The Club that Changed my College Experience

Year 1: Excursion Club

Since I've been at UC Santa Barbara, I have had one group of people, one club, dominate most of my time. It's been the sun around which my college experience has pivoted… the Excursion Club.

One of the first trips I went on as a member was a group trip of 15 women who went out to the Channel Islands. I had four Leaders, all of whom I looked up to, and we spent the next three days camping and hiking around the island. We ate good food, swapped beautiful stories, and laughed at the stars.

The Channel Islands are truly remarkable. Santa Cruz Island, in particular, felt unreal. After a ferry ride from Ventura, we arrived at an almost untouched island and trekked a mile to our campsite. Under the curtain of swaying eucalyptus trees, we saw mini foxes darting around as we pitched our tents. We explored lush green fields overlooking stunning turquoise waters occasioanlly seeing a dolphin jump. During one of our hikes, we ascended to a viewpoint and transitioned from verdant landscapes to striking red earth.

**It's important to note that these islands are not just beautiful but also hold significant ecological value, as they are designated as national marine sanctuaries.

To say the least, my weekends would now be filled with excursions, which eventually led me to join the staff. Specifically, a Mammoth ski trip. Making the haul up to mammoth includes driving through diverse landscapes from Los Angeles, nearing the border of Death Valley, and through sandstone into the white-capped peaks of Mammoth. Skiing with the staff, I befriended them, and Riley, my new friend, also had dreams of becoming part of Excursion leadership. Thanks to our diligent and perhaps overdone presentations to the other Excursion Club staff members, we started leading numerous trips.

My next trip would be to Death Valley, where a group of 25 of us stayed at an Airbnb outside of the park and spent the day wandering in the desert. At the time, I had two friends from Barcelona, Guillem and Miquel. On the first day, we spent primarily together scrambling rocks, and on the second day, we all went to the sand dunes and had a blast. We went for hikes, and then we all went to the Hot Springs at night. We rode in the truck bed on the way back, warm desert air blowing my hair in my face as we all laughed, staring up at a dark sky full of stars.

Yes, there were stressful moments. I woke up early before everyone else made lunch, toasting a bunch of burritos in the oven and wrapping them in tinfoil for 25 people. There were times I was stressed about gas prices and how far everyone was, and we lost service and couldn't get in contact with each other. But that's what a trip is about—there are highs and lows, and it's unavoidable.

My next trip would be the following weekend to see the super bloom at Carrizo Plains. This camping trip entailed everyone dressing up in their best finery, loading up the cars, and going to the fields of yellow and other bright colors. We took lots of pictures, walked around, and made pasta that night in our cookstoves. We set up our tents, went to bed, and were back in Isla Vista the next morning.

On that trip, I learned a lot about tourists and the trampling of flowers as people flock to see a beautiful bloom that they would help destroy. Initially, I was part of it, taking my aesthetic photos surrounded by flowers. As I realized the trails of stomped flowers being created by the hordes, I quickly stepped back to the road.

After another mammoth trip, full of sends and fun nights in the cabin, I lead a backpacking trip with my friend Nejla to DeepCreek Hotsprings.

The cool thing about the Deep Creek springs inland in southern California is that they lie on the Pacific Crest Trail. This means you have a lot of cool people tramping in, each with an interesting story of what led them to pack up a bag and start walking up the West Coast of the United States.

We hiked into the hot springs, about six miles through the dry desert, before getting to a rushing cold river, which makes a riparian zone of beautiful birch trees, perfect for hammocks. Alongside it, geothermal activity exists, making for warmer pools to form adjacent to the river. AKA the perfect camping spot. Nejla and I made pasta for our members, then set up camp, cowboy style, beside the river. We spent the night with our wine bag, which we stuffed in our backpack, and hopped from Hotspring to the river, depending on our internal temperatures. We talked with many fellow visitors, meeting a couple of young guys who were finding themselves on the trail and a woman who specialized in breathwork and informed me I breathe wrong. She guided us through a meditation, including ugai breath, which I can honestly say I felt the difference. The next morning, Nejla and I were the first ones up with the sunrise and cold plunged into the river. 

We made breakfast for the members, then packed up our stuff and got back on the trail to try to beat the midday sun. I strapped my speaker to my backpack and started playing some Tina Turner, Gladys Knight, and Dusty Springfield. Halfway back, I heard a sharp rattle over the soulful beats and paused the music. Upon rounding the bend, I noticed a giant rattlesnake in the path. Honestly, I did not handle it well, as snakes are my biggest fear, and one of the members had to throw rocks at it before it slithered off the dusty path.

Eventually, we made it back to the car, which we hopped into quickly to escape the heat and all met up at a hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant near the trailhead. After munching on some delicious burritos, we split up again, vowing to meet back up at the oasis to drop gear. 

The next weekend would be one of my favorite weekends of my life: The Colorado River Trip. 

This trip entails 60 staff, including some graduated staff members, countless racks of beer, 30 canoes, and a whole lot of cliff jumping. Early Friday morning, I met up with my car group, which included Riley, Ella E, and Xiangan, and we started our road trip down to Arizona. We arrived late afternoon, and all the staff agreed to meet at "The Best BBQ." The Best BBQ, a most fitting title, is a small-town festival with American flags, green lawns, live music, and smokey turkey legs straight off the bar-be-que. We chowed down and all danced barefoot in the grass to the classic rock covers. After getting some energy out post spending a long day in the car, we all headed to a lakeside campground where we would jump in the lake, get into our sleeping bags, and stare up at the starry sky. 

The next day was a big one. We headed to the Colorado River launch point, where we would get into our canoes. We piled our beers alongside our sleeping bags and set off on the river. Riley would be my partner and crime, and we quickly decided on our call sign: Ligma and Balls. I took off my Chacos, tied ropes to them, and strapped our beers in to cool in the river as we downed them. The day had seven miles going upstream in store, and I planned on having a great time paddling. As it turns out, there would also be a lot of stopping in order to jump off cliffs. The first one, I got used to tying the canoe off, strapping my Chacos back on, and hiking up a small hill to a cliff to fling myself off into the cool water below. 

Then Ligma and I got brave. 

As we paddled up the river, making a great time if I do say so myself, we started going for bigger and bigger cliffs. At one point, we looked up a tall face, both running a buzz and decided that that would be a great choice. We climbed up and looked down, and I managed to convince myself that it was no more than 30 feet. Six seconds of falling later and what felt horrible on my buttocks, I realized it might have been a bit higher.

Eventually, Riley and I made it to camp, where we hauled the canoe onto shore, grabbed our towels, and passed out on the rocky shore beneath the palo verde trees. Later, we woke up to the rest of the group pulling up, went swimming with everyone, helped make dinner, and absolutely passed out in our sleeping bags. 

The next day, our group headed upstream to see the large, looming Hoover Dam. We all went on side quests and hikes and, of course, jumped off more cliffs. I started doing backflips as well, just to add a little flair. At one point, it was Riley and I and a couple more girls holding onto a rope, hauling ourselves up rocks on this scrambling trail to go see the "Amphitheater," all in our bikinis and flip flops, when a group of guys decked out in rock climbing gear pulled up. The contrast never fails to make Riley and I laugh as we think of how nonchalant we were bout scrambling up boulders. That night, there was more swimming, laughing, storytelling, and yummy food before drifting off to sleep beneath the stars. 

The next morning would be our last on the Colorado river. Riley and I got up early and went up to a small cove where we did flips off of rocks. We dirifted back down stream, ate our breakfast with the group, and nailed the last of our beers as we paddled back down the river. We jumped off a few more spots, and evertually turned up on the shore where we had departed days before.

The Colorado River trip was absolutely stunning, and perhaps only endurable because of the fact we are all 20 and able to bounce back from nearly anything. It felt like the epitome of being young, and I can't wait to go again next year. 

The next weekend, instead of heading into the desert, I would be going up into the large trees and deep green valleys with large granite faces and cascading waterfalls of Yosemite National Park. This would be one of my favorite trips I have ever led.

Riley, Lauren, and I lead twenty members up to Yosemite, staying about an hour outside of the park in a large, white, modern barn house Airbnb. On the first day, we spent time at Bass Lake, where we swam in the cold water. Then, we headed to a lakeside restaurant, where we all ordered drinks and danced on the porch to live music. The next morning, we got up bright and early and headed into the park to make the infamous mist trail. Safe to say, all of the members got completely soaked, and Riley, our driver, Dimitri, and another member, Jess, hiked a bit faster and went a tad further than the group in order to try to see more of the trail. We also hauled ass on the way down, knowing the members would want dinner by the time we got back to the Airbnb. In all honestly, we stopped at the gas station first to pick up a few things (we wanted a Margarita night), then got to the bnb. The four of us all got washed up, changed, and started sipping our drinks while making dinner. The other cars full of members started filtering in, and my little group headed outside on the porch to stargaze and talk about life late into the night.

Eventually, we all went to bed. 

The next morning, I woke up with a headache that only hair of the dog could fix. After getting dressed and cleaning the Airbnb, we headed back into the park to do lower to upper Yosemite Falls. What I thought was going to be an easy hike ended up being 4 miles of straight vertical. To be completely honest, I was not feeling great at first, but eventually, I sweat out my toxins and start climbing fast. About twenty minutes out from the top, it started pouring rain, but that did not stop the four of us as we made it to the peak where the falls gush, devoured our lunches, and turned to make it back down the trail quickly, for we had a long drive ahead of us back into Isla Vista. 

The final weekend of my first year at UCSB would be spent at a popular excursion camping spot in Santa Barbara. It is technically in Los Padres and is in the mountains, above the cloudline, overlooking Santa Barabra. This spot is grassy, beautiful, and full of great climbing trees. It is more like car camping, where you haul all of your stuff (in this case, we brought a ton of food) down to the camp spot, less than a five-minute walk away.

We were very thankful to be camping there for the last couple of weeks spent in June gloom at UCSB, and here we were above the fog line. The sun felt warm on our skin, and I felt reawakened after a week in the grey clouds. After a night full of hot dogs and apple pie, I woke up early the next morning, strapped on my Hokas, and ran down the road, where I found large boulders off to the side to climb up and watch the sunrise above the cloud line. Eventually, I headed back to camp, where a couple of other staff invited me to tag along to Zumba with them.

As it turns out, Zumba would be one of the highlights of my life. I absolutely love it. The energy, the dancing, the laughter, the beat. Such an inclusive environment fosters a sense of joy; nothing beats it. An incredible way to end my first year in Santa Barbara, surrounded by new faces that I knew I would get to know better over the coming years.

For me, if did not feel like I really started living my college life until Excursion club. The first months of freshman year at UCSB were spent trying out greek life, but it felt like a shoe that did not fit. 

Excursion was the reason I met some of my best friends. Excursion was the reason that a mere few months after that Zumba class, I would be off to the opposite side of the world to explore and meet up with Riley. 

My second year at UCSB (post return of study abroad) was filled with similar adventures, and the same Ella just trying to grow, learn, and experience life to the fullest.