News and Events
Green Ridge State Park
October 3, 2009
Chesapeake Semester students departed for their second voyage around the Bay area entitled "Ridge to Ocean." In this voyage students will explore the ecology and geology of the Bay and its watershed. Starting in western Maryland in Green Ridge State Park of Washington County, the students began this trip camping in the temperate deciduous forests of the Appalachian foothills with Washington College Professor of Experimental Archeology, Dr. Bill Schindler. There they foraged for food, started fire using prehistoric techniques, and cooked foods representative of traditional prehistoric meals in clay pots.
Click to enlarge photos by Mike Hardesty '05.
Chesapeake Semester students arrive and immediately begin to set up base camp.
Packing light.
How many Chesapeake Semester students does it take to set up a three-person tent?
"Heey, ohh, / the water is cold on my feet / but I need a meal to eat / Craw Daddy, won't you come to me, / Craw Daddy it's you I need" sings Laura Carman '11 as she searches for the sweet Potomac crayfish for dinner.
Dr. Bill Schindler directs the students attention to the bed bottom of the Potomac River where ancient people would have looked for stones to make tools essential for survival.
Dr. Schindler demonstrating flint knapping techniques.
Students taste a little of the forest floor as Dr. Schindler passes around "local ginger" which he identified near to the river bank.
Benjy Duke '10 tries a prehistoric gummy worm: the common grub.
Kelsey Hallowell '11 examines a young female white tail deer skull found on a hike while foraging for food.
Students take a moment to attempt to identify a mushroom with Dr. Schindler. Students were unsuccessful in finding the elusive "hen of the woods" mushroom for supper.
Benjy Duke '10 "I put the "small" in Potomac River smallmouth bass."
Students feed a fire started from prehistoric techniques to cook the butternut squash, spaghetti squash and clay pots filled with quinoa and local grass fed beef for dinner.
Benjy Duke '10 and Kelsey Hallowell '11 feast on his catch of the day after it had been wrapped whole and unscaled in clay and baked in the coals of the fire.
Liz Shandor '11: "We might not have been able to see what we were eating, but it was delicious."
Kelsey Hallowell '11: "Cooking over fire is easy! I just found this stick and now it is a soup spoon! I never want this trip to end."