One of UTC Outdoors trips is caving.
Abby Moore came to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga to study sports, outdoor recreation and tourism management. She didn’t know how quickly the three would converge and provide leadership opportunities.
Now in her junior year, Moore said one of the lures of attending UTC was the proximity of Chattanooga to the Tennessee River and the nearby mountains. Shortly after the Franklin, Tennessee, native arrived on campus, “one of my sorority sisters who worked at UTC Outdoors told me about it.”
“I went on a trip, and I was like, ‘I need to work here.’ So I took steps to become a trip leader. It has been cool to help get people who are not fully comfortable being outside, or those who are camping for the first time, and expose them to what I love. Just show them the outdoors and how much fun it can be.”
This fall, UTC Outdoors is offering 14 moderately priced day trips for students and staff featuring popular activities such as caving, hiking and mountain biking. The schedule kicks off with a whitewater kayaking trip on Aug. 29. UTC Outdoors also offers free mid-week after-class micro-adventures to give students a chance to take a break and relax in nature or try something new.
As a trip leader, Moore tries to get newcomers to step outside of their comfort zones.
“A lot of our trips are focused from the beginner’s standpoint,” she said. “If you have never canoed before, we’ll make sure that it’s the safest it can be. We’ll walk you through every single thing that could happen and take all safety precautions. We will show you how fun it can be while being safe.”
Program coordinator Lisa Ivester said that, while the group size of each trip has been reduced this fall due to COVID-19 concerns, the total number of outdoor events has increased. But participants must adhere to social distancing and face mask procedures.
“For example, while picking places that are close, we have limited the number of people that could be in a van,” she said. “We usually travel in a 12-passenger van, but now we’ll take two vans for eight people—six people plus trip leaders. That’s four people per van, and every row will have one person. We will social distance on trails or on the rivers or wherever we are.
“Masks, of course, will be worn as well. But once we’re out on the river and can socially distance, we’re bringing little Ziploc bags so they can take their mask off. And on a hiking trip, once we get on the trail and can walk six to eight feet apart from each other, we can take those masks off and have them handy for when we stop for water breaks.”
Although fall programming is restricted to trips within a half-hour drive of campus, “there are 10-plus mountain bike trail systems within a 30-mile radius, plus tons of hiking and whitewater kayaking,” Ivester said. “This region has the Cumberland Plateau and some of the densest cave systems in the entire United States. There’s just so much you can do in the Chattanooga area.”
For Moore, some of her personal favorites are close to campus and on the fall slate of excursions.
“I led the Full Moon Hike last year and it was super-cool,” Moore recalled. “We went out on a full moon and hiked Cravens House to Sunset Rock, which is just up on Lookout Mountain. A lot of people that went on that hike with me had never known that that was a trailhead. They were like, ‘This is an awesome opportunity. We want to come back.’ We all had headlamps on as we hiked, then we sat on Sunset Rock and had hot chocolate and stuff. We all brought our own mugs.
“Another one of my favorites is Howard’s Cave. Just being able to be in complete darkness was scary, but you were able to crawl around like you’re under the Earth. Add in the fact that water made all of that is just so beautiful, unique and such a great experience. It’s cool to say that I got to go there through my university on a guided trip.”
