By Ashley Walker
Less than an hour drive from St. Lawrence University, The Adirondacks provide hundreds of outdoor experiences anywhere from hiking to skiing. Many students do not take advantage of these opportunities because of the time commitment and the lack of knowledge. With only two weeks left of school, students who do not know about these resources.
Outing Club Ryan Heuss ’22 tries to get more students involved by leading multiple trips a week. “There has been a high turnover of new people who we have never seen before which is one of my favorite things to see,” he says. However, Heuss does recognize that the lack of outdoor education and transportation that creates a challenge for students who want to enjoy the mountains by themselves. “It’s about a two-hour drive to get to the high peaks. There’s a prohibiting factor of gas, I think cost and a lack of knowledge,” he says.
Despite group activities with the Outing Club, Ana Dieffenbach ’21, an alumnus of the Adirondack semester at St. Lawrence, views the Adirondack mountains as an independent recreational place. “There aren’t many guided trips outside of school. It’s kind of a place where you get your own canoe and go. With that kind of atmosphere people might more feel encouraged to do it if it’s more of an individual atmosphere,” she says.
Although the Adirondacks provide lots of space for individual use, only people who know how to take advantage of the mountains are the ones who utilize the resources. “If you don’t know the steps to get that first connection, you don’t know where to go to get those opportunities,” Dieffenbach says.
St. Lawrence’s Associate Professor of Biology Susan Willson, who also teaches weekly during the Adirondack semester, says that it is the students who do not have connections from the outside world that are not choosing to explore. “There should be intro to hiking 101, very targeted to beginner hikers. St. Lawrence needs to do things to entire people into the natural world,” she says.
Willson does see some groups of students who constantly using their time for outdoor activities. “You get much more tuned to nature when you’re living in it, that’s the group of students who choose to take that route,” she says.
Eileen Visser, one of St. Lawrence’s biology professors’ views accessibility as one of the main reasons why students are not taking advantage of the Adirondack mountains. “Some of our students need more support as far as a planned hike,” she says. Visser says that although there is interest, there is an urgency for all of the assignments. “You don’t have time to get out,” she says.
An anonymous source from the Adirondack Mountain Club doesn’t specifically see many college students coming to the mountains to volunteer as often as they would expect. “We might have groups come out and do something small and hike around,” they say.
Maura McAnaney ’22 is a student athlete who doesn’t feel like her schedule permits extracurriculars. “My weekends are jampacked full of track meets and getting back late Saturday nights which leaves me with Sundays where I’m doing homework all day,” she says. However, now that McAnaney knows how close the Adirondacks are, she can’t wait for next year. “I am already looking forward to the fall and having a car on campus and taking advantage of any free weekends to go explore,” she says.