Trips with students always start late. We intended to arrive at Long Pond Landing at 11 a.m., but we rolled into the parking lot at 2 p.m., unloaded the trailer and prepped it for the other group that would end there four days later. By the time we were actually ready to start the portage it was 3 p.m., and the group was already tired despite the lackadaisical start to the day. The attitude at the beginning of a trip is never what I hope it will be, but I’ve found over the years that the best way to motivate college students is to let them make their own plan. They’re used to being told what they’re doing, so when you give them agency over their learning experience they initially aren’t sure what to do. In this case, before our portage down to Long Pond I sat them down and told them that they would decide where we were going, but that their plan needed to have us ending at Little Clear Pond, include hiking Long Pond Mountain and/or St Regis Mountain, and that we had to spend time bushwhacking. My other request was that each evening they give me an overview of their plan for the following day, including timeline, basic risk management plan, contingency plan, and three objectives they hoped
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(Provided photo —St. Regis Canoe)
Canoeing from Long Pond Landing
to achieve. They were excited for the freedom, but a bit confused about what to do with it. All of my requests fell well within the realm of what they were learning in the Expeditionary Stud-
ies Program at SUNY Plattsburgh, but this was the first time they were able to use those skills to influence the trajectory of a class. When we finally got on the water, one of the
EMBARK ~ Get Up, Get Out
students looked at me and said “Where are we going now?” I reminded them that our destination was up to them, which led to some light squabbling amongst the group. They decided that we should
head to campsite #12 for the night, and then make a plan for the next few days. The paddle to our campsite was quick, which surprised them and Continued on page 5
Summer 2022
