Benicia High School - Panther Yearbook (Benicia, CA)

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5 fl . kd ,S X nw Q if 'Qi' Wx 454' fy ao' Backpacking - 49

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BACKPACKI It is sometimes difficult to explain the appeal of backpacking to the uninitiated. Viewed from the outside, several aspects of the sport resemble work, not play. Backpackers lug everything they need to survive in large, brightly colored, often heavy packs. They wear heavy, clunky-looking boots. They don't talk much on the trail, particularly in steep, mountainous country Chard to ind Hat plains worth seeing in Californial, because talking requires breath, the oxygen they need to make one . .. more . . . step . , .. Also, backpackers sweat, have sometimes known to develop blisters, and their muscles get sore. lVloreover, when they sleep it is usually on the ground, sometimes in tents, sometimes not. Some prefer to sleep suspended above the ground from nylon hammocks! All-in-all, anyone who has not had the 48 - Backpacking opportunity to backpack in beautiful country might very well judge backpacking to be akin to what someone once said of running marathons: HI do it because it feels so good when I stop. So why are the backpackers in these pictures smiling? Backpacking offers obvious attractions: a chance to let go, to be away from the dirty air, the asphalt, the people, the hassles of civilation. There are shared moments of fleeting beautye sunlight slanting through the top branches of a redwood forest, the high, clear, cold stars making the night alive with their luminescence, the quick, barely glimpsed white flick of a deer's tail disappearing around the bend of the trail. There are the lures of snow-fed streams, of enchanted lakes in the high country. There are the shared experences around the Hickering campnre. There is the sense of G comaraderie, of belonging. As alluring as these backpacking benehts are, though, perhaps they do not compare to what can happen to the backpacker within. Backpacking builds character. It offers a challange. It gives the opportunity to reach down inside and come up with an acknowledgement and acceptance of one's self, a chance to feel good about who one is and where one is going. And so, if you would like to find out who you really are, become a backpacker. You'll have a chance to find out who you are, and you'll do it in beautiful surroundings- Yosemite, The Desolation Wilderness, Kennedy lVleadows, Big Basin .. . . The backpacking club has gone to these places, and will be going back. Come with them. --.. Q ml -A af . -Al' .Y sf? 5.33

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lVlath Club members have an open mind to development of an attitude of couriosity and exploration, the willingness to probe, to try. and to make intelligent guesses. These few things are essentials for a creative activity. They didn't want to build only on routines and formulas. They wish to hnd out how mathematics is applied to day-to-day living of every citizen, to social life, to sciences. serious look into the possibilities of providing for themselves, support from the Greater Bay Area Scientihc Establishments, and a lVlath Club owned computer to familiarize themselves with today's society. The advisor for the 980-81 lVlath Club is IVlr, John Jacobs. The club met every second Tuesday, depending on the This year s lVlath Club members took a M B . in ir Q- weather and needs of its members. Rhonda Santos was President, Shannette lVlcElderry was Vice President, and Rochelle Santos 'was Secretary and Treasurer. 1. Rhonda Santos and Rochelle Santos calculate an answer. 2. Maria Solis works on her math homework. 3. lVlath Club 1 L W '54, --ls.. i'Y Si'i