This experiential program for high school students from the Monadnock Region will focus on developing skills to become wilderness leaders, practicing adventure sports, and having fun in nature and community. The group will meet one weekend day each month throughout the school year.

There is no charge for participation however some activities will require student contribution toward transportation, equipment, or food.

CURRENT DATES:

September 22 - West River Rafting. This is the bi-annual West River Release weekend and it is a lot of fun.

October 27 

November 17

December 15

Please complete the registration form below to sign up for the club program:

Remote and mysterious, the canyonlands of the desert southwest offer a unique lens through which to view the cultural and natural history of North America. Our Legends of the Southwest Semester is a 15-week immersion in place-based experiential learning, backcountry wilderness travel, and climate-resilient living. As we travel through the desert landscape on foot, by mountain bike and by paddle, we will transect the region’s deep history and the complex present-day cultural crossroads. Our classrooms are the vast mountains, deep canyons and endless deserts of Arizona, and our teachers are the plants, animals, and people who inhabit them. Alive with natural beauty and transcending cultures and borders, Kroka’s Legends of the Southwest Semester offers endless possibilities for exploration, discovery, and adventure.

This program is for 16-21 year olds. High School and/or college credit is available. Kroka requires Semester students to contribute a minimum of $500 of earned income (e.g. from informal employment such as babysitting or lawn care, or from formal employment such as retail or restaurant work, or from selling handicrafts or artwork) towards their tuition.

Join us to celebrate the accomplishments of the 2024 Legends of the Southwest Semester Program as we witness their homecoming and graduation.

SCHEDULE OF THE DAY:

10:30 AM - arrival & parking
11:00 AM - student performance begins
12:00 PM - greeting circle and pot-luck lunch
1:00 PM - slideshow
1:15 PM - presentation of diplomas
2:00 PM - alumni song
2:30 PM - goodbyes and departures

Please RSVP to let us know you plan to attend.

Join us on a journey from the heart of the winter wilderness to the waterways and coastlines of the North East as we intimately follow the seasons from January to June. For 5-months we will traverse northern New England under our own power on a climate forward journey. Kroka’s Full Circle Winter Semester combines two months of backcountry skiing expeditions with homesteading, hand craft, a traditional wilderness canoe journey down the Hudson River, and a final train home to Kroka. 

On the heels of the hottest summers on record and unprecedented natural disasters impacting our local communities, Kroka is committing to a Winter Semester that traverses the mysterious and beautiful wildernesses of the Northeast without the use of private vehicles. We will weave together deep observation with action, the past with the present and future, and academic studies with active hope. You will develop sound judgment for healthy risk-taking and competency in technical adventure sports of backcountry skiing, whitewater canoeing, mountain bikepacking, and marine navigation. You will engage in a rigorous experiential curriculum encompassing the humanities and natural sciences. You will emerge from the program empowered and inspired to transform what you have learned in nature and community into altruistic action. Join our expedition team!

Thanks to the incredible support of a few very committed individuals and two private foundations, we are pleased to announce that–for the first time in our history–Kroka is able to offer a tuition-free semester program! We share a vision that Kroka’s most impactful program should be accessible to students of extraordinary character and determination, without financial obstacles to enrollment. Traditionally this program has cost up to $35,000 per student, but thanks to frugal planning and generous grant funding we are now able to offer our 2025 Full Circle Semester without this financial obstacle.

Click here to learn more about this unique opportunity...

Join us for the third annual Winterfest at Kroka's campus in Marlow, NH! Come experience the magic of winter on this fun, festive and adventurous day.  Winterfest is family-friendly and is free and open to the public. Hot soup and dessert will be available to purchase.

Saturday, February 8: Campus is open 10:30 AM - 3:00 PM for the following activities and more: 

• Ski (skate or classic) on our network of groomed trails

• Ice skate on the Kroka Pond

• Drink a cup of tea inside our cozy candle-lit winter expedition tent 

• Cook bread-on-a-stick over the campfire

• Build a Quinzhee snow fort

• Snowshoe out to the Beaver Pond

• Attend a winter tracking workshop

• Take a ride down the best sledding hill in Marlow! 

Sunday, February 9: Winterfest snow date in case of inclement weather or extreme cold.

All activities are weather dependent. Skis, skates, and snowshoes available to borrow. RSVP below if you plan to attend! 

All you river runners out there, it’s time to come together and head to the water! This will be a week of canoeing, kayaking, and swimming through currents, around bends, and into eddies. Skill building begins at our very own pond, after which we will embark on a four-day river expedition. Kroka’s unique paddling progression is rooted in developing skill and comfort in swimming through moving water as well as paddling both canoes and kayaks. In addition, we will simply soak in the joys of river life. Our afternoons will include camp set-up in the woods or on sandbars, roasting tasty bannocks over the fire, and time for play and discovery. Days end with craftwork, stories, songs and games.

Steeped in history and culture, the blue-green waters of Lake Champlain offer perfect conditions for a long-distance sea kayak expedition. Stretching south-north from Vermont to Canada, the 125-mile-long lake has more than 500 miles of shoreline and 70 islands with protected coves for camping, high cliffs for jumping, and abundant fish to catch.  We begin the week at Kroka Village where we will practice kayaking in the pond and work on the farm to harvest and prepare food for the journey ahead. Once the hatches are full, we load our trailer and depart for Whitehall, NY - the southernmost point of the lake. Each day we make progress Northward in tune with currents and wind while stopping to swim, visit the Lake's many museums and historical sites, and take in the breathtaking views of the Green Mountains and Adirondacks. At night we make camp on the lakeshore or on its islands, cook dinner over the open fire, and take in the starry night skies. We will revel in the joys of expedition life, tell stories of old times, and if the winds are with us - and we can summon the willpower to do so - complete the end-to-end sea kayak expedition all the way to Canada!

Join us in discovering the adventure of backcountry bikepacking! After tuning up our bikes and practicing riding techniques on Kroka’s bike course, we will head into the forest for a week filled with spectacularly wild mountain bike adventures. The rich history of New Hampshire has left our forests full of wondrous dirt trails alongside abandoned root cellars, mines, and wilderness lakes. We will return to Kroka for campfire meals and cozy dwellings during the first half of the week. Our next adventure will be a two-day overnight expedition. Each day will include discovering and playing in wild swimming holes, games, and evening stories by the campfire. In addition to technical riding, students will learn how to take care of their bikes and participate in community service projects. This introductory program is excellent preparation for our Mountain Bike Expeditions!

Join us on an adventure in fishing, crafting, and exploring the hidden secrets of the streams, lakes, and rivers that surround us. We begin the week at Kroka Village where we will carve our own fishing poles, learn to tie flies, and rig our lines. In the afternoons we will try our luck from shore, testing our patience and our wit while exploring the magical forests that surround us. Then with barrels packed and lines reeled tight, we will head out on a three-day expedition by canoe through one of Vermont’s most famous fisheries. Each day we’ll paddle further downstream, learning about currents, eddies, and fish habitats. In the heat of the day we’ll stop to swim and to test the many rope swings and jumping rocks along the shore! We will camp in the forest and cook delicious dinners over the fire. We eat what we catch: eager fisherfolk should be excited to gut, clean, and cook their fish. If you’ve fallen hook line and sinker for the adventure of fishing, this expedition is not to be missed!

Young explorers, come join us at Pumpkin Hill Village for a week of cooperative play in nature. We will begin each day by visiting the animals on Kroka’s farm. Our cows, sheep, pigs and chickens love the attention! Afterwards we set off for the forest where each day greets us with a new surprise: building fairy houses, exploring the Porcupine Cliffs, playing in the mud, or floating boats downstream. Our days are filled with games, songs, stories, and exploring the wonders and magic of nature. This is the perfect first step to begin a child's life-long connection to Kroka.

New in 2025, this program will offer the option to sleep over at Kroka on the last night of the program.

Come one, come all and adventure into the world of acrobatics on this new expedition that brings circus art alive in the natural world. Designed for students who love to move and be outside, this special week aims to guide us to a better understanding of our physical capabilities, capacity for storytelling, and relationships to peers and surroundings. Led by professional acrobat and Kroka alumni Anna Soltys-Morse, we will discover our proprioception - our awareness of self-movement, force, and body position as we train, play and work toward a culminating group performance. Each day begins with farm chores, and then we set our minds and bodies on acrobatic training. With a focus on acrobatics, there will be space for juggling, clowning, mime, slackline, theater, singing, and more. Our afternoons will be spent immersed in local nature, learning wilderness crafts, canoeing, swimming and finding creative movement. A perfect combination of circus arts and wilderness living, this week promises to be a spectacle!

Standing sentinel at the farthest outreach of Penobscot Bay, Isle au Haut is a secret part of Acadia National Park that few know about and even fewer get to visit.  Our sea-faring tribe will hike to the top of her hills, swim in her fresh-water pools, and scramble the steep rocky outcroppings of her rugged coast – but to reach her shores will require 30 miles of island hopping as our sea kayaks dodge the wind, waves, fog, and tidal currents, each testing and building our skills. We’ll dive into the history of the region, of colonial settlers and of the indigenous who came first, and take in the pristine beauty and nature of Maine's farthest reaches. Come along on an serious ocean expedition that will give back as much as it demands of us!

This is a 10 day program for adults, Tuesday - Thursday

Come Take to the Woods and become the wild children of the forest! Experience the pure fun and magic of living in and from the wilderness. The forest will fuel our projects, providing saplings for branch bows, dry wood for friction fire, pine for bowl carving, and wild plants for food. Camping on the banks of the Ashuelot River we will swim, fish, and learn stealth while observing the life of the woodland animals that abound. We will form new friendships with nature and each other. We will become a true community, relying on each other and celebrating the joys of summertime. Yes, let’s take to the woods: we are the wild ones, adventuring and learning the secrets of the earth!

Remote and mysterious, the canyonlands of the desert southwest offer a unique lens through which to view the cultural and natural history of North America. Our Legends of the Southwest Semester is a 15-week immersion in place-based experiential learning, backcountry wilderness travel, and climate-resilient living. As we travel through the desert landscape on foot, by mountain bike and by paddle, we will transect the region’s deep history and the complex present-day cultural crossroads. Our classrooms are the vast mountains, deep canyons and endless deserts of Arizona, and our teachers are the plants, animals, and people who inhabit them. Alive with natural beauty and transcending cultures and borders, Kroka’s Legends of the Southwest Semester offers endless possibilities for exploration, discovery, and adventure.

This program is for 16-21 year olds. High School and/or college credit is available. Kroka requires Semester students to contribute a minimum of $500 of earned income (e.g. from informal employment such as babysitting or lawn care, or from formal employment such as retail or restaurant work, or from selling handicrafts or artwork) towards their tuition.

Join us on a journey from the heart of the winter wilderness to the waterways and coastlines of the North East as we intimately follow the seasons from January to June. For 5-months we will traverse northern New England under our own power on a climate forward journey. Kroka’s Full Circle Winter Semester combines two months of backcountry skiing expeditions with homesteading, hand craft, a traditional wilderness canoe journey, and a final bike ride home to Kroka. 

On the heels of the hottest summers on record and unprecedented natural disasters impacting our local communities, Kroka is committing to a Winter Semester that traverses the mysterious and beautiful wildernesses of the Northeast without the use of private vehicles. We will weave together deep observation with action, the past with the present and future, and academic studies with active hope. You will develop sound judgment for healthy risk-taking and competency in technical adventure sports of backcountry skiing, whitewater canoeing, mountain bikepacking, and marine navigation. You will engage in a rigorous experiential curriculum encompassing the humanities and natural sciences. You will emerge from the program empowered and inspired to transform what you have learned in nature and community into altruistic action. Join our expedition team!