By Adekale Ande, Campus Carrier Asst. Sports Editor

PHOTOS CONTRIBUTED BY OLIVIA IOBST

Students and staff members kayaked down the Etowah River on Sunday.  The Outdoor Recreation Program has more events planned for this semester including hiking, kayaking, rock climbing, camping and scavenger hunts around campus.

There is no containing the sense of adventure that the Outdoor Recreation Program provides for students. Amanda Highfield has been leading the program since last September. 

The Outdoor Recreation Program is part of the student affairs and recreation organization at Berry. Most students don’t realize that this includes everything recreational, even intramural games.

Outdoor Recreation provides an opportunity for Berry students to experience possible new hobbies on the world’s largest campus. They offer several trips during both fall and spring semesters that are led by students and staff. These trips include anything from hiking, kayaking, and bike rides to river clean-ups.

“We really just try to plan simple, local and easily accessible events,” Highfield said.

On Sunday, Highfield led a group of eight students and four staff members kayaking on the Etowah River. They kayaked down the river for two hours. 

“Due to the low water level it caused rapids which made the trip very exciting,” sophomore Olivia Iobst said.

These two hours were spent relaxing and talking along the river. 

“I think it went really well,” Highfield said. “We had a participant who had never kayaked before.”

This specific event had a limited registration and only around 10 people were able to register. Fortunately they didn’t have to turn anyone away from the event. But most events do not limit participation.

This semester they have already taken hikes to the House of Dreams and the reservoir, hosted a camp out at Victory Lake and more. Most of the events have averaged around 10 -20 participants, a good turn out according to Highfield. 

“The best part is having people that have never done an event before that come out and experience it for the first time,” she said.

Upcoming events include a scavenger hunt on main campus next week, a Mountain Campus scavenger hunt, a camp out following the KCAB fall festival, hiking, kayaking and rock climbing trips. 

While next semester will only have around two trips per month, Highfield said that their office is always open and they are willing to help students who would like to do solo trips.

“Our staff will always help you print maps and guides and tell you about the trails on campus,” she said.

While students are encouraged to attend these events, they are also encouraged to suggest trips they would like to go on. Highfield said that the office is always open to student ideas for events and trips because she wants this to be a student-led program. 

“Pretty soon we’re going to lock in our spring semester calendar,” she said. “And we’ll put that on the recreation website.”