Mario Lopez

Canoeing as my First Year Trip!

Hey y'all,

In my last blog, I talked a little bit about my experience during my First-Year Trips canoeing down through a river on the Second College Grant, and I'd like to elaborate on that experience a little bit more. But before that, I'd like to expand a bit more on what the Second College Grant is. The Grant is a vast area of land in Maine/New Hampshire owned by Dartmouth, where students can visit for free and spend some time outdoors—Dartmouth students can even rent cabins for free. This means students can explore the Second College Grant outside of First-Year Trips, although that is what introduced me to the Grant. As one of New Hampshire's biggest landowners, Dartmouth offers a plethora of opportunities to its students to explore the outdoors; Dartmouth allows students to rent a cabin and stay overnight, go canoeing or kayaking, or even simply go on hikes!

Every year, incoming first-year and transfer students have the option to participate in a multi-day trip outdoors in New Hampshire and Maine, which is called a first-year trip (FYT). These trips are coordinated by the Dartmouth Outing Club and offer a wide variety of trips varying from different levels of hiking, kayaking, mountain biking, and more!

After selecting which trip new incoming students want to participate in, one is assigned to a section consisting of other new incoming students as well as two TLs—Dartmouth lingo for Trip Leaders—who are upperclassmen who volunteered to lead trips this year. I was lucky enough to have been able to participate in my top choice for first-year trips, which was canoeing (I was incredibly thrilled since I love water-related activities) for three whole days!

Two days after arriving at Dartmouth during New Student Orientation, I began my first-year trip with a three-hour bus ride up to Maine to get to Dartmouth's own river—the Second College Grant. After that, I received some training on basic paddle strokes from members of the Dartmouth Outing Club—keep in mind that almost none of Dartmouth's first-year trips require prior outdoor experience as you will receive all the training you need from trained professionals, which encourages students to try new outdoor activities they're not familiar with.

Following the lessons on Paddle Strokes 101, we began our journey down the Grant—lingo for the Second College Grant—for about 4 miles, which took us about 2 hours to complete. After that, we made camp and did multiple activities with my Trippees—Dartmouth lingo for the other new first-year students on your trip—like knee tag (It's like tag, but you touch your opponents' knees to pass the tag) and stargazing. 

On the second day, we journeyed down the Grant for another 8 miles. Throughout the day, we went swimming multiple times, had lunch in the middle of the river, and created what I call a super canoe (basically two canoes tied together) with some of my newly made friends. At night, we ate the most delicious meal I had all weekend—sausages with mac & cheese—and played Mafia all night.

A glimpse of the view we had throughout our three-day trip!

On my last day, we journeyed for the last 4 miles until we reached the pick-up point and played more Mafia until my group got picked up by Grant Croo!

First-Year Trips are one of Dartmouth's most deeply rooted traditions where new incoming students are able to meet other new students and seek advice from upper-level students through their TLs. I greatly encourage any new incoming students to participate in first-year trips and try an activity they're not too familiar with!

Until next time,

Mario