IU Outdoor Adventures provides IU students with an opportunity to travel across the country during their spring break.
Students are given opportunities to swim, white water raft, kayak, rock climb and sleep in caves during their respite from school.
“Spring break is a great time to go out,” said Mitch McCune, trip leader at Outdoor Adventures. “People want to leave and have an amazing trip, and it is better timed being halfway through the semester.”
McCune, along with other trip leaders for IUOA, is responsible for planning and running trips during spring break. This year there will be four trips in total.
One trip students may choose is a rock-climbing adventure in Chattanooga, Tenessee.
The trip features rock climbing at the Tennessee wall, or T-wall, hiking and backpacking the Chattanooga Plateau, and an overnight stay in the Lost Sea Caves.
“We have a lot of beginners sign up for our trips,” event coordinator Tyler Kivland said. “We wanted to have at least one trip where participants were doing more than one activity all week.“
Another option for students is whitewater rafting and mountaineering in the Smoky Mountains in North Carolina.
“This is another sampler trip,” Kivland said. “It has lots to offer. We are trying to keep our cost lower and provide more opportunities.”
After two days of driving, participants will explore Smoky Mountain National Park, kayak the Fontana Lake, hike the Appalachians and raft the Ocoee River.
“It’s not the same stretch of the Ocoee that they used in the Olympics, but it is close,” Kivland said.
The third option for a trip through Outdoor Adventures is hiking in Havasu Falls, Arizona.
“It is definitely a bucket-list item,” Kivland said. “It’s a hidden gem. The water is beautiful, and there are so many falls in the area.”
Kivland said the trip would mostly be dependent on the participants. The trip is customizable.
This trip requires a 10-mile hike down into the canyon and back. It may include overnights in the falls, backpacking and climbing.
The final option is canyoneering in Utah.
This trip is a little bit shorter than the others. It is only six days long but includes rafting on the Colorado River, climbing in Moab and canyoneering in the Bluejohn Canyon.
Unlike the other trips, this one is entirely lead by alumni. Kivland said this allows IUOA to lead higher-end trips with a larger scope.
Kivland said for the most part the trips were planned from survey results Outdoor Adventures sent out. The results showed participants were looking for closer-to-home trips with multiple options.
