Venture Out club takes a trip down the river

     Venture Out, the outdoor adventure division of the Student Activities Center, hosted its first trip of the semester over the weekend of August 12. Twenty-three GCSU students  loaded up in rental vans and students’ cars on Saturday afternoon and headed toward North Carolina and the Nantahala River.
     After camping a short drive from the river, the group awoke Sunday morning to warm air and the anxious excitement of rafting down rapids varying in intensity from class one to class three, in surprisingly cold water. Individuals rafted down the river in single-person rafts known to river runners as “duckies.” Several river guides were present, as well as Daniel Diddlemeyer, an outdoor education graduate student, who is the front man for Venture Out this year.
     Diddlemeyer said the Nantahala has something for everyone who loves rafting, regardless of experience level.
     “The Nantahala is a relatively basic river—simple enough that anyone could paddle it,” Diddlemeyer said.
     This is good news for beginners, but for participants who may feel they are well acclimated to the world of rafting, Diddlemeyer added, “anyone who knows paddling knows that river.”
     According to the Venture Out website, trips and events are generally designed to cater to a range of participants from novice to advanced in various outdoor adventure settings. These trips and events also help to create socially dynamic situations in order to meet new people and to perhaps learn more about oneself.
     Participant Taylor Barton, a sophomore early childhood education major, recalls going down the river Sunday.
     “It was raining and thundering which created a mist on the water," she said.  "It made for a really cool experience because you did not know where you were going until you were there.”
     Barton feels that taking trips and participating in events with Venture Out has contributed to her overall experience at GCSU by providing an atmosphere to “meet new friends and get closer to the friends she already has.”
      Zach Olsen, a sophomore biology major, was a participant on the whitewater trip and has participated in several Venture Out events since he came to GCSU last year.
     “The trip was a great way start off the year, and it connected me to people who share my passion for the outdoors,” Olsen said.
     The trips and events that Venture Out hosts are designed to be affordable or in some cases completely free and can often fit into many students’ time-constrained schedules. Ideally, students can take a weekend adventure trip to break up the stress of the school week, and still have time to get homework done before class on Monday.
     The whitewater rafting trip to the Nantahala cost participants only $35 and took less than two days. The $35 covered trip expenses such as transportation, some meals  and the cost of rafting and rental equipment.
     Other trips and events planned for this year include rock climbing, backpacking, camping, and kayak rolling clinics, just to name a few.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 6 2007. Filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry