With the D.O.C.

SINCE this is the first DOC column to appear in the ALUMNI MAGAZINE this year, I shall try to give a capsule summary of the main events of the past three months, leaving scenic descriptions and humorous details to the imagination of the reader. Those familiar with the country involved can readily supply the former, while those familiar with the characters involved will have no trouble in supplying the latter.

While the incoming freshmen were still packing their bags and searching for misplaced items, Freshman Trip Director Jim Loghry '56 had already arrived in Hanover to do the final planning for this year's trip. Before long, bus schedules were arranged, leaders assigned, menus made out, food bought, itineraries written, maps marked, equipment checked - in short, all the little things that needed doing were done. On Saturday morning, September 10, a total of 125 new Men of Dartmouth had arrived in Hanover, accompanied, more or less, by 25 upperclass leaders. By 6 p.m. half of them were at the Moosilauke Ravine Lodge and the other half were either at various cabins along the Outing Club chain or trying to find these cabins.

Two days later the well-fed Ravine Lodge groups were sent out on the trails and the former trail groups, hungry and somewhat grimy from two days' hiking, invaded the Lodge. President Dickey, Dean of Freshmen Stearns Morse, and Director of Admissions Edward Chamberlain spoke informally to the '59s on two nights of the four-day trip, while on the other two nights the captive freshmen listened to the Outing Club dignitaries and saw movies - on the Outing Club, of course.

In the meantime Director of Membership Burnie Martin '56 was patiently sit- ting in a tent outside Robinson Hall, brewing coffee over a small fire (one pound of coffee to two quarts of water) and selling memberships. The drive was climaxed by a display in the gymnasium on Activities Night; the DOC exhibit included Burnie's tent, tape recordings of folk songs, movies on hunting, photographs of past years' activities, two spruce trees, a fly-tying exhibition, colored slides, assorted skis, ice axes and snowshoes, and Outing Club officials to answer questions. The response from the freshmen was quite encouraging, especially so because it is this incoming class which will be running the Club in the fiftieth anniversary year of 1959.

Soon after the opening of College, the three divisions, Winter Sports, Winter Carnival and Cabin and Trail, held meetings to explain their programs to interested undergraduates. Candidate programs were soon set up, and before long new groups of active members will be added to each division.

As DOC'ers began to take advantage of the finest fall colors in recent years, trips were leaving over weekends, after classes, and occasionally, one must admit, during classes. Possibly because the impressive title of Executive Secretary of the Intercollegiate Outing Club Association belongs this year to a Dartmouth man, John Hobbie '57, one of the outstanding trips of the season was the I.O.C.A. gathering at Lake George, N. Y. A 28-man contingent from the DOC was present among the total of 378 representatives from 38 different colleges. A weekend Halloween party at Fred Harris Cabin was another success for the I.O.C.A., as 25 DOC'ers hiked out to the cabin with a similar number of Outing Clubbers from Colby Jr., Holyoke and Wellesley.

The big Cabin and Trail project for the fall season was a re-routing of the Appalachian Trail; the section going from Fred Harris Cabin, by Holt's Ledge Cabin and ending on the summit of Smarts Mountain has been forsaken, and a new section going by Clark Pond and eventually joining with the Maskoma Trail up Smarts Mountain is in the process of being constructed under the direction of Anthony Ryan '57. A shelter has already been built on Clark Pond, all the landowners have been contacted, and most of the cutting and blazing has been done. The hardest mile is all that remains, and perhaps by the time this article is printed that too will be completed. The change is being made in order to allow hikers to travel through more "wilderness" country.

During Thanksgiving vacation Harlan Jessup '55, Burnie Martin '56, Charlie Plummer '59, Sam Adams '59 and Bob French '56 headed for Mt. Katahdin in northern Maine. Despite strong winds and continuous snow, the summit was reached, although once on top it was impossible for a climber to see from one end of a 120 foot rope to the other.

Now that Hanover has finally had a snowfall that it sticking to the ground, the Winter Sports Division members are waxing their skis, eagerly eyeing the sky and preparing for an active winter. The Winter Carnival Division members are steadily becoming busier in ironing out the details of the plans they began last spring. Both are praying for more snow.

Bob French '56, president of the DOC, at Mt. Katahdin in Maine as a member of a climbing party during the Thanksgiving vacation.