JHOC Blog

A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, Hopkins was a fun and wonderful place to be. People were rappelling off Gilman, doing unspeakable things on D level, and winning Nobel Prizes. And streaking through the library. Yes, I know, hard to believe there ever was such a time at Hopkins! But alas, that time slowly dwindled away, and all that was left were legends. No rope has hung from Gilman in many a year, nor has the slippery horizontal slide happened on D level. Worst of all, though, the bare naked dash from D to free had been all but forgotten, with only the elders to pass on the ancient secrets. That is, until one fated word resounded across the Facebook world: Streak.

The flood gates had been opened, havoc had been cried, and the dogs of war loosed. There was no choice. It had to be done. Meetings were held secretly across the land. Shadows whispered and messages flew. A time and date had been set. But before it could begin a scout returned with news that the number of people in the library was just too great! So we waited, and bided our time until the clock struck midnight. There, in the deep dark bowls of the library we stripped down to our skivvies and made a brisk jog around D level, encountering no resistance. As we progressed up through the levels the denizens of the library began to cheer for our display of liberation! I gave someone a high five.

We thought all was lost when we reached the post of the library guardian, but she was facing the wrong way! So we ran on uncontested all the way to a most sacred place: the Weird Little Statue Garden. There we regrouped our forces and donned, once again, the chains of civilization, going back to our studies and vowing to return, next semester, only bolder and more naked.

Yay for the first blog post!

This past weekend all Liquid leaders (canoers and whitewater kayakers) were invited to go on the 2nd annual Liquid Retreat.  This year we went and paddled The New River (for the first time!) and the Lower Youghiogheny.

The drive down was fairly eventful, as we went in search of free campsites in the dark.  Luckily we were able to find two open sites right next to the river put-in, and there was plenty of stargazing before bed.  The next day we made ourselves a delicious breakfast of “egg in a bag” on bagel sandwiches…nomnomnom.  After food-coma-ing for the rest of the morning, we finally got on the river and started our adventure down The New.  Despite some not-so-ClassIII ClassIII “rapids”, we had a lot of fun cross-training, learning different paddling/rolling techniques, and and surfing (!) the numerous holes/waves to be found.

Just as we got off-river, a thunderstorm rolled in and made the shuttle/boat-packing ordeal take a lot longer than expected.  To pass the time, we made friends with a salesman from Five Star Foods, a food truck that sells boxes of frozen steaks (of all cuts).  After drooling a bit, we had to pull ourselves away and find amusement in trying to fill our empty Nalgenes with rainwater.  Then it was off to Ohiopyle for the night.  Our planned delicious burrito meal was abandoned for made-to-order Sheetz food as we tried to make it to Ohiopyle before 1AM.

The next morning we ate a not-as-glamorous breakfast of oatmeal before getting on river.  Entrance Rapid was a big wake-up call, and I got a very quick review of how to kayak (and how to wet-exit from one).  Luckily, Cucumber Rapid claimed no victims this time around and though the day saw many wet-exits and swims, everyone was always smiling and having a good time, looking forward to the next rapid to challenge or hole to surf.  There are some awesome pictures online here.

After getting off river, we ventured into the town of Ohiopyle where they were having a festival (!) with 70′s disco music, good food, and games.  We spent lunch there, nomming on pulled-pork, deep-fried oreos, kettle corn, and ice cream, before heading back home to JHU.

Overall, it was an awesome trip and I think I’ve had my fill of Sheetz for the next month.

Yay LIQUID!

~Lainey

JHOC is ready for the Fall 2011 semester!