At the end of Tuck Drive is a wooden staircase that winds down the hill to the Ledyard Canoe clubhouse -- a place juniors Jamie Shandro and John Magyar call home.
The clubhouse was built in the 1930s and an annex was later added to store canoes, kayaks and equipment.
Each term, students are able to live in the remote home. Housing is limited to members of the canoe club with students on the LCC council receiving the highest priority.
In addition to serving as a home for students and a meeting place for members of the canoe club, a canoe and kayak rental business runs out of the clubhouse during the spring and the fall.
The main living room, where the club holds its meetings, is equipped with a television and a VCR for viewing paddling videos, a fireplace and plenty of plush couches and armchairs.
Canoe and kayaking trophies displaying the clubs' pride achievements by distinguished "Ledyardites" surround the room. These, along with oars placed on the walls and near the ceiling, create a decor distinctive to the club.
Magyar, the club's treasurer who enjoys flat water canoeing, says the home is not as secluded as it might sound.
"It's definitely not a really private place to live," agreed Shandro, the club's vice president whose primary interest is white water kayaking.
Although things have become less busy since the rental business closed on Oct. 15, Shandro said, "Some people who keep their private boats here still come to take out a canoe or kayak."
Magyar and Shandro said people often come down to go out on the river or sit on its hands.
"People always ask if they are allowed to come down here and they are completely free to," Shandro said. "I'm psyched to see people go down to the river."
"People often apologize and ask, 'Am I allowed to be here?' It's a place for people to hang out and that's really nice," she said.
But both Magyar and Shandro said they enjoy having visitors.
"We're going to have fires all the time and little gatherings of people randomly, and with people we know," Shandro said. "They might come down in the evening to watch some TV or when there's a party going on."
And while they enjoy visitors, both Shandro and Magyar said, "To sit on the dock is allowed, but to go swimming is not."
But students have sometimes plunged into the river.
"Last fall I was up in my room reading when I heard a lot of commotion outside," Magyar said. "It was around 10 p.m."
He said he looked outside and realized the students at the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration were having some sort of initiation.
"I didn't know that Tuck students had initiations," he said.
But "there were naked students running around the dock," Magyar said, shaking his head in disbelief. "I called Safety and Security, and they removed the naked Tuck students."
"Some Tuck students returned around 3 a.m.," Magyar said. "This I just told them to go away."
"Sometimes, I'd hear a splash and someone screaming, 'It's so cold,'" Shandro said.
"Lots of people don't realize that people live here," Shandro said. "They come down to the dock and they think they are alone in the world," Magyar said.
Shandro said, "I generally don't get up unless it's been a half hour of screaming."
Generally, however, the home is in one of the more peaceful areas of campus.
Looking out the window, overlooking the dock and one of two hammocks, behind the oak and pine trees, is the river itself.
The two residents take advantage of the what the seasons have to offer them in their location.
Magyar said in the winter "there is an untouched blanket of snow stretching across the river to Norwich."
"You can go off skiing someplace on campus, then come back for some hot chocolate and more cider by the fireplace," Magyar said.
There are fewer visitors in the winter, Shandro added.
"It is usually 10 degrees cooler down by the river," Magyar said.
Living in the clubhouse comes with responsibilities, including maintaining public relations and making sure everything is locked up at night, Magyar said.
The upkeep of the physical plant is a big responsibility -- and in the winter that means a lot of shoveling, Magyar said.
Rules for living in the clubhouse include no smoking, no pets and disposing of old food.
"Old food, get rid of it," a sign inside the clubhouse reads.
"There are so many people coming through that the refrigerator gets overwhelmed sometimes," Magyar laughed and said.
Neither Magyar or Shandro will be living in the clubhouse this
winter.
. Shandro will be in Costa Rica on the Foreign Study Program in Biology.
Magyar, who has lived there for four terms, is moving into a dorm room this winter. "After four terms, your priority drops to nothing," he said.
