Trading  Campus  for  Canoes

Sixty-two students joined one of the Outing Club's fall break trips this year, canoeing rivers and lakes in northern Maine river or backpacking the Bigelow Range.

The timing of fall break typically aligns with Maine's brightest foliage, or "peak," adding a backdrop of splendor to the trips.

This year, the Bowdoin Outing Club (BOC) offered five trips for students over the October 10-13 break, giving them a chance to unwind from midterms, make new connections, and challenge themselves in the outdoors. With vans packed, the students were headed north by the end of the week.

Fiona Jenkins '27 and Eamon McGlashan '28 led one of the trips-a three-day paddle from Moosehead Lake to Indian Pond via the West Outlet, about a three-and-a-half-hour drive from campus. They had sixteen students with them from all class years and varying outdoors experience.

The other trips included a second Moosehead Lake canoe trip, a paddling expedition on the Penobscot River, and backpacking in Bigelow Preserve.

First-year Payton Curtis '30 signed up for the Moosehead-to-Indian Pond paddle to meet new people and push her comfort zone. An experienced paddler and backpacker from Alaska, she knew it would "be a fun physical challenge as well as a chance to get off campus with people I don't typically interact with."

Kenny Hamann '30 said he signed up with two of his trips from his Orientation trip. "I didn't want to just sit on campus all weekend!" he added.

Jenkins and McGlashan prepared for their trip by charting a route and packing enough provisions to fuel everyone, while also including a few treats. Over the course of the trip, everyone pitched in to cook meals, including chocolate chip, banana, and blueberry pancakes, cheesy bagel breakfast sandwiches, and burrito bowls.

The group spent most of each day paddling to a new campsite and then settling into an evening routine. Jenkins said her favorite part of the day was when all the chores were done and everyone was fed and warm, sitting around a fire. Then, she said, "we can really talk to each other."

"I love gazing into the fire and up at the stars, listening to people tell stories and learning about people who may have been strangers a few days ago and are now comfortable friends," she added.

-Trip Leader Ollie Tannahill '27

Both Curtis and Hamann said their favorites moments from the trip were hitting the white-water stretches on the river. Curtis described slicing through the rapids on the last day of the trip. "At this point we all knew and trusted one another, and it was such a unique way to bond with people. We were making quick decisions and having to trust each other's decision making," she said.

While Hamann has whitewater rafted at home in California, he said he's never had the chance to navigate a boat through them, which he learned to do on this trip. "It was fun to step into that role," he said.

Jenkins reflected that she has met many of her closest friends over the last three years on BOC trips, but she keeps "coming back to lead BOC trips because there are so many more amazing people on this campus I still don't know."

With BOC student officer Ollie Tannahill '27 and Assistant Director Emmie McElroy

Harper Stevenson: How long has the Outing Club offered fall break trips, and how has the programming evolved over time?

Ollie Tannahill: The Outing Club has done fall break trips for thirty-five years or so. It's always been popular, and student leaders have always been excited about it, but in recent years, trip leaders have really embraced the opportunity to get out on multi-day trips instead of just weekend trips.

Trip leaders can travel farther and explore more remote places we generally can't on weekend trips. I also think that as people have become more and more squeezed for time, they are less likely to spend a weekend off campus, and fall break offers a chance to get outside without the weekly pressure of academics. 

HS: How many students participate in BOC fall break trips each year? 

OT: We typically send out five to six trips (including our Leadership Training trip). This year, we sent out five trips with a total of sixty-two participants.  

HS: What do you think students gain from spending a long weekend outdoors with people they may not otherwise know well? 

OT: Being outside is one of the best ways to meet new people; that's why we have orientation trips! Most people in the BOC will tell you that they've made some of their best friends from going on trips with them, and for a longer trip like fall break, this effect is only amplified. Everyone is a little cold, hungry, tired, and outside of their comfort zone, which lets us all be a bit more vulnerable than we are on campus. There's a wonderful effect that being outside or huddled around a campfire has on you, and it really lets you open up.  

HS: What makes a long weekend away with the Outing Club different from simply spending time outdoors on campus or with friends?

Emmie McElroy: On BOC trips, technology is intentionally left behind on campus. This allows for more space to disconnect from the business of the semester and fully connect with other individuals. When you're with the BOC, you always move at the same pace as others, share your meals with your group, and engage fully in the wider Bowdoin community. 

HS: How do the BOC's fall break trips connect to Bowdoin's idea of the common good? 

EM: None of our leaders get paid! And most of these leaders have the means to get outside with just their friends for fall break if they wanted to. Instead, our leaders donate their time to helping students get outside and experience the outdoors. They run trips that are free and require no experience on the part of participants. I would say this all shows a strong desire from our leaders to give to the common good.