About Nowwhat
We are life-long adventure guides, educators, parents of 4 adult children, ages 20 – 36, and grandparents. We have raised our family on a nature-connected homestead, growing our food, and living an intentional life. Every year, we took our children out of school and brought them on a month-long wilderness expedition, often by canoe, living without information technology or modern conveniences, cooking on the open fire, sleeping under the stars and foraging in close connection with the elements.
In 1996, we founded Kroka Expeditions, a wilderness expedition school in Marlow, NH. Kroka has helped thousands of adolescents and young adults to find their places in the circle of community, develop lasting relationships with the natural world, and become leaders for sustainability. In 2022, with Kroka thriving, and our youngest son in his second year of college, we transitioned as founders and directors, passing the organization to the next generation of leaders.
Now what?
As we prepared for a journey beyond our parenting years, we had time to get ready (our children are spread out in age by 16 years), received valuable advice from other families in our community, and had examples of successful transitions from our friends.
Yet, for years, we observed couples facing this pivotal time in their lives on their own without the community support they needed or a plan for the change that major life transitions require, often resulting in their parting ways. We decided to draw upon our guiding, facilitation, and people experience to help others rediscover themselves, and each other, beyond their parenting roles, and intentionally move into the second half of their lives.
Stronger together
Misha is a goal-oriented visionary, who thinks beyond the next ridge of mountains. His gifts are in organizing people into efficient teams and getting the work done. As a parent, Misha made sure that the kids received multi-sport training, learned homesteading and woods skills, and developed their will forces through challenges they were allowed and encouraged to face as children, adolescents, and young men.
Lynne is a process-oriented caretaker who intuitively senses people, plants, and animals and gets fully absorbed in the pressing needs of the moment. Lynne has a special connection to all living things: her gardens are beautiful and productive, her dogs are well-trained and even her chickens are civil. As a parent, Lynne taught our children compassion, beauty, and the importance of being open, honest, and direct in their communication and helped them to develop a sense of fairness, and strong bonds with each other and the natural world.
As a couple, we recognize that our differences make us stronger as parents, business partners, and friends. We nourish our shared interests, such as dancing and reading aloud together. We take an active part in each other’s passions, such as gardening and adventure sports. Through our journey together, we stay committed to our romantic relationship, rediscovering intimacy in every new stage of our lives, and adapting to our changing bodies and life cycles.
More about Lynne and Misha:
2000 State of Vermont, Guides of the Year Award
2016 Paddled Grand Canyon in a tandem canoe
2021 Sterling College Presidential Ecological Thinking and Action Award
Some of our family expeditions included:
Rivers by Canoe: Rio Grande, Middle Fork of the Salmon, Salmon and Snake, Green, Colorado, Moisie, Broadback, Suwanee, Dumoine, Noir
By Sea Kayak: Coast of Maine, Cape Bretton Island circumnavigation, Belize Barrier Reef.
By Mountain Bike: Arizona Trail, Sweden, Norway, and the length of Cuba
By Ski: Chic Choc and Uapishka Mountains and the length of Vermont on Catamount trail
We’ve sailed, climbed, ascended, canyoneered, hiked, caved, rafted, swam, and explored special places close to home and far away for over 30 years!
Together, we have built two energy-efficient family homes (one net-positive and disconnected from all fossil fuels) and rehabilitated and deep energy retrofitted a 200-year-old Vermont farmhouse. We’ve taught dozens of parenting and compassionate risk-taking workshops.
Misha guided over 100 extended expeditions in remote parts of the world.
Lynne raised scores of cows, thousands of chickens, and countless bees and fed the family and community for many years.
