The UREC’s Adventure Education took students on a trip of a lifetime as they experienced whitewater rafting, camping, hiking, paddleboarding and rock climbing on a seven-day spring break trip in the Southern Appalachians around Chattanooga and northern Georgia.
Adventure Education assistant director Riley Kurtts, who organized and executed the itinerary for the trip, said the group spent the first night at Oak Mountain State Park in Alabama. The next day they proceeded to Chattanooga where they rock climbed, paddle boarded on Parksville Lake, whitewater rafted the Ocoee River, explored downtown Chattanooga and the riverfront and hiked Point Park on Lookout Mountain. The group then spent the rest of the time backpacking through the Appalachian Trail in Tennessee and northern Georgia.
Kurtts said Adventure Education organizes trips like this to allow students to explore more natural areas than what is found in Louisiana.
“Part of Adventure Education’s goal is to get students outdoors and experiencing new places and spring break is a good time to travel a little further away from Louisiana and see some beauty in the Southeast.”
While many of the participants experienced something new, Kurtts said it was not the nature but the people on the trip who made the experience worthwhile.
“One of my favorite memories was the people,” Kurtts said. “The diversity of the group really made for some interesting conversations and perspectives and there was never a dull moment. Everybody was excited to put their best foot forward and have a good time and try a lot of new things for most of the people.”
Like Kurtts, Arman Barekati-Goudarzi, an engineering Ph.D. student, said along with the new experience of whitewater rafting, the people were his favorite memory from the trip.
“What caught my attention was the people,” Barekati-Goudarzi said. “Each person had a very interesting and unique personality, and getting to know these people was a whole new memory for me.”
Petroleum engineering junior Will Wynne, who was one of the student leaders on the trip, said most of the people on the trip did not know each other at first, and many of them had never camped before. Despite this, Wynne said the group still had a positive experience. His favorite part of the trip was the whitewater rafting.
“That was new to me, and it was new to pretty much everyone on the trip, so it was fun to see everyone’s reaction to it,” Wynne said. “It’s pretty scary honestly.”
He said he would recommend any student to go on the UREC spring break trip.
“I’m shocked that more people don’t take advantage of it,” Wynne said. “I’ve done a lot of outdoor trips, but what we did was the adventure of a lifetime. If you were to go anywhere other than the UREC to outfit that trip, you would pay well over a thousand dollars, so it’s a great deal, a great experience and a great way to challenge yourself and do new things.”
Barekati-Goudarzi said not only was the trip inexpensive, but the leaders on the trip did not waste any time on the trip.
“This trip was very cheap, and these [leaders] know what they are doing,” Barekati-Goudarzi said. “It’s the most efficient way of getting to see different places and going outdoors and doing it in the cheapest way.”