Teen Adventure Walk - May 16-17, 2009
Exploring Our Sense of Place in the Finger Lakes

  Walk over 15 miles from the nearby wilderness back to Ithaca

  Learn about wild foods in the forest

  Explore your “sense of place” through art, writing, geology, Native American history, and working together to make our way back to Ithaca

  Spend an evening around a campfire

  Orient yourself amidst the night sky that we’ll be sleeping under

The wilderness surrounding the City of Ithaca is vast and so near. We will take a short city bus ride to the Town of Danby to begin our two-day adventure back to Ithaca and hopefully to a new consciousness of our surroundings.

We will walk a lot and likely be very tired each night. The first day we'll cover about 6 miles and the second day we'll be walking about 11 miles back to Ithaca. There may be no better way to get to know this place and each other.

The first day we will explore the headwaters of Buttermilk Creek and the Danby State Forest at a somewhat leisurely pace. We will have a chance to learn about wild foods, and participate in a poetry workshop with Jay Leeming, the 2009 Poet Laureate of Ithaca. Can words and images help us to express our relationships to this place and to the spirit of wilderness? We will spend the night at a rustic campsite and start off early the next morning for a challenging trek along the Finger Lakes Trail back to Ithaca. Who lives in these forests and who lived here before the City of Ithaca was built? Is there really such a thing as wilderness? What influence does it have on our lives? 

2 days/1 night
about 16 miles walking involved
 

Walking Terrain: mostly trails with short stretches on low-use country roads

Accomodations: camping
Meals: provided in camp and along the trail

Cost:
$100/person includes:

• Natural and cultural history interpretation

• Art and writing workshops

• All meals and snacks

• A place to camp for the night

• Transportation from downtown Ithaca to the start of the walk

Interested teens and guardians are invited to an information session at the EcoVillage  SONG Common House on Thursday, April 2 at 7pm. Please contact place.odyssey@gmail.com or call 279-7509 for more information.