The Outdoor Club is not just a club about camping and backpacking. With this club, students can safely and inexpensively experience the beauty of nature with maximum enjoyment, Mary Donahue, club advisor, says.

Although Earth Day has come and gone, De Anza’s Outdoor Club takes pride in sharing environmental responsibilities at their events.

The club’s most recent outing, included paddling through the kelp forest alongside Cannery Row and hiking in serene Point Lobos on March 27. Some students, who journeyed there in 1999, said that it was their favorite Outdoor Club activity of the year.

One student who obtained her lifeguard certification at De Anza from Donahue, Brigette Valenzuela, said “ADP wouldn’t give me the day off to go on this trip. So, I quit.”

Students need not to worry about previous experience. In fact, most students on the trip never kayaked before.

Therefore, the club enforced these existing rules to prevent disturbing sea lions, seals and wild otters:

1. Stay at least 50 feet (five kayak-lengths) away from the animals.

2. If an animal looks at you and fidgets or changes its behavior, you are too close; quickly back away.

3. Don’t point your kayak or boat at animals; move parallel to them.

Donahue said, “If you disobey any of the rules, I will personally pull you out of the water and make you feel real bad.”

Donahue says that two years ago an insurance company phoned risk management because the company said that kayaking is too dangerous. So, risk management assured the insurance company that the outdoor club is responsible and that they practice all safety precautions. “There has never been an accident,” Donahue said.

After each student promised to obey the rules, it was time to hit the water. Because it was the first time out on a kayak for many students, Donahue says, “They’re really nervous when the first go out.”

After kayaking, the group went hiking through the mountainous terrain of Monterey Bay.

As a state reserve, Point Lobos embraces outstanding natural and scenic characteristics.

In addition to the spectacular beauty, nearly every aspect of its resources is of scientific interest. There are rare plant communities, endangered archeological sites, and unique geological formations.

Deriving its name from the offshore rocks at Punta de los Lobos Marinos, Point of the Sea Wolves, where the sound of the sea lions carries inland, the reserve has often been called “the crown jewel of the State Park System.”

The club makes it a point to leave the site better than they’ve found it, Donahue says.

To read details about coming attractions, go to the club’s display in the PE quad.

It’s at the south end of the hall that runs upstairs behind the swimming pool diving boards and the PE Division offices.