PHOTO: ROBERT MATTHEWS
PHOTO: ROBERT MATTHEWS
Hefty backpacks didn’t appear to weigh down the enthusiasm of students embarking on one of Outdoor Action’s trips in 1986. More than 30 percent of Princeton’s freshmen — 350 students — participated in the six-day pre-orientation trips that year, accompanied by 80 leaders who took them to five states. This year, according to OA program director Rick Curtis ’79, 825 freshmen — or 61 percent of the Class of 2016 — and 248 leaders comprised 98 different trip groups that traveled to seven New England and mid-Atlantic states for hiking, canoeing, rock climbing, biking, farming, or working on environmental service projects. Can any PAW readers identify themselves in the photo?