Spring Break
Outdoor program plans for recreational trips
KALEB FRADY
Issue date: 4/28/08 Section: Variety
Got a taste for adventure?
University students are able to kayak, canoe, hang glide and more through the Ramsey Center's Georgia Outdoor Recreation Program.
The GORP program consists of four components: the challenge course, the climbing wall at Ramsey, the Outdoor Recreation Center at the intramural fields and outdoor trips.
"I would say my two biggest challenges are making people aware that we exist so we can get them to go on the trips. And then the other side is being able to pull off the trip because of weather," said Jennifer Stewart, assistant director for Outdoor Programs at Recreational Sports.
Stewart has been on the job for three months, and already has big plans for the GORP program.
"I want to bring some extended road trips to this program, so I'm planning to go hiking and canoeing out in Utah, go canoe up in the Boundary Waters in Minnesota, go hiking and whale-watching up in Acadia National Park in Maine, so there are some new trips coming down the pike."
GORP offers a variety of trips to multiple destinations, including: hang gliding at Lookout Mountain, Tenn., rafting on the Oconee River, backpacking on Cumberland Island and in the Smokey Mountains and rock climbing and snow skiing in Colorado.
If you plan to stay in Athens for the summer, you still can get involved with a GORP trip. Ryan Sharp, a Ph.D. student from Syracuse, N.Y., is the graduate assistant with the GORP program, and he said that just because classes end in May does not mean that the trips end as well.
"We will be offering some great trips this summer. [There will be] two rafting trips, two horseback trips, hang gliding, backpacking in the Cohutta Mountains of North Georgia, caving and a sea kayak trip to Fontana Lake in western North Carolina."
Chris Dixon, a senior from Warner Robins, is a trip leader for GORP.
"With the GORP program, I started off going to Capers Island, South Carolina, which is near Charleston. That's a fun trip that we take for about five days over spring break. We leave Saturday morning and get back on Wednesday evening," Dixon said.
"We load up the van and pull the kayaks, then drive about five hours to Charleston. We will arrive at our campground, we will kayak out to an island and camp out there for a night. We will go through the channels and we will also spend an evening in downtown Charleston. Then the next morning we will paddle out into Charleston Harbor and check out a decommissioned aircraft carrier."
Sign up for all trips at the cashier's window in the Ramsey Student Center. For more information on the GORP program and its trips, visit www.recsports.uga.edu/outdoor.
University students are able to kayak, canoe, hang glide and more through the Ramsey Center's Georgia Outdoor Recreation Program.
The GORP program consists of four components: the challenge course, the climbing wall at Ramsey, the Outdoor Recreation Center at the intramural fields and outdoor trips.
"I would say my two biggest challenges are making people aware that we exist so we can get them to go on the trips. And then the other side is being able to pull off the trip because of weather," said Jennifer Stewart, assistant director for Outdoor Programs at Recreational Sports.
Stewart has been on the job for three months, and already has big plans for the GORP program.
"I want to bring some extended road trips to this program, so I'm planning to go hiking and canoeing out in Utah, go canoe up in the Boundary Waters in Minnesota, go hiking and whale-watching up in Acadia National Park in Maine, so there are some new trips coming down the pike."
GORP offers a variety of trips to multiple destinations, including: hang gliding at Lookout Mountain, Tenn., rafting on the Oconee River, backpacking on Cumberland Island and in the Smokey Mountains and rock climbing and snow skiing in Colorado.
If you plan to stay in Athens for the summer, you still can get involved with a GORP trip. Ryan Sharp, a Ph.D. student from Syracuse, N.Y., is the graduate assistant with the GORP program, and he said that just because classes end in May does not mean that the trips end as well.
"We will be offering some great trips this summer. [There will be] two rafting trips, two horseback trips, hang gliding, backpacking in the Cohutta Mountains of North Georgia, caving and a sea kayak trip to Fontana Lake in western North Carolina."
Chris Dixon, a senior from Warner Robins, is a trip leader for GORP.
"With the GORP program, I started off going to Capers Island, South Carolina, which is near Charleston. That's a fun trip that we take for about five days over spring break. We leave Saturday morning and get back on Wednesday evening," Dixon said.
"We load up the van and pull the kayaks, then drive about five hours to Charleston. We will arrive at our campground, we will kayak out to an island and camp out there for a night. We will go through the channels and we will also spend an evening in downtown Charleston. Then the next morning we will paddle out into Charleston Harbor and check out a decommissioned aircraft carrier."
Sign up for all trips at the cashier's window in the Ramsey Student Center. For more information on the GORP program and its trips, visit www.recsports.uga.edu/outdoor.
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