A recent Outdoor Adventure three-day hiking trip gave students the opportunity to learn basic backpacking, survival, and navigation skills in the Ouachita Mountains for about 6 hours a day.

Camp leaders taught students how to cook over an open fire with participants getting a chance to eat, mingle and sing songs around the camp fire.

Assistant director for Campus Recreation Justin Crossland believes the trip is healthy and important for students not only because it’s a new scene away from Commerce but also because it gives students some exercise and a chance to get out of the house and in touch with reality.

“This is a great opportunity to rekindle that love of the outdoors, and set them on a path of a healthy and well lifestyle,” Crossland said.

“Consistently, we are spending more and more time in front of computer screens and staring at mobile devices,” Crossland said. “This was an opportunity to set that stuff down and engage in a real relationship with people and engage in a deeper connection with the natural world around us and helps bring a lot of order back in our lives.”

Crossland and the Outdoor Adventure staff plan trips around the cooler part of the year because they believe camping in cooler temperatures is much more soothing than camping in hot conditions.