Have you ever felt trapped on campus? You are not alone. For many Hopkins students, days consist of hours spent in the library or rushing from building to building, perhaps punctuated by an hour or two in the A.C. running on a treadmill or lifting weights or perhaps on the beach trying to get some desperately needed sunlight. Wildlife consists of squirrels, rabbits, pigeons and local Baltimoreans.
Some, however, have found other ways to get away from campus, if just for a while, to explore. The Johns Hopkins Outdoors Club (JHOC) spends its weekends rappelling, ice skating, canoeing and caving. What better way to get to know Silver Springs, Md. than by rappelling off the bridge there?
Junior Leanne Stunkel, director of JHOC describes her favorite experience -- backpacking in the Shenandoah National Park in February of last year. Virginia's Shenandoah National Park has miles of trail, natural wildlife and camping grounds.
"It ended up being the coldest night of the year, and if we weren't moving we were freezing, but the scenery was beautiful, and it felt amazing to make it through such a cold night outdoors. Our water bottles froze even inside our tents, so we were pretty thirsty the next morning!" Stunkel said.
JHOC is a student-run club and is SAC-sponsored, which means most of the trips are free. Senior Gregory Caravelli has been involved in the Outdoors Club since his freshman year and has only good things to say about his experiences.
"I really love how different each trip is," he said. "Caving is a full day ordeal c9 On the other hand, rappelling usually takes only a few hours but is still really fun." The Outdoors Club takes both day-trips and weekend trips. Weekend trips generally leave on Friday night or Saturday and get back by Sunday, and are a great way to get to know people. "While weekend trips require a larger time commitment, you generally get to know the participants a lot better ... which is really nice."
Students generally lead the trips, and are very passionate about making the most of the great outdoors. Their most traditional trips include day hiking, day canoeing, day caving, day climbing, weekend backpacking, weekend sport climbing, day rappelling and weekend white water rafting. They have also started to run day ice skating for those times when the weather is just too cold to explore.
Rebecca Bush, publicist for the Outdoors Club described the time when she first went caving. "I had never been caving before so I did not really know what to expect. It was a ton of fun. After the trip though we were covered in mud and we stopped at a local store to get ice cream cones and the looks we got from the people in the store were priceless."
She joined the club because it gave her a chance to get off campus. "I consider the Hopkins campus to be a very high-stress place. After all, when the library becomes a main social scene, you know things are intense. I often feel like I have too much work to do to go on trips, but whenever I go on trips which range in duration from two hours to three days depending on the trip, I always end up feeling relaxed or rejuvenated. Getting away from campus is very enjoyable."
Somehow burrowing down to D-level of the library just doesn't sound like quite as much of an appropriate excursion for college students than crawling through natural caves.
It is easy to get wrapped up in work and forget that life and adventure still exist outside of Homewood campus and the Baltimore area and to forget about opportunities for adventure in the greater Maryland area. The Outdoors Club provides just one of many ways to get away from the stress of Hopkins and the danger of being confined to the inner city. Take a breath of fresh air and explore!
