Feeling adventurous

This term as the Chair for Dartmouth Outing Club (DOC) outreach, I had a goal in mind - setting up the infrastructure for an event that would be appealing to all students. The idea for the race was loosely based on Toughmudder, Adventure Racing and The Amazing Race. It would include elements of teamwork, endurace and, of course a bit of Dartmouth flair.

When I first brought up the idea to the DOC board, they may have thought my idea would peter out. Trust me, it almost did, but I wrote all the proposals, received funding and  made some cool event posters, thanks to a friend's great artwork. Race day rolled around and as a first time event, I was expecting about 5 teams of four; instead 14 teams showed up. Here is a breakdown of the first Dartmouth adventure race:

The start itself was the first team challenge. With a low volunteer to racer ratio (10 more teams than expected signed up), the teams ended up running around setting up their own canoes while registering and putting on sunscreen.

Each team of four launched into the water, and I anxiously waited for the first telltale scream of capsize. Paddling three miles would have been a challenge, but I intended more than a challenge. The race needed to be adventurous. So, on top of the paddling, each four person team needed to paddle in a two person canoe. Riding low in the water, the result was definitely a bonding experience for the groups.

On arrival at the Dartmouth Organic Farm, an organic farmer greeted the racers with a wild story about how the farm recently sprouted a new breed of fruit - the Canadian ground fruit. The racer's task was to harvest one of these new anomalies. For a little background - almost all Dartmouth students go on a freshman outdoor trip before they start school. Those wonderful four days are the time for freshmen to figure out who they want to be during their Dartmouth career. Anything is possible - and many kids come out of trips redefined. To play off of this theme trip leaders sometimes play a joke on their group by burying a pineapple and convincing the group of freshman that it is a rare Canadian groundfruit. Many believe their leaders until they get back to campus and brag about this unique discovery. I don't know which is weirder, going to the organic farm to bury pineapples or knowing that 56 kids would know exactly what to look for when they were told to find a Canadian groundfruit.

With  pineapple in hand the teams ran to Oak Hill - the stomping ground of the Forestry Team. There they pulped wood as a team until they racked up a certain number of points. Wood pulping is similar to horseshoes, but with giant wood logs. After tossing wood logs until they worked up a little sweat, the teams were given a riddle that led them to the medical school parking lot for my favorite challenge. Can you guess what it was?

Archery, of course!! Each racer took three shots Katniss Everdean style until the team popped three balloons. They received yet another riddle - "two roads diverges in a yellow wood".

Robert Frost came to Dartmouth for two years, so of course we built a statue where the teams congregated for their next adventure.  Four challenges awaited them - one for each team member. The first challenge involved the Robert Frost statue - a member of the team needed to memorize and perform one of his famous poems, Fire and Ice. If they got it wrong they had to start over and repeat the process. Following poetry, a member completed part one of the Climbing Club's challenge - bouldering around a stone tower. The second part of the climbing challenge was slacklining with some added Dartmouth flair. Cabot Cheese is made in Cabot Vermont and is the main source of food for the DOC. Thus, each team needed to retrieve and eat a bar of Cabot Cheese on the slackline; everyone dug in with fervor.



To wrap up a Dartmouth-tastic event, the last adventure was for team members to dance the Salty Dog - the official school dance. Upon completion the teams returned to Ledyard to grab food and a goodie bag with a Chaos Hat. After organizing and running this whirlwind event, I think Chaos exactly described my day!