Rae Harris
Editor-in-Chief
WOODs, Wooster’s outdoors club, began the new school year with a local hike at Wooster Memorial Park last Sunday. With over 11 miles of trails on 422 acres, the park was the ideal local attraction to visit on a Sunday. The park also has an associated volunteer community group — called the Friends of Wooster Memorial Park — that helps preserve the area for public enjoyment. Some of the College of Wooster fraternities and sororities and athletics teams can be seen volunteering in the wilderness maintaining the beauty.
On this 1.6-mile hike around Spangler Loop, 30 Wooster students from all school years had the opportunity to showcase their individual knowledge about local flora and fauna. WOODs treasurer Ryann Taylor ’26 and hiker Dov Wallack ’26 called attention to Jewelweed on the trail — known under the scientific name of Impatiens capensis — which has a wide variety of medicinal uses. Another student used their outdoor knowledge to treat an unfortunate encounter with stinging nettles.
Wooster Memorial Park is also awash in little critters and creatures. At one point of the hike, a black squirrel was seen with a smaller animal — possibly a chipmunk — hanging from its mouth. Taylor said that many hikers were shocked to see such a thing, but another student explained the dietary habits of squirrels. Omnivorous! Who knew?
Spangler Loop also had many creek-crossings where students searched among the rocks for insects and salamanders. Michael Schnabel ’27 demonstrated some astounding detective skills and was able to spot a salamander within seconds, much to the awe of the others.
However, the WOODs excursion was also a chance for friends to meet and catch up about their summers and early-semester woes. Even the journey to and from the park was an opportunity to form new connections. Taylor offered up her car and the five travelers bonded over their similar experiences living in the dorms.
“I saw lots of people engaging and having good conversations,” said Jacob Lyon ’26, WOODs vice president. “It was nice to see that much engagement happening on our first local hike of the year.”
On Sept. 17, WOODs, along with the Astronomy Club, viewed the Harvest Moon partial eclipse. Another local hike is projected for October.
Interested in learning more about WOODs? Check them out on Instagram as @woods.at.wooster or reach out to President Laurel Andrews ’25 to join the email list.