We all connect with nature in different ways.
Leonard Guindon, for instance, loves big trees.
Senior Liarucha Zahnke-Basuki is passionate about hiking and has trekked numerous sections of the Appalachian Trail and the Canadian Rockies.
Michael Harden, a sophomore, enjoys trail running.
Lichen Yang, also a sophomore, likes to pretend he is being chased by zombies.
For each proclivity, however, students in the Wilderness Survival Endeavor were able to find enjoyment during recent trips to Dysart Woods State Park and Dolly Sodds in the Monongahela National Forest. Chris Hartsock, who facilitates the Endeavor, said the outings came about because her students were looking for more opportunities to explore the outdoors than those available on campus. The excursions brought an overnight camping trip, over twenty miles of hiking and plenty of opportunities to forage for food items. The trips were intended to function as a bonding activity while also providing a platform for students to use the land as a living laboratory.
Hartsock used Alan Hall’s The Wild Food Trailguide, among other resources, in preparation for the trips. During class time, she and her students discussed the various ways they could secure resources in the wild. “Let’s just say, hypothetically, if we did run short on food, we could possibly supplement what we had with wild foods.” In addition to wild, edible foods, they also discussed potentially dangerous items and situations.
Students were instructed to document various species of flora and fauna seen on the trips, and their findings included oak, cherry and sassafras trees, frogs, squirrels, chipmunks, deer, urtica dioica (stinging nettle), several species of mushroom, black walnuts and much more.
Images from the trips can be found below.
