College Outdoors usually arranges trips for new students to attend in August before their first year. This year, however, they were held virtually due to covid. The digital new student trips were definitely still worthwhile for making friends, and getting introduced to LC culture, but they were missing the wilderness recreation part that I was so excited about. Thankfully, College Outdoors has decided to do new student trips at the end of this year!
I will be doing the Badger Creek Wilderness trip. We’ll be backpacking the foothills of Mount Hood. It will be four days of hiking. Not all New Student Trips are backpacking. Some are kayak or rafting trips, some are less rigorous forms of wilderness recreation. Other trips aren’t even about wilderness. There are trips exploring the art scene in Portland, or doing community service.
I love backpacking. I love being in nature. I love the exposure it gives you to the wilderness. You only having one destination and all you have to do is walk. Something about that is so meditative and it really causes you to contemplate the natural world. I truly believe that this kind of exposure to nature builds empathy for life outside of humanity which will fuel environmental stewardship for the rest of your life. That’s certainly what it’s done for me.
Of course, not everything about backpacking is magical and amazing. There is a level of grime sweat and dirt that happens when backpacking that is unparalleled by anything I’ve ever experienced. You do have to be willing to put up with a fair amount of discomfort. Usually, there’s no escaping the heat or the bugs. Minor injuries are frankly unavoidable. The main injuries will just come from all the walking. If you don’t break in your boots properly and you’ll have to deal with blisters and all other kinds of discomfort. That being said, all of that minor seems inconsequential to me when I’m experiencing nature so intimately.
If you are new to backpacking, never fear! This trip is super beginner-friendly. They have everything you need down to socks and shoes, and there are no additional fees for checking out equipment. They will teach you what you need to know, and then after the trip, you will have many of the skills you need to backpack in the future!
If you worried if you’re physically ready for backpacking, I’ll try and assuage your fears, but of course, know your abilities and exercise reasonable precautions. This trip is considered ‘rigorous’ which definitely intimidated me at first. It could be up to 10 miles a day, but it will be more like an average of five miles a day, and hey can easily do less if issues arise (that might be specific to this trip). If you don’t hike much that might seem like a lot, but I think it is very doable for only moderately healthy people (myself included). I have been on trips that were an average of 10 miles and while those were definitely challenging all you have to do is put one foot in front of the other. At five miles a day you might begin to get sore legs or feet, but you probably won’t feel destroyed at the end of the day. You will also have all the time in the world so you can go slow and take all the breaks you need. The most challenging part then is the weight. The most important thing you can do about that is to wear your pack correctly. This will shift much of the weight to your hips. That will help you avoid shoulder and back pain as well as lowering your center of gravity so that it is easier to manage and the bag doesn’t knock you over. There are a lot of other tricks that can help you out with that. I would say that you shouldn’t be intimidated out of participating in one of these trips.
One really amazing thing about College Outdoors is that they provide financial support for their trips. I am receiving financial assistance and it is super affordable and helpfu.
I am super excited to go on this trip, and if you are an incoming student, you should look into going on one yourself!
For more information on my trip: https://www.lclark.edu/live/profiles/13654-backpack-badger-creek-wilderness
For more information on New Student Trips: https://www.lclark.edu/programs/college_outdoors/programs/nst/
For more information on College outdoors: https://www.lclark.edu/programs/college_outdoors/