Outing Club
Since its revival six years ago, Outing Club has become a popular way for Exonians to explore the New Hampshire area outside of the Exeter campus and take a break from their daily stress. The club typically organizes two to three day-long hikes and one overnight trip per term, depending on the availability of club advisers.
According to Biology Instructor Townley Chisholm, one of the Outing Club’s advisers, popular destinations include Pawtuckaway State Park, Mount Cardigan near Bristol, New Hampshire and the Franconia Ridge Trail. For overnight trips, the club has tried out Crawford Notch and Camp Pasquaney on Newfound Lake. “We usually have around fifteen people go, and it’s sometimes rather selective,” said upper James Liu, one of the active members of the club. “However, new members will always have chances to go.” Chisholm takes the fitness level and safety of every club member into consideration when choosing the next destination. “Sometimes conditions can arise that are more challenging than expected, but not often. In that situation we turn around if we can or proceed very carefully,” he said.
Members of the club have remarked that going on trips is a great way to bond with friends, create memories and get away from the tedium of campus life from time to time. “I was drawn to Outing Club because I do a lot of hiking and camping with my family and was looking for a way to do those activities during the school year with friends,” said senior Victoria Glidden, a co-head of the club. Liu’s reason for joining the club was similar—so that he could spend more time in nature and “get more in touch with the wild.”
Chemistry Instructor Michael McLaughlin remarked on Chisholm’s influence on the club saying, “Mr. Chisholm, by the way, is the heart and soul of that club and deserves tremendous credit for the time and effort he puts in.” Co-head and senior Matt Alburn agreed. “He [Chisholm] has been all across New England, so he’s amazingly experienced and talented.”
Alburn went on to describe one of his favorite experiences with the club. “[Chisholm] has this campsite in the middle of a forest where there’s a cliff and a river. We camped on the cliff and then went down a little winding trail to the riverbed. We lit a campfire right in the middle of the river, on the island. Last time we did this, we cooked out there and brought steaks.”
The trip that club member and lower Jimmy Allen remembers most is the multiple-day camp at Franconia Notch. “We stayed in the woods, ate raw eggs, and hiked to a waterfall,” he said. For Glidden, it was the hike through Ice Gulch Forest in the middle of last winter term; she enjoyed challenging herself by hiking for several hours in the snow. Meanwhile, Chisholm said, “I have great memories of last spring’s overnight trip to Crawford Notch when we had lovely sunny days to hike along snowy mountaintops with great views in all directions.”
McLaughlin added that the winter trip into the White Mountains is particularly popular. “We typically stay with Kirk Phelps—the man who ran the Outings Club when I was a student at The Cate School. His log cabin with a wood-burning stove and wood-burning hot tub has become a bit of a legend.”
The club is not limited to just hiking, either. Alburn recalled a time when the outing club built an igloo in front of the Academy Building. “Two or three years ago, when there was one day of canceled school for the snow, we spent probably 20 hours over the weekend building an igloo. We researched it and made a textbook igloo that stayed on campus until the spring,” Alburn said.
If you are an adventurous Exonian who loves the outdoors, the Outing Club may be just the club for you. As Liu remarked, “The outing club is a great way to take a break from Exeter and have an awesome time with friends for a day or two.”