. By the time Misha arrived on scene, it was too late to call off the rescuers, so after he reset her shoulder, she had to go down the mountain in the skidoo. The next day, the remaining ten semester students skied down from La Messange to Le Huard where we spent our last night before heading out of the park the following day.
At the trailhead we reunited with Rachel, Luize and Nora, and shared stories of our different adventures. Luize had been transferred to the Rimouski hospital for surgery, where she was accompanied by Nora. They spent the following week at a homestay with a native Quebecois, French speaker, and loving mother, Louise, in the village of Bic on the shores of the St. Lawrence and the edge of Bic National Park. Luize wrote:
This expedition has been a lot to handle for both students and teachers given the difficult circumstances, but there were also so many opportunities to learn within these scenarios that we have come out a much stronger group.
Happy reading! ~Emily Wasem :)
P.S. Check out the video the NH Chronicle made of the semester program:
We all piled into a van with a trailer behind it holding all of our gear and food for our Canadian expedition. Our first stop was at Fort #4, very close to Kroka in New Hampshire, where the Roger’s Rangers plotted the massacre of Abenaki women and children of the St. Francis tribe (Quebec) in 1759. To our disappointment it was locked up, so Luke and Liam tried to find an entry way by climbing to the roof! This was a perfect introduction into our topic of learning on our van ride up, we read The Old American. This book follows the capture of an English settler from Keene, NH, Nathan Blake, by a native American, Caucus-Meteor. Not so coincidentally, their route heading north is almost identical to the route we will take, heading south in the spring.
As the sun was setting that night and we were just arriving in the town of our hostel, Manor de Sapins, we stopped and ran down onto the beach of the St. Lawrence. This beach was unlike any beach many of us had seen before.
It was made of fairly flat sheets of rock, covered in giant pieces of iceberg. This provided a beautiful place to stand at the edge of the water and jump for joy to shake off the stiffness of having spent an entire day inside the van.
The next morning we headed out to the trailhead on the northeastern side of Gaspesie National Park. That day was spent climbing in elevation to try to make it to our first cabin. About half way up we stopped and unloaded ten or so bags of food for later in the expedition which made the second half of our journey much quicker. That night when we arrived at La Paruline, our first cabin, we discovered that there were only eight beds and fourteen people. So, we learned how to dig a snow shelter big enough for four people to sleep in!
 |
| on the way up! |
The next morning we had our first group solo day. This meant that Misha and Nora skied a shorter way to our next cabin, La Pluvier, while we took the 14.6 km route. For the first half of the day we had a steady climb such that in the afternoon, the down hills felt oh so nice. Unfortunately, as it got later and we were all starting to feel tired, Luize took a hard spill. The response to her injury required an incredible amount of teamwork, and she was evacuated with Nora the following morning.
 |
That day there were two other groups of people who had special tasks. Dylan, Havah, Liam and Edie took twenty of our food bags ahead about 16 kilometers which made for a 32 kilometer day going there and back. The third group was made up of Ma’or, Lillian and Emily and our job was to go five kilometers back to the place we had hung our food on the first day to retrieve it. Seeing Luize and Nora speed by us in a skidoo on their way out gave us relief that everyone was safe.
Though it was a sadness to lose such a dynamic member of our community, we also learned a lot from this high stress situation. We learned how to act quickly as a group, to make quick and vital decisions, and ultimately we learned how to trust each other. Given the circumstances, the outcome of the situation could not have been better. The next step we had to take was to attempt to heal from the loss in our group as well as from the shock of holding responsibility in such a delicate scenario.
Though this incident was fairly impactful, life carries on and so did our expedition.
The following day, we split into two groups: one group took the trail less traveled which was 17 km and more challenging. The other group took the snowmobile road which was about 20 kilometers. That night we stayed at Le Huard, a two story cabin which was more of a house. The following day was very challenging, as we were traveling to the farthest cabin in the park, La Nyctale. The distance was about 18 km, and the last three were a very steep uphill giving us quite an incredible view.
White snow coats the ground
from peaks we see the ocean
a land of beauty.
~Georgie Bittenbender
The next morning was very clear, so we took the opportunity to ski to the summit of Mont Logan, one of the two highest peaks in Gaspesie. From the top we were able to look over the St. Lawrence Bay as well as the beautiful Chic-Chocs. As we descended, we got to practice tele turning and got to play in the powder! It was so fun in fact, that while the rest of the group began to head down, Luke, Georgie, Dylan and Emily hiked up the slope two more times just to ski down! Another excitement of that day was the great reveal of Luke and Dylan’s red capes that had made back at base camp. They read “Bonzo” and “Ducas.”
In the afternoon Misha taught us how to build an igloo. Unfortunately, the process of building requires that someone stay on the inside and get closed in for a few minutes before being dug out when the doorway is made. Our two volunteers were Liam and Martina. When we were getting close to the end Martina got too cold and began to feel hypothermic, so we passed her water and chocolate and warm layers while Liam took care of her until we finished. Since then, we’ve been hearing that many people staying at La Nyctale since our departure have enjoyed staying inside our igloo!
We ended up leaving La Nyctale a day early due to some scheduling confusions and made our way, about 12 kilometers, over to La Carouge. At this cabin we had a one day lay-over which we spent learning how to build a sled out of skis and doing short navigation assignments with a partner. We were all given a map and with our compass, we were able to follow the route showed to us by Misha beforehand.
The next day’s travels brought us to La Messange. Most of us chose to follow a flowage for the beginning of the trip, but we traveled in small groups so we were all there at different times. Because of this, when Rachel fell in, she was with just her small group members Havah and Liam. They quickly pulled her out, backpack, skis and all, and she seemed a little wet, but unharmed. As they continued on she admitted that her shoulder was hurting and a couple minutes later she fell again, but this time was unable to lift her arm when she got up. Our trip that day lead us by Le Huard before arriving at La Messange, so Havah and Liam dropped her off with a couple staying there, one of whom was a surgeon, while they ran the rest of the way back to La Messange to get Misha who would know how to reset her shoulder. Unfortunately, one of the women staying in the cabin got nervous and unnecessarily called an evacuation team. By the time Misha arrived on scene, it was too late to call off the rescuers, so after he reset her shoulder, she had to go down the mountain in the skidoo. The next day, the remaining ten semester students skied down from La Messange to Le Huard where we spent our last night before heading out of the park the following day.
At the trailhead we reunited with Rachel, Luize and Nora, and shared stories of our different adventures. Luize had been transferred to the Rimouski hospital for surgery, where she was accompanied by Nora. They spent the following week at a homestay with a native Quebecois, French speaker, and loving mother, Louise, in the village of Bic on the shores of the St. Lawrence and the edge of Bic National Park. Luize wrote:
‘All these days brought new experiences for me with a lot of messages for my life. Now I know what it means to be in a hospital because it was my first time ever being hospitalized. Many new things came about that were connected with this accident. I lived in Louise’s house, joined her company, learned with Nora and sang in the Bic gospel choir. We drove around the area and saw many farms and in the evening there was a beautiful sunset over the ocean. These new experiences make me ask a question of myself—how am I living and how am I doing things in my life? All in all, I felt pretty calm during these days because I took everything as a big lesson.’Louise was a composer and shared her own French songs about the local mountains with Luize and Nora. Next the semester group continues north to Uapishka…
‘Le veux marcher dans la Toundra/ Avant que là- bas sont comme ici/ Au nord du nord de veux aller’ ‘I want to walk in the Tundra/ before there will be like here/ To the north of the north I want to go.’
(Louise Keable)
This expedition has been a lot to handle for both students and teachers given the difficult circumstances, but there were also so many opportunities to learn within these scenarios that we have come out a much stronger group.
Happy reading! ~Emily Wasem :)
P.S. Check out the video the NH Chronicle made of the semester program:
MORE PHOTOS FROM EXPEDITION:
How is Luize?
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