While some students are busy planning Spring Break getaways, one group of students already is planning for a post-finals adventure.
About 20 students from the LSU Baptist Collegiate Ministry are planning a week-long trip to the Appalachian Trail to go backpacking, rock climbing and white-water rafting.
To prepare for the strenuous trip, the group met at Highland Road Park Sunday afternoon. The thirteen adventurers spent more than an hour running the hills and fields, jumping creeks and climbing a tree.
Although the team became tired and weary in the afternoon heat, this did not stop them from encouraging each other to push on.
“I’ve been backpacking since I was a little kid,” said Peter Hyatt, the associate director of the BCM, who is coordinating the trip. “I want to get other students involved and interested in what I’ve experienced all my life — just encourage outdoor awareness.”
Hyatt said he grew up hiking with his father and childhood friends in Georgia.
He said that two of those friends, Bobby Bardin and John Temples, who are now professional guides, will be accompanying the team.
Hyatt said the idea began developing a couple of months ago. He proposed the idea of cutting loose in the outdoors after finals via e-mail to BCM members, and these 20 students replied.
He said that these particular adventurers just had the drive to go into the wilderness. They were not chosen by any particular standards.
However, Hyatt said he had to limit the number of participants to about 20 because of the impact so many people can have on the environment.
Hyatt said the group will leave for the Unicoi Gap trailhead in Georgia on May 25. Then the team will split into two groups.
At the trail, the “extended backpacking” group will depart for three days and three nights on the Appalachian Trail, where Hyatt hopes to cover about 32.5 miles.
The second group will camp at the trailhead and take various day-long hikes. On the third night, the second group will travel to Tallulah Gorge to eventually meet up with the first group.
On the fourth day, the entire team will go to the Ocoee River to white-water raft and camp next to the river.
On the fifth day, the team will travel to a natural rock face at Rocktown, located outside of Chattanooga, Tenn., where they will camp at the base of the rock face.
The team plans to be back in Baton Rouge by May 31.
“I want students to experience God’s creation,” Hyatt said. “I think He created it for us to enjoy.”
Each night, the students will sit and reflect on their day and personal accomplishments, but there also will be bible studies and discussions, Hyatt said.
Expenses for the trip include personal gear and food, plus $50 to travel to the locations. Hyatt said that for an additional fee of no more than $50, the students can white-water raft as well.
Allison Berry, a family, child and consumer science junior who has never been backpacking before, said she was “a little nervous, but excited.”
“I hope to be taken out of my comfort zone, which will probably happen,” she said.
Hyatt said he wanted to try to create obstacles and challenges that tested the individual, but also would try to unite the team.
After seeing the team in action Sunday afternoon, he said he was impressed.
One of these exercises consisted of the entire team helping one another climb over an oak tree limb about seven feet off the ground.
“This was just a wake-up call for us to see what we need to do to get ready for the trip,” said education graduate student Bonnie Otillio, one of the few experienced hikers on the trip. “[The trip] is going to be great. We’ll find great fellowship with other students and nature.”
Justin Rayburn, a history junior, said this trip is one way for him to experience more of the outdoors and make a routine out of spending time in the wilderness.
Hyatt said that the students should be training individually at least three times a week, but in about three weeks, the group will have another training day.