The Dartmouth Outing Club held its annual Moosilauke Fall Weekend on Saturday and Sunday at Moosilauke Lodge, where the club hosted more than 100 students.
The participants engaged in passive and active outdoor activities, ranging from sleeping during the bus ride and lounging all day to running the traditional 50-mile hike in 11 hours and 55 minutes.
Cory Smith '96 and Colton Leys '96, both members of the cross-country ski team, began the 50- mile trek at 5:45 a.m. and reached the Moosilauke Lodge at 5:40 p.m. Another sophomore, Brant Stead '96, ran 40 miles before tiring.
They averaged about five miles an hour over the varied and uneven but breathtaking landscape.
The runners said their view of the fall colors was the best part of the nearly double-marathon-distance run.
They had assistance from friends who waited at pre-planned landmarks with food and water bought in advance. They also provided "moral and psychological support" to the runners, one of the friends said.
Smith and Leys got the idea from cross-country teammates who had run the same 50 miles last year.
Smith said he would not recommend the trip to others, Smith said. "Not unless they're insane!"
Many other students made smaller, less dramatic hikes that day. Nearly 50 students left the shuttle bus 11 miles from Moosilauke, hiking through New Hampshire's wilderness and over Mt. Moosilauke to the lodge.
Others rode the bus directly to the lodge and climbed the mountain from there, while the more sedentary spent the day relaxing by the banks of the White River. Saturday night the whole group ate black-bean burritos and "Wyatt's Moosilauke Cake," created by Wyatt Oswald '94, who designed the multi-layered masterpiece to resemble Mt. Moosilauke.
And of course, the rest of the night was spent square-dancing to the famous calling of Everett Blake.
