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The Outdoor Adventures kayaking trip to Topock Gorge last year is one example of the many travel

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Life in Los Angeles can be a hectic affair – a sea of taillights, headlights and constant honking can feel suffocating at times.

Paired with the endless train of due dates dictated by the fast-paced quarter system, city life may leave some UCLA students looking for space to breathe during the three-day weekend in February, when they will finally get a break from work.

UCLA Recreation’s Outdoor Adventures program will host three trips on President’s Day weekend, giving students a chance to get away from the city and explore the local wilderness.

In groups of 15, students will be able to kayak, rock climb or snowshoe backpack on four-day trips that cost between $99 and $229.

Alex Morris, assistant manager of Outdoor Adventures, said four guides and at least one leader called a primary goes on each trip. Primaries are trained and certified in either first aid or as Wilderness First Responders so that they can address problems that may arise in the wild.

Erika Raney, a third-year political science student and Outdoor Adventures leader, said she took an 80-hour, 10-day course to become a Wilderness First Responder, learn skills ranging from reducing dislocations to treating puncture wounds and altitude sickness.

“Almost anything that you would encounter in the back country, you’re able to treat,” she said.

As a guide, Raney is unpaid but goes on trips free of charge. Rock climbing trips to Joshua Tree, east of Los Angeles, and Red Rocks Canyon are her favorites in the program.

The Red Rocks Canyon, with its light pink sandstone rock formations, is located in the Southern Nevada Desert. Program participants will spend President’s Day weekend hiking and scaling the canyon walls.

Ideally, he said, each climber will find a climb he or she cannot complete. Rocks that have vertical surfaces with few protrusions and indentations are the most difficult to climb.

No prior experience is required for program participants, and Raney said climbing challenges people to develop both skills and independence.

“People just inherently have a fear of heights, and it’s really great to see people fall and realize that they’re OK and they can keep going,” she said. “On rock trips, people are really pushed to overcome those fears and anxieties they might have had.”

Meals on the trip might include Dutch-oven dinners, where campers cook dishes in cast-iron pots buried in charcoal. A favorite is the “potato surprise,” which consists of potatoes, vegetables and cheese, Morris said.

Tim Yeo, who studied economics at UCLA and graduated in 1999, is a primary guide who goes on one or two trips each quarter.

Now a mortgage broker, Yeo said he first became interested in the outdoors during his youth and while he was in the Singapore army, where the outdoor training program included backpacking. He says his favorite program trip is kayaking in the Black Canyon, near Las Vegas.

The first day of the outing, participants learn to maneuver sea kayaks which are about 20 feet long and seat a single person.

The waters of the Colorado River that participants navigate are smooth for the most part, Morris said, and paddling upriver, kayakers can see the Hoover Dam.

The trip includes exploring areas adjacent to the river like the Arizona Hot Springs and a sauna cave – a naturally enclosed space with high temperatures that contrast intensely to the cold waters of the river.

“It’s an opportunity to go somewhere that’s fairly local that’s also completely isolated and beautiful ... It’s really close to Las Vegas, but you feel like you’re in the middle of nowhere,” said Raney, who is going on the Feb. 13 kayaking trip.

The third President’s Day weekend trip is snowshoe backpacking, and Morris said the trip’s location will depend on the snow level in various regions that weekend.

Snowshoe backpacking involves hiking with special shoes that don’t sink into the snow.

Depending on weather conditions, backpackers may be able to dig and sleep in snow caves – holes in the ground are covered with tarp that are warmer than outside.

At altitudes above 10,000 feet, the temperature hovers around 20 degrees Fahrenheit, and the landscape blanketed in white is a stranger to the gum-spattered sidewalks of the city.

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