Hiking DOC Trip (2)

General Information about Item:

Informant Data:

Alex is a male, class of 2025 Dartmouth undergraduate. He was born and raised in New Jersey. He has a military family background and says it plays a large role into how he was raised growing up. Alex’s hobbies consist of playing videogames with his friends, golfing, and traveling. He experienced the DOC trip this term.

Contextual Data:

Cultural Context: First-year freshman trips are outdoor orientations programs led by returning students. They happen every fall – with exception to last year because of the pandemic. Alex, like many other incoming students, was concerned coming into Dartmouth that he wasn’t going to find many friends.
Social Context: Coming into Dartmouth, students have little knowledge about the school and its surrounding nature. To expose it to them, returning students take the freshman on trips so that they can build relationships for their four years as undergrads. Alex decided to take this as an opportunity to network for his 4 years here.

Item:

Just like the other DOC informants, Alex received a survey asking for trip preferences before arriving to school. Alex said “They made us select multiple trips because everyone couldn’t get their first option. I chose cabin-camping as my first, but I got my second choice which was hiking.” Although Alex was “bummed out” that he didn’t get his first choice, he was happy that he got to experience the hiking the upper valley has to offer. Attached below is a picture that Alex found of the “fire tower” that sits atop of Mt. Cardigan.

Associated file:

Transcript:

“Although I was unable to experience my first option of cabin-camping, I did enjoy the hiking experience. We spent 3 days hiking new mountains… I didn’t do much hiking growing up, so this was an eye-opening experience. I met some people that I still keep in touch with today, and that seemed like the guide’s goal of the trips.”

Informant’s Comments:

A.G. openly said that he “didn’t like the first day because he didn’t have cellular connection.” But, after he accepted that, he enjoyed bonding with his future undergrad classmates.

Collector’s Comments:

Although Alex and Sean both picked the hiking option, they were not in the same group. Therefore, I assume that a majority of incoming freshman attend these DOC trips as there are multiple groups per option.

Collector’s Name: Ben Keeter

Dartmouth Folklore Archive