Out of the Night

A nice tale, that seems to say more about the Freshman Trip than all the statistical or logistical data we could muster, came our way the other day from Walter Stockmayer, chemistry professor very actively emeritus and frequent trip leader.

It seems that Stockmayer and his freshman group were settling into camp at Desolation Shelter on the slopes of Mount Carrigan, deep in the wilderness area between Crawford and Franconia notches, when they were unexpectedly joined by another hiker. It was Bernie Waugh '74, a Hanover resident who does a little writing, a little lawyering, a little hash-slinging at the Collis Center, and a lot of fine fiddling both country and classical.

Waugh explained to the startled freshmen that their campsite was the very one where he had come on his freshman trip in 1970, an important experience that he wanted to renew and to share with them. Whereupon he brought forth his fiddle and made the night echo with some good north country music.

Then he packed it all away and retraced all six-and-a-half miles of his steps, in the dark, to the nearest road.