We’ve all seen those Discovery Channel shows that document the mass mating rituals of animals, whereupon some species — be it turtles, penguins, seals, horseshoe crabs — briefly takes over the beach in a reproductive frenzy. So it was at North Beach on Saturday when thousands of scantily clad college students converged for a massive, rite-of-spring party.

You could hear the roar of the rock-concert-sized crowd well in advance of seeing it, but the scene itself — virtually every inch of the park was occupied by a young body — was an eye-popper. Stunned travelers on the bike path stopped and stared at the sea of people sunbathing, parading around in bikinis, playing frisbee, drinking beer and smoking pot. A few brave souls even ventured into the frigid water. Not a Burlington cop in sight.

Despite their alcohol-enhanced oblivion, you couldn’t hate these kids too much for seizing an impossibly warm day to celebrate the end of a long, cold winter. And, I guess, finals. Too bad no one has learned them to pick up their freakin’ trash.

This article appears in The Health and Fitness Issue April 2009.

Paula Routly is publisher, editor-in-chief and cofounder of Seven Days. Her first glimpse of Vermont from the Adirondacks led her to Middlebury College for a closer look. After graduation, in 1983 she moved to Burlington and worked for the Flynn, the Vanguard Press, the Burlington Free Press and Vermont Times – in that order. In 1995, she and Pamela Polston started Seven Days newspaper. Routly ran the business and built the news side of the operation, which she edited for years. She has spearheaded...