Breakaway Adventures

College Outdoors, founded at Lewis & Clark in 1979, ranks among the top college outdoor programs in the country. Supported jointly by the student government and the College, the program provides the Lewis & Clark community access to the spectacular outdoor environments of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. College Outdoors offers a range of activities, including hiking, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, backpacking, sea kayaking, igloo building, white-water rafting, swift-water rescue, and guide training--to name a few.

The program is so popular that 9 out of 10 Lewis & Clark students take at least one College Outdoors trip. For some, the trips are just a great way to pass a weekend or spring break. For others, they're a highlight of the college experience.

Each fall, just before New Student Orientation, more than 100 incoming students participate in Breakaway Adventures. College Outdoors sponsors a variety of trips and also teams up with the Office of Student Leadership and Service to offer outdoor service projects.

This year's adventures included sea kayaking on Waldo Lake in Oregon and studying old-growth forests in Washington.

Photography by Robert Reynolds.

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Back to Winter 2007 Chronicle

College Outdoors

1. Kyle Miller '10 (left) and Rachael Skinner-Green '10 strike out to kayak Waldo Lake, rated the fourth-clearest lake in the world. This pristine lake sits at an elevation of 5,000 feet in the Cascade Mountains, near the Three Sisters Wilderness.

2. Students enter the Goat Marsh Research Natural Area on the southwestern slopes of Mount St. Helens in Washington. One of their first tasks is to measure the second-tallest noble fir in the world.

3. Brian Erickson '06, coleader of the environmental service project, examines a moss species with a staff member from the Mt. St. Helens National Volcanic Monument.

4. Nora Moore '10 assesses a tree's cause of death.

5. One of the highlights of the trip is interacting with Jerry Franklin, professor of ecosystem analysis in the College of Forest Resources at the University of Washington and the director of the Wind River Canopy Crane Research Facility. Nicknamed the "guru of old growth," Franklin is one of the nation's leading forest ecologists.

6. Melea Kossel '10 measures the diameter of a Douglas fir.

7. Martin Frye '10, Professor Jerry Franklin, and Natalie Day '08, coleader of the environmental service project, examine a tree that died due to heart rot disease.

8. Claire Battaglia '10 records data on the current status of trees in various study plots.

9. Trees tower to heights of around 200 feet in the Goat Marsh Research Natural Area.

10. Students set out on their first day of kayaking on the south end of Waldo Lake.

11. Joe Yuska, director of College Outdoors, demonstrates his tree-measuring skill. Yuska has headed the College Outdoors program since 1990.

12. Kate Stirr '06, trip leader, points out features of Waldo Lake to Zach Kearl '10, Kirby Gnerre '10, and Katherine Itz '10 (seated).

13. Clockwise, from lower left: Jamie Tanner '10, Kirby Gnerre '10, Rachael Skinner-Green '10, and Kate Stirr '06, trip leader, practice self-rescues.

14. In addition to premier kayaking, students camp on shore, hike to surrounding peaks and waterfalls, and gaze on the dramatic vistas of snow-covered volcanoes.

15. Carrie LaBaron '10, Eric Buzzard '10, Hannah Satein '10, and Alex Broom '10 ready their kayaking gear.

Breakaway Adventures

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