Outdoor Rec Program touts summer events
USU students piloted canoes, kayaks and rafts at First Dam in Logan Canyon at the Outdoor Recreation Program’s Demo Day on the Water event Friday.
Walter Gould, who designs and executes student trips and courses for the ORP, said the event was a way to show students what gear is available to them through the ORP.
“Right now, we figured, ‘I bet not a lot of students know what watercraft we have,'” Gould said. “And so we came up with this idea that we would just let people play around on the pond down here for a while and get to know what we have.”
For no charge, he said, students could test out a sampling of the ORP’s rental water gear. Kayaks, sit-on-top kayaks, sea kayaks, rafts, canoes and new paddle boards were all there for students to try out.
Logan Milsap, an undeclared USU student, said Day on the Water was the first ORP event he has attended, and it may encourage him use the program’s services in the future.
“We’ve talked about bringing kayaks or canoes and renting them from the ORP before,” Milsap said. “This is nice because they just have all of the kayaks and canoes out, and you can just go and try them out and see what you like.”
Dominick Barratt, ORP shop employee, said Day on the Water is an introduction to what ORP will be doing this summer at Hyrum State Park.
“We’ll actually be running hourly rentals at the beach at Hyrum State Park,” Barratt said.
The ORP was invited two weeks ago by the park manager to hold the rentals, and the ORP is also working with other state parks, he said.
Another kickoff event the ORP is hosting is a crate stacking competition at 8:30 p.m. Friday in the Nelson Fieldhouse. Students will be on belay the whole time, stacking milk crates on top of each other to see who can make the tallest tower. There will be a live deejay, performances by local band F Dragon and prizes.
The ORP has a lot of things planned this summer, said Paul Jones, student trip coordinator. One big event is a trip to Jackson Hole, Wyo., to run a whitewater section of the Snake River, something the ORP staff would like to try more than once this summer.
“We did that last summer,” Jones said. “It was really, really fun to take students out and to surf some waves in the rafts – even dump some people into the water.”
Jones said during the daylong trips, students can rent gear from the ORP as well as split gas money to get there.
In early May, students can participate in a Wilderness First Responder certification class in Moab, Utah, which Jones said is similar to a wilderness EMT but not as intense.
The ORP will be sponsoring several hikes up Logan Canyon this summer, as well as “canoecaching,” which Jones said is like geocaching but takes place in marshes with GPS devices, a partner and a canoe.
“You can actually get pretty lost in there,” Jones said.
Jones said accessibility to the outdoors is one of the biggest reasons students should participate in ORP events.
“If you want to really explore the outdoors and have a fun time, and you don’t know how to do it, come to the ORP and we’ll teach you how,” Jones said.
Jones, Barratt and Gould said they agree that the rentals offered through the ORP as well as ORP clinics should be taken advantage of by students.
“The ORP is subsidized by student fees,” Jones said. “Because of that, we offer discounted rental rates. So if you want to rent a canoe, it’s going to be cheaper for you, as a student, at the ORP than it is at Al’s (Sporting Goods) or some other place.”
Barratt said gear is available for every skill level, and a variety of clinics are offered by the ORP that teach the basics of different outdoor activities and how to participate in them safely.
“In my mind, there’s those who love the outdoors and those that don’t realize they love the outdoors yet,” Barratt said. “We’re just there to help everybody understand the biggest purpose of the outdoors, and that’s to be safe and have fun.”
Gould said students new to a particular outdoor sport shouldn’t be hesitant to come on ORP outings.
“You don’t have to be a great whitewater guide to come on our rafting trips in Jackson,” he said. “You don’t have to be a leave-no-trace master to come on backpack trips with us, or even day hikes. You don’t have to ever have gone snowshoeing to go snowshoeing with us.”
– ariwrees@gmail.com