Five campers recently spent five days on and around our Basin Harbor campus and in The Roost, a early 20th century summer camp cabin from Camp Marbury. The Roost has now been incorporated into LCMM’s campus and is where we can make a nice cozy fire to enjoy our lunch, hot chocolate, s’mores, and even sugar on snow (a traditional local treat made by pouring hot maple syrup over snow).
Monday was all about the dogs. Sled dogs, that is. LCMM friend Ed Blechner joined the camp along with his team of very energetic sled dogs. The campers started by playing the part of the dogs themselves, pulling the sled over the snow. They learned how the dogs are cared for, how the sled works, and how to harness the team to the sled for a short ride across campus.
On Tuesday we stayed indoors to work with hot metal. Campers learned to forge iron in the blacksmithing shop and cast molten bronze in our foundry; a great way to stay warm!
Wednesday was ice fishing day (notice we didn’t say catching!) with Corey Hart of Vermont Fish and Wildlife. Corey taught us all about ice safely, how to make our best guess as to where the fish would be swimming under the ice, all about the special gear for cutting holes in the ice and fishing though it, and of course we all tried our hand with a line or two. Vermont Fish and Wildlife offers both ice and open water fishing classes to the community through their Let’s Go Fishing program. It turns out nothing was hungry in the lake on our particular day, but we still had fun and learned a lot about ice fishing.
On Thursday we hiked on shoeshoes into the forest to track animals and birds in the snow. We found sign of many animals including a number of squirrel food caches; already raided for their supply of nuts to get them through the cold winter.
On the last day of camp we went on a snowshoeing expedition over the Champlain Bridge and into His Majesty’s Fort at Crown Point to explore the ruins of that 18th century fortification as well as the ruins of the French Fort St. Frederic on the same site. We also came across the fossils of animals living there over 450 millions years ago when the Lake Champlain area was a shallow tropical sea!
Winter Adventure Camp has come to an end for 2019, much like winter itself will soon, but we are already looking forward to summer Lake Adventure Camps with a packed and exciting lineup of adventures! Registration is open and filling fast; see you in, on, and under the lake this summer!