After 40 years, the Johns Hopkins Outdoors Club hikes on

In 1972, a group of students started the Johns Hopkins Outdoors Club (JHOC) because they wanted to experience nature close-up on weekends around the area. They decided to create an official student group that took adventurous trips as often as possible.

“JHOC originally started as a group of kids that wanted to go have fun outside,” JHOC Director junior Jacob Wildfire said. “The University really supported them, gave them a bunch of funds and said ‘hey, we support your decision, go have fun outside.’”

Forty years later, JHOC has around 25 members. The club still exists so students can go on outdoor adventures, although it is much tamer than it was during its first few years.

“The JHOC has often had a reputation for being a little edgy,” JHOC Historian junior Jeremy Orloff wrote in an email to The News-Letter. “Annual traditions involved rappelling off the Gilman clock tower and streaking through the library during finals.”

According to Wildfire, the University used to endorse their stunt on the Gilman Tower until they eventually realized how dangerous it was. Members have not rappelled off the tower in years. JHOC also used to welcome the freshman class with a hike through the Shenandoahs and had trips that included horseback riding, ice skating and corn mazing. The group still does many of the same activities, however, such as backpacking, mountain biking and caving.

“We’ve continued the traditions of many of our trips.  Our rappelling trips still take place at the same abandoned highway bridge in suburban Md. that JHOCers were using in the early 90’s if not earlier,” Orloff said. “ We still return to the same cave in WV where JHOCers have gone for decades.  Every fall, we welcome prospective club members with a trip to Assateague Island.”

While these trips follow the same traditions as they did forty years ago, there are more stringent rules regarding the trips. Due to risky decision making on the part of outdoor groups across the country, JHOC now has to get all of their trips approved by having proper training and medical forms.

“Specifically, in the past 15-20 years, JHOC has really come into compliance and that’s definitely shifted JHOC,” Wildfire said. “At the same time, we still like to encompass that JHOC spirit that always has been and always will be free and independent and worldly. We definitely value the ability to go have fun in the woods as always. Now we just have to sign some forms.”

Publicity Manager and Webmaster junior Adam Gross does not think that this risk management has negatively affected the group.

“There are changes in the ways that we operate but not in the spirit of the club,” he said.

Wildfire thinks that the spirit of JHOC stems from its status as an entirely student-run group.  JHOC leaders fill out paperwork before trips, clean and prepare their gear, plan each trip and figure out transportation.

“We call the shots. If we want to run a backpacking trip, we do, but if we don’t, we don’t. The spirit of our club is really focused on nature and enjoying the outdoors,” Wildfire said. “It is entirely student-run, which makes me extremely proud. It really brings us together as a community. We put in a lot of time together, a lot of work together, but we all love it in the end.”

The group is holding an Alumni Reunion and barbeque this weekend to celebrate its 40th anniversary. They love seeing their alumni, as most of them still participate in outdoors activities.