Wilderness Writing is a freshmen seminar taught by Professor Isserman, in which they explore the adventures of Lewis and Clark, and read many texts about other famous mountaineers. In this seminar the class goes on two field trips facilitated by the Hamilton Outing Club, the first of which is a canoe trip to the West Branch of the Sacadanga River in the Adirondacks. This past weekend I helped to lead this trip with Andrew Jillings and two other HOC leaders and I absolutely loved being part of many of their first experiences in the Adirondacks. The forecast was for cold, windy, and rainy weather all day Saturday so we started by helping all the students get outfitted for the weather and then headed off. I was really unsure of what to expect since the weather was so horrible and it was many of their first times ever paddling, but I was surprised when they really used these tough circumstances to better understand the experiences that Lewis and Clark may have had.
As I was completing the reading for class today, the section about Ebenezer Emmons really caught my attention because I felt like the experience that many of these freshmen had related well to his new found relationship with the Adirondacks as he documented for the first time ever many of the peaks that he hiked. Even though it was only a day and we just canoed along a very calm river, the views were beautiful and many students told me afterwards how amazing their day had been. This is the perfect example of why I think wilderness is so important and why getting younger people out to experience the magic of the Adirondacks is what will protect them in the future.
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