We are delighted to announce that the Geological Society of America has named Larry Davis as a Fellow of the society. Larry, who spends the off-season as Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of New Haven, is in his 43rd year at Pemi where he serves as Director of Pemi’s renowned Nature Program.

The Geological Society of America (GSA) cited Larry for “distinguished contributions in building the public’s awareness of geology and its impacts on environmental problems; his extensive service to GSA’s Geology and Public Policy Committee, Northeastern Section, and to the Geology and Society Division; and his assistance to local government agencies in solving environmental problems.” The society has over 24,000 members worldwide. GSA members are elected to Fellowship in recognition of distinguished contributions to the geosciences, an honor that is bestowed on the best of the profession.

In recent years, as the citation notes, Larry has served on GSA’s Committee on Geology and Public Policy, which writes position papers for the organization. Of special note is his contribution to the position paper on climate change, one of the strongest statements of its kind from any geoscience society and which reflects the scientific consensus that has developed around this challenge. He also helped write position papers on several other topics including Land Use Management, Diversity in the Geosciences, and Natural Hazards. He is currently the vice-chair of the Society’s Division on Geology and Society and will become chair of this division in October, 2012. Larry also serves as the Chair of the Science Committee (the “Chief Scientist”) for the Northeastern Cave Conservancy.

Larry has long advocated for summer camps as ideal venues in which to promote true outdoor education and stewardship of the environment. A member of the Children and Nature Task Force of the American Camp Association (ACA), Larry will chair a panel on Models for Nature Programs at Camp and More: In Summer and After School; Rural and Urban Settings, part of the “conference within the conference” on Children and Nature at the American Camp Association national meeting in Atlanta this February. Participants also include Pemi’s Associate Director of Nature, Deb Kure, representing Campfire International.

Most recently, Larry was invited to apply for participation in a National Science Foundation sponsored workshop/conference at the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum in February. Limited to 100 participants, the conference is entitled 21st Century Learning in Natural History Settings: A Conference to Initiate Research-Driven Innovation in Informal Natural History Learning. At Larry’ suggestion, conference organizers have also invited Pemi counselor, Conner Scace, to apply. Conner is planning a career as an environmental educator.

Please join us in congratulating Larry, not only on this significant honor of having been elected as Fellow of the Geological Society of America, but for a lifetime of sharing his expertise and passion with others, especially the campers and staff at Camp Pemigewassett.

The Nature Lodge soon after it was built

This is my 42^nd year (1970-present) as Director of Nature Programs and Teaching at Pemi. My predecessor, Clarence Dike, was here for 41 years (1929-1970). Given my new longevity “record,” it seems like a good time to reflect on the history of natural history at Pemi.

Founding of the Nature Program

Pemi’s nature program began in 1925. The Seniors were split into five groups, and each group took “Nature” for one week, concentrating on collecting and identifying plants, shrub leaves, trees, and flowers. Clarence Dike came in 1929, and in 1930, the Nature Lodge was built. The building was named for Rev. and Mrs. Paul Moore Strayer of Rochester New York. He was a great amateur naturalist, and the Minister at Doc Win’s (one of the founding Fauver twins) church in Rochester.

Nature Lodge interior, 1930's

The interior of the Nature Lodge today is strikingly familiar to that of the 30′s. The two large tables with yellow birch legs are still in use today (although in very different positions). The workbenches are still in place and we still have most of the original benches to sit on, and the two original insect display cases are still in use. There have, of course, been many changes. The first is the addition of the “department” signs above the windows. These were in place when I arrived. We’ve also added a lot more lighting including two skylights. The original building had no electric lights and there were only two bulbs in place during my first years.

In 1995 we added the Phillip Reed Memorial Nature Library. This gave us about 65% more space and a weather-proof area to house our burgeoning book collection (now at about 1000 volumes). Local artisans, Roger Daniels and Richard Sharon, built the addition using native woods and the same, unusual, log construction as the original lodge. Phillip Reed was Tom Reed, Jr.’s cousin. He was a well-known environmental lawyer who passed away at a tragically early age (I actually first met him while wearing my other “hat” as an environmental science professor). He was passionate about the outdoors, and the library, built at the suggestion of and with the support of his family and friends, is a fitting and lasting tribute to him. Today, the library serves not only as a book repository, but also as a teaching station and a place where, during free time, campers and staff gather to talk about nature and dozens of other topics. I know that Phil is pleased.

Program

Clarence Dike and camper, making a butterfly net, 1940's

While today’s program is more extensive than it was in Clarence Dike’s day, it is very much built on the foundation that he laid. We are still making butterfly nets the same way…mosquito net bags sewn onto a bent coat hanger hoop and attached with electrical tape to a trimmed stick. We are still using those nets to collect butterflies, moths, and many other insects, which we pin out on the very same spreading boards that he made (which can be seen in the 1930’s photograph of the Nature Lodge).

Other program elements begun by “Mr. Dike” include the tree walk, the “What-is-it?” contest, study of ponds and streams, and the Junior Nature Book. These all continue today. Some things we do not do any more. For example, it was common, in the 1930’s, to routinely shoot and skin birds and animals for display. We continue to display those in place since the birds are long dead and we’ve got the display. But we always make it clear that this was an old way of doing things and we now realize that this is harmful to ecosystems and the natural balance of things.

In the early days of the program, campers took a general "Nature" occupation.

We also used just to offer general “Nature” as an occupation. In fact, this was still the way we did it during my first 8 years at Pemi. We usually had 20-30 boys all wanting to do different things. We never knew, until our first meeting, just who wanted to do what.

Note how, in the picture on the left, there are two  groups of boys doing two different things. In 1977, we experimented with a new format. We offered a “Butterflies and Moths” occupation for the first time. Since then, we have offered only this kind of specific activity. We are able to plan our lessons more carefully, separate beginners from more advanced campers (and indeed, offer more advanced lessons), and offer a much wider variety of topics.

Going beyond

Today, occupations offer focused topics, such as "Ants."

The advent of individual activity occupations has allowed us to build on the solid foundation that Clarence Dike laid and to go far beyond it. We now offer 14-18 different nature occupations each week. Some, such as Beginning Butterflies and Moths or Beginning Rocks and Minerals, are available every week. Others such as Orienteering or Non-Flowering Plants may be available only once or twice a summer. Many of these activities are taught at an  advanced level so that campers can grow in their knowledge and skills within a field that holds particular interest for them. In total, we offered close to 40 different occupations this summer. These include “interdisciplinary” activities with the arts such as Photography (both darkroom and digital), Environmental Sculpture (inspired by the work of Scottish artist Andy Goldsworthy), and Dyeing Woolie Critters along with Dyeing and Weaving (more on these below).

In the early 1990’s, Russ Brummer, as part of his Masters degree work at Antioch New England, developed a special occupation, Junior Environmental Explorations, that was designed to introduce Juniors to the Nature Program. It is a five-day curriculum that takes the campers through a series of activities in the woods, in the swamp, in the streams, and in the Nature Lodge, all of which are intended to acquaint them with the world around them, sharpen their observational skills, and let them know about the range of other nature occupations available to them. It is one of only two required activities at camp (the other is instructional swimming to Level 4) and all first-time juniors are automatically “enrolled” in their first week at Pemi.

Cyanotype, digital, and darkroom photography are featured in the annual Art Show

Our “interdisciplinary” art/nature occupations are particularly satisfying. They include Nature Photography, Nature Drawing, Environmental Sculpture, and both Dyeing & Weaving and Dyeing Woolie Critters. Photography has really expanded under the guidance of our own talent (Dan Reed on digital and Peter Siegenthaler in the darkroom) and visiting professional Andy Bale, who is on the faculty at Dickinson College. Many campers have their work displayed at the annual end-of-year Art Show.

Environmental Sculpture encourages careful observation.

Environmental sculptures are created out of natural materials and they are frequently ephemeral, lasting only a few days or even a few hours. Besides exercising campers’ artistic instincts, the activity also strongly encourages careful observation of the natural world. I have frequently seen boys pick up and discard a dozen different rocks before selecting just the right one for their sculpture.

Natural dyes create colorful wool.

A more recent innovation is the use of natural dyes to dye wool. This is a lot of fun, as combinations of plants and different mordents (the metal or substance used to “fix” the dyes) can lead to unexpected results. We have dyed yarn and woven it and, for the last three years, dyed raw (but cleaned) wool and used it to needle felt “woolie critters.” Thus the occupation name, “Dyeing Woolie Critters.” We get our wool from a farm right here in Wentworth, and we have even been able to go there and see sheep shearing.

Collecting milkweed pods to cook back at the Nature Lodge

Finally, we come to the single most requested nature occupation, Wild Foods. This is taught each week, but is only open to 8 boys at a time. We were getting 50-60 requests for it each week. So, two years ago, we began limiting it to uppers and seniors only. The boys love it because they get to taste some interesting food. For me, however, the most important lesson comes with the context. We are always thinking about what it would have been like to make a living from this hard New England soil 600 years ago, before the first Europeans made permanent settlements here. We talk about gathering food, preserving it for winter, knowing what as edible and poisonous, and how that information was passed on. Three years ago, we started a “farm” where we grow the “three sisters” (corn, beans, squash) using varieties as close as we can get to those used by the Indians. We get the seeds from Plimouth Plantation where they grow and maintain stocks of these old, old strains.  In the end, we hope that the boys gain an appreciation for the hunting and gathering lifestyle and for the work that was involved in just feeding yourself and your fellows each day, let alone storing enough for those long New England Winters.

Trips

Collecting minerals at Palermo Mine with Deb Kure

We started taking our first nature trips in 1971. They were to mineral collecting areas, and one of the first was to the Palermo Mine in North Groton, NH. Forty years later we are still going there, guests of the owner, Robert Whitmore of Weare, NH. In fact, he has given us keys to this world-famous locality and donated some spectacular specimens, found at the mine, for us to display. We usually run one of these trips each week, and they give the campers a chance to collect some really interesting minerals.

Older boys have the chance to go caving

One of the truly different things that we do through the Nature Program each summer is to run two caving trips to the Karst (cave) region of New York State, about 30 miles southwest of Albany. These are both adventure and geology trips and, as a geologist who studies hydrology in these areas (while wearing my University “hat”), I lead them. Pemi caving trips and photographs are featured in detail in Caving Trips with Camp Pemi, an article that you might enjoy reading.

We also take trips to sites of geological or ecological interest. This summer, for example, Associate Head of Nature Programs, Deb Kure, led geology field trips to Crawford and Franconia Notches. In past years, we have gone to the virgin spruce-fir forest in the Connecticut Lakes Region of extreme northern New Hampshire, to remote bogs in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, to Plum Island in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and for fossil collecting on the Lake Champlain Islands in northwestern Vermont.

The Nature Instruction Clinic

In 1992, Rob Grabill, Russ Brummer, and I gave a workshop on teaching nature at camp at the International Camping Association meeting in Toronto, Ontario. This led to the establishment, in 1993, of the pre-season nature instruction clinic. This 5½-day class is designed to train instructors from other camps (and some of our own too) to teach natural history in a camp setting. It is a way in which we can share our experience and spread the good work to far more children than we personally could ever reach. The clinic is broken into two main segments. In the first, we introduce the participants to the natural history of the area. In the second, we work on teaching skills, including lesson planning and exhibit making. Everything is hands-on and tailored to the specific needs and interests of each year’s group.

In 2009, the Nature Instruction Clinic was accepted as a three-credit (graduate or undergraduate) course at the University of New Haven, the institution at which I teach. It is the capstone course in our new Environmental Education Concentration within the Master of Science in Environmental Science Program. This year we had five University of New Haven students participating along with two staff members from Pemi and five from other camps.

Closing Thoughts

It has been a long journey for Pemi Nature since 1925. Over the past 87 years, we have introduced thousands of boys to the natural world around them. Some have gone on to careers in geology or ecology or natural history teaching. Deb Kure, our current Associate Head of Nature Programs, came to the first Nature Instruction Clinic as a newly minted geology graduate. She went on to a distinguished career as an outdoor educator, having worked for the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History, among other places. She now does after-school nature instruction for Camp Fire International in Austin, Texas. Most, however, have simply taken what they learned here at Pemi and used it to enrich their lives and the lives of their families. All of this was made possible by the vision of the Four Docs who provided the impetus, the place, and the people that were needed to make Nature a key part of the Pemi experience. Over the years, every Pemi director has supported the vision and the expansion of the program to what it is today. I feel immensely privileged to be a part of the legacy and see Pemi’s Nature Program continuing to grow and evolve far into the future.

“Our caving trip began on Friday and, after a short drive and a quick stop at Larry’s sister’s house, we arrived at the first cave. In the first cave we saw a 75-foot ‘showerdome’ and we enjoyed that a great deal! We stayed with Larry’s sister that night and she gave us a great breakfast the next morning. The second day began with a short walk that took us to a ladder, which brought us to a deeper spot to explore the Gun-barrel, the Dungeon and many other cool places. Larry told us great stories in the caves and as he told the stories, we went into a place where we were neck deep in water, which was really cold! Overall, the trip was great and we can’t wait for the next trip, the ‘advanced caving’ trip.”

-Patrick Mimms (Senior 3)

Pemi boys have been caving since 1982.  It is a challenging and exciting activity, akin to mountain climbing, only underground. If you like wet, muddy, dark places, you’ll love caving. It has an undeserved reputation of being dangerous. Of course, as with other outdoor pursuits such as mountain climbing, canoeing, or kayaking, the failure to use proper equipment or to observe appropriate safety procedures can get you into trouble. Cavers call ill-equipped, unsafe cave explorers “spelunkers,” and in the caving community a common phrase is “Cavers rescue spelunkers.” When I’m wearing my other hat, that of a college professor/geologist, my research specialty is cave science. My sister, Emily (with whom we stay and who helps lead some of our trips) is an internationally-known caver. Given this experience, you can be sure that our cave trip participants are properly equipped with helmets, knee pads, gloves, warm clothing, and three sources of light (a helmet-mounted LED lamp as primary, a flashlight as secondary backup, and a candle with matches for emergencies) and that we always cave safely.

Each summer we take two caving trips, a beginning trip that visits easier caves (the equivalent of some of our lower mountain peaks) and an advanced trip that includes more challenging caves. I will describe both in some detail here, and I will include some pictures both of the caves and of our recent trips.

On each trip, we take up to nine campers, along with three staff members. The minimum age for campers is 13, although we almost always fill the trip with 14- and 15-year-olds. Boys must also have demonstrated an ability to follow directions and exhibited a high level of maturity before we accept them as participants.

Our caving program has two major goals. The first is to teach the boys about caves and cavernous regions (which go under the name of “karst.”) While in the caves we talk about cave formation and development, biologic environments, and conservation. On the surface we talk about such features as sinkholes and springs and also consider the environmental problems associated with karst. The second goal is to challenge the boys both physically and mentally and to give them an opportunity to explore a part of the world that few get to see. We do all of our caving in New York State in an area around the town of Schoharie, which is about 30 miles southwest of Albany. While it is about 200 miles away from Pemi, it is the closest karst region to camp. There are over 200 mapped caves here, with more being discovered all the time. There are also two commercial caves, Howe Caverns and Secret Caverns. While we don’t visit these, you may want to – just to see what caves are all about.

Beginning Caving: On the beginning trip we visit three caves. They are very different from each other in terms of size, morphology (shape), formation, geology, and exploration challenge. Cave passages have one of four basic shapes, canyon-like, vertical shaft, rectangular, or elliptical, with combinations such as keyhole (elliptical on top and canyon-like on the bottom) possible. The first cave on the trip, Schoharie Caverns, is canyon-like. This type of passage is formed by flowing water, a cave stream. From the very beginning we follow one, upstream, along its course through the cave, much of the time just splashing in the water, but in a few places submerging ourselves in waist-deep pools. In most places the cave is only two or three feet wide, but ceiling heights range from 10 to 40 feet. The passage itself is generally straight, following natural fractures in the rock (called “joints”). Where joint sets intersect, however, the passage makes right angle bends. At one point a seventy-five foot high vertical shaft “pierces” the canyon (this is the “showerdome” mentioned in Patrick’s comments at the start of this newsletter). These shafts (known as “dome-pits”) form independently of the main cave by a process of top-down solution that begins at the surface, which at this point is more than 300 feet above us. For, while the cave passage has been pretty much horizontal, the land above us has risen sharply as we proceeded into the Earth.

This is the only cave on the beginning trip that has extensive formations (dripstone). Stalactites hang from the ceiling (they hold “tight”). Flowstone covers the walls, looking like frozen waterfalls. Slight differences in the temperature of the cave and its water, along with the amount of carbon dioxide in the cave atmosphere, determine whether solution of the rock or deposition of dripstone takes place. The system is exquisitely sensitive to tiny variations in either of these variables.

Our trip ends in a large room where the cave stream emerges from a low opening in the wall. Beyond this, the passage is entirely water-filled, accessible only to cave divers (a very dangerous sport indeed.) We turn out our lights to experience the complete and absolute darkness that, beyond the womb, can only be found in a cave. To exit, we retrace our route, but I let one of the campers lead. Even though we traverse exactly the same passage, it looks completely different from the other direction. This is a good lesson in caving technique. On the way in, you should periodically turn around and look behind you so that you will have some idea what things will look like when you reverse direction.

The second cave we visit is Knox Cave (a map is included in the PDF version). It features large rectangular-shaped rooms with arched ceilings. This type of passage most often occurs when the cave is not far below the surface. The primary mode of formation is solution along joints and then enlargement of the passage through breakdown (large blocks falling from the walls and ceiling.) We see these large blocks everywhere. There is no danger now, however, as cave forming processes are extremely slow and there is even strong evidence that the blocks fell thousands or tens of thousands of years ago. Knox Cave has many parallel and side passages, and this gives us a chance to allow the boys to do some exploring on their own. We use the buddy system and I, along with my staff assistants, James Finley and Richard Komson, station ourselves at strategic locations to keep an eye on things.

The Gun Barrel. Photo by Cory Fauver.

After exploring the front part of the cave, we descend through a low, wide crawlway into, first, an elliptical passage, formed when the cave was completely full of water, and then a keyhole-shaped passage, the slot in the keyhole formed by a cave stream that flowed after the passage started to drain. Finally we enter a long, wide room that terminates (almost) at the internationally-famous “gun-barrel.” This aptly named, fifty-foot-long, nearly circular tube is only one and a half feet in diameter. It leads to the back part of the cave, which is half-again as long as the front part that we have just visited. On this trip, we do not go through the gun-barrel (I never do; I’m just too big and my claustrophobia wouldn’t let me do it anyway.) Some will go through on the advanced trip, however. This is a good place for the campers to see what they might encounter on the later trip. It is also a terrific chance for us to talk about pushing yourself to find your limits but not being afraid to admit that you have them (I’m a perfect example of this.) There is no shame in turning back here (and besides, there is a by-pass that was dug out about 10 years ago.)

The final cave we visit on the beginning trip is Clarksville Cave (also known as Ward-Gregory.) The main entrance is a small opening on the floor of a sinkhole. From the large entrance room at the bottom, you can go right, into the Ward section of the cave, or left, through a small connector, into the Gregory Section. We start our trip in the Ward section. The passage is elliptical, indicating that it formed when the cave was filled entirely with water. The ceiling height varies between three and ten feet. An upper dry (but low and muddy) passage parallels the lower, and larger, wet section. In many places, the wall rock shows a pattern of solutional scallop marks. These are made by running water over a period of thousands of years. Smaller scallops mean faster moving water. It is actually possible to estimate the ancient water velocity by using their size.  Near the end of the Ward section, we have a choice of going low through my favorite part of the cave, called the “Grottoes,” or going high through a muddy passage that avoids them. The Grottoes are a catacomb of rock filled with water.

The Grottoes. Photo courtesy of Northeast Cave Conservancy.

The ceiling, however, gets lower and the water gets higher until, just before you exit this section, you are waist deep and bent over. Everyone in the group chooses to go this way. The reflection of our lights on the water and onto the walls produces a continually-moving pattern of light and dark. As we move, the water surface surges up and down. The waves hit the walls and the ceiling, and the sound echoes through the cavern.

We retrace our steps and enter the Gregory Section. This part of the cave has formed along an old fault. We can see evidence of past movement on the slanting surfaces that are the fault plane. After passing through a series of belly crawls and low rooms, we arrive at the “Bathtub.” Here we have to wade through a waist-deep pool.

Beyond the Bathtub, the character of the cave changes. This section features rimstone dams. When water pools in rock depressions, minerals can precipitate around the edge. Over time, the precipitates grow higher and higher which, in turn, means that the pool becomes deeper and deeper. We cross dozens of these pools and dams. Finally we come to a passage that is a five-foot-wide square chute angling down the fault plane at about 15 degrees. We slide down this into a deep pool of freezing cold water. We work our way along the edge of this pool to a place where the ceiling comes down to about 8 inches above the water level. We are submerged up to our necks – but, fortunately, this water is never prone to a rapid rise in level! After a quick duck under this spot, we emerge onto a slope where we can look back on the pool, known as Brinley’s Sump.

The Bathtub. Photo courtesy of Northeast Cave Conservancy.

A short stoop-way takes us to huge, rectangular “trunk” passage, unlike anything we have seen so far. Drenched and muddy, we follow this out to the surface and exit the cave in a different place from where we entered.

Near the cave entrance, there is a place to change our clothes. Dry clothes feel so much better. After about a two-hour drive across the Green Mountains, we arrive at our dinner stop, the Chelsea Royal Diner in West Brattleboro, Vermont (highly recommended). The staff there knows us well and takes very good care of us. Filled up with delicious food, we head for home.

Advanced Caving: On the advanced caving trip, we revisit Knox Cave and go to one new cave: Gage’s. Here is camper Matt Sherman’s description:

“This past year, I went on if not the best, then one of the best camp trips ever: caving. It is a whole different world when you enter the caves of upstate New York. We all made our way through a very tight squeeze called the gun-barrel. It was 50 feet long and I think we were all glad that we did it afterwards. In the other cave [Gage’s], exploration was the name of the game. We came across different passageways that led to rooms, which led to more passageways. In one of the rooms, you could literally sled down mud [on your butt]. In another, you could make clay/mud sculptures. It was great. To top it all off, the food and accommodations were fantastic. It was an awesome trip.”

-Matt Sherman (Senior 1)

Rodrigo Juarez entering the Alabaster Room through the "Crystal Crawl" and the "Lemon Squeeze" in Knox Cave. Photo by Cory Fauver.

Time and space preclude a detailed description of these caves. However, some of the highlights include going through the gun-barrel passage in Knox (or opting for the by-pass.) Once on the other side, we turn the campers loose and they can look for the Mud Room (which once contained life-size “sculptures” of Mr. and Ms. Knox created by members of the Harvard Medical School Outing Club) or head for the “Lemon Squeeze” and the Alabaster Room. This year we allotted extra time for this cave and almost all of the campers made it to this highly decorated spot.

Gage’s (formerly known as “Ball’s Cave”) has a 48-foot entrance ladder that requires a belay. This gives us a chance to demonstrate some rope work and to discuss the differences between rock climbing and vertical caving (they are legion). The cave itself is a series of spacious rooms connected by narrow passages and loops. There are many faults, and I am most pleased when the boys recognize them, (“Larry, is that a fault there?”) Once again, we let the buddy pairs explore on their own. Eventually, all arrive at an extremely challenging “crawl,” whose name is unfortunately too indelicate for this journal. Those who complete it emerge soaked and muddy but with big smiles on their faces.

Surface Features: Finally, on the advanced caving trip, we take time to look at the geology of the area, including collecting some fossils, and at the surface features associated with Karst. We visit the property, owned by the National Speleological Society, surrounding McFail’s Cave, at six and one-half miles long, the longest in the Northeast. There are sinkholes, blind valleys, disappearing streams, swallow holes, and springs. Ask your campers to explain these to you. We also visit John Boyd Thacher State Park, about 10 miles southwest of Albany (highly recommended if you’re in the area.) Here we stand on top of the Helderberg Escarpment looking down a shear cliff face. The view is incredible. The Hudson Valley is 1000 feet straight down below us. The Taconic and Green Mountains are to the east (with Mt. Mansfield clearly visible.) And, to the north, we can just see the Adirondaks peeking out from behind the cliff face. The Native Americans who lived here carved a narrow trail in the cliff face. They farmed the valley below, but almost every night climbed the cliff to their village in the higher, more defensible position above. The trail is open to us now, and many of the processes that form caves are active there today and can be seen as we walk along. This short (45-minute) hike allows us to sum up the entire trip and to reinforce the lessons that we have learned.

Patrick Mimms, staff member Richard Komson, and Matt Cloutier in the Arch in Thacher State Park

I was lucky enough to spend 10 days at Pemi this July, and one of my most memorable experiences while there was this: I was walking by the Nature Lodge when some campers called out that they were caring for a baby bird, while supervised by Wayne Scott and Deb Kure. It turns out that the bird had been rescued by Julia Kerr, who saw it fall from a tree after being attacked by what looked like a red squirrel; she picked it up in the interest of keeping her household pets away from it.

It was a Northern Flicker, a type of woodpecker, and over the next few days Wayne (an ornithologist) and the campers cared for it. The bird would hungrily guzzle down bits of worms that Wayne would feed it, easing the food down its mouth with a pair of tweezers. Its strong woodpecker claws would grip tightly onto Wayne’s hand, and all the while it made the most adorable squeaky “feed me!” calls. Its temporary home in the Nature Lodge was a small cardboard box with paper towels in it, which sat within a metal cage to keep any would-be predators away. (Click here to watch a cute video of Deb Kure feeding the bird in July.)

Wayne weighed it each day, and we all watched it grow and develop from a slightly injured baby bird that seemed like it might not survive, to a vigorous-looking woodpecker with brown and gray feathers and a splash of red on the back of its head.

Eventually, Wayne dropped it off with the able people at the Squam Lakes Natural Science Center. We wish it well– may it have a long, happy life, filled with lots of delicious critters for supper!

-Rob Verger

Editor’s note: We thought we’d explain with a little more detail the process behind caring for the Flicker and then bringing it to the Squam Lakes Natural Science Center. Pemi’s Head of Nature, Larry Davis, explains: “The flicker was brought in and we immediately began to look for a rehabilitator while we gave the bird the care that we could. We did get the list [of rehabilitators] and started calling. Several were already ‘full’ and we finally found one in Madison, all the way across the state. She could not commit to taking the bird for two or three days, at which point we were able to ‘contract’ with the Science Center to keep the bird until the rehab person from Madison could pick it up.”

Upper 2 on the summit of South Twin. July, 2008.

A Pemi day has a great, busy rhythm to it. But one of the most rewarding parts of the camp season comes when that routine is replaced by a trip into the mountains, whether it be a quick scramble up to the bald, brisk summit of Pemi’s neighbor, Mt. Cube, or a four-day trip through the Franconia Range.

Pemi has a long tradition of taking trips into the woods—the Appalachian Trail even cuts through a corner of camp property—and it’s always been one of my favorite parts of the camp experience. I can still clearly picture sitting on the warm rocks of a White Mountain summit on a Pemi trip, taking a sip from a water bottle and refueling with cheese and crackers. As both a camper and later, a trip counselor, I hiked up countless White Mountain trails.

Mountains in the Whites offer striking environmental contrasts. At the lower altitudes, just a few minutes away from the trailhead, the forests are quiet and stream-filled, and clusters of Goose Foot Maples line the trail. From there the trail usually steepens, and the group might become quieter as the climbing begins up a packed-dirt and rocky trail. As you gain altitude, the trees generally transition from deciduous to coniferous, and just below the tree line, the trees are usually compact, sturdy little evergreens. Then there are the summits and ridgelines of the Whites: these are breezy places where on a sunny day in the summer everything is warm and wide open and expansive: if the visibility it good, you can see for miles, with rolling mountain ranges receding into the distance. And when it’s windy or stormy on these ridges, you feel grateful you packed a bomb-proof jacket.

Things change on trips. Far from the comforts of camp, Pemi boys are challenged on the trails, and are spurred out of their daily routines into a new world. Boys on trips find themselves tested, in a good way. You carry your own water, and learn to take care of the needs of your body. If it’s raining, you use your rain jacket, and cover your pack with a pack fly, or line it with trash bags, or both. You learn the importance of keeping your sleeping back dry. At night, the trip counselor and the assistant counselor cook food over a WhisperLite stove, which produces a comforting little roar and an efficient blue flame. Dinner might be macaroni and cheese with tuna, which I think is delicious (but hunger is the best sauce). At night, you sleep in a tent, just a sleeping bag and pad and tent floor between you and the earth. Breakfast might be instant oatmeal, eaten quickly before hitting the trail.

With all these changes in routine and environment, hiking trips can be some of the most memorable experiences a boy will have during a season at camp: while days at Pemi blur together happily, trips have a way of drawing out the day and becoming bigger, more luminous experiences. Conversations on the trail and jokes over supper become all the more memorable, because there are no other distractions. Even your thoughts might seem stronger, more focused, in the woods and on the trail.

I have plenty of vivid images in my head from Pemi trips: dipping a Nalgene bottle into a cold stream and then dropping an iodine tablet in it to purify the water; eating dinner out of a plastic cup and then later eating oatmeal out of the same cup the next morning. Or, as a counselor, waiting until all the campers are in their tents at bedtime, and then making the rounds once more, double-checking that the tents are pitched properly and will stay dry in a storm, tightening the stays and stakes, saying goodnight to each group of kids.

Then there’s perhaps the sweetest part of the trip: emerging out of the woods and then hopping in the van or bus to go back to Pemi, and stopping on the way back for rare treat: candy and a soda. Rolling back over that bridge, coming back into Pemi, even just from a day trip, might be the best feeling of all: it’s a feeling of coming home after an adventure.

My experiences on trips with Pemi were incredibly formative in producing who I am today. What memories do you have? If you went on trips as a camper at Pemi, or led them as a counselor, what was the experience like?

-Rob Verger

The Pemi West group in 2006 in Olympic National Park. From left to right, back row: Christina Demetro, Daniel Pfeffer, Duncan Fisher, Jamie Andrews, Tim Billo, Emily Blackmer, and Hayley Daniell. Front row: Matt DeCaro, Corey Fauver, Anne Carman.

In 1997, when I was 18, I traveled out to Crested Butte, Colorado, to take part in Pemi West’s inaugural season. We had a base camp at 10,000 feet in the Maroon Bells, and spent almost a month living in the mountains. I still have vivid images in my mind from that summer—the tall conifers that surrounded the base camp, the fields of wildflowers we hiked through, the drama of the vast, snowy mountains that were our home. And the Pemi spirit, so distinctive in New Hampshire, was with us out in the Rockies.

The next summer, after my first year of college, I returned to Pemi in New Hampshire and worked as a trip counselor for the summer in the White Mountains. (We’ll have more about the trip program at Pemi in New Hampshire in a forthcoming item here.) Then, in the summer of 1999, I traveled back out to Colorado to work as a staff trip leader for Pemi West, co-leading a group with Scott Morgan.

Pemi West in 2006.

My two summers out in Colorado built upon a love of hiking and the outdoors that I’d been nurturing for a long time, and vastly improved my technical skills and sense of confidence and independence in the wilderness, to boot. In college, I was a Mountain Club guide, and later, the president of the Mountain Club, and the fact that I arrived at Middlebury and felt ready to tackle anything in the outdoors has a lot to do with my training both at Pemi West and with Pemi in New Hampshire.

Since 2005, Pemi West has been located in Olympic National Park in Washington State. When I asked Pemi West Director Tim Billo to tell me some about the current program, he wrote:

“This setting offers all the challenge and beauty of Colorado, but also offers a superior wilderness experience. With one million contiguous acres of federally designated wilderness, Olympic National Park is one of the largest road-less areas in the Lower 48. It offers an unparalleled trail system, as well as extremely remote and challenging off-trail travel. Though the elevations are less lofty than Colorado, the Olympic Mountains have all the characteristics of some of the world’s highest peaks, including some of the largest ice fields in the Lower 48. Lower elevations have the added advantage of eliminating time spent for acclimatization. Pemi West is a great place to join your old Pemi friends on an adventure that will teach you how to become completely self-sufficient in any rugged mountain wilderness. The trip traverses some of the many distinct ecosystems that Olympic National Park encompasses, from temperate rainforest, to ocean beach, to alpine meadow, and glaciated peaks. Glacier travel is an awesome bonus experience in the Olympics that was not available in Colorado. Navigating the rivers of ice on Olympus, while roped to your teammates, is an unforgettable experience, and a skill needed for mountaineering in all of the world’s great ranges. To prevent the need for returning to civilization, and to lighten packs for a day or two, Pemi West in the Olympics also takes advantage of a backcountry re-supply by llama.”

(That last detail makes me jealous. We didn’t have llamas in Colorado.)

Find more information on the features and history of Pemi West, and information on how to apply. (Note that this year’s program is a two-week course, as opposed to the usual three weeks. The shorter course will cover all of the same skills in a more compact, but equally intense wilderness experience.)

The ranks of Pemi West alumni are constantly getting bigger, and there is usually a good number of people who participate in Pemi West as a camper or leader and then migrate back to Pemi in New Hampshire, their teeth cut on the bigger mountains out west. Some have moved on to work for other organizations, or have led gnarly personal trips of their own. If you’ve been a part of Pemi West, either in Colorado or Washington, what was the experience like? Did you come back to Pemi in New Hampshire and join the trip program, or was it “just” a once-in-a-lifetime experience for you?

-Rob Verger

Photo by Rob Verger

One of my favorite parts of being a camper at Pemi was the mornings spent in occupations, hustling from one activity to the next. “Occupations” is the word Pemi uses to describe the organized activities that occur every Moday through Friday and some Saturdays; each activity is 55 minutes long. Campers sign up for new occupations each week, giving them the consistency of five or more days in a row of doing the same activity, but also a change each week, too. This allows the instructors to develop lesson plans that build day-to-day; occupations are where the most structured teaching happens at Pemi each day.

As a camper, I loved any occupation on the water: waterskiing or canoeing, for example. Lower Baker Pond is more than big enough to host lots of activity on it simultaneously and feel far from crowded. I’ve also always loved the chance to take a canoe or kayak under the bridge into camp and explore the quiet lily pad and reed-filled lower lake, or “swamp,” as it’s sometimes called, with a group of campers and staff. (All campers at Pemi are always very closely supervised by staff on the water, both on the lake and lower lake.)

But most of all, when I was a camper, I loved taking sailing occupations. I loved time on the water in a small Sunfish sailboat, and later, in a larger boat called a Puffin. (Now, the Puffins have been upgraded to more modern multi-person sailboats called Capris.) In my years on staff at Pemi, I taught sailing more than any other activity, and I liked the circularity of it: as a camper, I learned how to sail, and as a counselor, I taught it.

Pemi offers all the occupations you might expect: baseball, soccer, tennis, basketball, wood shop, music, and nature occupations galore. If you were to drive into camp on a busy morning, you’d see the fields and the lakes alive with activity, and maybe pass a fifteen-passenger van driven by Larry Davis for a quick outing to the nearby butterfly field. But there are also occupations you might be surprised to hear Pemi offers—night photography, for example, and other arts occupations, like rock painting.

What were your favorite occupations to take or teach when you were at Pemi, and did any of them influence the direction your life took? I know that I can’t pass a sailboat now without thinking happily of Pemi.

–Rob Verger