Gordon Vermeer '12 and his five fellow trippees watched, horrified, as their leaders Nicholas Edwards '10 and Kayla Eisman '09 ate what looked like animal feces off of the ground. The two trip leaders finally managed to coax a brave trippee, Andrew Mertens '12, to try it and, bracing himself, he put the apparent excrement in his mouth.
"Screw you guys," Mertens screamed, according to Vermeer. "This is brownie mix!"
Vermeer and Mertens were among the approximately 980 incoming students who participated in this year's Dartmouth Outing Club Freshmen Trips, which took place from Sept. 2-15.
The exact number of Trips participants this year -- the 73rd year of the program -- was not available by press time.
"I'm not extremely outdoorsy," said Madeline Sims '12, who went on the A-137 Flatwater Kayaking trip. "[But] Trips made me a million times more excited to go [to Dartmouth]."
Trips generally eased the fears members of the Class of 2012 had about entering college, according to several particpants.
"What surprised me was the whole community aspect of it," Jack Barrett '12, who went on the C-470 Fishing trip said.
"It wasn't just a '12 get-to-know-each-other kind of thing," he added. "You really get to know all your classmates."
Panigrahi, who was anxious after being accepted to Dartmouth off of the wait list in June, expressed a similar sentiment.
"When I walk on campus, I'll know a few people--and not through Facebook--but people I actually met," he said.
Jon Hopper '08, assistant director for DOC Trips, said the purpose of the Trips program is to get participants to interact with people they might otherwise not have met.
"The single greatest part of Trips for me is how it brings people together. It is the only time in my life when I see people who would have otherwise never interacted dancing, singing, and creating friendships completely out of their 'social circle.'" Hopper said in an e-mail. "It doesn't matter if you're an athlete, an outdoorsy person, a feminist, or a member of Hillel " all that matters is that you're a Dartmouth student, and you're having the time of your life."
There were no major changes to the program this year, Hopper said. He added that this year's Croos continued to play the important role that they have in the past.
Highlights of this year's Trips program, according to a number of participants, included the Hanover Croo's "Safety Talk," a musical show initially masqueraded as a safety lecture, given by H-Croo the night before the trips leave Hanover -- a favorite number from this year's show was "I Pooped Outside and I Liked It," a parody of Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl." Participants also said they enjoyed their stay at the Mousilauke Ravine Lodge on the last night of their trips, which includes Lodj Croo's dinner show and personal speeches from Croo members and outside guests.
"It was kind of different," Panigrahi said of the presentations at the Lodge. "Everything else was fun and joking around. It was a nice change."
Some trips also had some unexpected surprises, as a number of this year's 273 trip leaders took the job of fooling their trippees upon themselves.
Garrett Simpson '11 and Marina Agapakis '09, who led Barrett's C-470 Fishing, claimed to be cousins from a family that loved to fish, and Simpson told a story of having a fish hook go through his hand as a child, which he claimed discouraged him from fishing until he conquered his fear, Kate Desrochers '12, a trip member, said.
Agapakis is a member of The Dartmouth Staff.
"Neither of them had ever actually been fishing before," Barrett added. "They told us this right before we went fishing for the first time."
After Vermeer's E-59 Extreme Hiking trip hiked Franconia Ridge, the group discovered that Vox Croo, which provides assistance to the majority of the trips, had set up a buffet on the mountain top, complete with warm hot dogs and cookies.
There were no major mishaps this year, according to DOC Freshmen Trips director Pete Gadomski '08, though two people were injured and had to be evacuated. He would not disclose further details about the evacuations.
