(Post and Image provided by Courtney Hohnholt)
Michigan Tech students have a reputation for enjoying the outdoors and our time at Kolarbyn Eco-Lodge certainly proved that true. While we celebrated the many comforts and privileges provided by our hosts, there was a lot of old fashion labor that went into our adventure as well.
Some of us were camping veterans and some had never slept outdooors in their lives, but every person tried their hand at wood chopping, building fires and tending them, and crafting meals with random ingredients, using odd tools, and cooking those meals over a campfire. All pitched in to carry wood, haul water from the stream-fed pump, heat water over the fire for washing dishes, chop the vegetables, stir the soup, innovate meals, sort the recycling, and tend fires while still finding time for high-quality art, forest exploration, lake and sauna enjoyment, and bonding in a peaceful setting.
We were visited by Sebastian Kirppu, a forest ecologist and nature educator, who described Sweden’s environmental past, current forest management policy, and the the threats Sweden faces in the onslaught of climate change. He showed us an endangered species, the lesser rattlesnake plantain (Goodyera repens), the carnivorous plant, round-leaved sundew (Drosera rotundifolia), taught us about wood ants in Sweden, and described the ecology of the spruce and pine forest all around our camp. We shared our lunch with him and invited him to come visit the Keweenaw. Kolarbyn Eco-Lodge is featured on the popular app, Calm, as a story about drifting off to sleep in the peace and beauty of the north woods.