THE LEDYARD CANOE CLUB OF DARTMOUTH, A HISTORY

By Thomas Falcon '65. Hanover: Privately Printed, 1967. 54 pp. $4.50.

Almost a half-century elapsed between the first Ledyard Canoe Club trip down the Connecticut River to Long Island Sound in 1921 and the ambitious expeditions undertaken by the current generation of club members down the Danube and on the Inland Sea of Japan. But the men who made these trips are closely linked by their common love for adventure and the out-of-doors which for them can best be fulfilled between the gunwales of a canoe.

In The Ledyard Canoe Club of Dartmouth the highlights of this half-century are vividly recreated by Thomas Falcon '65, amply illustrated, and handsomely printed and bound by the Stinehour Press. The book is much more than a history of an undergraduate organization, for it captures the essence of what remains as one of the unique aspects of the Dartmouth experience, sampled by many, fully savored by all too few.

Although the traditional Down River Trip has become the trademark of the Canoe Club, there is far more involved than this annual springtime sprint to Old Saybrook. Past years have seen trips on the Richelieu (which have involved illicit entry of new Canadian canoes); circumnavigations of New England; wild, and often wet, trips down the Penobscot in the company of logs bound for the sawmill at Millinocket; and along practically every other navigable and not-so-navigable stretch of water in the North Country.

Running rapids on the White, Mascoma, and Ammonoosuc continues as a favorite pastime of club members. In recent years, this activity has been enriched by the evolution of canoe and kayak slalom and downriver racing in which several members have gained national prominence. Practice and competition continue, even when the white water stands frozen, on the indoor waters of Spaulding Pool.

The bonds of fellowship created by the trips, the white water thrills, the competition, the weekly feeds, the overnights at club cabins and, most importantly, the love of the swirl of a paddle in still water, would be difficult to duplicate in any other geographic setting. Tom Falcon sums it up ably in his closing paragraph as he says: "As long as the College's physical environment has any meaning for its undergraduates, Ledyard canoes will cruise the waters of New England. And the men who paddle them will have an opportunity to absorb a quality of experience finer and richer than can in most places be obtained."

Surely this is a book that all Ledyard members will want to own and the uninitiated will live these experiences vicariously and probably indulge in a bit of recrimination for not having been involved.

Fond of the outdoors, especially skiing, inhis undergraduate days, Mr. Breed is nowAssociate, Office of Development.