Blog #5: Uapishka Expedition

BLOG #5: Uapishka Expedition

Love Letter to Uapishka

“Dear Uapishka,

My heart is yours. There is no way to properly describe the fluttering in my chest that climbs its way up my throat when I see your peaks against the sky. As I sat inside the hard-packed snow that encrusted your majestic slopes, I felt that I could hear a singing voice; I could hear your song. A song of strength, wisdom, and passivity I had never experienced before. Your tone in the music of life is of beauty and serenity, and holds all those who join in the song. You, Uapishka, have given me a place in which to sing and play and be a beautiful child in the world again. A place where nothing matters but the slopes and the sky, and that beautiful space in between where I can grow and thrive. I love you Uapishka, you will always be a place of reverence and serenity in the world. Love, Emily Wasem.”

Headed up the waterfall

When I left you last, it was on the eve of our final winter expedition. Unfortunately, due to both their mishaps on the Gaspé leg, Rachel and Luize were unable to join us in Uapishka. Including our teachers, Hannah and Oliver, our group was a mere twelve. With our new group, we traveled by ferry and van up north, to the Uapishka Plateau, also known as Les Mont Groulx. Our first two nights were spent camping in our winter tent on the land of a friend of Kroka, Jacques Duhoux. His home is very beautiful- almost all the structures (and there are many!) are either made of wood or other recycled materials. He also has a stunning outside museum that we all took time to look through. Thee too, the pieces were all made of beautifully carved and painted wood as well as sanded pieces of glass and seashells. During the time spent at Jacques’, we ferried food up a very steep flowage to our first camp on Lac Castor. On our first trip up the flowage, both Luke and Edie broke their ski bindings and had to return to camp where Lillian had been spending the day nursing her badly blistered feet. After dropping our food at the top, we all flew and fell back down the flowage to camp, trying not to fall in any places where there was open water.

Skiing on a bluebird day!

The Undoing of a Sit Spot

“You are found.

The white mountains cradle you, their rims remind you of the lines of a crashing wave you once frolicked through in the summer. Everything may make sense- you may know why you came, one side of a country to another. You watched your fingers move, your hands worn in. The sun feels brighter than you thought you remembered it, like a bear in hibernation. Grumpy, you crawl out and sit on a mat, complaining to yourself, the air stinging your face, you try to just picture nothing inside your brain. Going like rushing cars you attempt to breathe- like a bear out of hibernation you see the land with newborn eyes choosing a spot to sit in the cold mountain air between where the two spruce gossip on the soft open snow, the sky sings baby blue. The song of the valley says sit! Oliver says, grab a mat. Hannah says, go;

You are lost. The undoing of a sit spot.” ~Martina Sexton

Liam!

The next day, we said goodbye to Jacques, and headed up to our beautiful camp on Lac Castor. As we arrived there, half the group stopped to set up camp while the other half made a food drop about four kilometers away on top of a windy mountain. The following morning we started our daily routine of taking turns having a leader of the day, and because we had begun to read the Endurance, we called this person our “Shackleton”. Our pioneer Shackleton was Havah. She broke trail for us the entire day and lead us to a camp near a lake we called Ghost Lake, where we stayed for three nights. The first day we spend there we skied the whole day to retrieve the food that was left on the top of the mountain two days before and because it had snowed throughout the night and into that day, it was rather slow moving, breaking trail the whole way. However, the powder was quite exciting, especially on the way there with our empty backpacks because we could shred down the hills and practice our telemark turns. Georgie was our Shackleton that day and did a phenomenal job leading us over ridge after ridge in whiteout conditions to find our food. At this camp as well, many of us took the opportunity to hike up the hills surrounding us to ski down in the fresh powder. Unfortunately, Luke broke both of his ski bindings doing this and Dylan spent the next day fixing them.

Camp at Lac Ghost

Our next day of travel was led by Liam, who did a wonderful job of navigating to and across Lac Joyel to a lake we called Squirrel Lake on account of its shape. The camp site we chose was not too bad except for the fact that it had absolutely no wind protection which made it hard to have our evening meeting, as we could barely hear each other over the flapping tent. While we were there, we all took time to write a review of our camp as if it were Yelp.

Yelp Review of a Campsite

“This campsite was by far one of the most interesting campsites we’ve ever had. For starters, the only campsite we could find was in this open area that apparently likes having wind as its company. We’ve had many interesting experiences such as taking cold bandana baths that make your toes numb, collecting firewood all afternoon, loosing axe sheaths, getting poop on one of the shovels, and writing weird yelp reviews about a campsite. One of the major negatives of this site is that every time I go outside, I see this big pile of food stuff sacks and my back and I start to cry a little bit on the inside and make us go a little crazy at the same time. The only positive thing I can think of for this site is when we ‘kinda saw’ the aurora borealis the first night we slugged into this place and seeing Liam scraping his skis next to the fire screen while it was happening. I give this campsite two stars only because of those memorable things that have happened here, and I’m being pretty generous with this rating too.” ~Dylan Packard

Dukas and Bonzo- at it again.

Our next travel day was lead by yours truly, and brought us further east to an area near a lake we called Lac uPERRL. Dylan found our campsite that night among a sheltered grove of trees. It was very wind protected and offered plenty of firewood, and boughs for our floor. We decided that to make our packs a little lighter, we were going to come back to that camp on our return and leave some of our food stuff sacks. That night was late and we didn’t get to sleep until almost midnight, but it was beautiful setting up camp under a bright, starry sky while the moon was setting. The next day, Luke led us to our farthest out point on our expedition, Mont Lucie. Here we had a live-over, and spent the day exploring the peaks surrounding Mont Lucie and just playing in the snow. That day, many of us did not carry packs, so Bonzo and Ducas (Dylan and Luke) came in their red capes to shred the gnar with us. That night was very special; after bathing, we all set up a circle of thermarests and sat together under the stars to sing with Hannah on the guitar. When it was getting late and we were getting tired, we tried to return inside the tent to begin our evening routine, but almost immediately Oliver called us all out to see the northern lights! The whole sky to the north and a little to the east was lit up green, and we stood out in the snow together to watch it grow and move. During our time at Mont Lucie, we also began a process for an activity that really changed the way in which our group viewed each other. We each took time to write about each member of our group, in the way of “plusses and deltas”- appreciations and things to change. With the intention of helping each other to grow, we wrote about things that we thought each person did well, as well as things that we thought could be changed for optimum happiness. After writing down our thoughts and feelings, we took time to have a short check in with each person. This activity, which is also practiced among Kroka staff, really helped our community to grow closer and more trusting of one another and allowed us to more easily talk through social issues as they arose.

In awe of the aurora

After our time at Mont Lucie, we followed our trail back to Lac uPERRL and then to Squirrel Lake, lead by Edie and then Ma’or. At Squirrel Lake we had another live over which allowed us to dig snow palaces in a north facing slope of a mountain overlooking the lake. The slope was steep and super fun to slide down, but if one wanted to walk along it, he or she had to dig in her heels and toes to keep from sliding. Once the three palaces were complete, we all slept in them and used candles to light them up. The view the next morning from inside the caves was absolutely gorgeous! They overlooked the lake, with a blue, snow-peaked mountain range beyond. The sky was adorn with beautiful purple clouds and yellow rays, reaching out from the east. Though this in itself would have been beautiful enough, Havah, Martina, Edie and I climbed higher to get a better view as the sun rose.

Snow palaces!

Becoming Friends With Cold

“I guess I believed I’d met him. He frosted over the car window once in a while and made me walk quicker into buildings. I often did see Cold, but removed, always with a way out of the scary interactions whether it was going inside or adding a jacket. I’d never lived with Cold. His embrace, although sort of familiar, was jarring. Cold doesn’t visit me as often as he may visit others. He must prefer liberals or something. As I began thinking of Cold, realizing I would become more familiar with his territories, even chase him in hopes of spending more time with him, I realized I needed to welcome him into my life any way I could before having to live with him. This made me uncomfortable, as I could feel his icy fingers tickling me, raising goose bumps, I was scared. The worst cold confrontation I’d had was in southern Ontario in the summer; how was I ever going to be able to love him while he was at his strongest? How was I supposed to survive while fighting the strongest proponents of winter?

Eventually I did end up heading north, closer and closer to cold. I was held in his icy fingers, pulling me in. I was entranced by the beauty he created. The snow and ice grew deeper and thicker, and I watched with respectful fixation. I never knew that Cold could take care of himself. He made beautiful ice sculptures on the sides of the highways and crystals coated the panes of store windows in the early morning lights. I’d finally made it. He’d brought me here, as if under a spell.

At first, I was an obnoxious guest. I just stared and wouldn’t interact. Frozen in place pretty literally. He would try and impress me: snow! It was amazing but I could never remain out for long, or he’d hold my hand too tight and I’d loose circulation- this happened for a while. Cold remained. I remained. I chase Cold even more into his comfort zone and out of mine. I would cry in frustration in panic, his breath hitting my face like sand. And then it all stopped. The wind and snow remained, but so did I. I remain held within Cold, a friend I would now introduce proudly.” ~Lillian Nelson

Crossing Lac Joyel

Sublime conditions for working on our telemark turns!

The next day of travel was lead by Dylan as we came back to our camp on Ghost Lake. We chose that day to take a different route than we had before and ran into some illegal skidoo-ers who said they were staying at a motel by Manic Five, the enormous hydroelectric dam at the base of the Manicougan Reservoir. It was a little jarring to have been in the wilderness of Uapishka for about two weeks, where we’d been living in her quiet, cold world, to then encounter these loud, speedy machines who carried these men with a completely different experience from our own, seemingly out of nowhere. It was hard to fathom that they had just come to these mountains for a day trip of fun, as it had taken us much preparation and hard work to climb the same mountains and travel the same distances they had. As quickly as they had come, they left again and the immense silence rejoined us. Our last full day of travel brought us down to a little meadow we call Fake Castor, on account of its being mistaken in the past for the real Lac Castor. This was a mere four kilometers from Jacques’ house, so Oliver and Hannah skied down and spent the night at Jacques’. This left us students to have a night to ourselves to really hold our responsibilities and routines on our own. That night was full of laughter and yelling as well as organized sharings and meals. Overall, it was a nice way to end our time in Uapishka.

The next morning, Martina lead us down the mountain to meet up with Hannah and Oliver where we took some funny pictures with Old Man’s Beard and said goodbye to our skis. That afternoon, a special friend of Kroka’s, Roberta Benefiel, drove two days from Happy Valley Goose Bay to come talk to us about Hydro-Quebec and tell us about how it is affecting the people living in the areas surrounding the hydroelectric dams. The following morning, we woke up in the dark and began our long drive south, to Quebec City. About twelve hours later, we arrived at the Aubergie Internationale de Quebec where we settled into a shockingly different environment than we had been used to. There was running water, toilets, electric stoves, and a constant orchestra of traffic sounds from outside the window. While in Quebec, we ran together along the Old Wall in the mornings and took time to finish our academics. We also took two tours with a woman named Eve. The first day, we learned about the Wendat who are people native to the region of the earth we presently call Quebec. The second day was spent learning the history of the inner part of the old city, which held many stories of the French who built and developed it. We also got an hour or so to roam around the city with a little bit of money to spend. Many of us got tasty things like crepes or ice cream.

Late last night we arrived at the Northwood Stewardship Center and went straight to bed. Today has been a day of unpacking, reorganizing, and beginning to gather materials to set up the outside kitchen and living space called Honey Hollow.

During our time in Uapishka, each of us took time to write a letter to a future semester student to give them tips and things to look forward to.

The crew

Roberta explaining the areas in which Hydro Quebec has operating dams

"Dukas" and "Bonzo," (Luke and Dylan) in Quebec City

Quebec City!

“Hey Dude,

You are embarking on what will be one life-changing adventure. Over the next few months be ready to take huge steps towards the woman/man you wish to be. I have already done the 2017 Ecuador Semester and am now half way through the 2018 Winter Semester. The sights, people, and experiences along the way have lit my soul on fire! I have some advice for you for your coming journey:

Hold the people you travel along side of with as much love as you can. Learn who they are as individuals, appreciate them when they make you happy as well as sad. DO NOT hold grudges against them. In this beginning with them let your heart be fully open to get to know them.

When times get tough emotionally, physically, socially, find beauty in the land around you. How can you be sad when there is wind in the trees, how can you feel weak when water rushes down the stream bed, and how can anger be in a heart surrounded by wild flowers?

Don’t take anything personally; the teachers and students around you live in their own realities. What they say about you, positive or negative, should not define you. You are your own person who can walk her/his own path no matter what anyone says.

Eat everything put before you! I’ve eaten grubs, guinea pigs, snails, moose tongue, and fish eyes, all of which were delicious.

Do something that scares you everyday. Run an extra mile, talk to someone you don’t usually talk to, ask Silvano what love is, ski down a steep slope, or paddle into roaring rapids.

Set goals for yourself, goals you can reach. Your dreams can reach the stars, but only with attainable goals will you reach them.

Laugh! Never take anything too seriously. Being alive in this beautiful world is joy itself. Make fart noises to cheer people up. You need to know that your smile may be what turns someone’s day around.

Trust your own hands and feet to hold you wherever you roam. Look down at them now, truly, they can take you anywhere!

Let go of self-consciousness right now, do it, trust me. Dance when music plays, sing even if it’s out of key. Don’t worry if you smell bad, (you will so why worry) and tell people you love them.

Don’t try to control time. There will be hard times you wish would go faster and fun time you wish could last forever. But let time do what it wants and be present whether time is crawling slow or running quick.

Take time to put your lights into the world with drawing, singing, music, dancing, painting, poetry, carving, knitting, or writing. Create beauty.

Ask for advice. It does not matter if someone is eight or eighty they have something for you to learn. Look someone in the eye and figure out what they can teach you.” ~Luke Yourzak